Release date: July 15th, 2009
Thoughts: I love this chapter so much an I consider it as one of my favourites. Let's see if it holds up in the re-read!
The whole idea of how the Japan Young Designer Contest was rigged from the start makes me sad. The Teen Choice awards are controversial for that reason. While the audience does have a voice in terms of picking the finalists, it's the network who chooses who gets the award.
Tomoyo is dead-set on confessing to Eriol after the competition and is fully expecting to be rejected so she could move on. Maybe that's why I feel that this scene has happened even though my fellow fans said that it didn't.
Touya is still a first year resident? Wasn't he a first year resident when New Trials started back when Sakura was in the eighth grade? She's in grade ten now! We should track that.
I completely forgot that Kaho could have pursued Touya because he was the son on one half of Clow Reed. And I never noticed how Nakuru's last name of Akizuki was so close to Mizuki.
The rumour about Nina's parentage is that she's Fujitaka's brother's daughter. Unless I'm mistaken, she's Fujitaka's father's daughter. So instead of her being Sakura's cousin, she's her aunt!
The Touya and Syaoran conversations are so much more fascinating in Arc 4. He researched power transfers and hypothesized that Syaoran's power could come back if Sakura gets her power back, similar to how Touya got his power back once Sakura was string enough to sustain Yue. To think he was fishing for information to know if Sakura could get her original power of the stars back because Syaoran's magic that he senses in her is off putting for him, haha. But Touya comes to a realization about Syaoran. Does he realize that Syaoran is acting like a double agent?
Back in the early 2000s, Atlantis Forester drew a fanart of an older Syaoran in a suit. I love the way I can enter it in the Picture Book with a scene that came out nearly a decade later! Yet Fujishinto locking up Sakura in a room after their argument came to a complete surprise to me.
It was so refreshing to see S&S battle side by side for the first time since Sakura's memories came back. It looks like Syaoran would have broken Sakura out if Kai didn't sense her presence first after all.
Aww man, along with wondering whether Kaho liked Touya for himself or because he was the son of half of the reincarnation of Clow Reed, Nakuru made us realized that Yukito could also be in the same camp since Yue loved Clow too. And I never realized how both Kinomoto siblings were attracted to moon holders, in terms of Touya dating both Kaho and Yukito, and Sakura going hanyaan over Yukito and Kaho. Touya would probably have gotten along with Syaoran if didn't pose the threat of stealing Sakura away. It's a bit eerie that Touya fell in love with the reincarnation of Mika and the replica of her soul (Yue/Yukito) and Clow's successor adored them.
There are so many clues in this chapter pointing to the fact that Shing was Keisuke all along. I wonder if anyone figured it out because I sure didn't.
In Chapter 52 and in this chapter there were references of the Phantom plaguing Sakura in New York. At the first mention I thought that Wish-chan mixed up the Phantom and the Stalker, but here Wish-chan mentions that both forces caused trouble. I'll have to go back!
I can't believe that we got a reverse-confession from Sakura where she admitted that Syaoran used to be important but now that she accepted that they were strangers and soon to be enemies. That broke my heart!!
I'm sure Tomoyo must have inherited the Amamiya second sight from Hayashi and Nadeshiko to design all of her men's clothes to fit perfectly with Syaoran despite the fact he was not the original model.
In her blog post that accompanied this chapter, Wish-chan mourned over the fact that her computer crashed, thus deleting a lot of fanart, including her designs for the fashion show outfits. Luckily there are fanarts for the Casual, Formal, Swimwear, Streetwear and Love. Then there were the evening gown outfits that Wish-chan did release herself.
The part where Syaoran casually slips off his blazer and throws it over his shoulder so naturally always cracks me up!!!!
It's a relief that S&S agreed to put their squabble aside after the second category. There may be animosity brewing between them, but Tomoyo's reputation is on the line!!
General thoughts of all of the categories: Casual ~ I will forever to grateful to Banana Republic for displaying the outfit that would become Syaoran's. Formal ~ I really do love the way Tomoyo reached to her roots as opposed to a more modern approach. Beachwear ~ Touya's reaction was hilarious. I love Tomoyo's effort to make Sakura comfortable with the sarong and necklaces. Street wear ~ this one ranks the lowest for me but it's Sakura's favourite so it could be Wish-chan's as well. I'm not as crazy about the clothes but it has the second best runway walk. Love ~ my absolute favourite of the bunch for the clothing and the walk. I have faith in the red ribbon once NT concludes. Free choice: what a wonderful callback to CCS! Evening gown ~ Syaoran does not look as dressed up as he should have been to compliment Sakura. I like the way Tomoyo veers away from her usual design.
Syaoran's back hug with Sakura as he asked her to wait was one of the most moving moments of Arc 4 so far. I'm so glad there's an official fanart.
Welcome to Wish-chan's first cliffhanger in a long time. I actually remembered someone getting shot, but I completely forgot that it was Fujitaka. And Kai can't be guilty, right?
At the top of the blogpost I said that this was my favourite chapter but I would have to amend that and say that this chapter features my favourite event, which was the fashion show. Ultimately I think it's impossible to single out any chapter as my favourite considering that so much is always happening. On the other hand, my favourite chapter must be the Takashi and Chiharu special because that's the first thing I've read by Wish-chan and that was the gateway to my devotion to NT in the first place.
Fanart spotlight: There is so much fanart to choose from for this chapter whether it may be Shing's Swan Lake exhibit or the plethora of featured outfits modelled by S&S. Of course I was tempted to use Wish-chan's fanart of Syaoran asking Sakura to wait for him. But I decided to award the spotlight to the woman of the hour, Tomoyo-chan! I used Behind the Scenes by scribbletalk for the Everyday Magic prompt and even though it's not specifically NT Tomoyo, the fanart is incredibly fitting and we wouldn't have the fashion show if it wasn't for the designer.
The whole idea of how the Japan Young Designer Contest was rigged from the start makes me sad. The Teen Choice awards are controversial for that reason. While the audience does have a voice in terms of picking the finalists, it's the network who chooses who gets the award.
Tomoyo is dead-set on confessing to Eriol after the competition and is fully expecting to be rejected so she could move on. Maybe that's why I feel that this scene has happened even though my fellow fans said that it didn't.
Touya is still a first year resident? Wasn't he a first year resident when New Trials started back when Sakura was in the eighth grade? She's in grade ten now! We should track that.
I completely forgot that Kaho could have pursued Touya because he was the son on one half of Clow Reed. And I never noticed how Nakuru's last name of Akizuki was so close to Mizuki.
The rumour about Nina's parentage is that she's Fujitaka's brother's daughter. Unless I'm mistaken, she's Fujitaka's father's daughter. So instead of her being Sakura's cousin, she's her aunt!
The Touya and Syaoran conversations are so much more fascinating in Arc 4. He researched power transfers and hypothesized that Syaoran's power could come back if Sakura gets her power back, similar to how Touya got his power back once Sakura was string enough to sustain Yue. To think he was fishing for information to know if Sakura could get her original power of the stars back because Syaoran's magic that he senses in her is off putting for him, haha. But Touya comes to a realization about Syaoran. Does he realize that Syaoran is acting like a double agent?
Back in the early 2000s, Atlantis Forester drew a fanart of an older Syaoran in a suit. I love the way I can enter it in the Picture Book with a scene that came out nearly a decade later! Yet Fujishinto locking up Sakura in a room after their argument came to a complete surprise to me.
It was so refreshing to see S&S battle side by side for the first time since Sakura's memories came back. It looks like Syaoran would have broken Sakura out if Kai didn't sense her presence first after all.
Aww man, along with wondering whether Kaho liked Touya for himself or because he was the son of half of the reincarnation of Clow Reed, Nakuru made us realized that Yukito could also be in the same camp since Yue loved Clow too. And I never realized how both Kinomoto siblings were attracted to moon holders, in terms of Touya dating both Kaho and Yukito, and Sakura going hanyaan over Yukito and Kaho. Touya would probably have gotten along with Syaoran if didn't pose the threat of stealing Sakura away. It's a bit eerie that Touya fell in love with the reincarnation of Mika and the replica of her soul (Yue/Yukito) and Clow's successor adored them.
There are so many clues in this chapter pointing to the fact that Shing was Keisuke all along. I wonder if anyone figured it out because I sure didn't.
In Chapter 52 and in this chapter there were references of the Phantom plaguing Sakura in New York. At the first mention I thought that Wish-chan mixed up the Phantom and the Stalker, but here Wish-chan mentions that both forces caused trouble. I'll have to go back!
I can't believe that we got a reverse-confession from Sakura where she admitted that Syaoran used to be important but now that she accepted that they were strangers and soon to be enemies. That broke my heart!!
I'm sure Tomoyo must have inherited the Amamiya second sight from Hayashi and Nadeshiko to design all of her men's clothes to fit perfectly with Syaoran despite the fact he was not the original model.
In her blog post that accompanied this chapter, Wish-chan mourned over the fact that her computer crashed, thus deleting a lot of fanart, including her designs for the fashion show outfits. Luckily there are fanarts for the Casual, Formal, Swimwear, Streetwear and Love. Then there were the evening gown outfits that Wish-chan did release herself.
The part where Syaoran casually slips off his blazer and throws it over his shoulder so naturally always cracks me up!!!!
It's a relief that S&S agreed to put their squabble aside after the second category. There may be animosity brewing between them, but Tomoyo's reputation is on the line!!
General thoughts of all of the categories: Casual ~ I will forever to grateful to Banana Republic for displaying the outfit that would become Syaoran's. Formal ~ I really do love the way Tomoyo reached to her roots as opposed to a more modern approach. Beachwear ~ Touya's reaction was hilarious. I love Tomoyo's effort to make Sakura comfortable with the sarong and necklaces. Street wear ~ this one ranks the lowest for me but it's Sakura's favourite so it could be Wish-chan's as well. I'm not as crazy about the clothes but it has the second best runway walk. Love ~ my absolute favourite of the bunch for the clothing and the walk. I have faith in the red ribbon once NT concludes. Free choice: what a wonderful callback to CCS! Evening gown ~ Syaoran does not look as dressed up as he should have been to compliment Sakura. I like the way Tomoyo veers away from her usual design.
Syaoran's back hug with Sakura as he asked her to wait was one of the most moving moments of Arc 4 so far. I'm so glad there's an official fanart.
Welcome to Wish-chan's first cliffhanger in a long time. I actually remembered someone getting shot, but I completely forgot that it was Fujitaka. And Kai can't be guilty, right?
At the top of the blogpost I said that this was my favourite chapter but I would have to amend that and say that this chapter features my favourite event, which was the fashion show. Ultimately I think it's impossible to single out any chapter as my favourite considering that so much is always happening. On the other hand, my favourite chapter must be the Takashi and Chiharu special because that's the first thing I've read by Wish-chan and that was the gateway to my devotion to NT in the first place.
Fanart spotlight: There is so much fanart to choose from for this chapter whether it may be Shing's Swan Lake exhibit or the plethora of featured outfits modelled by S&S. Of course I was tempted to use Wish-chan's fanart of Syaoran asking Sakura to wait for him. But I decided to award the spotlight to the woman of the hour, Tomoyo-chan! I used Behind the Scenes by scribbletalk for the Everyday Magic prompt and even though it's not specifically NT Tomoyo, the fanart is incredibly fitting and we wouldn't have the fashion show if it wasn't for the designer.
No comments:
Post a Comment