Random Curiosity

Summary:

Addressing the Syaoran who appeared in front of her, Yuuko questions why Xing Huo sent him. After Syaoran quotes what Xing Huo had said about putting an end to the dream, Yuuko asks for his wish, so Syaoran asks to be sent to where his right eye is. Since Yuuko has already received payment for him in the form of his relationship, freedom, and time, she grants his request. She warns him first that this is all she can do and that everything ahead is beyond her control, but Syaoran remains determined to get his eye back. Yuuko ends up successfully sending Syaoran away, and afterwards, she remembers how the last thing Clow Reed said to her was the ending-the-dream line. Back in the world of Tokyo, the group has returned from the hunt for the giant worm, and Mokona suddenly detects a feather underground. The others try to stop him because only people who have permission can go down there, but Syaoran begs them. Kamui is meanwhile already underground and finds that the water is glowing, so he dives in and discovers an unconscious Sakura absorbing a feather inside the pod that is sitting in the middle of the water. As she does though, the protective barrier around the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building disappears.

Kamui realizes that the power that was in the water went into the pod and disappeared, but he doesn’t understand why a certain person is still asleep. He looks as if he’s going to attack Sakura, but Syaoran suddenly jumps into the water and gets in Kamui’s way. Feeling that Syaoran is interfering, Kamui attacks him. Kamui refers to Syaoran as bait, and after repeatedly cutting Syaoran, Kamui licks his bloody hand and suggests that someone named Subaru will awaken if he drinks all of Syaoran’s blood. This reminds Syaoran of the vampire twins that Seishirou had told him about, and when Kamui realizes that Syaoran knows Seishirou, he vows to kill them both. After seemingly knocking Syaoran out with another deep cut, Kamui puts his hand into the pod and lets Syaoran’s blood seep into it. Unfortunately for him, Syaoran gets back up and starts striking back with a new ferocity because he wants to get all the feathers and doesn’t want anyone touching Sakura. Kamui recognizes that Syaoran has changed, and the two start fighting again.

By now, the others have grown uneasy about what’s going on inside the water, and Fay decides to dive in. To his shock, when he gets down there, he finds Syaoran grabbing a wounded Kamui. However, Kamui frees himself and heals via the blood in the water. Kamui thinks that Syaoran belongs to Fay or to that hunter, but Fay claims that Syaoran is really a good kid. Across dimensions though, both Yuuko and Fei Wong suddenly sense that the seal on Syaoran’s right eye has been broken. As Fei Wong Reed explains, this Syaoran is a clone created from the real Syaoran who is a descendant of Clow Reed, all for the sake of collecting feathers. However, the real Syaoran had given his right eye to the clone and, in doing so, had copied his heart over. Unable to remove the eye without destroying the clone, Fei Wong Reed had decided to send him to Clow country anyway since the clone’s purpose was still to collect feathers. Everything that had happened after that was according to Fei Wong Reed’s plan, but Yuuko got in his way. As for the real Syaoran, his magic had been halved without his left eye, and so he waited until he could break free of the imprisonment tattoo that Fei Wong Reed had put on him.

Fei Wong Reed’s magic was powerful since he was also a descendant of Clow, and Yuuko couldn’t directly interfere against him, so she was waiting for the real Syaoran to awaken. Now that the seal has broken off the clone’s right eye though, Yuuko knows that the heart that Syaoran gave the clone will return to him. Back in Tokyo, Kamui has figured a lot of this out by himself, including how the clone’s heart was given to him by someone. As the magic from the clone’s right eye starts to disappear, Kamui senses someone coming from another world. Fay knows that it’s the other Syaoran, but he feels that the clone’s heart belongs to the clone because it was created by him, Sakura, and the people who loved him. Not wanting the clone to lose his heart, Fay tries to use his own magic on the seal, but the seal nevertheless shatters. The clone then kicks Fay and decides that he needs Fay’s eyes since they are the source of Fay’s magic. Kurogane meanwhile watches as Sakura suddenly disappears from his arms, and he arrives underground in time to see the water disappear and the clone emerge.

The clone is eating one of Fay’s eyes, but before he can eat the other one, Kurogane stops him. The clone responds by kicking Kurogane, however Kurogane doesn’t give up and throws the clone against a wall. Kurogane senses that this isn’t the Syaoran that he knows, but the clone only cares about getting back the feathers and attacks with his newly acquired magic abilities. Realizing what the clone had done, Kurogane is furious because Fay had changed himself for the sake of Syaoran and Sakura. The clone is unresponsive by this, but what does get his attention is the sudden appearance of the real Syaoran. As the two Syaorans stare each other down, Sakura suddenly wakes up after having dreamed about all of the important people in her life, including Syaoran who was the most precious to her. She watches as half of Syaoran’s heart, in the physical form of a yin yang sphere, flies from the clone to the real Syaoran, and the real Syaoran explains that Fay had tried to return it to the clone. However, once the seal was broken, there was no way to return it to the clone, and Fay had known this, yet he tried anyway.

The real Syaoran had been watching all this time through the clone’s right eye, and he tries to make a plea that it wasn’t his own heart that had considered Sakura the most important - it was the clone’s heart. The clone is unmoved by this though, and he attacks the real Syaoran. Watching the two match each other blow for blow, Kurogane calls for Mokona to spit out a sword, but before it can reach Kurogane, the clones uses his magic to grab it. After taking a blast of fire from the Hien, the real Syaoran reveals that back when he gave up half his heart, he had believed that the clone’s own heart would be born and grow. However, if the clone was still without a heart when the seal broke, the real Syaoran had swore to eliminate him. The real Syaoran then forms his own sword and fires off a massive lightning attack. This sends the clone flying backwards, and the real Syaoran uses the chance to finish him off, but he’s stopped by Sakura yelling for him not to kill Syaoran. The clone, however, takes advantage of the situation and stabs the real Syaoran in the leg.

With the real Syaoran now incapacitated, the clone approaches the pod and cuts it open. He also cuts the cocoon next to Sakura and finds the feather inside. After forcefully returning this to Sakura, the clone vows to get back all the feathers. Since there are no more in this world though, the clone feels that there is no need to remain here, and he is ready to leave for the next world. Sakura tries to stop him, but he shakes off her hand and then disappears through a portal created by Fei Wong Reed. Shortly after Sakura faints, someone emerges from the cocoon and holds her in his arms. This person is Subaru, the other vampire, and he apologizes to Sakura for waking her at the most painful time. Kamui is glad that Subaru is awake and wants to leave this world immediately, but Subaru asks his brother to wait. Kurogane meanwhile approaches the real Syaoran and asks about the crest that’s on his clothes. Without hesitation, the real Syaoran reveals that it’s the crest of the person who murdered Kurogane’s mother.

Once again, I really can’t say enough about how good a job Production I.G did on this. The quality was amazing, the action was amazing - even after having seen how good the first episode was, I continue to be impressed. Admittedly, none of the fights stood out quite like they did in the first episode, but a lot of my reaction has to do with how I can still remember the worst parts of Bee Train’s production. Regardless, I’m not exaggerating when I say that this was exciting to watch. This is a really good part of the story, and I’m glad that it’s getting such good production treatment.

Content-wise, this second episode covered approximately eight and a half chapters of the manga, from chapter 116 to halfway through chapter 124, and nothing major appeared to have been changed or cut out. Syaoran even ate Fay’s eye in all its bloody glory (well, it wasn’t that gory a scene, but that’s probably not something that would have made it into a Saturday evening television broadcast). There’s still a decent amount of material left until the end of the Tokyo arc though, and I’m not entirely confident that they can get through it all in the final episode without having to cut some stuff. Of course, I wouldn’t mind if they decided to include everything and just make the last one extra long. Anyway, I can’t wait to see Sakura finally in action, and the 3rd DVD is due out on March 17th, 2008.