Anime, the eternal Jettokōsutā

[majestic]

Minako has a crisis because she can't transform, and everyone was talking about Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna, and she's... doing Minakoish things. Like walking straight into a trap.

This would be okay if it wouldn't copy the plot from Sailor Moon S. If that's in the manga too, then... does that mean Ms. Takeuchi took elements from the anime adaptation? That sounds like a good idea in theory.

edit:

I was going to comment on how the first film looks better than expected - I mean, it's still... not beautiful, but less bad than I thought it would be. Then these two show up:

Yeah, so, aight. Imma outta here. Baaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiii!

Edited June 6, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

Okay, so this deserves its own post, I think.

Minako is... trapped, falls off a tower, Artemis grabs her and, uhm, Artemis gets smashed by a rock. Blood is running down Minako's arm. Suddenly the rock lifts, Artemis has transformed into a bishonen character with green eyes and is saying that it was his fault that she could not transform, they're a team and he wasn't strong enough.

What?

What?

Huh.

What?

Artemis is... a guy? What?

What in the... uhm.

Yeah, okay, that doesn't at all make it even creepier that he watches her bathe. Seriously dude.

Minako is completely unfazed by that revelation.

NOBODY HERE IS TALKING ABOUT HOW ARTEMIS TURNED INTO A PRETTY WHITE HAIRED BOY EVEN THOUGH ALL OF THEM ARE THERE.

Except Usagi and Chibi-Usa, they're with Mamoru.

edit: Have a look:

Yeah... no horn, so no Pegasus!

@KP the meanie zucchini and @Bartimaeus all edits done, have fun, you can go over the posts again to see all that I've added.

Final edit for Part 1:

Post credit scene shows Hotaru at her old age, or close to it. The best thing is... it's over now. Not going to watch Part 2 now, that took a while. Part 2 tomorrow, probably.

Edited June 4, 2021 by majestic

[majestic]

Up until that end I was going to say that this is better than I expected. There were lots of interactions between the girls, they had some fun, talked a bit about their hopes and dreams, had mostly okay scenes to gain their power ups...

...and then it turned into complete and utter drivel, with horribly animated enemies (see the pictures above ) and Bishonen-Artemis who watches Minako take a bath in the shower and Shonen-Superhero Makoto.

I wonder if somebody will talk about Artemis once the action is over. They did have a bit of time to at least WONDER what the hell that was, if not talk about it, being directly attacked by the Amazoness Quartet there, but hey... I mean guys, really, Artemis turns out to be a pretty boy with white hair (not at all surprising, in the end, Luna turned into a pretty girl with black hair for a short moment in season 1 of Crystal).

Just looked that up. In the manga Artemis and Luna are both humanoids in cat form coming from a planet called "Mau" (really... holy hell) and apparently, that's the same planet Sailor Tin Nyanko is from.

Oh boy am I looking forward to Stars now.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

18 minutes ago, majestic said:

@KP the meanie zucchini and @Bartimaeus all edits done, have fun, you can go over the posts again to see all that I've added

I stand by what I said earlier.

You know it's the best thing to do.

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Kay, so Artemis and Minako are having a talk, because Minako is the only one left who can't transform. She says she's going to take a bath, and Artemis follows her... watches her, and goes like: "You're getting more beautiful by the day! You really look like the goddess Venus."

What in the what now. Artemis is watching Minako bathe. Or shower. 

Shower it is. Mina she's she's going to take a bath, but it seen showering. Guys, have you read your own script before animating this?

Creepy thoughtless garbage like this seems to keep having a habit of happening in Crystal...and SuperS, .

28 minutes ago, majestic said:

I was going to comment on how the first film looks better than expected - I mean, it's still... not beautiful, but less bad than I thought it would be. Then these two show up:

Yeah, so, aight. Imma outta here. Baaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiii!

But that's the best looking character...s(?) so far! I mean, s/he doesn't look like they belong in Sailor Moon in the slightest, but... lol

16 minutes ago, majestic said:

Okay, so this deserves its own post, I think.

Actually, I really disagree, I think I could've very well gone without reading any of that and been perfectly fine. I've joked about Minako being a "crazy cat lady" several times throughout the series (which, while having some truth to it, is also completely at odds with her, uh, very...forward behavior re: boys and such), but now I feel pretty lousy about it. What the hell?

[majestic]

3 minutes ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

I stand by what I said earlier.

I know, I wish I could.

[majestic]

2 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Creepy thoughtless garbage like this seems to keep having a habit of happening in Crystal...and SuperS, .

That it really does, doesn't it? It's baffling.

2 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

But that's the best looking character...s(?) so far! I mean, s/he doesn't look like they belong in Sailor Moon in the slightest, but... lol

I think the two are male, and they're twins called Xenotime and Zeolite. They're in the movie, like all random bad guys, for like five minutes. They throw the daggers at Minako and trap her on the ground.

5 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Actually, I really disagree, I think I could've very well gone without reading any of that and been perfectly fine. I've joked about Minako being a "crazy cat lady" several times throughout the series (which, while having some truth to it, is also completely at odds with her, uh, very...forward behavior re: boys and such), but now I feel pretty lousy about it. What the hell?

From what the wiki has told me while looking up if that is in the manga like that, Minako spends some time afterwards apologizing for all the abuse she's given him. Of which there wasn't much in Crystal so far, I'm guessing that comes more from Sailor V and maybe a manga scene or two. Not sure.

I wonder if he apologizes for watching her bathe. Minako is at leats 15 now, but he started out with her when she was 13, the old creep. No wonder Minako yelled at him in Sailor Moon R for looking at her change.

But yes, the cats actually being transformed humans (or vice versa) has very unfortunate implications seeing how often Usagi and Minako mistreated them. Luckily that isn't canon for the 90ies anime. Otherwise the S movie wouldn't have had a special short time Luna transformation.

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, I preferred the cats just being...cats. You know, cats. Cat cats. Cats! Luna transforming into a human temporarily for a wish was fine. Odd, but fine - particularly seeing as S was the best movie of the three precisely because it focused more on character sttuff. Luna and Artemis having been humans all along is inexplicable, has terrible implications, wasn't alluded to as far as I know (and in fact the diametric opposite in the original show but I guess we have to ignore that), and just doesn't work by any stretch of the imagination. Stupid.

  

1 hour ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

I stand by what I said earlier.

 

  Hide contents

 

You know it's the best thing to do.

 

 

Hey, yeah, that is pretty much exactly what the rest of us did re: Sailor Moon Crystal. You're screwing up the entire plan, majestic!

Edited June 5, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

10 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Hey, yeah, that is pretty much exactly what the rest of us did re: Sailor Moon Crystal. You're screwing up the entire plan, majestic!

Yeah @majestic, if I get killed by a super vampire gym god gay icon I'm going to be pissed.

[majestic]

Minor ramblings on Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie

As much as I loved the series, this one has all the problems of turning an excellently working 25 minute setup into a feature length film. Sailor Moon wisely avoided this by far and large by making the specials 50 minutes offerings, and with that the length of a two parter episode. At the end of the day, the Sailor Moon films were but better animated standalone episodes.

Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie, on the other hand, is a better animated... regular anime film with the same characters from the show. To keep this as spoiler free as possible, it features Sakura and Shaoran some of the cards they already have at this point in time, and Sakura captures a new one that is exclusive to the film. The biggest problem of it - in my opinion - is that it turns the Sakura episode formula into something more movie like and loses some of its special magic in the process.

What do I mean by that?

Well when you watch the regular anime, the episodes have a threat of some kind - except for two episodes that simply don't (episodes 16 and 54) - and this threat is integrated rather well into the world. It just happens, and often is more annoying than dangerous. It serves as the backdrop against which everything else happens, and that everything else is really, really, really good. Can't stress that enough. The second arc already loses a part of that charm by making the threat something external that has a directing will, rather than what the first one is about, that Sakura accidentially scatters Clow cards that, with no direction given, simply do what they were designed to do on their own.

The movie... is all about an external threat. One that is, distractingly, voiced by Megumi Hayashibara, otherwise known as Rei Ayanami. Distractingly so because she sounds virtually indistinguishable from Rei. The other character that's new and has a recognizable voice is Shaoran's mother, who is voiced by SERA ARUMINUM SIREN. Sorry, I mean, Sailor Aluminum Siren.

But the voice acting problems aside, because these are very subjective and probably bother just me, while it still is very Cardcaptor Sakura-ish at heart, the film is way too heavy on the storyline and not enough about Sakura and her interactions with other characters.

I get the necessity. The film needed to justify its presence in theaters and its existence to people who don't follow the show regularily, and if you'd just make it one long 90 minute sequence of Tomoyo stalking Sakura that would have been fun for fans, but certainly wouldn't have drawn in any new viewers. There still is Tomoyo fangirling about Sakura, of course, and there's the obligatory faceplant of Sakura when Tomoyo talks about her and the costumes.

But there isn't enough of it. Nope!

Here's a supercut of Tomoyo fangirling in the movie:

Spoilers, obviously, if you click on it!

It's only 5 minutes. Out of 90. As I said. NOT ENOUGH. Not nearly enough.

There's some other fun stuff, of course, but yeah, too much time spent on the storyline. One wich is perfectly fine, don't get he wrong, overall this is an enjoyable film, it just doesn't have the same magical feeling as many of the regular episodes have. Counting out the intro chase for the new card, we're talking about 35 minutes of Sakura and friends doing stuff and meeting people and the rest spent on the storyline.

Storyline spoilers:

Spoiler

 

Sakura wins a trip to Hong Kong and ends up going there with Tomoyo, Toya and Yukito, where she, under some magical compulsion, stumbles into a trap for Clow Reed laid by Rei Ayanami. The woman in the trap captures Shaoran, Meilin, Toya and Yukito and absorbs them into her spirit. Kero recalls the woman being a rival who bound herself to a magical book to draw and trap Clow Reed in, but Sakura sees what really happened and realizes that the woman fell in love with him. She "wins" the confrontation by making her realize that Clow Reed is really dead, and that it hurts to lose someone you love (what with all her family and friends except Tomoyo now gone).

Everyone comes back, obviously.

 

Still, very well made film that certainly deserved the awards it won, if viewed as a standalone film. As part of the larger Cardcaptor Sakura universe, it's... an average episode, I think. It's hard to keep the two things apart, and it's a strange feeling. It was an enjoyable experience to watch it, just not what I wanted from it. The fault might be entirely mine. Looking forward to what @Bartimaeus thinks of it.

Edited June 5, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

...At least it was a lot better than yesterday's Sailor Moon Crystal movie? Haven't watched anything more yet...will get to it.

Watched S4 of Infinity Train yesterday (11 minute episodes, only 10 episodes, basically just a movie) - what a letdown. Somewhat because I just don't think the writing and tone was up to snuff compared to especially the previous two seasons (lots of really obvious writing with practically no twists), somewhat because I wholly despised the protagonists. Each season has different protagonists, and these two guys were best friends when they were younger, but fell apart as they got older because of changing interests and wanting to do different stuff with their lives (or rather one of them doing whatever they wanted, namely being a free-spirited musician, while the other guy let his parents push him into finance at university) and I...just wanted to beat both of their faces in with a rusty iron rod because of how moronic both of them were being in attempting to do everything the opposite way with constant fighting and phony-feeling reconciliation. Made it too difficult to enjoy. A very far cry from one of my very favorite antihero protagonists, the girl with the iron heart (literally - she's basically a metal golem) from the second season, that's for sure. I'm veeery sensitive to character types when it comes to protagonists...three out of four ain't too bad, I suppose.

Edited June 5, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

The opening of the second part of Sailor Moon Eternal was probably the best sequence, Setsuna's death in the second season aside perhaps, of the entire run of Crystal so far. It's similar to the first few filler arc episodes of Sailor Stars insofar as that it deals with Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna and Hotaru living together, until Sailor Saturn awakens and pretty much ruins their dream of a quiet little life together.

Hotaru still goes full Mysterious Waif of course, and it seems that part of the filler arc for Sailor Stars was inspired by material made for the previous manga arc.

Everyone also has loads and loads of visions of the other characters being naked. What a bummer for the Ami x Makoto shippers, that meant nothing guys, everyone dreams of each other without clothes on. I have no idea why. In the old anime, all the nudity (of which there isn't much, compared to underwear) serves to showcase spiritual purity. Except Haruka's bare butt, that just showed that she didn't care and served more as a weirdo threat. Not sure that Haruka is a decent vehicle for fanservice, so I doubt it was meant that way. Or if it was, at least it's not the only thing that was implied with it (much like Asuka dangling her breasts in front of Shinji in NGE). 

Here... I'm not entirely sure. Haruka also runs around with an almost completely unbuttoned shirt, and Setsuna wears a see through crop top with a black bra and ultra short hot pants. I'm guessing it's hot outside, just like the other girls told us last movie. It's so hot outside you guys.

Oh, right, I forgot, our goddess of love, Minako, was the only girl in Crystal so far to have gotten a panty shot in the last film. It was pretty brief and in a fight, but it was there. At least it's the only one I can remember, so this comes with a caveat, I really didn't pay all that much attention while watching Crystal.

The opening is over, and we're now going back to the storyline. Which means... I'm guessing there's like 70 minutes of stupid action, some silly exposition and an unsatisfying resolution ahead where Sailor Murder Death Kill blasts off the head of Nehelenia or something or other. Or maybe Setsuna blasts her away with her GDI Ion Cannon.

In case you forgot.

ION CANNON READY.

Just in case that's region locked...

To the manga's credit, assuming that is taken directly from it, that came out roughly around the same time, or earlier than Command & Conquer, so any similarities to the secret ending of the GDI campaign is unlikely to have been intentional from either party.

If this is an invention from Crystal, then there's no real excuse. Look at Kane being hit in the Nod Temple in Saraj... Tokyoevo. Hahaha.

 

Jeez, the Outer Senshi transform. How lazy was the modelling team in making the bodies for the girls here. Haruka gets a massive boob upgrade in the transformation simply because her body is a copy of Michiru's. Or... vice versa. Minako you silly, how did you EVER think Haruka was a boy? Wait, I complained about that the last time they tansformed in back in season 3.

Even their transformations are just color swaps of each other's. I mean, with some added hair for Michiru and a water instead of a wind effect. Uhm... whatever.

Minako: "Hey Artemis, you're back to being a cat."

Literally the only reaction from anyone so far to the revelation that Artemis is from Stephen King's Sleepwakers. Sure, it's not like there's any time for reaction, we're back to breakneck story pacing, but guys really, you can't drop a bomb like that and then NOT do anything with it.

I wonder if Mina will say anything about him being a metamorphic were-cat vampire that oggles her while under the shower and siphons her energy while she's not looking. Have you forgotten that he admitted that he was the reason you could not transform? He also handed her the new transformation crystal. Probably leftovers from a meal or two.

Zirconia shows up with some Bond level villain exposition. Good job. She attacks Mamoru and Usagi, Pedosus intervenes and the attack turns both into children. Pedosus teleports both away, presumably to his creepy ass Crystal Lake where he's taking all the young ones to have fun with them.

Yeah, so that just confirms it. Pedosus isn't satisfied with Chibi-Usa.

Sailor Satan and Chibi-Moon run off alone. That's going to be fun. They bond over wanting to fight together, and the fight the Amazoness Quartet, convince them to hear them out (well, Sailor Satan does) and... Zirconia shows up, transforms the four into little round balls representing their asteroid selves and traps Super Chibi-Moon and Satan in a glass shard. They're now lying at the feet of Nehelenia. Good job everyone.

Mamoru and Usagi are meanwhile back to normal. Pedosus tells them that his Crystal Lake fixed them. Still waiting for Jason's mother to slaugther him. Is that going to happen? Probably not.

Anyway, again, nothing comes out of this change. The animators were even lazy enough to make the transition back happen off-screen. What was the point of doing that again? Right, it probably had a point in the manga that was simply glossed over from one issue to the other because Ms. Takeuchi had no time to do anything with it.

Well, Pedosus, Usagi and Mamoru unlock Mamoru's golden crystal, his... uhm, silver crystal equivalent. Looks like it's not Pedosus' horn this time. Okay, whatever.

Zirconia shows up and things get borderline experimental. She obliterates Mamoru and Usagi by casting Flesh to Stone, then they crumble away, but they're not really dead - well, duh - and now... are somewhere, doing something. Usagi is glowing with a purple-pinkish outline.

I have no idea what's going on.

Artemis, Luna and Diana are back in the super secret command bunker. Luna and Diana never left there, but how did Artemis get there? It's been like five minutes since he transformed back into his cat form. Wait, I forgot, everyone can teleport or fly in this whenever the plot demands it, but they conveniently forget it every time it's necessary for dramatic effect. Speaking of flying, nobody did that yet.

This just in: Mamoru just slapped Usagi.

Yep. I mean, that happened. PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER he tells her. *whack*

I'm guessing this is still some sort of nightmare.

Zirconia is the size of a Kaiju now, and Haruka swears her undying loyalti to Slapped!Usagi and says something like "we only live and dream through you and your light", come on guys, really? I get it that you're super into your future king and queen and all that, but this is ridiculous. They Sailor Planet Attack Kaiju!Zirconia, and she turns back to normal size, then leaves the scene.

Guess that slap was real then. Good on you Mamoru, lord knows there were moments in SuperS where I wanted to slap Usagi myself. Except, in this, she was mostly okay. Also, as usual, NOTHING came out of them all being turned into stone or not.

Usagi runs after Zirconia and ends up standing in front of Nehelenia, then uses her giant schlong shaped Pegasus scepter thingy to free Satan and Super Chibi-Moon. Sailor Moon's and Chibi-Moon's combined attack shatter the reality behind the mirror. Literally, into tiny pieces, the other girls begin pounding on Nehelenia's mirror.

This sure has turned into something else. Satan picks up the Sailor Asteroid balls. I mean, okay, at this point we don't really know that yet, but really, who gives a f*ck. Everyone and everything in this is a Sailor Princess of some sort. Even Rei's ravens.

Everyone teleports to Elysion and are greeted by two women who introduce themselves as Maenads. That's pretty weird, because Maenads were women in the retinue of Dionysus and they were raving mad (hence the name - raving ones) and would often dance themselves into a state of intoxicated euphoria.

These two are... calm, reserved and meek, but hey, what do you expect from someone called Helios who is neither a sun god nor fits in with the rest of the mythological basis. I wrote an essay-style post on that earlier, anyway.

*checks time*

There's still 30 minutes left.

Yay, the Dead Moon's Spelljammer ship is back, as is the mirror with Nehelenia in it.

I swear Nehelenia's already ample bosom is getting more ample every time she shows up. She probably has back problems and is always grumpy because of that. Might I suggest breast reduction surgery? Or magic, in your case. Your back will thank you for it.

Nehelenia reflects Sailor Moon's MOON GORGEOUS MEDITATION and they're trapped inside Pedosus' plastic schlong kaleidoscope now. What in the what now? Usagi has a vision of her mother.

This is downright bizarre. Because Michiru is there, it falls to her to state the obvious. Poor Rei, now she can't even do the one thing she was good for in the other seasons. I think that counter will stay at one by the looks of it.

Six year old versions of Sailors Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter show up and gush over a newly born Princess Serenity. They're super happy to swear their undying loyalty to protecting her.

This is me right now:

Warning, this video is SUPER disturbing. Much like everything else from Halo 5.

Nehelenia shows up to Serenity's birthday party and is sealed away by Queen Serenity, but not before cursing the baby. My, we're back to very traditional European fairy tales. Okay, sure, I'm certain they're all totally fascinating for Japanese people. Nehelenia also does a "there can be no light without darkness" spiel. Psh. Honestly, never thought I'd say this, but her backstory in SuperS was better than this.

Nehelenia grabs Usagi's silver crystal. Looks like it's up to Slapmoru now to save the day.

What am I watching? What is this? Mamoru and Usagi kiss, and that shatters the Kaleidoscope reflection, the silver crystal teleports back to Usagi, the two summon GIANT BALLS OF LIGHT, everyone else detransforms from Sailor Guardians to princesses wearing fancy dresses (yes, even Haruka). Artemis, Luna and Diana are transported from the SUPER SECRET COMMAND BUNKER to Elysion, and transformed into their human forms.

Oh, right, and Nehelenia insinuated that the people of the Silver Milennium were extraterrestrial in origin too. Sure, why not. Everyone's a Sailor Princess, and everyone's an alien. Works for me.

EVERYONE SEES Absinthe-Fairy versions of themselves. Drink more responsibly you guys. Besides, you're like 15, you're not really supposed to drink liquor yet. Ami, you should know that's bad for you.

Proof that I'm not making this up:

Drink less absinthe, you guys. Or alternatively, do less LSD, and keep that stuff away from Hotaru!

Minako shows off her impeccable fashion sense, kek. The fairies tell the princesses to, uhm, give Sailor Moon their power. Yeah so... I guess Usagi is about to sprout wings now. Assuming the wings weren't made up for Sailor Stars.

Nope, they weren't. Usagi has wings now.

There's a closeup of Haruka to be seen. Every time she's shown in a close up, her boobs go up two cup sizes. It's mesmerizing. There's also some Haruka, Setsuna, Michiru and Minako side boob to be seen. Sure. Why not.

I feel this need to post proof every time, and I resisted most of it, but have a look. I'm certainly NOT exaggerating for effect here.

That's no moon, it's a chest!

What the hell.

With everyone's power combined Usagi melts Nehelenia's face and smashes her mirror. Good job. Still 15 minutes left. Will this ever end?

Did you guys think Chibi-Usa yelling PEGASUS is annoying? Try her yelling HELIOS all the time.

Usagi cleanses the four asteroid balls. Guess the girls will be back now. ParaPara!

And there we go with the kids swearing undying loyality to Chibi-Moon. My life for Sto'Vo'Kor! Aren't you all little Klingons.

Helios summons Pegasus to ride on. Okay. Chibi-Moon stares at him and is probably thinking of some hot female-male-horse threesome action, but instead says: He really looks like a prince on a white horse. I'm convinced that White Horse is the code name for the drug everyone involved in this production was on while making it. For Naoko Takeuchi that was probably just sleep deprivation.

Yay, done, and over. Finally. Here's to hoping they make Stars a series again, because that was painful to sit through. No post-credit scene this time.

 

Well, at least Rei wasn't completely useless this time. I wonder when - if at all - the Sailor Side Boobs will be back. I'm kinda looking forward to it now. This is really good stuff. *snort* Pretty good kick. *snort* Sparkles! *snort*

 

 

 

[majestic]

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

...At least it was a lot better than yesterday's Sailor Moon Crystal movie? Haven't watched anything more yet...will get to it.

Nail fungus is a lot better than that, so... sure. It's a good film, actually. It's just not a good Cardcaptor Sakura episode, which is more what I wanted...

[Bartimaeus]

59 minutes ago, majestic said:

There's still 30 minutes left.

 

So...how does it feel to ever so faithfully contribute to Netflix's viewership numbers of Sailor Moon Crystal? Speaking of, literally every time I log into Netflix, I'm bombarded with this crap:

Even if I was going to watch this, Netflix, I would not do so here - I'd pirate it specifically to avoid letting you think I watched and potentially enjoyed it. Meanwhile, I'm doing the opposite with Cardcaptor Sakura because I actually like CCS - watching it locally while letting episodes play on Netflix in the background. It's a small act, but I've got data to burn and I feel sort of like a very small good samaritan by doing so, .

So now that you've finally completed it all thanks to your OCD... Did you have fun? Did you get everything out of your system?

Spoiler

 

[majestic]

6 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

So now that you've finally completed it all thanks to your OCD... Did you have fun? Did you get everything out of your system?

 

 

In spite of all the complaining, this wasn't as painful to sit through as the 39 episodes of Sailor Moon SuperS were, but that's because SuperS came after S, while this came after Crystal Season 3, and SuperS is like 15 hours long while this was just three. When you start from low expectations and it doesn't get any worse, that's a positive thing, right? And this one had more fun character stuff than the other three seasons combined, but it was still not enough to save it.

At least now I know why the ending of SuperS was such a mess. What else could you possibly do with that material.

I'll let you know once I'm done with the manga and the live action TV show, of which I expect a lot. It looks cheesy, but it's supposedly beloved by both fans of the manga and fans of the old anime, and that's quite a feat. It also means I'll probably just hate it, but who knows.

11 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

So...how does it feel to ever so faithfully contribute to Netflix's viewership numbers of Sailor Moon Crystal? Speaking of, literally every time I log into Netflix, I'm bombarded with this crap:

Even if I was going to watch this, Netflix, I would not do so here - I'd pirate it specifically to avoid letting you think I watched and potentially enjoyed it.

I often ask myself that. I complained about every new Star Wars movie sind 1999, but I still went to watch them at the theatres every time one came out. Midnight premieres, even. Every single time. Except for Solo, because that did not have a midnight premiere because Disney didn't want one.

But what else can I do? I expect this to tank anyway, with or without my viewership, so I'm confident and take solace in knowing it will not make a difference. Ultimately it's just sad, this will be the first Sailor Moon experience for many people, and it'll probably just make thm never try it ever again.

Yesterday it was still in Netflix' top 10 things here, today it no longer is. I'm guessing that's done and dusted already.

15 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Meanwhile, I'm doing the opposite with Cardcaptor Sakura because I actually like CCS - watching it locally while letting episodes play on Netflix in the background. It's a small act, but I've got data to burn and I feel sort of like a very small good samaritan by doing so, .

That's very considerate of you. What do you mean with data to burn, uhm, do you have some download limit?

Cardcaptor Sakura is also only the like second thing on Netflix I've given a thumbs up. It easily earned that.

 

 

[InsaneCommander]

On 6/4/2021 at 6:49 PM, majestic said:

edit:

Yeah, way to go. Rei sees a vision of her 4-year-old past self kissing Tiger's-Eye. That went to SuperS-level uncomfortable in a handbasket. What was the line from Anchorman? That escalated quickly.

What!?

 

I will start Legend of Galactic Hero in a week or so. After that is Jojo. Not sure how long it will take to watch these ones since they have over a hundred episodes each. Also, I don't have as much free time now as I did when I binge watched SM.

[majestic]

6 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

What!?

Rei sees a vision of her 4-year-old past self kissing Tiger's-Eye.

Spoiler

Sorry, couldn't resist posting just that again.

I'm still more miffed that Mamoru slapped Usagi. This was released this year guys. I wonder if that was in the manga too. Healthy relationship and all. *whack*

[Bartimaeus]

A few minutes into CCS episode 34:

Spoiler

Another small thing I like about this series is Sakura's friends that are not any of the main characters (i.e. not Tomoyo, Xiaolang, or Meiling). They have small parts but occasionally get a little larger focus, and they're just...good and have their own little fun and cute traits and mannerisms, and even though they're a relatively small part of the show, they do feel like they're consistently there and contributing their little parts. This really feels like a show that could've not had any magical girl stuff at all and it wouldn't have really suffered much at all, and maybe even would've gotten better depending on how/what exactly they replaced it with. My mind can't help but go to Only Yesterday, although that's set in a somewhat earlier time period, CCS has a number of similar elements. That makes me wonder if there *are* any shows like that, possibly/hopefully made earlier than CCS...

 

27 minutes ago, majestic said:

I often ask myself that. I complained about every new Star Wars movie sind 1999, but I still went to watch them at the theatres every time one came out. Midnight premieres, even. Every single time. Except for Solo, because that did not have a midnight premiere because Disney didn't want one.

For shame! I attempt to do the opposite with basically everything and only support exactly that which I deliberately want to support. Of course, I sometimes have to commit tons of OTHER wrongs to do so in the process, but it is a sacrifice that I am willing to make, .

27 minutes ago, majestic said:

But what else can I do? I expect this to tank anyway, with or without my viewership, so I'm confident and take solace in knowing it will not make a difference. Ultimately it's just sad, this will be the first Sailor Moon experience for many people, and it'll probably just make thm never try it ever again.

Yesterday it was still in Netflix' top 10 things here, today it no longer is. I'm guessing that's done and dusted already.

I feel like Netflix wouldn't keep licensing it unless it was a success on some level...but who knows, maybe you're right.

27 minutes ago, majestic said:

That's very considerate of you. What do you mean with data to burn, uhm, do you have some download limit?

Yes, but it was mostly a joke, because it's literally 4 TB every month, which is pretty difficult to reach even when deliberately trying to. I think the closest I've ever gotten was just about 3 TB.

27 minutes ago, majestic said:

Cardcaptor Sakura is also only the like second thing on Netflix I've given a thumbs up. It easily earned that.

It's real rare I gave things a thumbs up (though I have no idea what that even does anymore since Netflix went to only relative ratings some years back vs. the previous system they had), but CCS earned it from me after about the tenth episode.

Also, ironic that Mamoru slapped her here instead of...well, firstly, her slapping him for being a complete creep in Crystal, but also instead of all the times in SuperS where she objectively deserved it (e: kind of - I'm not actually advocating for violence here, but man, she was nuts in SuperS...) for being completely psychotic, .

Edited June 6, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

  

  

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

Another small thing I like about this series is Sakura's friends that are not any of the main characters (i.e. not Tomoyo, Xiaolang, or Meiling). They have small parts but occasionally get a little larger focus, and they're just...good and have their own little fun and cute traits and mannerisms, and even though they're a relatively small part of the show, they do feel like they're consistently there and contributing their little parts. This really feels like a show that could've not had any magical girl stuff at all and it wouldn't have really suffered much at all, and maybe even would've gotten better depending on how/what exactly they replaced it with. My mind can't help but go to Only Yesterday, although that's set in a somewhat earlier time period, CCS has a number of similar elements. That makes me wonder if there *are* any shows like that, possibly/hopefully made earlier than CCS...

 

 

Spoiler

 

Yeah, it could have worked with any storyline setup. I don't know of any shows like that, though. Not really. Still haven't seen Only Yesterday, I should really do that at some point.

Yamazaki is incredibly funny at times. The show also strikes a balance with all of its running gags in a way that they never become ridiculous or overused. It doesn't really matter that Sakura and Shaoran should have caught on by now that he's like always lying when he's on screen, and Chiharu is always dragging him off. It's funny every time, and the stories he tells get really elaborate, and then there's Naoko and her ghost stories and Rika and her sweets. It's just wonderful.

The one thing I did not like that much about episode 34 - spoiler there just in case you actually didn't just think the ice skating episode was totally forgettable (which it was) and we're really talking about the quiz rally here.

Spoiler

Making fun of Meiling for that for not knowing a kanji - not cool guys. Toya, I get it, you don't like Shaoran, but Meilin didn't do anything to you, did she? A little help here, hm?

At least you're over almost all episode not written by Ms. Ohkawa. Just one strawberry adventure left (it will make sense when you get to it).

 

There's also something about the animation in this that's just great. It might not be the most elaborate, but still looks great, and the animators were really capable of transporting emotions through it.

There is a context free picture in the spoiler, I just edited it into a spoiler tag because knowing the context, it bums me out every time I scroll by.

Spoiler

No need to say anything at all. Probably better to not look at me while looking at this. *sniff*

 

 

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yes, but it was mostly a joke, because it's literally 4 TB every month, which is pretty difficult to reach even when deliberately trying to. I think the closest I've ever gotten was just about 3 TB.

Reaching a 4 TB limit would take some doing indeed.

We used to have a fair use limit but that's been dropped for a while. There also never came anything of going over it, I regularily reached 50+ GBs of downloads at a time when the fair use limit was 5 GB, but that was a while back, like 1999/2000. But that was a much different time where I had access to a scene dump. If I still had that, and would have enough disk space, I'd probably blow through your 4TB limit with relative ease.

My current use is roughly half a TB per month. Still crazy when I think back to starting out with a dialup trying to download Sailor Moon desktop themes. Heh.

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Also, ironic that Mamoru slapped her here instead of...well, firstly, her slapping him for being a complete creep in Crystal, but also instead of all the times in SuperS where she objectively deserved it (e: kind of - I'm not actually advocating for violence here, but man, she was nuts in SuperS...) for being completely psychotic, .

I thought the same thing, then didn't actually post it for exactly the same reason. Although, his behaviour in Crystal season 1 and her behaviour in SuperS are really pretty much close as objectively justified domestic violence as you can get, I guess.

Still, it was weird enough to see Ami slap her in the old anime, and that was in 1992. This one has no excuse for what Mamoru does in Crystal, or now in Eternal. Nope.

Edited June 6, 2021 by majestic

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, InsaneCommander said:

What!?

 

I will start Legend of Galactic Hero in a week or so. After that is Jojo. Not sure how long it will take to watch these ones since they have over a hundred episodes each. Also, I don't have as much free time now as I did when I binge watched SM.

I've heard very good things about the 80's LoGH, maybe I even watched it and liked it. JoJo is a hell of a ride. All in all it's probably my favorite anime and something I'd highly recommend if you can take very weird **** and overdramatic everything.

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Yeah, it could have worked with any storyline setup. I don't know of any shows like that, though. Not really.

Well, be sure to let me know if you ever find any, .

Spoiler

 

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Yamazaki is incredibly funny at times. The show also strikes a balance with all of its running gags in a way that they never become ridiculous or overused. It doesn't really matter that Sakura and Shaoran should have caught on by now that he's like always lying when he's on screen, and Chiharu is always dragging him off. It's funny every time, and the stories he tells get really elaborate, and then there's Naoko and her ghost stories and Rika and her sweets. It's just wonderful.

Yeah, Yamazaki + Chiharu are great, and I have a soft spot for Rika. Naoko is probably the least notable of the lot, but she's sweet and nice enough. Makes me kind of sad that Naru was pushed out of Sailor Moon so bad...

Also, I wouldn't describe that ice episode as totally forgettable...not as great as some of the others, but I thought it was good, mostly lighter but character-focused . Also, I'm not looking at your spoiler yet because I only got a few minutes into CCS E34 before I remembered that my basketball team is playing a playoff game right now... Mind you, I love Sakura a lot more than basketball, buuut Sakura can wait while playoff games can't, . I'll try to finish the rest of that episode after.

1 hour ago, majestic said:

Reaching a 4 TB limit would take some doing indeed.

We used to have a fair use limit but that's been dropped for a while. There also never came anything of going over it, I regularily reached 50+ GBs of downloads at a time when the fair use limit was 5 GB, but that was a while back, like 1999/2000. But that was a much different time where I had access to a scene dump. If I still had that, and would have enough disk space, I'd probably blow through your 4TB limit with relative ease.

Yeah, while I have the connections, I just don't watch/do enough to usually have or need that kind of volume, .

CCS, more episode 34 (but I still haven't finished it yet because of reasons):

Spoiler

This episode did something clever in subverting my expectations - thought for sure Sakura was going to ignore Tomoyo in favor of Yukito after Sakura didn't immediately pick her, which would've felt ultra crappy and I was going to have to pretend that that didn't happen, but instead what happened was that Sakura asked Tomoyo and Tomoyo was the one to reject her because she felt she absolutely needed to be focusing entirely on filming Sakura. Sakura...doing a scavenger hunt. Ridiculous, but this way works much better than the way I thought it was going to go!

I have to tell you, I have not been very annoyed by Meiling most of the show. There are times where she is is annoying, but on the whole, I really am more saddened by the way she's treated. Not because she's treated horribly by the other characters, but... Xiaolang (understandably) never really wants anything to do with her yet mostly patiently puts up with her...but often seems to be wistfully looking at Sakura (I'm not a hundred percent sure if because he wishes he was in her situation with her friends/relationships or if just because he'd rather be friends with her personally instead of constantly stuck with Meiling - it's not yet clear to me) and Sakura and Tomoyo always treating her so kindly... It's kind of an ironic effect - the show treating her so well while still having her constantly fail and be a thorn in everyone's side just makes her seem even more sad. It's not how I would expect to feel about a character if someone described it this way to me, but I THINK it's the intent of the show, so it's a job well done.

 

Edited June 6, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

8 hours ago, KP the meanie zucchini said:

I've heard very good things about the 80's LoGH, maybe I even watched it and liked it. JoJo is a hell of a ride. All in all it's probably my favorite anime and something I'd highly recommend if you can take very weird **** and overdramatic everything.

JOESTAR-SAN!

OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Well, be sure to let me know if you ever find any, .

Sure will. Won't be any time soon though, I'm afraid. I still have enough to watch and read for a while without adding new stuff into the mix. And, uhm, Steven Universe: The Kaiju Stories, I mean, Future.

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

Yeah, Yamazaki + Chiharu are great, and I have a soft spot for Rika. Naoko is probably the least notable of the lot, but she's sweet and nice enough. Makes me kind of sad that Naru was pushed out of Sailor Moon so bad...

 

 

Spoiler

 

In an ideal world, Usagi would just confess to Naru when she gives her the opportunity in R, instead of just using the scene as justification to drop her out of the show. I get it, of course, the cast already blew up beyond the writer's abilities to handle all of them properly in S, never mind carrying a host of ancillary characters around. I think having a non-magical friend character to serve as someone to play off does have some potential.

On the other hand, being friends with Usagi was pretty bad for Naru in the first season, so maybe it was for the best. Poor girl was the target more often than not.

 

 

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

Also, I wouldn't describe that ice episode as totally forgettable...not as great as some of the others, but I thought it was good, mostly lighter but character-focused . Also, I'm not looking at your spoiler yet because I only got a few minutes into CCS E34 before I remembered that my basketball team is playing a playoff game right now... Mind you, I love Sakura a lot more than basketball, buuut Sakura can wait while playoff games can't, . I'll try to finish the rest of that episode after.

 

 

Spoiler

 

I... yeah, I get that. In winter, while there's alpine races on, I also watch those, and nothing else. I don't get the appeal of basketball to be honest, but that's just me. Lots of people don't watch alpine skiing. Actually that's a bit of a fringe sport, so most people don't.

Also had a pretty bad experience with a basketball way back when during PE, it came from the side and, didn't notice it, and I caught it with my face. I was out for a second or two and ended up with conjunctivitis in my right eye, and a somewhat reduced field of vision on the right side as a bonus. My right eye is also much less sensitive to light han the left one. It's not bad enough to be a problem (still passed the medical exam for my driving license and am luckily not night blind), but it certainly didn't help. My eyesight is bad enough without adding physical damage on top.

So yeah, screw basketball. xD

 

 

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Spoiler

This episode did something clever in subverting my expectations - thought for sure Sakura was going to ignore Tomoyo in favor of Yukito after Sakura didn't immediately pick her, which would've felt ultra crappy and I was going to have to pretend that that didn't happen, but instead what happened was that Sakura asked Tomoyo and Tomoyo was the one to reject her because she felt she absolutely needed to be focusing entirely on filming Sakura. Sakura...doing a scavenger hunt. Ridiculous, but this way works much better than the way I thought it was going to go!

 

 

Spoiler

 

That's Tomoyo having accepted that Sakura will never love her in the way she wants to, and now she's actively working on getting her into situations with Yukito all the time. Well, sometimes, not all the time. There are times when these characters really don't behave like their age, but Tomoyo is consistently the most mature of the bunch, so that's by far and large okay, and it can somewhat be explained by her upbringing, although that could have easily also made her an entitled brat.

On the other hand its good that they're so young, at that age... really, Tomoyo is certainly going to find someone else to obsess over, eventually.

 

 

Spoiler

8 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I have to tell you, I have not been very annoyed by Meiling most of the show. There are times where she is is annoying, but on the whole, I really am more saddened by the way she's treated. Not because she's treated horribly by the other characters, but... Xiaolang (understandably) never really wants anything to do with her yet mostly patiently puts up with her...but often seems to be wistfully looking at Sakura (I'm not a hundred percent sure if because he wishes he was in her situation with her friends/relationships or if just because he'd rather be friends with her personally instead of constantly stuck with Meiling - it's not yet clear to me) and Sakura and Tomoyo always treating her so kindly... It's kind of an ironic effect - the show treating her so well while still having her constantly fail and be a thorn in everyone's side just makes her seem even more sad. It's not how I would expect to feel about a character if someone described it this way to me, but I THINK it's the intent of the show, so it's a job well done.

 

At this point? No. Meilin was annoying for a while, but she then turns into the sympathetic, a bit overactive and silly joke character that you can't help but begin to feel sorry for, especially when the jokes begin to be unfair, and you begin to notice that she cares more for Shaoran than he does for her, at which point, as you said, a LOT of what she's involved with when she interacts with or thinks of Shaoran becomes just sad.

The spoiler for the episode that I wrote deals with that specifically. Meilin ends up being the butt of a joke in this one that was really not fun. I mean, no, I laughed at first, but it's really just utterly unfair.

Real spoiler:

Spoiler

Not helping her at all with a kanji based riddle, come on Toya. I know you don't like Shaoran, but what's Meilin done to you?

Also, yes, I think that was the writer's intention. There's more proof of that in episodes 43 and 60.

Out of context "spoilers" of episodes and feelings:

Spoiler

I also think episode 60 was written specifically to make me feel bad. Hot damn that was awful.

 

 

[majestic]

Cardcaptor Sakura The Movie 2 - The Sealed Card.

Still watching, but that intro just pulled an amazing bait & switch, so I had to post:
 

Spoiler

 

It opens... well actually it opens by showing the card the movie is going to be about, but then it switches to Sakura fighting Kaiju sized Firedragons and something that looks like a giant golem and an ice monster. One of the things she even cuts in half, then lands. There's a close up and some dramatic music, and I'm like wondering if I'm watching the wrong thing, and this is some ridiculous fan film where Sakura suddenly became the Action Jackson version of a magical girl.

Turns out that's exactly what happend. The camera pulls out, and we see Tomoyo showing a film to Sakura, one she badgered her into making using the Create card.

Well done film, well done. xD

 

 

Edited June 6, 2021 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

CCS episodes 34 & 35:

Spoiler

Meiling was amazing this episode. While it is unfortunate that she couldn't get the first clue, it also makes sense - as has been mentioned a few times, she's not all that skilled with Japanese, particularly its writing, so it made sense she couldn't get the horrible word game riddles that that silly treasure hunt seemed to keep using.

Really, the only one thing I'm bothered about right now is Yukito. I don't mind Sakura crushing after him, but he's gotten a little too...reciprocative over the last 20 or so episodes for my sensibilities, which I've been trying to ignore, but it's getting to be a bit much!

What is up with Toya having ten billion jobs to keep an eye on Sakura and Yokito? Never mind Tomoyo...

Speaking of Tomoyo, I haven't mentioned it up until now, but it's been something I've been meaning to: Tomoyo's fashion sense is incredible, .

CCS, episodes 36 and 37, :

Spoiler

This new intro isn't nearly as good as the original...but the outro is much better. You win some, you lose some!

Also, uh-oh: I thought some of Xiaolang's looks at Sakura were due to wistfulness or envy, but I'm not so sure anymore...

When the Clow Card attacked Tomoyo and Sakura just numbly stood there listening to the teacher calling out for Tomoyo, before dropping her pom-poms and sprinting off towards her in a panic...the cost of skipping the next episode previews until after I've already seen the next episode before going back. Had a momentary "OH CRAP" moment thinking something actually terrible happened...especially after that creepy warning from the creepy teacher. And then the sight of Tomoyo's mom actually holding her in that ultra-awkward yet wonderful hug... I'm gonna need that big-eyed Minako gif, stat - except it should be edited so she's also crying!

And Xiaolang is still doing the whole tsundere act...tsk, tsk! Speaking of Xiaolang, I'm still confused about his name. Whenever Meiling says it, it always sounds roughly like "Xiaolang" - when Xiaolang introduces himself, it also sounds like that. And yet, whenever Sakura (and Tomoyo?) says his name, I feel like I have *never* heard her it say anything that sounds remotely close to "Xiaolang". Why?

Well, the show has officially peaked. Sakura and Tomoyo hugged in the fashion that they did, and that's it, it's all downhill from here. I might as well stop watching now.

...The solution they had to use Song was clever and unexpected, though.

(e): nvm it peaked again with Tomoyo's song

 

Edited June 7, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[majestic]

CCS talk:

Spoiler

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Meiling was amazing this episode. While it is unfortunate that she couldn't get the first clue, it also makes sense - as has been mentioned a few times, she's not all that skilled with Japanese, particularly its writing, so it made sense she couldn't get the horrible word game riddles that that silly treasure hunt seemed to keep using.

That's what I meant, I mean, come on Toya, you know she can't solve that, a little help maybe? This isn't a super serious competition and she's like 11 years old. And yes, of course it makes sense that the Chinese transfer student wouln't know that the kanji for star has 12 lines. She'd probably also fail at the water and ice riddle, but Kaho would probably have helper her.

I also agree, if it wasn't clear before, this episode definitely removed Meilin from the Scrappy heap by now. 

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Really, the only one thing I'm bothered about right now is Yukito. I don't mind Sakura crushing after him, but he's gotten a little too...reciprocative over the last 20 or so episodes for my sensibilities, which I've been trying to ignore, but it's getting to be a bit much!

Well maybe Yukito doesn't like Toya so much and he's more like Pegasus? His hair is white too. 

Just kidding. I'm not sure this counts as a spoiler, but don't worry. The show is not going anyway into Pedosus territory with these two, and there's a reason why he's so nice to her (a good one at first, and a stumble in my opinion at the very end of the second arc, but hey, can't get everything perfectly, right?). You'll see soon enough. Trust in the setup, the setup is good. 

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

What is up with Toya having ten billion jobs to keep an eye on Sakura and Yokito? Never mind Tomoyo...

Running gag that never changes. Hehe. :p 

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Speaking of Tomoyo, I haven't mentioned it up until now, but it's been something I've been meaning to: Tomoyo's fashion sense is incredible, .

She really looks like the psycho stalker she is in this one. It's hilarious and adorable. In the context of the show, in real life, probably not so much.

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

This new intro isn't nearly as good as the original...but the outro is much better. You win some, you lose some!

Yes. Very emphatic yes, at that.

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Also, uh-oh: I thought some of Xiaolang's looks at Sakura were due to wistfulness or envy, but I'm not so sure anymore...

Why, does it look like Toya might have a point in disliking him by now? Also... poor Meilin...

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

When the Clow Card attacked Tomoyo and Sakura just numbly stood there listening to the teacher calling out for Tomoyo, before dropping her pom-poms and sprinting off towards her in a panic...the cost of skipping the next episode previews until after I've already seen the next episode before going back. Had a momentary "OH CRAP" moment thinking something actually terrible happened...especially after that creepy warning from the creepy teacher. And then the sight of Tomoyo's mom actually holding her in that ultra-awkward yet wonderful hug... I'm gonna need that big-eyed Minako gif, stat - except it should be edited so she's also crying!

What do you mean, Tomoyo losing her voice isn't terrible? It's the biggest injury inflicted to someone on the show yet, that is a big deal. I mean, a broken foot aside. Those apparently heal in the span of an episode anyway. 

What that episode showed was that Sonomi isn't just a Sakura obsessed and otherwise absent mother, and that Tomoyo is really trying her damndest to make sure everyone doesn't worry. 

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

And Xiaolang is still doing the whole tsundere act...tsk, tsk! Speaking of Xiaolang, I'm still confused about his name. Whenever Meiling says it, it always sounds roughly like "Xiaolang" - when Xiaolang introduces himself, it also sounds like that. And yet, whenever Sakura (and Tomoyo?) says his name, I feel like I have *never* heard her it say anything that sounds remotely close to "Xiaolang". Why?

I don't hear much of a difference but you're right that Meiling and Shaoran say Shaoran slightly different than the other characters, but maybe I don't know enough or am not used to Chinese and Japanese enough to hear a difference but I noticed that every now and then when Shaoran says Meilin, it does come out with an audible but very soft "r" instead of an "l" sound. 

Anyway, as I have no real idea and you can get several different pronunciations out of google translate when you type in Xiaolang (no, really, depends on the translation direction - one sounds like Shia-Long with an audible i, the other more like what the characters say in CCs, just with an "l" instead of an "r") and watching YouTube video guide, I'm leaning towards nobody pronouncing the name right if it really was intended to be Xiaolang. 

Doesn't helpt that Xiao Long Bao is Vietnamese food... so googling often just gives you Vietnamese lessons, great! It's supposed to be 小狼, I think (which means little wolf). Putting that into google also leaves an audible "i" in the pronunciation.

Confuuuuuuuusing.

Sakura also almost always says Li-kun, anyway. :p 

11 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Well, the show has officially peaked. Sakura and Tomoyo hugged in the fashion that they did, and that's it, it's all downhill from here. I might as well stop watching now.

...The solution they had to use Song was clever and unexpected, though.

(e): nvm it peaked again with Tomoyo's song

That was the song I spoiler-linked recently, by the way. I also wondered, at first, why Clow Reed would create a card that records voices, but then... he lived at a time where there was no way to record anything, so that makes perfect sense when you like music that you'd create something to record it with.