Late at night, Sakura is up talking to the Clow Book, agreeing to tell Sakura something when she gets back. Wait, what? In comes the real Sakura, knocking on the window for her acting double to let her in. It's been a long day, with two cards transformed tonight! (which aren't actually mentioned, but now there are two wild cards for the writers) Kero warns her not to get any ideas about multiple card transformations again, but Sakura is worried that she'll lose all the cards and their magic if the job isn't finished soon. Wait, wasn't the issue natural disasters that could result from Clow spirits running amok? Anyways, speaking of cards, copy Sakura has something important to tell her, but it'll have to wait. Sakura rushes to pretend she's sleeping and instructs The Mirror card to change back, but Tori isn't fooled. He could hear her down the hallway, for Clow's sake. Clow himself is bemused by the glowing Mirror card.
Kero is having yet another hunch that Tori is catching on, as if the other times weren't evidence enough. Sakura, in a hurry, just tells him to be more careful, ignoring Kero letting slip that Tori has strong powers himself.
On the route to school, Sakura is reminded that Christmas is coming. She'll have to get gifts for everyone: Madison, Chelsea, Nikki, Rita, Dad, Tori, Julian...and she feels she's missing someone. Well, that list is missing a lot, but hopefully it was just a sample. Tori suggests she gets Dad a wallet, but Sakura realizes she doesn't have enough money. Regardless, Tori agrees that both of them could go get it today.
Among the barren trees, Sakura notices someone missing: Julian. Tori gets suspicious, and he later finds *gasp* Julian! Sleeping in class! Well, this is as good a time as any to spill the beans...if it weren't for that meddling Ruby and her inability to go 12 hours without seeing him. Creepy, the thought of her stalking him at night. But Tori said it was yesterday at school, so...why am I putting so much thought into this? Julian just looks away and goes back to sleep.
Eli watches the city from the top of the church, thinking to Sakura that she should now listen to her intuition. Sakura, still focused on getting a present for Dad, tells Madison she can't walk with her back home today, but that's okay. Madison still has to get a present for her mom, and Sakura! Someone seems a little too excited. Sakura still has homework and some class jobs to finish up, so she tells Li to go right on ahead and put the stuff back in the music room. Li however proposes instead that he will clean up the classroom so Sakura can go sooner. With that out of the way, Sakura heads over to the music room and gets distracted by Eli's wondrous piano playing, preparing his song for Christmas Mass. It's like it was never destroyed at all.
Julian insists he got enough sleep during class today, but Tori is still concerned. He tries yet again to tell the truth, but Ruby's magical ability to pop out of thin air foils him again. Seriously, there was no presence on that rock a few seconds ago! And you know, she looks awfully short in comparison to Tori in this scene. Alas, Julian leaves for the day. "Errgh! You win again." "What do you mean?"
Li prepares to leave the school when he suddenly sees Sakura rushing over. He's surprised that she's still around, but, you know, piano playing is seductive like that. But what's Li still doing here? "Uh, just hanging around. Just making sure you don't need my help with anything." He prepares to make a break for it, but Sakura still has something to tell him: that she feels like she's forgetting someone or something important. But before they can say anything, their Clow senses go off again. Li wants to go investigate it alone since Tori will be suspicious if Sakura's not there, but that's nothing The Mirror card can't take care of. But wait, Mirror still has something to tell you. Well, it will just have to wait. Disappointed, Mirror prepares for the daunting task ahead: shopping with Tori!
When Sakura and Li arrive at the source of the presence, they don't notice anything happening. Right on cue, Eli causes the guard rails to come to life. Strange that they haven't caught on to this pattern yet. Meanwhile, Tori finds not-Sakura waiting for him outside the school. He immediately demands to know if something happened to Sakura. Don't tell me, she's gone off with that kid and she doesn't want him to know. "Then let's go shopping together!"
Sakura and Li fight off the live wires, and while lightning and sword slices seem to be effective, those don't stop them from simply regenerating. As their sharp ends prepare to stab a fallen Sakura, she gets an idea. The rails seem to politely let her finish her incantation until Mist can corrode them into scrap. Finally, she realizes who she's been forgetting this whole time. Well, it certainly isn't Li, because she has to go run off to that pretty boy. Even the fade to black seems to be in a hurry.
Tori and Mirror are having a nice night out at the restaurant. She looks rather morose, and Tori presents her with an early Christmas present. She opens the gift to find a ribbon set. "Your hair is actually quite long." Cherishing the gift with her heart, she thanks him, but Tori thinks she's the one that deserves the thanks, for helping Sakura all the time. I guess that means she's also forgiven. What a wondrous time of year.
Kero yells at Sakura for showing up late back home, but it turns out she has a present for Mirror and the rest of the cards as well. It's Eli's piano piece! How positively appropriate, if unknowingly. Sakura wishes to give her thanks for all the times the cards helped her out when she was in trouble, and she hopes they will keep working with her. The two Sakuras share a laugh, and now Mirror has a message to relay as well. On behalf of the cards, she thanks her for trying to transform them into Star Cards, and that they'll always be there to help her no matter what. How sweet. And now it's time to change back. Sakura is surprised at Mirror's new look
◊, and without knowing, now she has a piece of Tori in the book.
Kero wonders how she learned how to play the piano so well. Well, she only did half of it. Eli supplied the other half. Kero figured as much, but that only makes it more appropriate a gift really. And now, it's time to focus on finishing the job and getting the rest of those cards transformed.
Hey wait, that piece sure seems familiar. (checks Calendar of Memories
) Well, I'll be. And so everything comes full circle.
Well, (Canadian) Thanksgiving Day has come yet again. Has it really been more than a year since I started this liveblog? Yes, we had our ups and downs, our moments of great elation matched with moments of great stupidity. And yet, apart from extenuating circumstances, I tried to avoid saying directly how I felt about the show. I guess that makes me like Li in a sense, but now is a good a time as any to offer my thanks. There's a lot of great fanart out there, and I felt this image was appropriate for the occasion (don't forget to check out the rest of the site).
Thank you for introducing me to the world of shojo anime in a time where there were not as many Western cartoons for girls. Thank you for giving us cute and cool characters to relate to. Thank you for the warm memories of kindness and caring. I know that a lot of people don't like you very much as a dub, but there are still some things I can appreciate. Thank you for the wonderful soundtrack which brings me back to a more idealized childhood. Thank you for the voice actors giving a good effort.
Thank you for the shopping sequence in Dream a Little Dream, the laptop incident in No Time For Sleep, for bringing Meilin back even if for only one episode. And all things considered, thank you for giving me a lot to talk about here.
And thank you for reading along. When I'm done with the series, I'll be sure to express my thoughts about the show in greater detail.
