Headscratchers / Cardcaptor Sakura

• If Yue was created to be a warrior/guardian, why is his main appearance completely impractical, with 8+ feet of hair and a shawl wrap thing that shouldn't logically stay in place?
  • I blame Clow. Maybe that's why Yue is always so grumpy.
  • Rule of Cool.
  • Because Yue is functionally a magus guardian. The clothes are basically formed of magic energy, as is his hair, so they presumably obey his will and don't impair movement. Plus, he's an archer, so he's not nearly as mobile
• Even if Sakura failed to convert all of the Clow Cards shouldn't the one's associated with the Sun have survived, since it's established that Kero doesn't need to draw magic from someone else because he's associated with the Sun.
  • Except the cards don't route power through Kero or Yue, they route power through their creator - Clow (and later Sakura when she remade them). Kero just rules the Sun aligned cards, he doesn't power them. Just like the Moon aligned cards, the Sun aligned are basically on batteries until they're linked to Sakura's star.
    • What I mean is shouldn't the Sun aligned cards be able to generate their own power, just like Kero generates his own power?
    • Well, no, they're running on stored power like all the other cards. It's basically just a term dividing them under the guardians' rule.
  • I think there is a mistranslation going on here. Cerberus DOES need to draw magic from Sakura like everyone else—he says so in vol 7 when he's talking to Yue. What he actually says is that he can eat food to give himself enough energy to get by when he doesn't receive enough magic from Sakura to sustain him (unlike Yue, for whom this apparently does not work...), but he still relies on her support.

• Why in God's name would you keep trying to tell someone you love vital information, relevant to their survival, through the SAME EXACT CIRCUMSTANCES that have gotten you interrupted and derailed the conversation a hundred times before? If I were Toya I'd have sequestered Yukito in a house and locked all the doors and windows first, just to get the hell away from Nakuru.
  • More like the Yaoi Fangirls were just annoyed (at both him and Nakuru) for not just saying something already and moving on.
  • Probably caused by a pacing change from the manga, which didn't spend nearly as much time getting to the climax as the anime and resolved the disappearing plotline halfway through the second arc. In the manga, the conversation only got derailed a handful of times before Touya got fed up, locked Nakuru out, and told Yukito he knew what was going on. The anime, not wanting to solve one of the most alarming issues too soon, waited until the arc was almost over to save Yukito, and ended up turning Nakuru's interruptions into an Overly Long Gag.

• It's a small thing but why is it that Sakura has a game system in her room, complete with a small collection of games, but never once does she exhibit any interest whatsoever in using it? It seems to be there exclusively for Kero's use but didn't she already have it before she opened the Book of Clow?
  • She's young. Maybe it was either a well-intentioned and somewhat unneeded gift (perhaps either Fujitaka needed to get her something and just went with "this is popular with kids right now" or Tomoyo's mom gave it to her), or she had a phase where she was into video games, but subsequently got interested in something else, as kids are known to do.
  • It’s possible that she just plays games as a hobby (off screen) or that her taste in video games has changed. But she is busy, so it’s also possible when she has free time does other things she finds more important to her.

• It doesn't really bug me (although it does fit in Fridge Logic), but am I the only one that found it absolutely hilarious when the title actually split Card and Captor with the justification being the dub? The irony of course being that people are willing to literally desecrate the franchise name as a result of complaining about the dub descecrating the franchise name. Not only that, it's a mistake, as IMDB kindly points out.

• In the anime Sakura is completely oblivious to how unsettling Tomoyo's stalker-esque behaviour is. In the manga it's mentioned when Sakura introduces her to the reader that Tomoyo is pretty weird, but the anime just has Sakura accepting her from the start. Maybe I'm wrong, but the entire "Sakura learns to accept that Tomoyo is insane" thing seems to really get toned down.
  • Maybe Sakura puts up with her because she's rich, nice and it's good to have someone you can trust when you suddenly gain magic powers.
  • The fact that Tomoyo is her cousin and they've been friends for a long time might be a tad helpful in "putting up" with her.
  • Nah, it's the money, I don't talk to my cousins anymore and they're not even insane.
  • In case you didn't notice, Sakura tends to be kinda slow.
  • There is a simple explanation for it. People tend to become used to presence of other things/people even if they are annoying. And if Tomoyo wanted to associate herself with Sakura for whatever reason and only showed her insanity after Sakura got used to her, Sakura wouldn't really care to stop associating herself with Tomoyo because it would've become part of her life by then.
  • Sakura does make a comment in the first episode that she thinks Tomoyo's a little strange. But frankly, Sakura wouldn't be the first person in the world to put up with eccentric personality tics from a friend if that friend is simultaneously awesome enough to always be in your corner.

• Why is the series called "Cardcaptors"? Li is not a Cardcaptor! He doesn't capture one single card. He has weakened or outsmarted cards who chose him after Sakura caught them, but Sakura still had to catch each one first.
  • 'Cardcaptors' is just the dub title. The original Japanese title is 'Cardcaptor Sakura' in the singular.
  • Duh. We're not talking about the original title, we're talking about the word "Cardcaptors." This isn't an issue of translation or adaptation, it's an issue of fact. Li doesn't capture cards. He can wield cards, so Cardwielders or Card Magicians or the like would be perfectly okay, but he can't capture cards. So where did the dubbers get the idea that they can pluralize Sakura's title?
    • While he can't actually seal cards, he does capture a few of them, in the anime at least—he played a key role in weakening several cards, to the point where they chose him as their owner after being sealed—notably, I specifically remember the Time card going to him, because he didn't use another card to shield himself from its power. So while he can't seal cards, he does capture them, and he refers to himself as a cardcaptor on a few occasions.
  • Don't forget that the name was chosen by people who didn't understand the story. Heck, it's highly possible that nobody at Nelvana has a look at the original script.

• How come Tomoyo, being so smart and confident, never got to say her feelings to Sakura? Hers are no weaker then Li's, why then she said: "They better stay in my heart"? Or is it just anime fault?
  • Tomoyo's love for Sakura is so deep that she only wants for Sakura to be happy. Realising that Sakura has no romantic feelings for her, Tomoyo not only accepts Sakura and Li's feelings for each other, but goes out of her way to bring them together. It's selflessness (though some might call it stupidity).
  • She did say her feelings, at the athletics festival. Sakura didn't understand, so Tomoyo decided to wait. Then Syaoran showed up and fell in love with Sakura and Sakura started to fall in love with him. Tomoyo again tried to explain how she felt (in a hypothetical way this time, without naming Sakura as the one she loved), and Sakura again didn't pick up on it.
    • Plus, as Tomoyo herself said, if you truly love someone, you'll want them to be happy, even if they aren't with you. Tomoyo is wise beyond her years, and realized that Sakura and Syaoran loved each other, and that Sakura would be happiest with him, not knowing, rather than carrying the burden of knowing that she had to turn down her best friend.
    • Tomoyo never truly confessed her love for Sakura. She merely mildly alluded to it, knowing very well that Sakura wouldn't think it through.
  • If anything, I think it has to be asked whether her feelings for Sakura really are "love" that is identical to what older people feel, or merely a childish fondness of someone. I think it's the latter, and generally speaking people her age are seldom able to form relationships of this kind. People tend to forget about this because most of us are adults (surprisingly, considering the original target demographic) and for us such relationships are a normal thing.
    • Except that this is Cardcaptor Sakura, a series in which ten-year-olds quite regularly fall in love and form relationships strongly implied to have all the depth and lasting power of adult romance, whether it's with an adult (like Rika and her teacher) or with someone the same age. Possibly the only times a ten-year-olds' love was called an immature infatuation were Sakura's and Li's feelings for Yukito; Li was informed by Yue that he was just dazzled by the power of the moon he radiated, and Yukito used this to turn Sakura down because he recognized that there was someone else meant for her and already closer to her, even if she didn't realize it yet. Other than these, all the romances between children are treated as serious.
  • Tomoyo specifically refers to her feelings as "feelings best kept in the heart" when talking to Syaoran about Sakura. She's someone who doesn't think her feelings need to be known; there are people like that in the world. Instead, she just enjoys the warmth of the feelings and Sakura's company. She's genuinely content with keeping quiet.
• Eriol/Clow looks damn creepy most of the time, with his constantly half-lidded eyes and Cryptic Conversation penchant. Right after he shows up, and in most situations he's near to, a magical disturbance happens. Why does no one pick up on it?! Come on, people! Magic does not atrophy brain-cells/common sense!
  • The only ones who'd notice the magical disturbances just finished cleaning up two seasons worth of magical disturbances where he wasn't present. Why would they suddenly think the new kid is responsible for things that are like things that have been happening for months? Besides, they aren't the most observant folks in their world (ref. Sakura completely missing Tomoyo's feelings).
  • In the manga, at least, this is pretty well covered. Sakura gets warm fuzzies from Eriol because he's so kind to her and has the same aura as her father, and with her naive and trusting personality, she'd never suspect him. Syaoran is the most likely person to expose him, and Eriol knows this. He gets around it by trolling Syaoran, hilariously, alternately flirting with Sakura and Syaoran with some extra creepy thrown in Syaoran's direction. Syaoran presumably can't tell whether his suspicion is rational or just jealousy and personal distaste, and doesn't want to hurt his friendship with Sakura by voicing it. Tomoyo is the only other main character who knows Eriol, and in their conversation right before the Final Battle she shows she's been an excellent judge of character as far as he's concerned. She's just picked up on the genuinely kind and protective feelings he has for Sakura, which happen to coexist with all of the evil schemes. At any rate, Eriol's not above directing a little Laser-Guided Amnesia at someone who sees something they're not supposed to, and presumably was ready to pull it out for anyone who pieced things together as well.

• How did that book get into their basement? Also, if magic in inherited, wouldn't it have reacted to Sakura's father?
  • The father didn't have magic powers though, didn't he? They all ended up with Eriol, didn't they?
  • That's right. When Clow reincarnated, all the powers (and memories, apparently) went to Eriol, whereas the rest of him, the part that just wanted to be a normal person and raise a family, went to Fujitaka.
    • Well, technically speaking, most of the power (at least half) went into the cards and into Sakura. The whole reason for the plot was Clow wanting to dial down his power level, after all
    • Actually, the reason for the plot was that Clow couldn't divide his own powers, but he knew that Sakura could. As for the book - Fujitaka probably had it all along (although he may not have been aware of it). 'Reincarnation' isn't really the right word - it is implied in the manga that Fujitaka and Eriol were created rather than born; Fujitaka has no memory of his childhood because he never had one.
  • Also, Fujitaka is an archaeology professor and has an entire basement of books. It's highly conceivable that he noticed the Clow at a used book sale somewhere, thought it was nifty looking and picked it up with the intention of studying it someday.
  • In the dub Sakura actually gets some narration in the first episode about how the Book of the Clow was found on an archaeological dig somewhere and that nobody had ever been able to open; cutting the lock off with various tools didn't even work.
    • I think we can safely ignore any dialogue invented for the dub...
    • That is not exactly what the dub said about the clow book. The dub said(and i can guarantee this as i have an old vhs tape with the first episode)that Sakura's father found the book at the university where he works and was intrigued as no one could open it and brought it home pretty much on a whim.As for the original Japanese anime ? I don't know,i haven't seen that version.In the manga Sakura just says she found the book in the study although Kero does mention that the book was in Osaka for awhile which could imply that it passed through a lot hands before it got to Sakura(Kero also says the cards were in Hong Kong at one point in time during the movie but i don't think the movie is canon)as for how the book actually got to the kinomto residence i have no idea.Magic Maybe?
• What the heck is up with Twin Bells? Even after the "curse" had been lifted, it still was a Weirdness Magnet with a naive shopkeeper. Who kept sending her weird magical artifacts?
  • Eriol? Yuuko, maybe?
• How does Yukito have a house? Clothes? Food? He doesn't have any real grandparents, either, yet, he never notices.
  • And speaking about grandparents, when he rescued Sakura from the Illusion card from drowning (in the manga), he takes her to his home. Sakura finds herself with different clothes, and Yukito tells her that it was his grandmother who changed her clothes... but if Yukito lives alone...
    • Maybe it was Yue?
    • He probably just told her that to calm her nerves. Imagine knowing that the person you like just stripped you down and changed your clothes? It's quite obviously nothing pedophilic, seeing as Yukito is, well, gay, and for Sakura's older brother at that.
    • Plus, Yue is, for want of a better word, an assistant to the keeper of the cards. So to him, it's no different than a manservant changing the clothes of their ward.
• If you watch the timeline in which CCS takes place very closely, you'll realize that there is a serious inconsistency where Touya (and by extension, Yukito) is concerned. CCS takes place over three years—the first arc takes up two (there were about 5-6 months before hand we didn't even see in the canon), and the second arc takes up another year on its own. When the series starts, Sakura has just started her fourth year of elementary school, and Touya and Yukito have just started their second year of high school. We know this because it is said a year later that Touya met Yukito in his first year of high school, since Yukito has been a character all along, we must therefore conclude that this is their second year. But there are only 3 years of high school in Japan. If Touya and Yukito were in their second year of high school when the series began, why are they apparently still in high school two years later?
  • This is a result of the manga taking place over a much shorter timeframe, with the anime adding a whole bunch of padding and extra cards without really correcting the timeline. CCS doesn't actually take place over three years, it takes place over ONE.
  • It does take place over almost three years. In the manga when Sakura meets Syaoron for the first time, she said that she had been looking for the cards for 9 months. Also by the end of the series before the timeskip, Sakura was 12. So she start when she was 9 or 10 and has been going for almost 3 years.
  • Actually it's two years. In the first volume Sakura says that she has been searching for the cards for two months, and Touya is introduced as a second year in High School. The Japanese school year starts in April and ends in March of the next year with one week-one month off. By the time Sakura meets Syaoran she is nearing the end of her adventures, and its the middle of the Japanese school year. Then the final judgement happens and Sakura outright says that she's in the fifth grade. The manga ends with Syaoran leaving when they are still in the fifth grade. There is no third year, as the series makes it clear that Sakura is 10 year old 4th grader at the beginning and 11 fifth and the end of the series (minus the epilogue where she is a middle school student). Touya and Yukito are also in their second year of Highschool in the first half of the manga and 3rd year in the second (according to the blurbs at the beginning of the chapters). Because Sakura's birthday is right at the beginning of the new school year if another year passed then the manga would make note of it. But since they hadn't then that means that only two years passed.
    • Going by the cycling of the school uniforms, the manga actually does take place over three years. Also, there are textual clues that indicate that capturing the cards happens over two years. Most notably, it says that the talent show featuring the play of Sleeping Beauty happens in December, so it has to have been a year since Syaoran's arrival, since that happened at the end of December. Also, in the manga, the first chapter of Volume 9 happens on March 14 (White Day), but Sakura also says that it's not a school day, which means it's a Sunday, since Japanese schools hold class on Saturdays. If you make the reasonable assumption that the series starts in the same year that the first chapter was published (1996), then it has to happen over three years, since 1999 is the first year after 1996 that has March 14 fall on a Sunday. The simplest explanation is that CLAMP didn't do the calculations to figure things out. I've simply resolved the discrepancy by adopting a headcanon that Sakura was in third grade and Touya and Yukito were in their first year of High school when the series started and that Touya and Yukito met in their third year of middle school. And even that only works if you assume that the final school year of the manga runs into April.
• Okay, I think I've discovered some nasty business from Dark Horse Manga. I checked out both the Dark Horse translation and the Tokyopop one, and they use the same wording very, very often. While I get that some lines will be simple enough to make similar translations possible by coincidence, lines like "I'm a hip, happenin' guy!" are too unique style-wise. The fact that they're found in both versions is a clear indicator that someebody's been stealing somebody else's work. Check out page 61 (59 in the Tokyopop version) of book one. Every single line apart from the last one is exactly the same in both versions, including "Tomoyo-chan's bodyguards pick her up when it gets late. Most bodyguards on TV are men, but these bodyguards are all female. Tomoyo-chan says it was her mother's idea... I don't really get it." And page 134-135 (Tokyopop's 132-133) are pretty much identical as well. As are page 145-148 (143-146), page 96 (96) and page 68-69 (70-71). They all have a difference of two-three words at most but are identical otherwise. Have Dark Horse Manga broken the law? (If you're uncertain about whether copying has taken place, check out page 148 (Tokyopop page 146) where Sakura gets a letter from Tomoyo. The wording is exactly the same.)
  • It is entirely possibly that as part of the contract, the rights to the translation were or are now owned by the original licensor and were provided to Dark Horse along with the license. How many times has an anime been "license rescued" and re-released with the original dub created by a different company?
  • It's possible that this is the case, but that doesn't explain why the Dark Horse translation says "Original translation by Mika Onishi and Anita Sengupta" if the translation is just a slight rewording of the Tokyopop one.
    • It says that because is is just a slight rewording of the Tokyopop one. Sengupta was the original translator for Tokyopop, at least for the "Master of the Clow" books (I never got Tokyopop's re-release of the original 6 since I had Kodansha's bilingual volumes).
    • Sengupta wasn't involved with book one at all, though; at least not according to the Tokyopop credits in their edition of it. But as you can see, it's settled below.
  • This is the original poster; I emailed them and they said they do have the rights to the Tokyopop text.
• How exactly does Sakura succeed in using the Windy Card against Yue? It being under his jurisdiction usually means he can take control of it and turn it against her, but it's ability to resist this and subdue him happens without explanation.
  • It's not made explicit, but this Troper's theory is that it's because Sakura finally managed to, subconsciously, tap into the whole "next most powerful sorcerer in the world since Clow Reed" thing. Sakura managed to overrule Yue's jurisdiction over Windy by sheer willpower and magical force, after Sakura became determined not to allow a world where everyone forgot their feelings towards their loved ones.
    • It is pretty explicit in that the bell left by Clow at the Tsukimine shrine (or possibly that was a lie and it was given to Kaho by Eriol, since he had not been revealed at that point) allowed her to use any card against Yue.
  • I always thought that the Windy card's loyalty to Sakura overrode its loyalty to Yue. It was the very first card she "caught," after all, and the cards do have a will of their own.
    • You could take the loyalty theory further since Sakura never really caught Windy, Windy never went anywhere. Even though she could have escaped with her brothers and sisters, Windy chose to remain with Sakura. Maybe she sensed what Sakura was to become.
  • Doesn't Clow Reed show up after the battle and explains that she created a wand that is powered by Sakura's own star, unlike the power of the Sun and the Moon?
  • Sakura is using the star wand for the first time when Windy works on Yue (he had no selled Woody earlier as Woody is a moon-aligned card under him), it's likely that, although it doesn't get transformed into a Sakura card until later, Windy was drawing its power from Sakura's star magic rather than Clow's moon magic, so Yue no longer had jurisdiction over it.
• Couldn't Eriol have revealed himself to Sakura at the beginning? If he had explained the need to change the cards and said he'll give her situations to change the cards, Sakura would still be determined to succeed and change the cards, and when she was given a trial by Eriol, she would still have a reason for changing a card. Besides, in Eriol's final challenge, Sakura knew who was causing things to happen, was told what to do to pass the challenge, and had reason to change the cards. Why couldn't Eriol have handled every other challenge with Sakura knowing?
  • He was probably trying to make the "danger" more real, since we all know people can go above their usual limits when in danger. And he could reveal himself safely at the end because Sakura's magic kept on getting stronger with each changed card. Was his decision really the right decision, though? I think not, but then again humans can make mistakes, and the same applies to characters in a story.
    • Eriol's got a flair for the dramatic. Look at his hat and tell me it's not true!
  • Eriol was deliberately invoking Die or Fly. Revealing himself in the final challenge only worked because Sakura had absolutely no idea what the hell his true motivations were. If she had known that he was creating situations to help her change the cards, then when he pulled the "break my spell or you'll never see your friends again" thing, it's almost certain she wouldn't have had the same degree of desperation fueling her efforts to change the Light and the Dark. Given that she was only just barely successful at changing them with that degree of desperation fueling her, how likely do you think it is that she would have succeeded without feeling so seriously desperate?
• So we have the Mirror Card, which can make itself into a double of anyone, and in the anime, we have the Twin Card, which can duplicate anything, including people......what exactly was the point of having two cards with nearly the exact same function? This goes for the Watery and the Rain as well.
  • The anime invents a whole lot of redundant cards. The Return and the Time? the Song and the Voice? the Loop and the Maze? the fucking Bubble?
  • The entity coming out of The Mirror acts independent of whoever it takes the image of, where this isn't the case with The Twin. People duplicated by The Twin act and speak exactly the same at the exact same time, nor do they know they've been copied, going off how Wei acted. I don't think The Watery is actually able to make it rain. The Watery can absorb water into itself (as it does when Rika almost drowns) but not make it rain. It's the equivalent of a fire hydrant to The Rain's rainstorm. The Cloud makes it rain as a side-effect of covering the sky with very thick clouds rather than actually being able to make it rain by will. The Storm is a blend of The Rain, The Windy, The Thunder, and possibly The Snow and/or The Freeze if it can make it hail. Honestly, the only redundant card I see is The Cloud. As to the foul-mouthed person directly above this who seems to hate the anime, The Return and The Time aren't the same cards. Nor's The Mist, since it also has time powers of a sort. The Return allows only one person to go back years and years in time, where The Time can stop time and reverse it by one whole day, forcing the day to repeat itself exactly the same; I presume by Clow shushing Sakura that The Return allows one to change history if they chose to interact with it where you can't do this with The Time, as the day will repeat itself exactly the same way as it did the first time; only people who have magical abilities will change things and even then, as we see from The Time's episode, it's only very minor changes; they're still compelled to follow the day exactly the same, even if they don't mean to. Li walking after the recorder test is a good example. The Mist also has time properties, as it speeds up decay time for all nonliving matter. The Song copies singing and only singing; The Voice will take any voice-speaking or singing- that it likes, rendering the person completely mute. The Loop and The Maze are two totally different cards and not even remotely similar so I don't get where calling them redundant to each other comes from. The Maze constructs mazes and The Loop bends time and space to make basically a racetrack. There's no way to get lost in The Loop. As to The Bubble, it's meant for cleaning and isn't redundant at all since no other card has the same properties.
    • Don't you think you're overreacting a bit? There is no way to tell that the user above you hates the anime. They are just criticizing one minor aspect of the anime. I couldn't love this series more, but I agree that many anime-only cards are redundant. Those cards might be different in how they work, but they have very similar uses. The anime itself acknowledges Power and Fight are ridiculously similar. Watery makes it rain in the manga. Also there is no reason why Watery shouldn't be able to create bubbles, that's as if Windy would only be able to make wind tempests but not small breezes. The Wave is literally just a weaker Watery! And why would Clow create Storm instead of just using those cards you mentioned when he wanted to create a storm? Actually, why would he create Twins when its ability is just a limited version of what Mirror can do? Why can't Time let its user go back in time as further as they want? It's like the power was split on two. Same with Voice and Song, they could be just one card. A lot of cards are very, VERY specific. Obviously because they were invented just for plot purposes (and that's why some of them are so rarely used after its capture), and yes, they made for very good episodes, but their powers are still pretty redundant. In-universe, a smaller number of cards (with not so restrict abilities) would make more sense, since in an emergency situation you would spend less time thinking which one is the most suitable, you might waste some precious time thinking if you should use Loop or Maze to trap someone, for example.
    • Perhaps that specific nature was the intent. Clow created the cards for very specific needs (The Twin is more useful for direct action like battle, while The Mirror is more a utility card. Wave is designed specifically for tasks that require manipulating water already present rather than creating it. Time is perhaps meant to allow for research (change slight variables to change a result, like a savestate), while The Return is meant to make larger alterations or observations of the timeline. As to Power and Fight, it's two different focuses. Power is simply raw strength, for things like lifting or moving objects, while Fight is martial prowess
• What happened to Eriol's house to make it fall into such rapid disrepair in four months?
  • It could be that the nothing card did it.
  • Or perhaps that was the original form, and Eriol was creating and maintaining a magical simulacrum?
• Why the hell is everybody here using the original Japanese names to refer to the characters instead of the dubbed English names? What, do you guys actually expect everyone to have memorized the original language names?!
  • Because Nelvana is not the only one who dubbed the anime, there is also the Animax dub. The second movie english dub also had the original names aswell. And other non-english dubs also brought the original names, such as the Latin-America version. In fact, if this is a page about CARDCAPTOR SAKURA, why should anyone follow the CARDCAPTORS dub names?
  • As far as I know, the Nelvana dub was only broadcasted in North America. TV Tropes is edited by people from all over the world. Do you Americans expect everyone to memorize the names invented on your country?!
  • Even if the Nelvana version had been the only one, it is still a Macekre, and using the original Japanese names is more appropriate (especially if the Nelvana version had been the only one).
• Alright, so I know that Yukito is Yue's temporary form, but how does that work exactly? Are they the same person with different minds and hearts, or the same person with different minds, or two people in one body?
  • Yukito is, in essence, a disguise for Yue. Unlike Kero, who guides Sakura, Yue needs to be impartial for those who would claim the cards for themselves lest they make a good impression, he goes easy on them, and they turn out to be an inferior master, and thus he can't simply be himself in another form like Kero can. Thus a persona was needed, and Yukito was that persona. As for where Yukito's personality comes from, it's semi-implied that Yue and Yukito are two sides of the same coin - Yukito could be seen as the generosity, kindness and charisma Yue suppresses in order to remain a good, impartial judge. It also makes for a pretty great disguise, seeing as you'd hardly expect the nicest guy around to be the judge who could very well kill you, and it also tests the merit of the master to see if they would not rise to such a challenge.
• What was Tomoyo thinking when she designed the Bat Burglar costume? Don't you think fingerless gloves are a little too inapporpiate for a museum robbery? You know, fingers are exposed and Sakura could have perfectly left fingerprints, that means leaving evidence for museum aurtorities if they noticed the painting changed.
• In episode 6 after Sakura's near-mishap Yukito tells her that Tomoyo was gonna look after her 'plush toy' (i.e. Kero), which means she took him home with her, but in episode 11 Kero doesn't actively guide Sakura to Tomoyo's place until he has a look round and exhibits some surprise upon seeing just what her home is like.
  • Kero was in a very terrible mood during that and also hurt by Sakura's magic. He probably was first asleep for a long time and then not in any mood to really look around. That plus hiding in the picnic basket makes it possible Kero didn't notice. Though why Sakura didn't comment on how surprised Kero is about Tomoyo's house...
• Kerberos name doesn't go with the Theme Naming of the other Clow guardians. They all mention the sun or moon in some way in their name, whereas Kerberos is named after a three headed dog that guards the underworld in Greek myth. Also the pattern of pairing a person with a big cat for each set of guardians feels random and odd as well. Why not four people? Or four cats?
  • Kerberos was created first, it's possible Clow didn't even think of theme naming them until after the fact and by then it was too late. Kerberos and Yue both say that Clow could be single minded and oblivious. Also Ruby and Spinel are theme named for red gemstones.
• So...what's stopping Sakura from using the power of the Big Card to defeat all the villains? All she has to do is activate the Big Card, grow to giant size, and smash the villain under a giant foot.
  • It's not that kind of a show. Even then, it's not her style.
  • Most of the Clow Cards that had yet to be captured at that point had dominion over something insubstantial like Cloud or Snow so smashing would do no good or they were in a location where it would be inconvenient to grow in. As to the Sakura Card arc At least for the first three incidents: you can’t smash water, the piano was in the school and she didn’t want to destroy the school by growing so big she’d break the floor, she wasn’t about to smash her close friend Syaoran when he was controlled by the thread.
• Something that makes no sense in the anime (It doesn’t happen so much in the manga) is the fact that they fail to figure out Eriol is the one behind the events when he’s the one who touched the piano, the leaf, the bike, the bear, the fortune there’s a common thread here that’s glaringly obvious.
  • Well it's not in their nature to be suspicious of someone whom they consider to be a good friend.
  • They can sense Clow Reed's presence when the magic is happening, but they don't sense Clow Reed's presence when Eriol is around. Since they expect to sense the same magic at the source of their troubles, they wouldn't expect their trouble to come from someone or something who doesn't have the same magic.
• In "Sakura's Never-Ending Day", why is Kero's video game save file erased the first time? That's the beginning of the time loop, so logically his save data should've carried over through the next day and then gotten erased at the next midnight.
• When is it ever shown that Mizuki is in a relationship with Eriol? (who is actually Clow Reed) Given that this is CLAMP, I would not put it past them to include such a relationship, but I did not get any hints that they are together, just that they were both in Europe at one point.
  • In the last (or second to last) chapter of the manga, Kaho and Eriol basically confess love to each other, and Kaho specifically comes back to Tomoeda to leave with Eriol, Spinel Sun, and Ruby Moon. So they weren't technically in a relationship yet, they were just mutually in love like Touya and Yukito were.
• Why does Sakura's father address her as "Sakura-san"? It seems oddly formal to me, and I don't think I've seen another anime where a parent uses the "san" honorific when speaking to their child.