Happy Birthday Li Syaoran 2025!

 

 

Happy Birthday to our dearest Syaoran! 

I realized I haven't posted a blog in ages, and maybe I should be giving some substantive updates, but instead, we will just celebrate our beloved Little Wolf. The past year went by in such a flurry it shocked me that it was already our favorite grouchball's birthday again. Syaoran will always be my unparalleled favorite, which may be why I've been stuck on his birthday special chapter for years! My CLAMP love is getting worse with age for sure, because I have friends now who know my love for CCS. 

 

 

The best thing I did last year was to get to see in person the CLAMP Exhibition at the National Art Center in Tokyo last year, celebrating CLAMP's 35th anniversary. I first learned about it through my artist friend who I saw the CCS Exhibition with in Tokyo some years ago. The perk is she was the one who convinced me to go when I otherwise though I wouldn't be able to make the trip. Anyhow, it is a good to be able to share hobbies with friends. I meant to write a full-on blog post on the exhibition but never got around to it because it was such an overwhelming experience for a CLAMP lover and didn't know where to start. The short takeaway was it was so hot when I went even though it was in September, and it was soo crowded, so didn't get to enjoy to the fullest. But then, I was bursting with pride thinking of how many CLAMP fans there were globally. I did see the Cardcaptor Sakura Exhibition in Tokyo in 2018, so it was not my first time seeing CLAMP's artwork in real life, but I actually love CLAMP's older artwork even more so it was an amazing experience seeing, X, Magic Knight Rayearth and other iconic artwork, both color and illustrations, in real life. It was the largest CLAMP exhibition to date, and it was such a bucket list wish to see the exhibition, I made it happen even though last year was otherwise a very dismal one because of work circumstances. Anyhow, I will rave about the exhibition in another full review post in the future.  

 

The CLAMP exhibition had 10 different character variable tickets, and my first choice was the Sakura-chan "Love" ticket, but I ended getting Kohaku from Wish. The two friends I saw the exhibition with were fans of CLAMP's older work, and one of them got Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle's Syaoran "Adventure" ticket and was kind enough to switch with me, it was a win-win. If it was CCS!Syaoran, it would have been my first choice ticket of course. Anyhow, I felt very lucky to get a ticket that was pretty much my first choice. 

Let's focus back on what makes Syaoran so wonderful. I haven't seen the end of Clear Card-hen yet, so I hope he still is canonically wonderful. But he must truly be wonderful because CLAMP can't stop writing about him!  

I haven't done this in a long time. Music spotlights are hard because I have literally one new song I end up liking in a year. 

"Versailles" by Ayaka, theme song for the 2025 film "The Rose of Versailles," which I haven't seen yet, was released in January but I already knew it was going to be my song of the year. I'm pretty sure I have raved about Ayaka sometime in the past, one of the most powerful female vocalists of her era. Her songs were very much on repeat when I was writing Arc 3 era, probably Arc 4 as well. And I probably have reference Rose of Versailles, set during the French Revolution, multiple times as a formative anime, both as a Francophile and lover of history from that era. Everything about the "Versailles" theme song is perfect, from the lyrics, to the music video, to Ayaka singing from the perspective of Oscar. Her voice even fits. I literally bawled the first time I heard the song. And the second, third and fourth time. It's rare a song can make you tear up each time. I watched the original anime when I was too young to get all the nuances, but I feel like I feel more sympathetic towards the characters and the choices they made now that I am older, Oscar, Andre and even Marie Antoinette. But I will always loath Fersen. And yes, my love for Rococo fashion and macaroni curls are totally credited to Rose of Versailles and Marie Antoinette. Also it taught me early on to cope with anime ending trauma. 

    

 

Happy New Year 2022!

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I realize I haven’t written any new blog posts in a while though I’ve been giving small updates over Instagram and Facebook. The year 2021 will probably be a “lost year” in terms of New Trials, because I didn’t make the significant writing progress that I thought I would in the past year. While there are other factors involved, the pandemic in large has sort of sapped a lot of joy in life for many, and I think I too was running on autopilot survival mode in the past year. Meaning, I was (barely) functioning through daily life, but a large part of creativity has been sapped away. For me, writing New Trials is a joyous, fulfilling experience, and I was not able to channel that self amid all the chaos across the globe. There is also the other part, as you all probably figured, New Trials is in its final stretch and the next section is the finale, and as a writer who has been working on this story since 1999, I want it to be able to provide this mega fanfiction the ending it deserves, and also to meet the expectations of readers who stuck by this long and have been so supportive and patient. And it’s also my personal desire to have no regrets when this story ends (when it ends). I also broke a leg and have been in recuperation mode for the past several weeks, another reflective period of time. I’ve come to realize I’m definitely not the best type of person to adjust to a once in a lifetime respiratory virus pandemic, but it might also have to do with my line of work.

I did manage to fulfill my bucket list of having chibi Sakura and Syaoran dolls through purchasing Good Smile Company Nendoroids and modifying them to become Obitsuroids. The first Nendos I got was 918 Nendoroid Sakura Kinomoto: Tomoeda Junior High Uniform Ver. and Nendoroid 763 Syaoran Li. I might have gotten some more since. I was never a figure person and was a doll person since I was a child. As a kid, I used to draw personalized paper dolls with friends and dress them up in self-designed outfits (yes, I was such a Tomoyo). I always wanted a Cardcaptor Sakura ball-jointed doll but always thought it would be too much work to customize and take up too much space. But I love how tiny and cute Obitsuroids are. They took quite a bit of time to collect, as they are out of stock and I got mine new from the secondhand market. I at first didn’t get the appeal of Nendoroids, but oh what a slippery slope when you realize how adorable they are. My Sakura and Syaoran Nendos are currently my mascots and give me renewed inspiration toward CCS, and I’ve been sharing photos on my Instagram account. The thing is, I think even bigger than my loss of writing inspiration, because I actually have been writing throughout the pandemic, is a loss of artistic inspiration. So having a photography outlet is sort of a nice diversion and hopefully a step toward getting artistic inspiration again.

Because the NT/CCS community is so diverse and spread across the world, I spent a lot of time thinking of all the readers and people I’ve been able to communicate with over the years, and still am in reach with to this day. I am grateful to have this community, and amid such trying times (no pun on New Trials), I appreciate more what we have, which is a venue where we can share like hobbies, interests and creativity. Cardcaptor Sakura going strong after all these years, with merchandise retaining popularity even now, shows its universal appeal (one which I think has not been quite replicated in the mahou shoujo/ magical girl category to date). It’s hard to find a series that resonates so hard because I think the fast-past nature of anime and media in general these days targets things that are more sensational and triggering. Hence a lot of shounen hero type stories, a lot more isekai and big franchise anime and so few good shoujo series with quality animation.  

On a brighter note, have you watched Disney’s Encanto—best Disney movie in years IMO coming from a complete Disney traditionalist. It’s like one of three movies I’ve watched in the past year. The songs are also so spot on, and I can relate to all three sisters. I think the pandemic has been a soul-searching time for many. For some people, it’s appreciating family and loved ones, others finding that time to cultivate an unexplored hobby or a neglected craft. For some, it has been changing jobs, moving, or giving back to community. For me, writing has always been that unwavering constant in my life, which I was reminded of even stronger during the past year. So, in the long run, I may be able to look back on this time as maybe a “lost year” for New Trials but not one for me in my journey as a writer.

I hope all of you good health and better tidings for 2022, the Year of the Black Tiger!

Music Spotlight: Andrew Garfield's “30/90” from the movie "tick, tick…BOOM!"

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Along with a lack of artistic inspiration also came a lack of appealing new music to listen to. I've been listening to Joe Hisaishi and piano instrumental collections all year round pretty much, my go to writing playlist. The exceptions were Hamilton and "tick, tick…BOOM!" If you can't tell, I've been on a Lin-Manuel Miranda roll the past half year. If Les Miserables is my favorite musical of all time, Rent is my favorite modern rock musical in a different way. The pandemic's impact on Broadway and the performing arts has been devastating, but I hope in turn people's appreciation and support for artists continue to grow because there is nothing that can quite replace that live performance thrill. As a Rent fan, I've always been haunted by Jonathan Larson's story and thought a movie about him wouldn't do him justice but was very pleasantly surprised by Miranda's directorial debut "tick, tick…BOOM!" Andrew Garfield was amazing as Larson, and a great singer to boot. I've been trying to convince everyone to watch the film and nobody watched it. As I mentioned, it's one of three movies I've watched this year so I don't have a lot to compare to, but it hit all the right notes for any fan of Rent for a Broadway-deprived person.

Happy Birthday Sakura 2021!!! (And a bunch of other holidays.)

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First off, slightly belated Happy Birthday to our one and only Kinomoto Sakura! This marks my first blogpost of this year, and I missed a bunch of holidays since the Halloween post. But the past year, as I think for many people, is sort of a black hole in my mind, hence maybe such a void is represented here as well. Still, things are looking up, aren't they, one year and some later? There was much lost because of the pandemic, but it has also been an opportunity to remind us of the things we are blessed with. Mind you, it's been difficult to remember this at times for me, as it must have been for everybody around the globe. For me, a part of the difficulty was trying to carry on with a semblance of normalcy when things really aren’t normal. But speaking of blessings, I had the New Trials community on my mind a lot during this time, because for me, it is the most global network of friends that I have, so my thoughts were with this community (despite my lack of updates). It has also been a source of solace for me, to see all of you doing well and going on.

I think I experienced perhaps the greatest lack of creative inspiration I have ever experienced in my life in the past year. Some people during quarantine and social distancing rediscovered or got in touch with their creative sides, and it was a time for much fruitful outcome. That was definitely not the case for me. I thought creative inspiration came from within, but I guess it must have been more external influence than I had thought it to be. Funny thing is, it's not like I spent the last year watching tons of Netflix either. All my friends list off all these Netflix shows I have to watch but maybe I'm the last person left on earth that is not subscribed to Netflix (because I know I'll never get off if I get started). The thing is, I think I have not really enjoyed anything that I usually enjoy in the past year, whether it be writing, art, listening to music or discovering new shows. I enjoy fashion and makeup, for example, but haven’t even opened up the fashion magazines I am subscribed to in the past year. My writer's block wasn't just toward New Trials but also related to work. I just wasn’t feeling inspired at all. So, kudos to everybody who was able to increase creative productivity during the pandemic, but I guess I learned that in times of duress, I'm the type that shuts down the creative juice when going into survival mode. I've always thought that if you take away writing from me, I will be empty. And it a sense, I did feel rather empty during this period. I did read a lot though, which I guess is a part of stripping down to the basics in survival mode for me. Of course, I live in a country that didn't really lock down and continued on with life and work, albeit limited social contact, so I feel like I moved through this past year in a haze, and here we are in the spring of 2021, sort of emerging from the fog, into a new frontier of a post-pandemic era. 

I did get over my writer's block, or fundamentally lack of any creative inspiration, earlier this year and am eager to get back to New Trials and other projects, but then workload’s been overwhelming because three of my juniors quit in the past three months. I exploded at my boss for the first time last week and finally told him something along the lines of, "I have human limitations, and there is a limit to how much I can cover for everybody else's slack." I'm not usually the type that speaks out, but I guess I had my breaking point too. Anyhow, I felt a whole bunch better afterwards. I am sort of a workaholic in that I feel responsible to do well in my job, or any assignment I am given, but I also need plenty of my “own time” and Asian work culture and general culture really just doesn’t appreciate that unfortunately (don’t let me get started on family). 

The latest fanart of Sakura is me trying to prove to myself that Sakura can look good in lavender and realizing again it really isn't her color. I always took to heart a comment someone once left on my Sakura and Eron fanart on devianart that lavender really isn't Sakura's color. I think I finally realized it’s probably because Sakura is warm-toned with her hair color and green eyes, and lavender is a cool-toned color. Personal color is a bit trend in K-Beauty. This was supposed to be a really quick fanart just to mark Sakura’s birthday and then suddenly the flowers exploded everywhere. It took as much time drawing flowers as it did the rest of the fanart, hence this is slight belated. Am I the only one who wishes April Fool’s Day can be declared an international holiday? I hate it when it falls on a week day so I can’t properly celebrate Sakura’s birthday, being an otaku at heart. Also, I don’t think I’ll be drawing flower wreaths again unless it’s someone’s wedding in the New Trials-verse. The thing is (mumbles) I was supposed to have a grand new update in time for Sakura’s birthday but I didn’t and considered disappearing even longer but that’s just not right. I missed New Year’s Day, the Yahoo New Trial Community’s anniversary in February, plus Valentine’s Day and White Day, so I will also mark those here as well! And this is a fanart for Christmas since I didn’t write a separate Christmas blogpost. 

Music Spotlight: IU – Celebrity I especially loved the lyrics to this song, and found it very healing when it came out. It's less about stardom and more about how each individual is unique and special in their own odd little way. “Byul” means star in Korean and the song rather reminds me of Sakura as well.

 

Happy Birthday Sakura 2020!

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Happy Birthday Kinomoto Sakura 2020! #ccs #cardcaptorsakura #newtrials #wishluv #cardcaptor #카드캡터체리 #카드캡터사쿠라 #カードキャプターさくら展

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Happy Birthday to our dearest Kinomoto Sakura (and a bunch of other CLAMP characters)! This is just a short post because I am still working on other things, but I didn't want to miss Sakura's birthday. I think I mentioned before that I don't like drawing Sakura with her staff because CLAMP draws plenty enough solo Sakura artwork with her staffs. That's also an excuse because I find staffs and swords a pain to draw. It's actually a part of a much bigger group fanart that I was working on for the 20th anniversary of New Trials last year that I have been sharing little snippets of. My favorite staff will always be the star staff but what is your favorite staff? The bird staff is probably the iconic and the dream staff from Clear Card a version I am never going to draw. There, I said it.

I know the entire world is going through tough times right now, and we need all the cheering up we can get at the moment. Some of you may be undergoing social distancing and prolonged quarantines at home, others may be essential workers out on the front lines, some of you may be in areas of the world less affected by the global pandemic. But I hope you are all maintaining a good balance of public awareness and following your local government policies while trying keeping good spirit because a global pandemic is overcome through collective effort. Stay safe, healthy and happy.

And in the meantime, I leave you with a song that inspired the New Trials Sakura's Birthday Special "Pink Ribbon Trees" from so many years ago.

Today's music spotlight is an oldie, Dawn's "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree." Sometimes I miss days when lyrics so effectively told a touching story as opposed to repetitive hooks and catchy phrases that are meaningless (which are addictive nonetheless). There is a reason why you always end up going back to classics at times.

Happy (Belated) 20th Anniversary to New Trials and Happy International New Trials Day!

Merry Christmas/ Happy New Year S+S unfinished fanart!

I don't how to get started, and this is not really the first blog post that I have started  in the past couple months. This might have been the longest period that I have gone off the radar in recent years. As the end of the year approached, I was overwhelmed in general with work and life. Nothing terribly bad but just had to prioritize things to get done because as I grow older, I realize that my energy and time is unfortunately finite. Once I missed one self-imposed deadline, I think the pressure grew stronger on me not to come back to the community until I had a substantial new update. And yet I don't have an update ready for today, but I just wanted to drop a note because of the situation of the world, combating a global pandemic perhaps in a crisis a lot of us haven't seen in our lifetimes. Because of my line of work, that's all my attention has been focused on over the past month and a half on the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, has only been named a global pandemic last week. (Initially I had been aiming for a February return to the New Trials Community because it's an important month for us, but that is mainly the reason for the delay). I know all of you are coming from across the world, some more affected by others, but I hope you are all take care of yourselves and your loved ones. My country was one that was affected by the virus earlier than some other places, and so we have been dealing with this for more than a month now. It's important to maintain a sense of balance, practicing caution and exercising good judgement in terms of hygiene and social distancing, but also, not to panic or go into a state of hysteria. After all, most of us aren't really scared for ourselves and more for our loved ones, maybe grandparents or parents who can be more affected by the virus. Because of my line of work, I need to keep going to work and am busier than ever, but the perks of social distancing is general social life has been minimized/cut off giving more time to reflect on other things, I suppose. But after more than a month of living on the edge, I slowly realized that all the joy in life was being sapped away from me. (It doesn't help that I've always been an extreme germaphobe, though I am pretty good at hiding that in everyday life.) Then, I wondered what is something that gives me join and happiness, and of course, that is writing and you guys, the New Trials of Card Captor Sakura community. And it hit me how much I missed being a part of it.

On a brighter note, I would like to properly mark the 20th anniversary of "The New Trials of Card Captor Sakura" here in the official blog and thank you all for your undying support. This whole experience, interacting with other Card Captor Sakura fans and just finding kindred spirits out in the world globally has been a life-changer for me, and an inseparable part of my formative years and the path to becoming who I am today. There are really no words to express the gratitude I have for everyone for sticking by all these years, and of course the best way to show my thanks is through action, which in my head is updates, which I have been bad about. The amount of my gratitude is always paired with my apology for how long it takes me to write and for those times I go missing.

In terms of productivity in writing, 2019 has sort of been a failure, in every aspect, but if readers will see it in a kinder light, it's been an important year architecturally to set the foundation of the end of New Trials. Amethyst Beloved (who in my head I call my chief editor who has been a major force in driving me all these years), in 2018 told me that I can finish New Trials to mark its 20th anniversary, and somewhere in my head, I've been pressuring myself into thinking I have to finish New Trials by 2019. I think somewhere in late autumn, I realized that it's just not happening. I missed posting on a lot of important occasions over the past several months because as long-time readers know, I oftentimes go on self-imposed exile when I am really trying to crunch down on finishing a chapter, or in this case, the whole series. This time around though, I think it's had a negative effect. I enjoy all the positive energy, and I really missed being a part of the NT/CCS community real-time (which I was so good about in 2018). I apologize for this, and it's not because I put New Trials any lower on my priorities or wasn't thinking about it, but consider it as my self-imposed punishment for not meeting my own deadlines and also what I think readers expect from me. I spent last year realizing and accepting my own limitations but hope 2020 can be more about trying to overcome this.

Happy Halloween 2019!

I was devastated to hear that Yahoo Groups has gone under while I was MIA. But then, Amethyst Beloved let me know that a group of longtime followers have set up a new backup account: https://groups.io/g/newtrialsring. Thank you again to Natasha Gibson, Serenity Shields, Jiri-chan, Kirei-chan, Mesel Tzegai and Amethyst Beloved! I love the NT community, the best group in the world, and am so grateful. Happy International New Trials Day!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentine's Day, Happy White Day! All these special occasions I missed while I was away. But my heart was still with New Trials nonetheless. Just sharing a few doodles I drew to mark the special occasions and ended up not posting.

Please take care, everybody! 

Happy Birthday Kaitou Magician aka Criminal No. 603! (His birthday is March 6)

Music Spotlight: "For Good" from the musical Wicked.

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

Best Anime Openings Part 3: Top 5 Favorites from 2010 ~2018 (21st Century Edition)

My favorite anime openings post-2010 was much easier for me to pick from than previous decades, since it's freshest in my mind, and I've seen less shows in the past several years. I think the only new anime I watched this year was Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc. Unfortunately, none of the openings from CCS:CC made this list, despite my love for Maaya Sakamoto. Since this decade is not completely over, I chose five songs instead. This time around, I can clearly rank my favorite songs in order, starting with my most favorite as #1. The others songs have been tested with the passage of time, and I don't know if this will be the case for the songs I've chosen here, but I'm pretty sure I will enjoy these five songs for a long time to come.

I think I can't help having a 1990s taste in anime openings, which featured stronger hooks and a certain level of old school cheesiness. I realized I'm generally not a big fan of chaotic openings, both in terms of music and animation, which I think is more in vogue these days especially for shounen genre anime, not that I don't deny it works for some series. Neither do I like overly cutesy type openings (especially the gratingly squeaky kind), but again, I'm pretty open-minded as the list below probably covers a pretty wide range of anime genres and types of songs. I'm sure I must be forgetting some good opening themes but my rule of thumb for the test of time is if I don't remember it, it mustn't have been that great anyway.   

1. Guilty Crown OP1 - Egoist - "My Dearest" (2011)

This is one of my favorite openings in recent years, and was a chance find on Youtube recommendations. Because I liked it so much, I forced myself to watch the anime, which was not particularly as impressionable as the soundtrack. I wouldn't be able to summarize the plot of the anime for the life of me, but it was nicely animated and the character designs were good. The second opening, "The Everlasting," also by Egoist (of Supercell) is equally as excellent. Something about the vocals, the melody, the visuals all hits the right notes and embodies what the modern 21st century anime OP is all about. I think it'll remain one of the best openings of the decade to an otherwise lackluster anime TV series. Sometimes, the music is the best part of a series (Macross Frontier feat. Yoko Kanno).



2. Shingeki no Kyojin OP1 - Linked Horizon - "Guren No Yumiya" (2013) 
There are some anime openings that are so intense that you forget to breathe. Attack on Titan is probably THE shounen/fantasy anime of recent years, perhaps the only anime that could serve as a successor to the epic gritty shounen fantasy action that Fullmetal Alchemist was (though it will never come close to FMA in my heart). Actually that may be the main difference which sets apart FMA from others in its genre--the heart. The FMA characters, from Ed and Al, to the older military crew and even the side characters and villains are so well fleshed out and likeable. And the titans in Shingeki are just so ugly. In the AoT OP1, the German chanting, the smooth action sequences with detailed, rich backgrounds and the awesome composition by Linked Horizon (of Sound Horizon) make for the perfect anthem to a pretty chaotic anime. I admit, I put off watching this anime for a year before giving in because the opening sequence was so awesome. OP2 "Jiyuu no Tsubasa" is equally superb, with a more uplifting, anthem like tone to it, where as the first OP is urgent and frantic. I don't even remember what Season Two's OP3 was, however, though it had a too similar vibe to the other two. Anyhow, OP1 perfectly embodies the tone of the series in terms of music and animation in every way. 



3. Hanasakeru Seishounen - J-Min - "Change" (2009-2010)
I absolutely love J-Min's voice, and I chose this for the song more than the animation sequence, which is pretty generic limited-budget shoujo fare. My pet peeve over the past decade especially is how little effort goes into making shoujo series look good. You don't need a huge budget, but having consistent character designs and smooth animation and proper backgrounds can't be too hard. I'm not referring to this anime but just cookie-cutter shoujo series in more recent years. I recall enjoying this shoujo anime based off a manga by Natsumi Itsuki (who also wrote Jyu Oh Sei) since it had a splash of romance, political intrigue, a strong heroine, and that cheesy eighties romance novel feel. It is a reverse harem anime of sorts, done right. J-Min is a Korean singer, with a rock vibe, associated with SM Entertainment. This is also the most listenable song in this list.  



4. Magic Kaito 1412 OP2 - CHICO with HoneyWorks - "Ai no Scenario" (2015)
I love this opening song to pieces, and I've always enjoyed the various reincarnations of the Kaitou Kid franchise. Great job by HoneyWorks for writing a catchy, addictive hook. The opening animation sequence appears to have a more limited budget than Detective Conan, but it works well with the excellent song--I actually like the original HoneyWorks MV even more though!



5. Yuri!!! on Ice - Dean Fujioka - "History" (2016)
This was my favorite anime of that year, though I'm not really a sports anime genre fan generally. Ironically, several of my top favorite anime of the 1990s were sports anime ie. Slam Dunk and Cyber Formula. The opening animation sequence and choreography is fluid and beautiful in a minimalist way, which is attractive to me, since it's just Yuri, Yurio, and Victor skating--for a show centering around these characters about figure skating. I especially like it when animators update the opening sequence to progressively fill out with more color. Sometimes, openings have too many flashing images, psychedelic rendering, fan service character shots, random CGs and chaos, which suits some genres, like mecha and action series. But the appeal of this opening is how streamlined it is, how simple, and how well it suits its genre. I also find the singer Dean Fujioka to be a very hot and multi-talented actor as well. This is the most feel-good, inspiring song of the bunch.


Honorable Mentions:

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood OP1 and OP2 (2009-2010)

The last last three openings are good and fall in 2010, but at the end of the day, I still prefer Yui's "Again" and Nico Touches the Walls' "Hologram," OP1 and OP2 respectively, as I mentioned in the previous list.Technically, both songs missed out making it onto the 2000-2009 list by just a hair because that decade had such strong contenders. After some consideration, I decided that unlike the previous list, I might like OP1 "Again" by Yui as a song a hair more that "Hologram," though I love all the thoughtful manga reference put into the OP2 animation sequence, such as the Roy Mustang vs. Lust scene. Cumulatively, I still think "Hologram" is the best opening theme of Brotherhood though for its animation sequence and shounen action anime tone in general--parallel to "Ready Steady Go." I could have included an FMA Brotherhood OP3~5 song into the list above, but at the end of the day, the first two songs are better. But I also like the original FMA OST better in general. Truthfully, I was just too emotional drained from the original FMA anime by the time I got to Brotherhood. The difference between the FMA franchise, and many other shounen anime out there, is that I got very emotionally invested in the characters and their life's voyage, and I love that both FMA series tries to imprint very strong visual messages, including the stop watch engraving of "Don't forget," the railroad, the sky, the hand/automail reaching to the sky, and so on. I suppose out of the 2010 opening themes, OP4, Chemistry's "Period" would be my pick as best theme song. It reminds of me of FMA's OP3 "Undo" a bit. OP5 was just depressing and a bit philosophical. 

Angel Beats! Lia - "My Soul, Your Beats" (2010)

This was a heavily music themed anime, and I went in not expecting much, but the OST was good and it was a more heartwarming anime than expected. Yui Makino (TRC's Princess Sakura) plays a character with like five words the entire show. Jun Maeda is like a male version of Tomoyo and does everything one his own from writing the script to composing the memorable music.

Selector Infected Wixoss OP - Kanon Wakashima - "Killy Killy Joker" (2014)
I have not watched the anime, nor have any clue what it's about, but the song is so darn catchy. It missed the top 5 list because I have an inkling I might get sick of the song if I listen to it too many times, but this song made me take another look at Kanon Wakeshima of Vampire Knight fame and her awesome cello skills. 

Umineko Nako Koro Ni (When the Seagulls Cry) - Akiko Shikata - "Katayori no Tori" (2009-2010)
The horror genre is usually not my slice of pie, but I do enjoy a good psychological thriller and mystery, and where as I couldn't watch Higurashi, I was drawn into Umineko initially because of Beatrice's awesome character design. Beatrice reminds me of Yuuko on crack and is likewise voiced Sayaka Ohara (Yuuko from xxxHOLIC). This operatic opening remains probably one of the more memorable openings of 2010, though unfortunately, fans of the original visual the anime was based on heavily criticized Studio Deen's production of the story. The ending is very unusual, a rock opera by Jimang from Sound Horizon, "la divina tragedia ~Makyoku~ and yes, you've heard Sound Horizon because of Attack of Titan.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card – Maaya Sakamoto - "Clear" (2018)

Truthfully, I don't think this song will make it to my Top 10 list of the decade because I find the song a bit more forgettable than Maaya's other songs, and you all know how much I love her. This song was included for nostalgia's sake and a kickback to CCS OP3 Purachina, which I think is standing the test of time to be my Top 3 best anime opening theme of all time. The best part of the opening sequence is Sakura's feather dress, and I almost like the animated sequence of OP2 "Rocket Beat" by Kiyono Yasuno with the darker tone a bit more. But I found the song a tad bit forgettable and too bright compared to the imagery. Please, another collaboration between Yoko Kanno and Maaya Sakamoto for Season 2 of CCS:Clear Card so that we can close out this decade with another CCS song on the Top 10 list.

I'm pretty confident that my Top 5 best anime opening theme choices for the 2010~2019 decade will not change, but we'll see if I can even draw out a Top 10 next year. I think part of the reason I'm releasing this list early is because deep in my heart, I doubt there's going to be any strong game-changer or any challenger to the Top 5 list I have right now. I actually began writing this list in 2015, when I posted the Top 10 Openings Part 2, and the only new song I added since then was the Yuri!!! on Ice OP.  I'm kind of impressed at the range I covered as well, from Sci-Fi, Post-apocalyptic fantasy adventure, Shoujo, Shounen, and Sports. Truthfully, I can do away with all of the honorable mentions above and not bat an eye, and just have a Top 5 list for this decade. Most of the songs on the honorable mentions list I feel like won't stand the test of time for me, or I just included because they're supposed to be popular. For example, I debated including the opening for "Your Lie in April (Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, 2014)" because I think it was a very solid, well-made anime about classical music, and I do love Goose house, and the soundtrack was great, but it's a song I would forget in a couple years' time. In the list above, Guilty Crown's "My Dearest" is the best song, but I would say Attack of Titan's "Guren no Yumiya" is the best opening theme of the decade, though it's my least favorite song to listen to on my playlist of the Top 5 because it's too intense to listen to often. 

Please do weigh in and give me your recommendations in the comments below, and let me know if I've been missing out a great song!
 

Check out my list of:
Top 10 Anime Opening Themes Part 1: The 1990s
Top 10 Anime Opening Themes Part 2: 2000-2009
Top 10 Anime Ending Themes