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If you're looking for more Sakura, here's some more Sakura.

From the very first frame, I felt right at home. This is no reimagining of the original show. The style of the art and animation is practically unchanged, except a bit prettied-up. All of your favorite characters are here, with almost all of the same great voice actors*. The setting is the same. The classic soundtrack is still here. The sense of mystery, the fun character moments, the action, all still here. Plot-wise, this is a (more-or-less) straightforward continuation of the original show that does not dwell on nostalgia-service. It is as if this were just ... another arc slapped on to the end of the original (with some adjustments).

Visually, this is a beautiful show. The style is almost identical to the original. There are a lot more effects going on this time around, by virtue of it being the late 2010s. There is ample use of 3D CG animation, which generally blends well, but can occasionally look out-of-place. The character designs have been changed to reflect increases in age, but they practically look the same. This is not some crazy departure. The art and animation is just as excellent and high-quality as it was in the original.

About the pacing and structure of the plot. In the original show, most episodes were formulaic. This was sometimes repetitive, and sometimes the plot wouldn't advance for many episodes at a time. But when episodes broke from the formula, they tended to indicate significant beats in the story. In Clear Card-hen, most episodes don't follow a formulaic structure, and most episodes try to advance the plot at least a little. This comes at the expense of pacing. Sometimes, seemingly significant events will turn out not to be that important, while the truly significant events don't get the buildup, screen time, and payoff they deserve.

Additionally, there were a few scenes that seemed completely random and unrelated to the events of their respective episodes. This can be fine, of course - they were fun moments - I just felt like they went on too long. They hurt the pacing of the individual episodes.

Characters. Since this is a straightforward continuation of the original, the characters haven't changed much. And they don't change much more throughout the show. A few characters have matured in interesting ways and they definitely get their moments. The new characters are great and introduce fun new relationships, though some of them don't get enough screen time. Ultimately, though, none of the characters have a significant character arc like some characters had in the original. Nobody goes through anything like what Syaoran or Meiling did in the original, for example. Maybe this is because 22 episodes isn't enough for a Cardcaptor Sakura show. In any case, this aspect was disappointing.

Despite my gripes about the plot and character development, I gave Clear Card-hen an 8. I like this show for many of the same reasons I liked the original: the high-quality animation, the soundtrack, the compelling sense of mystery, the diabetes-inducing optimism and friendliness between the characters, the humor, the action, and the emotional moments. I overall enjoyed Clear Card-hen about as much as the original. But because of the issues mentioned, it did not quite reach the same heights.


*Rika's new voice sounds WAY too old, however.