Anime Rewatch Episodes 45 & 46

[mellowcandle]

This is the post for discussing the next two episodes of our community anime rewatch. We're at the conclusion of Season Two now, but you are still welcome to join in anytime! All previous posts can be found by using the "anime discussion" tag

Comments

[syrimoon]

Where to start, where to start

[syrimoon]

CLOW

[mellowcandle]

Seeing her family in her dream INSTERAD of perfect little Yuki would have been a big Growing Up point for her!

Yeah, honestly, the loss of her family love (and not just hers for them, but theirs for her as well), would/should have been much more devastating. I hated this being the "disaster" anyway, but for YukiSue to be more important to her than her FAMILY also pisses me off.

I wonder who Touya forgot, Kaho or his mommy?

[chrysalisdreams]

I have always been under the impression that Touya forgot Sakura, because he doesn't tease her when she comes down the stairs in the post-catastrophe vision.

[mellowcandle]

My comment was tongue-in-cheek, but that's an interesting interpretation. I never got that, but I think the "disaster" sequence is somehow both heavy-handed and badly done. It seems to me like he's concerned about her when he meets her outside school, but I don't know if that's intentional. I'm also not sure what's supposed to be going on with Syaoran--not just because he's there, but the look he gives her from the soccer field: did he forget whatever feelings were developing for her, is he concerned about her, does he sense something wrong, too (or if this is just a dream, would she want him to sense something wrong so she doesn't feel alone in it)?

[butterflydrming]

I always rewatch episodes from season three when I'm needing a hit of Yue, so I've only seen Final Clow Card & Final Judgement a few times. (Huzzah for You Tube.) And you know what? When Yue first speaks, and his voice is Megumi Ogata's feather timbre, I know why I love him so, even after all this time. It's her voice acting that cinches it

[syrimoon]

I'm the opposite; Final Judgement is my go to episode, cause badass fightign Yue, and his scene kneeling in front of Sakura/the three way spliced scene where he's talking to her tangled in the vines, are I think some of the most BEAUTIFULLY drawn moments in the show.

I may be committing the mortal sin of dubbed 90's anime here, but in terms of voices, I dont prefer one over the other. Megumi Ogata is WONDERFUL and her soft Yue timbre is perfect but I will never be able to shale Samuel Vinvent as the voice in my head when I'm writing or reading Yue ;__;

Clow. He would never admit it, but it's Clow he'd be angry at, Clow who hurt him. I watch this episode, how quick he tried to get it over with...it hurts him too much to be wake. All he wants is to be returned to sleep within his false form or within the book.

[butterflydrming]

It'd been almost 17 years since I'd heard Yue's American voice, and even then only for one episode. Since you mentioned it, I watched the Cardcaptors version of this episode (thanks again, You Tube

[syrimoon]

It really is a night and day difference. WHen I'm writing fic, or reading the manga, I sometimes have to make a consious effort to differentiate between the two seperate ideas in my head. Just in Final Judgement alone, or battleing Li, I feel that MO plays a more pained, lonely Yue who just wants this over with, whereas SV's Yue is more wrathful and bitter. Little Kero is a MAJOR change in the English, but again, I don't dislike. In fac,t in terms of voice acting, there isn't anyone I truly DISlike in English. More indifference on Syaoran and Tomoyo, for instance

[chrysalisdreams]

Episode 46

Kaho states that little CLAMP ditty about hitzuzen. Yue must have blocked his ears whenever Clow trotted that saying out, because he sure doesn't believe in inevitability. He's going through the motions of making Sakura lose the Judgment, but he really didn't think she could win it. He lived with Clow all that time and he still didn't expect the b*stard to deal from the bottom of the deck

[chrysalisdreams]

The Cardcaptors version, I discovered, cuts out the song that makes Sakura remember. That song gets me weepy every time! I mean, I go to town on interpretation of what is going on

[chrysalisdreams]

But to come back to the song, and remembering Yukito, for a bit more. I saw someone once saying that Song started singing to help Sakura remember. Now *that* is an intriguing way to see it. The Clow Cards had already chosen Sakura, some more than others. Light and Dark said that they wanted Sakura to be Master. So, yes -- maybe Song, who deals with something closely linked to emotion, used her singing to remind Sakura of all her feelings of love. That's why the first outlines are Tomoyo and Syaoran, then her family, and so on. And at this time, the person that Sakura loves, and that she would lose entirely with no opportunity to start the relationship over, is Yukito. Because Yukito will go away with Yue, Kero, and the Cards

[syrimoon]

It's just always rubbed me wrong, and does so more and more as time goes on. TO be fair, if this wasn't Clamp's THING I think I'd swallow it a lot easier, but he. You know how I feel about the One Special Person thing :/ I just REAZLLY have a hard tiem swallowing ALL these 10 year olds all caught up in romance. If it was JUST Sakura's cute crush, and then Sakura/Syaoran? Sure, I coudl buy that, and buy this scenario in FJ a lot easier. But when we also have schoolgirl lesbian Tomoyo, Beta Couple Chiharu and Yamazaki, Obsessed with Marriage Meiling, and Pedo Bait Rika? It's like, yes Clamp. Yes. That's stupid. Give us a relationship to work with that ISN"T romantic please

[peacewish]

per episode 45

[peacewish]

Okay, so. Yue's clothes. How many ways can I count how I hate them? I don't know enough about artistry or animation to chime in on the above comments for his hair coloring, or the layers of his wings (though I can see when looking that Kero's do look better). But I do know fashion, and Lord love a duck but Clow apparently does NOT. Keroberos gets cool iron armor studded with rubies, Yue gets... a bellhop jacket? Trim and tiny sleeves sewn from white satin, absurdly punctuated with a giant blue jewel that looks like it would make someone of Yue's size tip right over, all paired with - let's face it - white stirrup pants. And the poor boy doesn't even get shoes. And yes, WTF is up with the shawl? I'll assume he's resistant to cold since Clow left his feet bare, so technically he shouldn't need it, but just wraps it uselessly around himself like we women do with a silk shawl in a restaurant. And let's not forget how Clow made sure to give Yue a Rachel Greene haircut, layered around the face, even if the rest of his hair is

[syrimoon]

to be faaair he is wearing armor in the manga version. At least, I bet serious money that's what CLAMP was TRYING to draw. It's difficult to tell in black and white, but I made a post on it a while back; in early panels, it's easier to see that it's its own peice, and not just wierd looking lapels. So in the least, Clow afforded him the armor.

Ha, my friends and I have joked about that before. Clow, stop dressing your doll to look like you and give the boy some fightin' garb!

But no. Seriously. The shawl. As a fanartist, do you have any idea how fucking pissed off his shawl makes me? It's pretty, it looks pretty, Yue is VERY VERY PRETTY....but it makes no sense D: