It's interesting that present Marinette goes to that moment in Origins when her past self gave up her miraculous for a moment and meet with the Tikki for this time
Because if you think about it a little, meeting with future marinette made Tikki realize in the present that she was certain Marinette would comes around, and said many times in the show that she will be a great ladybug, because she saw what Future!Marinette did to stop the future holder of the butterfly.
Beginning of February is here and it's time for another Clear Card post !! 😁
This month we don't have a regular chapter, but actually a short story (the fifth one! We are piling up quite a number of these short stories, and they're all so cute!), so we can take a breather before Chapter 60 comes at the end of February (the 28th) and potentially dumps on us more angst, more ominous scenes and difficult twists 🤣
As usual, we start with the gif of the month:
Yes, I cried. A lot. 😆
This short story brings some very well deserved fluff, and I bet there will be very few people who will be left feeling insensible to the cuteness that is the happy Kinomoto family! ❤
Curious to know what they've shown us this month, and if there are translation differences? Well, you only need to follow me under the cut!
The cover page
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's apparent by now that the short stories series talk about couples, and so how could CLAMP leave out these two?
The couple who gave birth to our lovely protagonist. 😁
Now, I have to make a quick premise: I love Nadeshiko and Fujitaka, it's very apparent from all the elements we have that these two shared (and still do, though in a different way) a very pure and wholesome love story, regardless of all the elements that could be considered "problematic".
This is fiction, Fujitaka loves his wife and children out of the purest and sweetest love, so that's enough for me.
And so it's really great for me to see them finally depicted in the same "chibified dolls" style that became basically the theme of the cover pages of these short stories. Nadeshiko and Fujitaka are standing on what seems a music box. So cute. ❤
BABY SAKURA!!!!!
Okay, so, I have to literally start this recap restraining myself from posting all the 5 damn pages here 🤣(they're going to be up on CLAMP's Youtube channel in a few hours anyway) but I guess this close up is enough to clarify right away what we're talking about, right? 😆
BABY SAKURA, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. She's literally a few days old baby!!
The story is very very simple: Fujitaka comes back home from work, and he excitedly heads to the bedroom, where he finds Nadeshiko (gorgeous as ever, she's 24 years old here), cradling tiny Sakura in her arms. Sakura decides to clarify immediately that she's gonna be a daddy's girl since she smiles brightly as soon as she sees him, and Fujitaka is the literal depiction of happiness 😆
But the heartwarming moment gives way to an unexplicable feeling of anxiety in him....
He remembers the day he and Nadeshiko met, she fell from the sky (actually, from a tree) like an angel, and he wonders if one day she's gonna go back to the place she came from, leaving him behind. While he says that, he caresses her face in the most tender way possible.
Nadeshiko leans into the soft gesture, and thanks him for loving her so preciously.
She expresses her hope that even Touya and Sakura might be able to find, one day, their most important person, and that they will choose the path that brings them happiness together with that person.
Then suddenly and to her surprise, she gets a very brief but important premonition: she gets a vision of Sakura, in her middle school uniform, uttering her iconic motto "Everything is going to be alright". Nadeshiko is relieved. ❤
Maaaaaan there's so much to unpack from these 5 little pages.....shall we start from the translation differences? 😂 Cause yeah, as usual, K-USA managed to sneak in a difference or two, just to never let us forget that they're here to change the script at their own will! 🤣
(yes, this smile is a paresis, I'm actually d*ing inside).
It's small stuff, really. Nothing on "Mana" levels, even though one of these bothers me quite a lot, because it makes difficult for the English speaking readers to understand a very important callback.
So, the first translation difference is on page 4.
ENG, Nadeshiko: "... That's sweet of you. You mean a lot to me, too"
JP, Nadeshiko: "....Thank you...For loving/cherishing me"
As you can see, what Nadeshiko says is pretty different.
It bothered me because this was one more occasion where Ohkawa used the expression 大切に想う (taisetsu ni omou) which, if you remember, I talked about in my post of chapter 56. It seems CLAMP have taken at heart this expression to portray the feelings of love between the characters, instead of a more traditional "suki" or "ai suru": it has been used when Yelan was talking to Syaoran in the mini book manga, in relation to Sakura's feelings for him... And when Sakura was talking about Akiho and her feelings for Kaito, in chapter 56. It is, indeed, a very sweet way to say "love" without loading it with a more "mature" or "passionate" kind of attraction...everything is so pure in this manga 🥰
Moreover, we're also talking about a grammar mistake, here. The くれて in 大切に想ってくれて means precisely that she's talking about his feelings for her, not the other way around 😅
The other translation difference is found on page 5, the last one.
ENG, Sakura: "I know...we'll be fine"
JP, Sakura: "Everything will surely be alright" (Zettai daijoubu da yo)
Now, I don't know how the iconic "zettai daijoubu" has been usually translated by K-USA, but I'm pretty sure I've heard the version I've put here in the JP text way more than the one they actually chose.
And so, will people understand that Nadeshiko had a vision of Sakura saying her iconic motto, her invincible spell? I think it's going to be complicated, unless you're quite perceptive and can guess for yourself that, when Sakura is talking about "being fine", she's actually saying her invincible spell.
Translation differences aside, my comment for this short story is that it literally k*lled me with cuteness and happy feelings...Sakura as a baby is just adorable. With that little cat shaped blanket!!! And her happy smile 🥰 Nadeshiko is gorgeous...seeing Fujitaka all excited when Sakura smiled at her papa is priceless!!
But...the happy feelings are well mixed with a sense of sadness too, because what Fujitaka says here, sadly, we all know will become reality in 3 years time...it's so freaking heartbreaking, to think about it. They were such a happy, wholesome family...Nadeshiko was torn away too soon. It really makes me wonder what happened, what took her away...back to the heaven Fujitaka believed she came from.
And when he expresses his fear to her (maaaaybe, I imagine, it might have emerged during the childbirth, since childbirth is always a delicate moment for a woman and it just needs for something small to go wrong and you're gone), well, she doesn't reply something like "what are you saying, of course it won't happen" or anything reassuring like that....
That f*cking dot-dot-dot.....and then "thanks for loving me". It's too heartbreaking. I don't know, tell me whatever you want but I'm convinced Nadeshiko knew she would leave them soon. Look at that sad smile. And since how long did she know? Possibly ever since they met? Is that why, after they started their love story and she proposed to him (yeah, you don't know? It's canon and all, Nadeshiko was the one proposing to Fujitaka, beating him to the punch), she said "I want children soon"? Because she knew? God.
See, CLAMP managed once again to produce some angst even in a short story of 5 pages 😅 never underestimate them.
Also, I should mention the absolutely ADORABLE panel with Touya's and Sakura's growth as siblings supporting eachother... so cute... Touya really was a caring and sweet brother, before he started kaijuu-ing Sakura left and right. 🤣
Well, what can I say, I feel like this sweet story (with a touch of bitter) was the right breather we needed to prepare ourselves to Chapter 60 and what it will bring along. For now, I can tell two things for sure: a CCS cover on the Nakayoshi magazine, and a CCS furoku!! YES! 😁
These are the release dates for chapter 60:
February 28th, on Comixology/Bookwalker (digital, ENG)
March 1st, on Clamp-fans and Comic-days (digital, JP and other languages)
March 3rd, on Nakayoshi (paper and digital, JP)
People, please be careful. There are also people tracking children and people and putting bids on them based on their profile pictures on whatsapp, tracking and kidnapping them. Especially young children, so please be cautious, especially parents who have their children as their profile pictures.
Please pass this on to everyone so that they are aware of the danger. I don’t how it is all around the world but I know it can’t just be here so please please spread the word. Thank you.
oh yeahhhh, I saw that on snapchat. it’s been freakin’ EVERYWHERE lately. i haven’t been getting the text, luckily, but im still extremely cautious about it. shit’s scary.
not just girls, but boys and other genders have to be careful as well. this could happen to anyone. please be safe, my friends <3
FOR ALL THE YOUNGER PEOPLE THAT FOLLOW. YOU GUYS ARE SMART. YOU KNOW THIS. BUT JUST IN CASE THERE ARE SOME WHO MIGHT NOT. THAT DOESN’T MAKE YOU NOT SMART, PERHAPS JUST LESS INFORMED.
DO NOT CLICK LINKS IN TEXTS EVER. GO TO ACTUAL WEBSITES FOR ONES YOU RECOGNIZE AND TYPE IN THE URL. OR A BOOKMARK IF YOU HAVE ONE. DON’T CLICK LINKS IN TEXTS AND SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGES/DMS AND EMAILS. EVEN IF YOU KNOW THE PERSON. TAKE EXTREME CAUTION.
IF YOU’RE GUTS SAYS EH WOULDN’T DO THAT BUDDY. LISTEN.
I still find it amusing that Gakuen Alice anime is all cheerful and childish while the manga is all dark.
Spoilers ahead:
Natsume is forced to go to dangerous missions, while getting tortured constantly when he refuses because they basically have his sister as a hostage. All while having a short life span alice that strains his body each time he uses it. This causes him to shoulder everything by himself, trying to protect his friends and sister to the point of cornering to depression and suicidal thoughts.
In Mikan’s case she naively enters the academy following Hotaru not knowing her alice is extremely rare that comes from her parents who made enemy of the child-formed principle that caused her mother to escape the academy and the death of her father because the principle manipulated Rei’s unstable mind and deadly alice that ended in an accident from his part killing Mikan’s father. After that Mikan reunites with her mother only after an explosion gets set and she dies. Following that she is held up in a room never allowing to leave it in an agreement to protect her friends.
After that the school goes through some revolution and Natsume attempts to burn the school down and basically kill the principle if I remember correctly? he gets stabbed and stops breathing until he gets saved.
Hotaru and her brother get stuck in some time flow and it takes years to get them back.
Everybody else suffers and it is shown it is hard for all the students to be separated from their families, sometimes forced, other times their parents gives them to the academy as they get paid for all the time the children are there, from kindergarten to highschool, never allowing to meet, ever.
So I’ve been thinking for a little while and I realized some things.
When we got Jodie’s backstory, we all thought that that girl was Shiho and how she encountered first with Vermouth and Gosho got us all thinking that Jodie was Vermouth and played us all.
I think he remarked the resemblance between the two characters for more than just tricking the reader and making a great plot twist. I found many coincident points in Jodie’s and Shiho’s stories that make me feel that they are more similar than what we first thought.
Both of them are lacking of paternal figures. Jodie’s parents were killed by Vermouth (although I‘ve read some theories about how she only killed her father but let’s keep it simple). Shiho’s parents and sister were also killed by the BO. They both lost their most loved ones by the same people and they are very aware of it.
After her parents died, Jodie refused the witness protection program and started working for the FBI. After Vermouth revealed her true identity under Araide’s costume and discovered that Sherry was alive, Shiho decided to pass the witness program and to stay with her friends.
Both of them have found a substitute to their lost paternal figure. For Jodie is James Black, with whom it seems she has a lot of trust and he knows her really well. As for Shiho, she has professor Agasa, although it always seems like she is the one taking care of him.
They both haven’t come up to terms with their loved ones death. Jodie still wears his father glasses and Shiho recriminated Shinichi about letting Akemi die. They both want justice. Jodie is working for the FBI to get it, and she’s been working for 20 years. Shiho has stayed with Shinichi to find them, and although at first she was reluctant to do it because it was crazy dangerous, now she is ready and willing to do it.
They both fear the BO. I mean it’s totally understandable in Shiho’s case because she seems more physically vulnerable, but she has also seen all they can do from a closer point of view. Jodie is scared too even though she looks stronger, she was confident because she had Akai always by her side. In fact, we see she is really scared in the harbor with Vermouth and was wounded she was terrified and in some other occasions.
They both wear masks. Jodie is always cheerful even when things are wrong, either for the sake of a mission or for his friends and colleagues. She didn’t anyone to worry about her when Shuichi “died” and played it as cool as she could after a while. Shiho pretends she is always alright and sometimes even a bit proud of herself just to keep others away. She responds with sarcastic comments so it seems like it’s fine, I mean she is pretty sarcastic all the time, but she tries even harder when something is wrong. She still suspects something from Subaru but seeing how Shinichi trusts him she lets him some space, but she’s still keeping an eye on him pretending that she doesn’t.
They both trust to Death, with capital letters one person. Jodie would die for Shuichi and trusts him with her life, if he is in the mission everything is alright. Shiho trusts Shinichi because he is always one step ahead (see how she accepts a little bit from Subaru as I said before).
But the most important thing to me is that they both love so much Shuichi and Shinichi respectively that they don’t mind them loving another woman. Jodie was happy just to work with Akai when he started going out with Akemi, that was enough for her. As for Shiho it happens quite the same. At first she teases Shinichi saying that she is just perfect for him (the episode with the bomb on the soccer game), it was only a joke but still, and we can see some other moments where it’s unclear if she is joking or not (the mask appears again). When she discovers the kind of bond and relationship Shinichi and Ran have she steps aside because she understands how much they love each other. Then she starts teasing Shinichi with Ran being with other guys, but not with herself anymore; or with how impossible movie like their love is. I bet she does it because deep in Shinichi likes it because it reminds him of his true self Shinichi Kudo not Conan Edogawa and his relationship with Ran.
So that was my long analysis on two awesome characters that are often left behind I don’t know why, but I think they are pretty similar and have so much backstory and character to develop.
Yes, friends to lovers and enemies to lovers is nice but tbh strangers to lovers is my absolute jam just because going from “I barely tolerate you because I’m a civil person” to “why am I suddenly feeling territorial about you” is such a fking leap and honestly not having a reason (friendship OR hate) to base the intensity of your feelings on and feeling overwhelmed by your unfounded yearning for that person is just SO NICE it melts my bones