sometimes you just gotta have a good old-fashioned beam battle
what happened this episode
sakura gives her cake from last episode to syaoran while they are alone in the park. at lunch with the middle schoolers, akiho checks out the pop-up alice in wonderland book she received from rika. sakura gets caught in clockspace for a little, causing akiho to worry. at home, kaito suspiciously shows up in person to the library (instead of contacting akiho over the internal line) and notices akiho's concern. meanwhile, sakura, syaoran, and tomoyo confront Blaze, with syaoran helping take it down by invoking a power reminiscent of windy. at the kinomoto house, touya makes it clear to yue he knows what's up with kero and sakura and is concerned about her increase in power, but doesn't reveal to yue (despite all his requests) what his plans are.
liveblog
the most recent granblue event had a little bit about how receiving a gift can be an act of kindness, much like the act of giving a gift, and this episode touches on it a little when akiho initially is reluctant to accept a free book. it's a nice little thought
i finally figured it out now, but clear card relying heavily on old bgm from the initial anime means I am just constantly transported back to hard off and 2000s PS2 game aural territory. it's a strange sort of position and I think sometimes the show has to stretch a bit to fit the bgm but like. I do like that
there's been a lot of suspicion this season - at first in the reddit watch threads I follow and now personally - about syaoran harnessing the sakura cards' power, and windy here (used in a method similar to how fly was originally caught) definitely adds to it. it's notable to me in particular because he is using cards that are very distinctly sakura's cards (as opposed to ones that he assisted with more originally)... but I might be missing some nuance due to translation
we haven't heard from england in a while... i wonder if they're intentionally being kept out of the narrative spotlight so I can be surprised when they come back and I've forgotten about them