Release date: March 3rd, 2001
Word count:11,003
Word count:11,003
Thoughts: The new school year is kind of fuzzy. It starts in April, which is where we are in the timeline, but there's no chatter about moving up a grade, which should be grade 9 by now.
Meilin mentioned the red and blue teddy bear pyjamas that she and Syaoran owned as kids. If it wasn't for the fact that there's an illustrated version of the title, I might have used it for the chapter fanart.
I'm glad that Wish-chan took the time to develop Tomoyo's absentee father. To think that this is all the groundwork to set up for The Phantom.
Syaoran's magician fails were hilarious. Thankfully he had knife throwing as a backup.
The Kaitou Magician speaks as he warns S&S that The Joker is around. Wish-chan's description is pretty spot on to how we recognize him today with the exception of calling his hair sandy coloured, which will change to blonde later on.
When Sakura lends Syaoran The Flower Card without hesitation, it's only then he realized that Sakura does trust him. It's kind of sad that it took him this long, but he was acting like a jerk with his Arc 1 mixed messages.
Sakura has a nightmare of Meilin being furious at her for taking Syaoran away. I can't remember if this fits in with the rest of the story. Because in their first official run-in with Kaitou, he kidnaps Meilin when he tried to steal Sakura's necklace.
"Then, comically, [Tomoyo] stated, “Isn’t it like a romantic movie? The mysteriously handsome young thief with a dark reputation kidnaps a teenage girl, and falls in love…” ~ Oh Tomoyo, you have no idea.
Carnival time! I thought it was only Sakura's class doing the circus, but actually it's a school-wide theme. The Kaitou Magician and Joker can blend in quite nicely.
I know about Meilin's microchip bracelet but I didn't remember it coming in as early as the first time he had to leave her since the kidnapping. But how she went from being tied up in the storage room to being The Joker's target practice assistant is beyond me.
There's a lot of things that I remember from this chapter. But the Syaoran vs Kaitou showdown was something I forgot.
The chapter ends with Kaitou giving back the necklace after Sakura gave it to him when he threatened Meilin and he gave back the ring too, which Syaoran starts to wear around his neck. And The Joker is finally sealed! What a mischievous card...
Fanart spotlight: This fanart of Kaitou Magician and the diamond necklace titled Thief by Asumei has to be the best representation of a drawing of a chapter title. I really like how the first time a fanart of him is posted on the blog he's in the shadows.
Knowing the info we learn in Ch72 on Tomoyo's past and why her father left made me read her scenes differently. Like now, when the Phantom appears later on, I tried to think of all her insecurities and whether she might have thought that the reason why her father left was because of her. As someone who has a tendency to ship ExT I was happy when she called Eriol but now I wonder why she chose to call him.
ReplyDeleteI had completely forgotten about the Syaoran vs Kaitou showdown.
I honestly go back and forth between Tomoyo and Eriol (which has always been expected since the dawn of CCS fanfic) and Tomoyo and Leiyun (the wild card that totally came out from left field). In my head, I actually thought that Tomoyo confessed to Eriol and he politely rejected her but it looks like it didn't happen that way after all.
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