Fridge / Cardcaptor Sakura

Fridge Brilliance

• I just realized that all of the cards in Cardcaptor Sakura that have humanoid forms have their eyes closed in card form because that’s when they’re in “deactivated” mode, or sleep mode, or whatever. Also, the reason the Sakura Cards are generally less detailed than the Clow Cards is that Sakura was creating them on the spot, with just the basic design from what she remembered. Clow, on the other hand, probably created the Clow Cards at his own leisure, taking his time to design the cards in detail.
  • Actually, the Clow Cards in the anime are also less detailed than the Clow Cards in the manga, because they use the anime art style and many are simplified, like Illusion and Sand. The Sakura Cards in the manga are as detailed as the Clow Cards.
• Yue is supposed to be ethnically European (well, as much as he can be ethnically anything at least). I stopped and thought about it a bit: he has light hair, light eyes, pale skin, and his battle costume is clearly a nod at the popular fashion of the European Baroque and Enlightenment periods. On top of that, the anime actually goes so far as to insinuate that Cerberus and Yue are both foreigners to Japan. It could also be one reason why his Japanese is a little irregular too, not as native-sounding.
  • This was jossed by his information column in the manga. He's listed as being sourced from "Eastern" magic (as opposed to "Western" for Kerberos), and his costume is typical of CLAMP's limited take on traditional Manchurian dress (which they refer to as "Chinese"). Finally, Clow himself isn't native to Japan, so it makes sense that neither Kerberos nor Yue would have been "born" there.
• When Sakura is capturing Erase, she mentions to Syaoran that Yukito 'transferred' in to their local high school for the third trimester of Touya's first year there. The third trimester of the Japanese school year starts after the New Year. Yukito's 'birthday' is December 25th. The reason he transferred in for the third trimester is because he didn't exist before then. Yukito himself must have really been created on his 'birthday'.
• At first, this troper could never get why Sakura had so much trouble identifying Mirror, considering how obvious it is even before she starts mimicking Sakura and even before the card reading. Then it hit; she's a young girl. And not just that, but one in a stressful situation with her elder brother in trouble and with English only something she's slowly learning in school. She can't just identify Mirror, she has to remember what English word to use and in a situation where she's not calm!
• When Toya gives his magic to Yue/Yukito so that he won't disappear from reality, Yue makes a comment after that his magic aura feels similar to Clow's and supposes this must be the case because Toya is related to Sakura, his current master. ...Except if we consider that Fujitaka Kinomoto is also Clow's reincarnation, effectively making Toya and Sakura Clow's children or direct descendants. No wonder Toya's magic feels like Clow's!
• In the 3rd season, Keroberos, despite being back to full power, keeps getting knocked down early on, making him practically useless. Which, seems weird since he shouldn't be so weak. And then it hits: while Keroberos isn't at risk at disappearing like Yue (being able to eat to restore energy) he still is dependant on Sakura's magic. No wonder he's weak, between Sakura still growing in power and having to constantly use it to transform cards there's only so much left for him just like Yue!
• In the anime, when Keroberos and Yue are stuck in their true forms, Yue cleans the room of all the flour that got spilled thanks to Keroberos off screen. Which sounds almost strange. His magic can do that? And then it hits; yes he can, he has all the powers associates with the Cards under him and one of the Cards under him? Bubbles!
• Yukito was able to save people from the Watery card easily, despite being in a powerless form at the time... because it is under Yue’s jurisdiction. The card knew this, and wouldn’t dare harm him.
• Syaoran being good, though not flawless in English is Truth in Television - He's from Hong Kong, and as a result of being a former British colony, Hongkongers can generally speak English.
• At first, the Clear Card anime seems to be a case of Canon Discontinuity, seeing that Eriol's house has been rebuilt despite being replaced by an amusement park and that the anime finale has been remade into "Sakura and the Two Bears". Then, it gets weird when the anime starts referencing the play from the second movie, now that it's been retconned. However, as the anime progresses, it becomes clear that time is being manipulated and this is the reason why.
• Sakura is said to be or otherwise will grow to be more powerful than Clow ever was. This makes sense when it's revealed that Sakura draws her power from the stars, rather than the sun or moon like other mages. She can access a much greater reservoir of power than other magic users are able to.

Fridge Horror

• Speaking of Yukito's grandparents, when he rescued Sakura from the Illusion card from drowning (in the manga), he takes her to his home. Sakura finds herself with different clothes, and Yukito tells her that it was his grandmother who changed her clothes... but we later come to know that his grandparents don't exist. Yukito lives alone...
  • You also wonder how he can survive without a past even and has money to buy food and all...or how he happened to get that house all for himself.
    • Given the extent of Clow's Gambit Pileup and that Eriol himself seems to be rather well-off, this Troper always justified it as Yukito having his own bank account where his "grandparents" regularly deposited money for him to live off of.
• Clow set up the massive Gambit Pileup so that Sakura would look after his cards with the implication that she's going to eventually have even more magic than him. Going by Tsubasa, a wrong wish from Clow for even a second is enough to destroy the laws of the universe if he so makes it. What's going to happen if Sakura makes a mistake?
  • He was also so powerful he couldn't stop constantly knowing the future, a problem Sakura doesn't have. The implication is part of being a better sorceress is that her magic is more well-behaved.
• Ruby Moon after the end of the manga. It seems quite likely that Eriol won't have enough power to sustain her after splitting his power with Fujitaka. If she's made on the same model as Yue, it would follow that she requires roughly the same level of magical input. It's not clear how Sakura's power levels up when she converts Clow Cards to Sakura Cards, but given that by the end of volume 11 she's more powerful than Eriol it seems unlikely that she was less than half as powerful than him at the end of volume 9, when Yue's still so power-starved that he needs to drain Touya's magical abilities just to survive. Therefore, it seems unlikely that Eriol at half-power will be able to continue to sustain her. Even before the power transfer she seems rather energy hungry, since all we ever see her doing is conniving to drain Touya's power herself. The real Fridge Horror, though, isn't that she'll fade like Yue almost did. Nope, we know what she'll do! She'll just find some other, less astute sucker to dupe with her cute looks and drain for his magic. And Eriol really doesn't seem to care, since he did absolutely nothing to prevent her from such acts even when it was a pretty obvious possibility and it could have been disastrous to his plans if she had succeeded. Letting Nakuru feed on random people may even be his fallback plan! Shudder.
  • That might not be the case; Eriol most likely knew she had no chance of succeeding and therefore did nothing because he found it amusing. As to his splitting his power, he had Clow's full power before doing so. Because Clow had to sustain at least all 53/19 cards AND Yue, splitting his power shouldn't do anything because sustaining the cards takes about as much power as sustaining Yue would. He still had more than enough power after giving Fujitaka half of his powers. Further still, Ruby Moon didn't need the energy from Touya; she wanted it specifically so that Yue would fade away and nothing more. And there's also that Yue uses more power when posing as Yukito than Ruby Moon does as Nakuru, as Yue and Yukito are two totally different people where Nakuru is just a disguise for Ruby Moon, so even if Eriol did run his powers down a little low, he could regain them before Nakuru began to lose energy enough to need to hunt for more.
• When Yue first appears and speaks to Kero shortly before the last Judgement, he says that Kero is "still" soft with those he Selects. Still. There have been other candidates. And every single one of them failed the Last Judgement, since Yue says in the very next episode "Only Clow Reed can defeat me". Considering what happens when people fail the Final Judgement, how many people have lost their most precious feelings since Clow died, because Yue refuses to accept a master that isn't Clow?
• In the dubbed version of the OVA, it's revealed that Clow Reed sealed his ex-girlfriend in an alternate dimension as a punishment...and left her there, where she died. (She had no food, or anything, except water.) It's not known when or even if he ever intended to let her out.
• Sealing the cards appears to put them in a non-conscious mode forever. Why would Sakura do that?
  • There are multiple reasons for this. It is implied that since Clow Reed died the cards run on a stockpile of Clow's magic that is ever dwindling, and being inactive/sealed would naturally conserve energy efficiently. Further, without a master and being unsealed several of the cards went onto cause quite a bit of mayhem on their own accord (Erase, Sand, Freeze, Firey, Watery and Earthy being some big candidates), showing that being sealed is something of a necessity. Finally, when Sakura converted the Clow cards into Sakura cards several scenes had them float about her without being unsealed, showing that (at least with an active energy source) they're far from being unable to act. Finally, there is the practicality on where to store any of the cards if they are not in card form - Sakura may live in a fairly large house, but considering most of the cards take on the form of teen to adult people, if not creatures on the larger side, there is no real space to hide them if they are not sealed, much less call upon them when dealing with other cards.
  • Further, there is evidence that the sensation is not as bad as an And I Must Scream scenario. In the manga, Windy returned to Sakura on its own accord after the cards were scattered, and a number of other cards did nothing to resist Sakura sealing them either (Flower, Glow, Light and Dark stand out). If being sealed was really such a horrible experience, it is unlikely they would have done so little to resist such a state.

Fridge Logic

• In Episode 48, Tomoyo, Kero and Yue are trapped in vortices of water, which she defeats with Firey. She does this by evaporating the water. So she heats the water beyond boiling point, and the people in the water are somehow unharmed...
  • And when she used Firey to melt the snow from the snow card it could have burned the city down. It's magic and it does what it's told.
    • The card that controls fire also can control heat, preventing the steam released from the boiling water from scalding the people trapped within. That's either required secondary powers or a card that flat out controls heat energy.
• Syaoran has a crush on Yukito, which is explained away by Yue as simply being attracted to the latter's moon energy. OK...but then you remember that Kaho is also a manipulator/possessor of moon energy, and far from having a crush on her, he's terrified and suspicious of her.
  • The manga actually explains this. While Yue is Clow-based Moon magic, Kaho uses Moon magic from a different source altogether that allows her to often defeat or negate Clow magic (i.e. Maze). Furthermore, her bell was ultimately the key to the undoing of the Clow-associated Yue. As Syaoran was a direct descendant of Clow, it was natural that he would be drawn to dislike someone who uses anti-Clow magic with the ability to (help) defeat a Clow guardian.
• A more mundane one: in the ice skating episode, Sakura complains about being cold but she doesn't wear long pants when it's cold outside. She only wears a coat over her usual skirt.