Happy Birthday Syaoran 2019!

Baby Syaoran and His Father by wishluv on DeviantArt

Poor Syaoran's been stuck in his birthday for over a year now. I was meaning to update the whole Hong Kong arc by July 13, but when will I ever learn that is just my hubris? I'm still aiming for a release pretty soon, but I'm working late hours all of this month unfortunately. Sorry to keep you all waiting for so long! I really miss being able to post updates as well. If I have a secret confession to make, sometimes, I actually like stepping away from writing New Trials just long enough to have forgotten some of the details and have fun rereading it with a "fresh" take. I know, it's silly, but it all comes down to the fact that I first started writing this fanfic for self-gratification and got greedier and dared desire a readership as awesome as all of you. Just wanted to reassure you all that my passion for CCS and New Trials is greater than ever! I also have an Instagram account mostly focusing on NT fanart and CCS merchandise for now but likely to expand in the future.

I was sketching an sexy, smouldering Syaoran when I suddenly found that I had doodled Ryuuren holding a baby Syaoran. There are many fanarts with a young Sakura and Nadeshiko, but you don't really see any with Syaoran and his father. I sketched and roughly colored this fanart in around two hours. I sometimes worry that there is really not much difference in my thoughtless doodles such as this and artwork that I spend weeks or months working on such as the Dragon Syaoran piece. I love seeing a masculine-looking man carrying something frail and like a baby. Ryuuren is a bishounen sort though he has the heart of a weary old warrior.

I love all my original characters and whomever I am focusing or featuring on at the moment usually can be called my favorite, but if I had to pick an overarching favorite, it just might be Li Ryuuren (sorry Kai!). Probably because Ryuuren's been with me the longest as well, and I have sort of watched over his growth as a teenage boy to adulthood and death, in a sense. I have a feeling Syaoran would have fought with Ryuuren a lot had Ryuuren lived since both of them are so hot-headed and stubborn. Ryuuren was a lot more cynical and poison-tongued than Syaoran as a teen, since Ryuuren grew up under fierce competition with his older brothers who tried to undermine him and degrade him every moment they got (especially Li Wutai). I contrast, Syaoran, while his mother was strict on him, grew under four doting older sisters who wanted to pamper him very badly--but he would have none of it. I think I have a soft spot for Ryuuren because of how flawed he was, how doomed his love for Nadeshiko was, and what a horrible husband and father he ended up becoming. 

Music Spotlight - amazarashi - "Karappo no Sora ni Tsubusareru" 



If I had to pick the band I've been most obsessed with over the past couple months, it would be amazarashi. They might be initially best known for writing Mika Nakashima's "Boku ga Shinou to Omotta no wa" single but their discography is amazing in a haunting way and their lyrics are also dark yet with an uplifting message mixed in somewhere oftentimes.  

"Karappo" is a song probably better befitting Syaoran during his birthday the previous year in Hong Kong circa beginning of Arc 4. Sorry for a depressing song, Syao-chan. For this year, I also included "Sakura"  below. Well, it's not that much cheerier, actually. But isn't it absolutely beautiful, especially the end "Sakura sakura ima demo sakura saku kienai?" The cherry blossom is such a lucky flower to have so many wonderful songs paying tribute to it.

Happy Birthday Sakura!!! Shirtless Syaraon fanart up!

Chosen One Li Syaoran with Dragon Wings by wishluv on DeviantArt


Happy Birthday Kinomoto Sakura (and a bunch of other CLAMP characters) and April Fool's Day! 

Yes, I know it makes sense for me to draw Syaoran for Sakura's birthday.This fanart was actually finished for Halloween, except for some final details, but I held it off because I was stuck on the background, which I didn't end up changing after all. It has a combination of everything I love, shirtless Syaoran, ripped pants, dragon wings, sword, and even the Li Clan seal ring on Syaoran's finger if you zoom in enough.

This is a scene I've been dying to draw since I wrote it, and I'm glad to have gotten that out of my system. I'm not sure if I will ever draw another shirtless Syaroan artwork though because I think he's generally too bashful to go around shirtless. Though apparently Clone!Syaoran from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle isn't. I really enjoyed the whole Dragon Isles arc a lot because it's probably the most cinematographic of the whole New Trials series--hence the movie poster-like theme of this fanart. 

I have so many CCS-related things I want to share, but for now, this is it. I am also working on the next chapters albeit rather turtle-paced. Funny story--my worst nightmare scenario, I lost the whole New Trials Word file the other day--it wasn't in my folder and freaked out especially because I did write quite a chunk recently. I haven't been even saving it anywhere else lately. Luckily, I found it mysteriously moved into a different folder and have saved backup versions of it. Whew. I saw the first cherry blossoms of the spring today though. Spring is so beautiful and work is so burdensome, and time so fleeting. 

Music Spotlight:

Imagine Dragons - "Demons" 
 


I already shared the Boyce Avenue cover of this song a few years ago when I uploaded the "Eye of the Dragon," but it fits this fanart so well (since it's based on those chapters), and this is the original version of course.



///SPOILERS FOR NEW TRIALS CHAPTER 71///

They saw Li Syaoran, with a pair of magnificent black dragon wings sprouted from his back, fly up into the crimson sky gracefully. The wings had ripped through his black shirt. A gust of wind blasted from below, whipping off the tattered remains of his shirt to reveal his chiseled torso.

Syaoran held up his hand and the seal ring, blown up by the wind, landed on his extended palm. He held it up for them to see and slipped it back onto his finger. “Let me repeat one more time. I have traveled to the Dragon Isles and have passed the dragon’s test to become the 77^th Great Elder of the Li Clan. Anybody who wants to challenge me can do so right now, or rest your case.” He glanced down from the sky at the Li Elders, the younger henchmen who had followed, at Leiyun, Jinyu and Wei, watching from not far off, and at Meilin standing off with the rest of the Star Alliance members. For just a brief second, his eyes lingered on Sakura, before turning back to the Elders.

Daifu had reached Wutai and dragged him back onto the rooftop. Doubled over to catch his breath, with his brother supporting his weight, Wutai stared hard at Syaoran, winged like a demonic angel, staring down at him with a strange look of pity, not anger. He was no longer the vulnerable boy who cowered from the Elders, who had knelt before Wutai in the Great Hall to be given another chance a year ago, maimed both in body and spirit.

Wei first dropped to his knees. “I, Li Wei, pledge my allegiance to serve and honor the new Great Elder Li Syaoran.”

With a thin smile, Leiyun also lowered his head, followed by Jinyu, Jingmei and the other younger Lis present.

One by one, the Li men and women dropped down to their knees, right arm on their chest, in a sign of deference.

Meilin stared hard at the strange sight of the proud and mighty Li Wutai glance around him helpless, watching even the haughty Daifu kneel, before finally dropping on his knees. But she did not miss the resentful gleam in his beady black eyes.  

Syaoran lifted his sword up into the sky, and a jet of lightening zapped from the clouded sky, to the tip of his blade. “By the power vested in me by the Dragonlords, I, Li Syaoran, son of Li Ryuuren, pledge my allegiance to the Li Clan, to protect and guide my bloodline as the new Great Elder and Chosen One.”  

Anybody with magic saw an etching of a great dragon facing upwards blazing in gold from Syaoran’s back. Then, the light faded, and the dragon mark disappeared.

From somewhere, Wei produced a long black silk robe with golden embroidery and placed it over Syaoran’s bare shoulders. The robe of the Great Elder.

- Excerpt from The New Trials of Card Captor Sakura Chapter 71: The Alliance of the Stars

Happy Valentine's Day and Happy 15th Anniversary of the Yahoo Group!

Syaoran's Birthday Omake #5 by wishluv on DeviantArt

I've always wanted Sakura to wear a statement green evening dress at one point in New Trials, especially after seeing Keira Knightley's green dress from the 2007 film Atonement. I still haven't watched the film, but the shade of that green dress really was alluring. I'd forgotten this thought for a while, however, until I was trying to decide on a dress for Chapter 73.5: The Hong Kong Encounter. Sakura's dress was supposed to be gold in the first draft, but it didn't feel right, and then I remembered I had been "saving up" a statement green dress all this while. Below is a concept art I did of Sakura's green backless dress when I was writing Chapter 73.5.This is an artwork I do plan on coloring eventually. I don't really share WIP frequently, and I wasn't quite sure I was convinced on the dress design, which is why I never finished this up last year.

The fanart I draw for the particular holiday never seems to really match the holiday and I have to scrap it (like the angsty Meilin and Kai artwork I was sketching for Valentine's Day). I doodled a Yue and Touya piece for Christmas last year which I never finished. Yukito's birthday is on Christmas Day, which I rarely remember. I'm never inspired to draw Yukito, for some reason. Yue on the other hand I do enjoy drawing, but his outfits are so hard to put together. I think he might be the hardest character in CCS to draw (besides Cerberus and Spinel Sun). 

I was just looking back and realized how quickly the past year passed by and was a bit taken back. This year marks the 20th anniversary of New Trials. It's all thanks to you guys that New Trials existed for 20 years, growing alongside the marvelous Card Captor Sakura franchise which has also made an awesome comeback. Again, belated Happy Valentine's Day and Happy 15th Anniversary of the Yahoo Group! The Yahoo Group really has been such an important support system, and despite it's somewhat outdated (and unreliable) platform, as a creature of habit, it really is my security blanket in a sense.



Music Spotlight:

I haven't gotten over my "I'm sick of everything on my playlist" ennui since last summer--I don't listen to as much music anymore in general lately because of this (I mean, I still do listen a lot, mainly when writing), but I have been seeking opera and then cycling back to my favorite musicals just to get through. And I supposed Korean drama OSTs because that's most readily available to me. I actually had a few more depressing songs picked out, but I realized this is the first "Music Spotlight" of 2019 (the Year of the Pig), and this is technically a Valentine's Day post, so I decide do share an uplifting song. 

Junggigo (정기고) - "D-Day" 



This song was from the Korean drama "My ID is Gangnam Beauty" and it was my rare groove last summer during my music dry spell. It's a feel-good song that puts you back into that excited campus crush, first love state of mind. Junggigo has a really soothing voice as well.