After twenty years of it’s anime release in 1997, Sakura Kinomoto, Kero-chan, and the rest of Tomoeda are back for an OVA of the Card Captor Sakura franchise: Sakura and the Two Bears.
Warning: This review might contain spoilers! So you better watch it first before reading if you don’t want to be spoiled.
The OVA revolves around Sakura’s feelings for her former rival turned love interest: Syaoran Li. The episode starts with a normal day in school and Syaoran unusually arriving a bit later than Sakura. Later, Takeda-sensei announced that Eriol Hiiragizawa (which is half the reincarnation of Clow) will return to England. This saddens Sakura. However, Eriol advises him to assess her feelings the next time someone leaves.
On the way home, Syaoran finally confesses his love for Sakura, in which the latter was shocked and confused. The next day, she learns he will also leave for Hong Kong the next day. Sakura takes on Eriol’s advice and proceeds to prepare her reply: a stuffed bear.
Sakura barely makes it but she was in time for Syaoran’s departure. She gives her bear, a winged pink one which Syaoran named “Sakura,” together with the promise of waiting for each other. In the end, Syaoran returned to be with Sakura.
It’s a cute and heartwarming episode, especially to Syaoran and Sakura shippers. The two bears were especially significant because they conveyed their feelings to each other.
As we all noticed since the promotional videos, the animation changed, it got better. It’s now clear to us what shades their hair is (especially Tomoyo, since in the previous animation it looked like black). However, CLAMP’s signature art style such as the face shape and long legs were still intact.
The backgrounds in some scenes where it involves the characters’ feelings were given details as well. They add a light and fluffy feeling to the scenes, especially the confession and the bear scenes.
It sure was a delight to see our childhood heroes again, with extra fluff that our OTP got finally together.
Fortunately, we’ll get to see more of them next year. The new Card Captor Sakura anime will be aired on January 2018.
Hoshikki
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