what happened this episode
the middle schoolers head to the shrine on their day off, though sakura contemplates how the zoo would have been nice too. everyone loses it over sakura's hair which was braided by meiling. syaoran is late (Again) because he was doing stuff on his magic board. everyone slowly animalifies more and more, save sakura and syaoran. suddenly, sakura is in a mysterious empty field, with the nearly-fully-animal friends fleeing her. lightning strikes an enormous tree which threatens to crush everyone before time stops and syaoran cuts through space-time to enter the scene. he provides lots of emotional support and a hug for the panicking sakura, and encourages her to wish for a solution. this is literally the solution to this clow card, Mirage, which seems to project sakura's hopes and worries. sakura feels guilty about falling apart in everyone's time of need, and resolves to get stronger.
liveblog
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catgirl meiling is of course great; sheep tomoyo I don't have a strong opinion for other than indicating that there are quite a few granblue characters with horns that I like. tomoyo is not really like any of them
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with the rules for Mirage seeming to be "whatever Sakura unconsciously thinks about, happens" with everyone turning into animals (reflecting her wish to go to the zoo) and getting into danger in the plains (reflecting her fear and uncertainty), there's something to be said about syaoran coming onto the scene and providing her strength and comfort in her moment of need. like since he's magical, technically he operates outside the power of Mirage, but like... just saying!
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on the note of the straight ship with a gravitational arc so strong it bends the rest of the show, this episode Meiling and Tomoyo have individual "aha I see what you're doing" moments as they watch the core duo be their clueless but good-intentioned selves. I think these character moments are a lot of fun.
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I'd like to especially call out Meiling specifically complaining to Syaoran about how she doesn't have any power and feels bad for not being able to help Sakura more. I'm sure she 100 actually feels this way, but also saying it to Syaoran who has been feeling equally behind the powercurve this season, so that he can hear the advice he deserves to hear coming out of his own mouth, is a supernatually talented Meiling move.
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this is also a bit of a curious moment to compare to last episode in terms of clear card origins - the previous card was shown to be strongly correlated to the story Akiho is reading, but Mirage is signaled to be based on Sakura's wishes. it all feels chicken and egg - are Sakura's actions dictating the book? is the book guiding how Sakura is behaving? is everything Kaito's fault?