Allyn Yonge wrote:

 >
 >                 Wild Card
 >
 >
 >      The characters of  Card Captor Sakura are the copyright
 > property of Clamp, Kodansha and  NHK. No copyright
 > infringement is intended.
 >
 >       This story dedicated to D-chan, who asked for it and to
 > Mad Hamlet, who read it. Thank you both for your
 > encouragement.
 >
 > *******************************************************
 >

Well, I have to say, I was a bit cautious in reading this, knowing
of Allyn "Its Dark but it's Waffy" Yonge's penchant for grim and
grittiness in his fics.  I haven't read any of the manga, and seen
only a fansub of the newest movie of this series, and I usually
concentrate on Ranma fics, or x-overs.  But it was short, and I was
curious as to what Allyn had come up with, with a series that as far
as I know is very waffy, and few scenes of serious physical danger to
the characters, at least the kind that usually ends in a hospital, or
worse.

I have to say, I like it.  Certainly, Sakura's death in magical combat
in defense of her dearest friend Tomoyo is dark and tragic.  Allyn
touched upon a theme though, that I miss in most magical girl/boy series
(at least the ones I've seen, or heard of) .  Namely, that magic is a
very serious business, and it is far too easy to end up in a situation
beyond your control or abilities, and the consequences can be dire
consequences.  The movie I saw certainly put Sakura, and her friends
in danger, and it took all her skill and then some to protect her
friends, and resolve the situation (obviously, or it wouldn't have been
a very interesting movie =P).  The danger Sakura and Co. was facing
though, didn't have the _physical_ "jagged metal is sharp, and stone is
_hard_ " menace to it though, you could say the danger was "cushioned".
Understandable, since it is a Shoujo series, and children and young
adults are basically the target audience.

Which is why I like this story.  Sakura is a powerful magician, but
still really young and inexperienced.  If she's already
gathered so many cards to her her (I have no idea how many there are) at
her young age, it certainly says something for her potential.  But cute
furry magical mascots, and the unwritten "law" that a cute magical girl
heroine rarely suffers serious lasting physical harm (that isn't healed
by the end of the episode, anyway) isn't proof against the cold hard
potential inherent in the makeup of the CCS universe, that really nasty
powerful things lurk out there, and may cooincidentally cross Sakura's
path, or be attracted to the magical potential she no doubt radiates.
Given an author that hears the siren call of such a story, of course.

Allyn could have written the story the other way around, which maybe
would have been even more tragic, with Sakura being the survivor.
Sakura didn't fail in her endeavor, after all.  It took her life, but
she _did_ protect Tomoyo from the Wild Card, and may have save countless
other lives as well.  Whenever you have a series that intertwines the
relationships among the characters so tightly, it makes you wonder what
happens when the linchpin of someone's existence is suddenly and
irrevocabally torn away.  Having Tomoyo manage to call Sakura's spirit
to her, and manage to capture it with her rite to the Sakura blossoms,
on Sakura's birthday, was a wonderful way to restore, to some extent,
the sense of immortality of youth, that Sakura's death had destroyed.
Her death hasn't been unwritten, so to speak, but neither is she gone,
and neither does Tomoyo have to try face life without her.  And that's
got to be one doozy of a powerful Card. ^_^

I would think that Sakura has become, or could become, a guardian like
Kero and Yue, at the end of the story, at least that's how I interpret
it.
In this general song of praise for this story, a few sour notes must
be sounded.  Namely, I have difficulty telling if the opening section,
up to where Tomoyo watches the fateful video, is supposed take place
before, or after, Sakura's capture as a card.  If the opening scenes
are supposed to be before Tomoyo calls Sakura back to her, but after
Sakura's death, it seems a bit strange that Touya barely reacts to
the fact that Tomoyo has come over to study with his dead sister.
In which case, I would have expected Tomoyo's difficulty in coping with
Sakura's death to come up in the conversations in the living room,
where everybody else is.  Especially, when you take into account, how
Tomoyo runs to Penguin Park in the dark, after having watched the last
video of Sakura-chan.

Other than that, I quite enjoyed it.

Thiemo G�nther




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