Anime Rewatch Episodes 43 & 44

[mellowcandle]

This is the post for discussing the next two episodes of our community anime rewatch. We're almost to the end of Season Two now, but you are still welcome to join in anytime! All previous posts can be found by using the "anime discussion" tag

Comments

[peacewish]

So, my feelings about this episode are rather mixed. On the one hand, it's awesome that Meilin finally got her due as an effective and useful member of the Cardcaptor Squad. On the other hand, it's at least fifteen episodes overdue, and sad that it only happened right before Meilin's hasty exit from the plot. Ditching her right before the Final Judgement is - to me - a signal that Clamp only brought her in to shake things up during the card capturing phase of the show, but she's extra weight once Yue and those other guys come along. It just reinforces the expendable nature of her character, which I know is something of a given since she didn't even exist in the manga, but I don't have to like it.

Watching this again, after all this time, left me with a nagging feeling of incompletion for Meilin's character. Several episodes ago I mentioned what a shame it was that Meilin didn't seem interested in joining Sakura's cheerleader club. Obviously she would have been very good at it, and lots of other athletic things. And then I talked in the Dream Card episode about how much fun she seemed to be having on their trip to downtown. What I'm getting at is that Meilin should have been undergoing a transformation in Japan. She comes for the Syaoran, realizes there's more to life than Syaoran, and leaves having learned what it means to have girlfriends, hobbies, and new talents (like actually mastering the fragging cake already). Instead, she came for Syaoran, dabbled lightly in the field of friendship, but left with still nothing but Syaoran in her heart. It could have been so much more. It WAS more for Syaoran himself, who came to Japan for nothing but the Cards, learned there was more to life than just being the strongest sorcerer on the block and capturing all the Clow Cards, and went back to HK a changed boy. That the writers didn't do the same for Meilin robs her of not just character growth, but any kind of independence from the rest of the cast. It's all about her relationship with Syaoran and Sakura, and how she relates to them, not Meilin as her own person dealing with what she wants in life. Much like Touya, she is reduced to an accessory. And I don't like that. Course, that's why I wrote LR.

[syrimoon]

Isn't that the fate for a lot of characters though? CCS is a series that rotates SO heavily around its protagonist that almost all of what we get form others has to be filtered through her. I remember specific scenes with people I odn't even think much on, JUST because Sakura wasn't there, like Touya and Kaho at the fence, Tomoyo's scene with her mom...hell, the only independant group I can think of is the Eriol Bunch, and even then every conversation they had revolved around Sakura too.

But with Meiling being an anime only character, she gets the brunt. I dind't even notice till a few months ago that she WAS shuttled off right before the three-part season finale. I mean, I've got issues with seasons three's plot, but it wasn't because it was too busy or something. there woulda been room for Meiling. And c'mon, her wanting to rip Yue apart for hurting Syaoran and (maybe even!) Sakura would have been awesome.

[peacewish]

I'd never thought before about how Meilin and Yue would interact, given that they never do in the show and no fanficcer seems to have gone there, but I like the idea. Sakura's too nice to ever argue with Yue and Li is too starstruck, but I get the feeling that Meilin would be just fine with telling Yue off loud and long, in Chinese, laced with several words she's not supposed to know yet. Meilin does not take shit, even from mopey pretty boys with long white hair.

[syrimoon]

PLEASE PLEASE YES PLEASE ANY OCCASION TO USE MANDARIN IN FIC YES FAVORITE THING MINE??