Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Manga Artwork – A Rant

Okay first thing’s first: I just finished reading the entire Cardcaptor Sakura manga (original) and despite the issues I have with the romantic relationships, I still loved it. Mostly, I loved the artwork. It is stunning. The lines are soft, and the eyes are always drawn with such gentle care showing vast emotion.

I cannot say the same for the Clear Card artwork.

It’s a shame because I feel like the artwork for the anime has improved greatly, so why is it that it’s like the manga artwork has taken three steps back? I can’t stand Sakura’s 3 giant lashes, and the gently layered lines from the OG series has been replaced with harsh, thick ink.

Actually that’s my overall complaint for their artwork. Everything is thicker, plainer… Like their art medium went from HB-2B pencils to a single 1.0 gel pen.

Where did all the detail go? The soft backgrounds, the realistic flowers, the gentle shading… Right now it’s putting me off so badly that I almost don’t want to keep reading, but I do love CCS so I will force myself to continue because I am curious to know what happens next.

The start of Clear Card is basically the same as the ending of the OG series, and if you just compare the two artwork side by side… whoever drew Sakura back in the day made her look older, more mature, but also with the same beautiful, delicate art style. The new one looks a bit… comical, and reminds me of the artwork of a different shoujo manga I forgot the name of but also did not like the art for (so I dropped it).

And how did Yukito end up looking even younger in the Clear Card arc than the original series? And Yue now looks like a 10yr old boy, nothing like his majestic self from before. He looks like a permanent chibi version of himself, and I do not mean that in an endearing way. Part of his greatest charm in the original was when he would break away from his pensive, cool expressions to show a more animated side of himself… but now he looks like a permanent caricature.

Speaking of chibi forms, you can barely tell their chibi and non-chibi forms apart because there’s just so little extra effort in the regular art anyway. In fact, you know what? Somehow everyone looks younger after “ageing” 2 years.

Seriously, CLAMP, what? I know they have gone through artist changes so… I dunno… I’m just disappointed.

Here, I’ll just show you (read right -> left):

Heads up: this is an ending spoiler for Cardcaptor Sakura, though it is also the start of the Clear Card series and was published 20yrs ago, so I’m not sure it can be considered much of a spoiler anymore. But here’s your warning anyway.

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Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card – Prologue Review

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card (2018) is the sequel to the anime Cardcaptor Sakura (1998-2000). You can watch the Prologue episode, along with the rest of the series, for free with (many, many) ads on Crunchyroll here.

I recently binge watched Cardcaptor Sakura on Netflix (though taking a break at episode 50 because I do recall watching most of it as a kid) and found out that there was a Cardcaptor Sakura sequel both in manga and anime form. I read good things, so I checked out the prologue episode. Here are some thoughts I had on it.

Major spoilers ahead for the entire Cardcaptor Sakura series – original, Clear Card, anime, manga and movies. You have been warned.

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A Christian’s Open Letter to Myka and James Stauffer

Dear Myka and James Stauffer,

You are trash and I hate you.

This is what I’d love to write. This is honestly how I feel in my heart right now. But I am a Christian, and I am called to not hate you, but rather love you despite hating your sin, and oh boy do you have a lot. Not that I don’t have my own sins, but you — how dare you? How could you? How can you?

You call yourselves Christians, so I will judge you as a Christian according to 1 Corinthians 5:12. Listen well, “Christians”:

You live in unrepentant sin.

This is not an exhaustive list of your sins – they are just the ones that I can list for now without exhausting myself mentally when I think of you:

You live in the unrepentant sin of uprooting an innocent child from his loving foster home in China.
You live in the unrepentant sin of exploiting him for views and millions of dollars.
You live in the unrepentant sin of lying to your viewers to fund your lavish lifestyle under the guise of paying for your child’s medical care.
You live in the unrepentant sin of abusing your adopted child.
You live in the unrepentant sin of acting upon your White Saviour Complex for shoulder pats and affirmation.
You live in the unrepentant sin of attempting to gaslight a non-verbal 4yr old to absolve yourself of responsibility.
You live in the unrepentant sin of inflicting unspeakable mental damage and trauma upon him for the rest of his life. As if he wasn’t already struggling enough.
You live in the unrepentant sin of declaring that you are the victim here, and that you are justified in abandoning him. Sorry, my bad, you “re-homed” him. Like an animal.
And the worst part: you live in the unrepentant sin of using the name of God in vain, suggesting that He is all-loving and therefore forgives you for everything.

How dare you.

God does indeed forgive. But He forgives those who are repentant. He forgives those who come before Him, crying for forgiveness, begging on their knees for mercy, broken by the weight of the sins on their shoulders. He desires mercy, and He will never turn away a contrite heart.

But you? You are shallow, selfish, narcissistic, greedy… insolent, haughty, boastful, an inventor of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. You are filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. You deserve to die.

So repent. Genuinely repent. You do not fool anyone with your crocodile tears. Come before Him with your true heart and your true tears. Beg for forgiveness – not so that you can manipulate your followers for more money and continue your social media career, but so that you can learn to truly love others as you love yourself.

I would love to see that day, because the world can see how much you love yourselves. I’d love to see the day you love others the same amount.

If you do not repent, you will face the wrath of my almighty God. You do not know Him for you worship the god of yourself, an image created by you. But I hope you come to know Him. I hope you come to true repentance, and receive true forgiveness.

Remember this:

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

Revelation 20:12-13, ESV

And thanks be to God, I no longer hate you, for I know that vengeance is His, and He will repay.

I implore you to seek truth, to seek Him. I pray that if you are grieved, you will be grieved to repentance; be convicted. I know that child is in His hands, as are you. My God will protect him, but as for you – decide if you will be true to your Christian claims, or stop using the name of God in vain.

With all the Christ-like love I can muster,
Crystina.

Black Lives Matter #BlackoutTuesday

I was yesterday years old when I finally understood why All Lives Can’t Matter Until Black Lives Matter. I still don’t understand all of it, but I am thankful that I am no longer as ignorant as I once was, and I’m sorry it’s taken this long.

I have other blog posts in drafts that I was originally going to publish these days, but those can wait. This is so much more important.

To be honest I’m still processing, and there’s just been so much happening in the world that is draining my mental and emotional capacity, but today is #blackouttuesday, and I want to note down my initial thoughts. I’ve been quiet on this issue for a long time, but no more.

I’m not sure how or where to begin, but perhaps I will start by making public the messages I’ve written to friends privately.

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Read Bible With Me: Paul’s Longer Epistles, ESV

Edit 15th May 2021: This playlist was originally just for 2 Corinthians, when I was just starting to upload my Bible reading. Now that I’ve read through all of the other epistles, I decided to go back and read Paul’s longer epistles and put them all in this playlist. I’m currently working on reading Romans, then 1 Corinthians will follow.

I’m aiming to upload reading through the entire Bible at some point. Let’s see how that goes. For the time being, thanks for reading with me! The full playlist is here:

Individual chapter videos are below:

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