Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Chapter 54: Cherry Blossoms Branches Shake


Release date: April 1st, 2008

Word count: 33,267

Click for summary

Thoughts: After taking a few weeks off, I've returned to the best arc of New Trials. The Veil, the Memory and the Fantasy are going to play such huge roles and it's going to be a roller coaster ride for our beloved S&S like never before. 

The way Wish-chan describes Sakura's new Arc 4 haircut is pretty spot on with CCS:CC Sakura's hairstyle. 

It's so strange for a Westerner like myself to picture Japanese students starting a new year after spring break in April and not summer break in August/September.

Kai and Meilin talking for hours when she visited him the day before his surgery makes me happy.

Oh my gosh, I completely forgot that Kaho is Sakura's homeroom teacher again! Yet I do remember Kaho donating blood. So I guess the operation happened before Sakura's first day of school despite the fact that Kai's operation and the first day of school were alternated scene by scene, suggesting that the two events happened simultaneously. But actually the Hong Kong scenes talk place a whole day before the Japan ones.

I love how it's only when these kids are in high school that Wish-chan has their interest in the opposite sex peak. I'm still at the beginning and there's already two mentions of that.

Sheesh, Sakura is no longer Card Mistress because she over extended herself and now she's participating in all the clubs to the point of overdoing it.

Kai being in the same grade as Miho because he failed middle school is kind of funny. I love the way he'll propel himself forward later on.

Why haven't I made the NT vs CCS:CC dream parallel before? NT!Sakura is constantly dreaming of blue eyes while CC!Sakura sees the mysterious cloaked figure. Well, CCS!Sakura had lots of prophetic dreams as well.

Eron is officially no longer wearing the eye necklace. I'm looking forward to following his journey into becoming the Light One. The fact he is wearing the broken Gemini charm from Christmas is really sweet continuity.

So my question about whether Miho knew that Kai was the Kaitou Magician is answered in this chapter! She doesn't, which surprised me. Fun signs of the times sighting: to compliment Miho's collection of newspaper snippets, she has news segments recorded and stored on tapes for the VCR! Anyway, it was pretty hilarious when she concluded that it was Syaoran.


I wonder if Reiji turned on his brother and also absorbed the Plague, which could have attributed to his early death.

 Touya: “It’s been three months since I last heard Sakura laugh. If it’s the Brat that made her laugh, let him come back. If it’s the Brat that made Sakura lose her laughter, then I’ll kill him but then I’ll revive him again if it’ll bring back her laughter.” Oh my gosh, what a line. But I didn't think that much time has past since the year just started in April. Maybe it's supposed to be three weeks? At least we're beginning to see the remorsefulness that will come into play later on in Arc 4.

The Yue-through-Yukito conversation with Kaho was so edgy! I feel like that's the first time we saw Yue act while still being tucked away.

Oh my, Eriol slinking around the house to avoid the Mizuki women is so similar to Leiyun doing the sme thing when avoiding the Li women in the more recent chapters.

When Kai sent Miho the painting of Shing's Kaitou Magician, she deduced that it was a puzzle and she concluded that Kaitou killed her father. To think I forgot all about this!! Oh wait, now Miho is saying that sge needs to figure out how Tanaka Mikai became the Kaitou Magician. So does that means she's the one hiding the truth from everyone? I'm confused!!!

It's so exciting that Sakura gets a new staff! That's something else Wish-chan was able to predict in CCS:CC. And it just so happens that "moon" and "dreams" are rather complimentary.  
Though I can never ship Eron and Sakura, I am here for his redemption arc and I love the way he steps up when going against the Decay.

The mysterious voice at the Chang residence pipes up in this chapter. I can't believe it was Moonie-chan all along!

It was very, very slight, but both the Memory and the Despair were foreshadowed in this chapter.

If Syaoran decided to give up the position of Chosen One and thus severing ties with the Li Clan, but the Li Clan can still punish him, what's the point of it all? I guess Syaoran was fed up of people deciding the course of his life for him.

I love that Wish-chan introduces Arc 4 in 2008 and ten years later she's still going. 

Fanart spotlight: What I love about Rigor's fanart is that it expresses the transition from Sakura using the power of the stars to using the power of the moon, which is so huge and marks a new chapter in the NT era. And we've got some great concept art of her new staff! The fact that it's more abstract compared to the usual fanart in this fandom adds to it being mystical.

No comments:

Post a Comment