A hell of a lot went on in this episode. Naturally, Sakura didn’t want to fight Yue, since he’s also Yukito, but was forced to by Yue. I guess Sakura shouldn’t take my advice anymore, because I suggested using the Wood card after the last episode, and that was obviously a bad idea. I’d think it would have been under Earth, but it must be under Windy or (more probably) Watery if it’s under the Moon.

Of course, after being Yue, we find out that the whole thing had been orchestrated in advance by Clow Reed, who noted that she ultimately noticed all the necessities disguised as coincidences that he had planted around her in preparation of her becoming the new Master of the Clow Cards. Of course, there are some philosophical questions that opens up, such as can Sakura really have had free will in capturing the cards if it was always her “fate” to become their new master, but these aren’t issues discussed in the show. I suppose that one could argue that Clow Reed only saw a possible future where Sakura become the new master, and she happened to fulfill it, but it was by no means guaranteed.

Of course, now that Sakura is the new Master of the Clow Cards, Shaoran isn’t really needed any more, is he? And wouldn’t it kind of be awkward that the person you’re crushing on is also one of your magical partners? (I don’t really want to call Yue Sakura’s servant since she didn’t want to refer to him as such.) I guess it gives Sakura an excuse to be around Yukito all the time now, though.

Of course, for those of you who might think this is the end: never fear! We have yet another season of Cardcaptor Sakura to get though!

Anime DVDs

June 8, 2010
Bleach – Season 5 Box Set
Kurokami: The Animation – Part 2 [DVD] (ep. 7 – 12)
Kurokami: The Animation – Volume 2 (D) [Blu-Ray] (ep. 5 – 8)
Papillon Rose – Box Set (S)
Samurai Deeper Kyo – Box Set

Manga

June 8, 2010

Alice in the Country of Hearts – Volume 3
Apothecarius Argentum – Volume 9
Arata: The Legend – Volume 2
Battle Angel Alita: Last Order – Volume 13
BoBoBo-Bo Bo-BoBo – Volume 4
Deadman Wonderland – Volume 2
Detroit Metal City – Volume 5
Future Diary – Volume 6
Gakuen Alice – Volume 11
Inu Yasha – Volume 49
Neko Ramen – Volume 1
Peacemaker Kurogane – Volume 4
Portrait of M & N – Volume 2
Shinobi Life – Volume 5
Silver Diamond – Volume 6

Oooh boy, here we go.

While Earthy was quite a destructive card, and it was impervious to many of the other elemental cards (the Watery Card did nothing, and while Sakura didn’t use Firey, Kero’s fire attack didn’t do anything either), it seemed to be pretty easy to capture once Sakura figured out that it wasn’t attacking any place to trees.  All in all, this was probably the easiest of the three elemental cards that Sakura actually had to capture.

We also (finally) get to see Kero’s true form after Earthy’s capture.  I can understand now why Kero said that it would be even more impossible for him to hang out with Sakura’s friends in his true form in a previous episode.  He is rather conspicuous being all lion-y and all.  I assume that, since it’s his true form, Kero would have much greater magical powers (and I think he said as much in an earlier episode).  Unfortunately for Sakura, he finally returned to his true form after it would have been of any real help.

Next, we have Yukito, aka Yue’s alter-ego. As Keroberos notes, he seems to have a pretty nasty attitude, and was pretty ruthless towards Shaoran during his Final Judgment. Since it appears that Yue can hijack any card under the Moon, that would appear to put using Windy or Watery or any of the cards under them out of the question.

That would probably leave in play several attack cards such as Arrow, Fight, Firey, Power, Shot, and Sword, though one has to wonder how aggressively Sakura will go after Yue, knowing that Yukito is his alter-ego. The list of cards that might presumably be under Firey or Earthy which could be used for attack, but not be too harmful while being potentially effective doesn’t seem very long. Wood might possibly be under Earthy, and Sakura just used it against Earthy, so that may be the best candidate to use.

Also remember, Dash, Dream, Freeze, Return, Sand, Storm, Sweet, Time, and Twin are unavailable to Sakura, since Shaoran captured them. However, Freeze and Storm would seem to logically be under Windy or Watery, making them unavailable, and it would be hard to see how Dash, Dream, Return, Sweet, or Twin would be useful. About the only card that could conceivably be of any use that Shaoran had would have been Sand, since I’m assuming it’s under Earthy (no wonder Shaoran lost so badly).

Finally, we have Ms. Mizuki, who still apparently has a role to play.  Obviously she isn’t Yui, so that isn’t it, which begs the question, what is it?

Cards Captured: Earthy
Card Count: 52

Aniblog Tournament | HTML Bracket

Go below the fold for the goodness.

Round 3, Day 5

Vote Here

Match 9 – #2 Random Curiosity vs. #34 Listless Ink

Design: For Random Curiosity, the same thing stands for this round as the last round: a pretty common wordpress theme plus obtrusive ads.  Meanwhile, Listless Ink has a pretty unique design, despite using wordpress.com, and pretty much everything of importance (except maybe archives) are right up front.  Winner: Listless Ink

Post Style: Ditto on the post style for Random Curiosity from last round.  I don’t mind having a stack of pictures in your reviews (heck, I have one).  However, I’d think it should come after the review (or at least after a good portion of your post) rather than before you get to anything at all.  If I had never visited RC before, I might think their posts were nothing but screenshots after a couple scrolls of the mouse down the page.  However, Listless Ink I think has an issue with IPIP.  It’s somewhat mitigated, however, but a larger font, I think, but it’s still quite prevalent. Nevertheless, I find Listless Ink’s IPIP less obtrusive than RC’s image front-loading.  Winner: Listless Ink

Content: Random Curiosity has pretty good writing, and while I think they discuss the episode at hand pretty well, I think they still skip what I think makes an episode blogger really good, which is to try to peer into the future.  Of course, as I noted last week, the fact that RC is pretty much THE first to get episode reviews out cannot be dismissed either.  I think Listless Ink is a pretty good editorial blogger.  Perhaps not the best, but still pretty good.  Perhaps my main complaint is that none of the topics of her posts (at least her most recent ones) necessarily made think too much.  They were well written, yes, but…I just didn’t necessarily feel like there was very much new.  I think it is extremely close, but I might throw content to Random Curiosity here.  Winner: Random Curiosity

Overall: As I explained in the last round, RC has some problems, in my view, which are kind of difficult to overcome.  While it may not be a problem for some, I sometimes don’t like visiting it personally for the very reason that it gets episode reviews out so fast.  I usually like watching an episode myself before getting spoiled by another blog, which makes visiting RC difficult at times, as by the time I’ve seen the episode, the post about it on RC is already long gone.  Second, about the only reason why I didn’t make content a push is because, as the most important category, I really dislike not deciding a winner for it, but I think for the purposes of the overall winner, I feel like treating it as essentially equal.  That brings the decision down to design and post style, both of which Listless Ink wins.

Winner: Listless Ink

Match 10 -#18 Mistakes of Youth vs. #50 GAR GAR Stegosaurus

Design: Mistakes of Youth is kind of narrow, and the gray-on-grayish-blue sidebar could possibly use some work.  Otherwise, I guess there isn’t too much wrong with it.  GAR GAR is using wordpress.com, so I can’t say too much about it.  It’s using a design which I’ve noticed a few other blogs using, though.  However, it seems to be a change, as looking at my notes from last week, I noted that it was rather dark (which it isn’t this time, much to it’s benefit I think).  I think, in the end, GAR GAR’s design looks a bit brighter and cleaner.  Winner: GAR GAR Stegosaurus

Post Style: For Mistakes of Youth, nothing much I can stay.  A pretty standard 1 pictures and the rest of the post format, for the most part, which is pretty much the same format GAR GAR uses, which pretty much makes this category a push.  Winner: Push

Content: Mistakes of Youth is pretty much a mix of editorial post as well as some posts where he displays his art.  While the few editorial posts seem pretty good, and the art is pretty good as well, I’m not sure if it’ll be enough to get by a pretty good opponent.  And GAR GAR, while perhaps not the best editorial blogger out there, is certainly a good one.  They have some pretty well written and interesting posts.  I’m not sure how much I’m personally interested in some of the stuff that’s written there, but I don’t think that’s really a good enough reason to not vote for it.  Winner: GAR GAR Stegosaurus

Overall: As is generally the case at this point in the tournament, a pretty close match, but I gotta give it to GAR GAR

Winner: GAR GAR Stegosaurus

Round 3, Day 6

Vote Here

Match 11 – #23 Josh’s Anime Blog vs. #74 Fuzakenna

I think what I’ll do this time with my match is what I did last time: skip reviewing my opponent, since I kind of personally consider it rather uncouth to do a review of my current opponent.  So I’ll just (mostly) copy and paste what I wrote in the last round:

Design: I think my design is simple and effective.  I try to keep the more important things people are looking for high on the sidebar, as well as in the nav.  For example, see the “blogged series” link, where you have easy access to the categories for the series I’ve bloggged. Or the “anime reviews” nav link, where you can find the series reviews I’ve written.

Post Style: I try to post something every day, though I’m not always 100% successful at it. I also try to fashion my posts to be read easily, and to be easily accessible.  (for example, while I haven’t done a full out season preview post for a while, I used to make them with links to each series at the top of the post, so people could just click down.)

Content: I try to mix up what I post, having episode reviews, series reviews, new DVD and Manga releases, and anime credits, so that I don’t get stuck with only one type of post on my blog.  In any case, I hope it is informative and entertaining for people.

Overall, I just hope people like my blog to vote for it.  Of course, if you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to leave them on this post.

Match 12 – #7 Hashihime vs. #26 Reverse Thieves

Design: Hashihime has a rather blah design, I thought, though I may not be able to say too much, with it being on blogspot.  Nevertheess, there isn’t really much to it.  Reverse Thieves isn’t necessarily much better, though I think it is better. And they have a cool logo.  My main complaint about RT is that their font is pretty small.  Winner: Reverse Thieves

Post Style: I think Hashihime’s post style is generally OK.  There are images mixed in with the text, but I think, for the most part, they are spaced out OK.   Reverse Thieves does pretty much the same, too. Winner: Push.

Content: Hashihime is mainly a seiyuu blog, which has some interesting posts (if you’re into seiyuu) but I think some posts which are, well, kind of short and of questionable interest (at least to me).  Reverse Thieves certainly has a unique posting style, in that the two authors share input on the same posts.  I think they have some pretty well written posts, but I think it’s kind of distracting to switch back and forth.  I know it’s their style, and I think it works well to an extent, but I’m not sure I find it ideal.  Having said this, however,  I think I still find their content more interesting and compelling than Hashihime’s.  Winner: Reverse Thieves

Overall: Rather unbelievably, this is the first match in the 3rd round to feature two teams who received byes in the tournament (to show you how much those helped, though there are two other bye vs. bye matches later in this round).  In any case, I find myself voting against another niche blog.  I think their uniqueness might have gotten them into the 3rd round, but I’m having a hard time getting myself to vote them any further.

Winner: Reverse Thieves