Cardcaptor Sakura - episodes 47 to 50

The third series of Cardcaptor Sakura is like one glorious aftermath. There aren't any cards left, so the story throws the exciting prospect of Sakura creating her own magic. What is known in the Discworld as "sourcery".
There is so much that's exciting about this season. It offers the prospect of Yue and Keroberos on tap - halving Hisakawa Aya's role, to be sure, but to see both forms work as if they're the same person, it's great that they're extensions of each other. The inverse can be said about Yue - two more different characters (still clearly "cut from the same cloth") there could never be.

The relationship between Yukito and Toya is one of the most ambiguous as Toya never lets on how much he knows or how much he has told. The highlight of the second season were the scenes that featured Toya, Mizuki and Yukito together, or just those with Mizuki and Yukito. Providing similar results is the new character Akizuki Nakuru, who always turns up just as Toya has something very important to say.
Now, these new characters; they're quite patently up to no good. Eriol looks bright and promising, with his placid blue eyes wide open. Then people turn their backs and his eyes narrow; pure ... not evil ... but certainly bad intent!
While it soon becomes apparent who these people are, it's still unclear quite why they act.

There aren't any more Clow Cards; and while the excitement of Sakura creating magic is palpable, the means by which she has to are somewhat questionable. Sakura and the Dangerous Piano, for instance. Just what is going on here? Every episode seems to flow into the next, which is very nice indeed, and the lurking characters are doing a good job of lurking. The fighting's not as arbitrary as it was with some of the Clow Cards; hopefully the writers are aiming to create a veneer of trust amongst the characters, to lead them into increasingly dangerous situations. That's got to be it.

Despite the uncertainty as to the direction that Cardcaptor Sakura has taken, with Tomoyo clearly being the smartest of all of the characters, the series definitely has more vitality than it had for a long time. The new ED, which is essentially "Tomoyo, Sakura and Kero-chan's baking adventure" is a marvellous use of colour and the OP (with heavenly vocal by Sakamoto Maaya) has some delicious hints of stuff to come. It's pure taste.

I no longer have "primary" and "secondary" programs, just an alternating title; so I'm sticking with Cardcaptor Sakura until the end! (with the exception of a series break between this and the second movie).