Cardcaptor Sakura
Cardcaptor Sakura, abbreviated as CCS,
The manga was adapted into a 70-episode anime television series by Madhouse that aired on Japan's satellite television channel NHK BS2 from April 1998 to March 2000. Additional media include two anime films, video games, art books, picture books, and film comics. Tokyopop released the manga in English in North America from March 2000 to August 2003. After Tokyopop's license expired, Dark Horse Manga released the series in omnibus editions from October 2010 to September 2012.
Nelvana licensed the TV series and first film for North America under the English title Cardcaptors, which first aired on Kids' WB from June 2000 to December 2001. All 70 episodes were dubbed; while other English-speaking territories received the full run, the version aired on American television was heavily edited into 39 episodes. Cardcaptors also aired on Cartoon Network, Teletoon, Nickelodeon, Network Ten, and RTÉ2. The TV series and films were sub-licensed by Geneon, which released them unedited with English subtitles. The TV series was also released by Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand.
Cardcaptor Sakura was critically well received. Critics praised the manga for its creativity and described it as a quintessential shōjo manga, as well as a critical work for manga in general. The manga series was awarded the Seiun Award for Best Manga in 2001. The television series was praised for transcending its target audience of young children and being enjoyable to older viewers, and for its artwork, humor, characterization, and animation; it won the Animage Grand Prix award for Best Anime in 1999. The American edit of Cardcaptors, however, was criticized for removing elements essential to the plot.
Plot
Cardcaptor Sakura takes place in the fictional town of Tomoeda, which is located somewhere near the Japanese capital of Tokyo. Ten-year-old Sakura Kinomoto accidentally releases a set of magical cards known as Clow Cards from a book in her basement created by and named after the sorcerer Clow Reed. Each card has its own unique ability and can assume an alternate form when activated. The guardian of the cards, Cerberus, emerges from the book and explains that only a person with magical powers could open the seal of the book, revealing to Sakura that she can do magic. Kero chooses Sakura to retrieve the missing cards. As she finds each card, she battles its magical personification and defeats it by sealing it away. Cerberus acts as her guide, while her best friend and second cousin, Tomoyo Daidouji, films her exploits and provides her with both battle costumes and moral support. Sakura's older brother Toya Kinomoto watches over her, while pretending that he is unaware of what is going on.Syaoran Li, a boy of Sakura's age and an indirect descendent of Clow Reed, arrives from Hong Kong to recapture the cards himself. While initially antagonistic, he comes to respect Sakura and begins aiding her in capturing the cards. Once Sakura captures all of the cards, she is tested by Yue, the cards' second guardian, to determine if she is worthy of becoming the cards' true master; Yue is also the true form of Yukito Tsukishiro, Toya's best friend whom Sakura has a crush on. Aided by her school teacher Kaho Mizuki, Sakura passes the test and becomes the new master of the Clow Cards.
Afterwards, Eriol Hiiragizawa, a transfer student from England and later confirmed as the reincarnation of Clow Reed, arrives in Tomoeda and begins causing disturbances with two guardian-like creatures, Spinel Sun and Ruby Moon; the latter of whom takes on a human persona and goes to the same school as Sakura's brother Toya. While under the guise of a female student Ruby Moon develops a strong crush on Toya while seeing Yukito as a love rival. At some point Yukito reveals to Sakura that he loves Toya, who later reveals indirectly to Yukito that he loves him in return. Sakura finds herself suddenly unable to use the Clow Cards and transforms her wand, beginning the process of evolving the cards into Sakura Cards as Eriol causes strange occurrences that forces her to use and thus transform certain cards. Once all the cards have been transformed, Eriol tells Sakura that he aided her in converting the cards so they would not lose their magic powers, while Spinel reveals to Sakura that Eriol stopped himself from ageing long ago so that he could go to class and befriend and help her. Syaoran later confesses his love to Sakura, who comes to realize she also loves him. Sakura reveals to Syaoran that she loves him back; telling him that he is her "Number One". Syaoran reluctantly returns to Hong Kong but now knowing that Sakura loves him the same way he promises her that he will come back when he's finished with some business he needs to attend to there. He desperately asks Sakura if she will wait for him, and vows that she will. Over the next two years, Sakura and Syaoran maintain a long-distance relationship; making phone calls and writing letters to each other. On Sakura's first day of middle school, Syaoran moves back to Tomoeda permanently, and happily reunites with Sakura.
The plot of the anime series is extended, featuring 52 Clow Cards from the manga's original 19, and certain scenes are stretched and delayed, such as Cerberus' true form not being revealed until just before Yue's appearance. Sakura creates a 53rd card, Hope, a talent she is not shown to have in the manga. Some of the circumstances around the capturing of the cards is changed, such as Syaoran capturing several cards himself and being tested by Yue in the Final Judgment. Syaoran's cousin and fiancée Meiling Li is introduced in the anime, who positions herself as a jealous and romantic rival for Sakura and later becomes a friend until she returns to Hong Kong. The television series leaves the relationship between Sakura and Syaoran unresolved, but Sakura confesses her love to Syaoran at the end of the second anime film.
Production
Cardcaptor Sakura was first conceived shortly before the conclusion of Clamp's Magic Knight Rayearth, which was serialized in Nakayoshi. Clamp's head editor Yamonouchi asked them to do another series in Nakayoshi, and Clamp decided to make a "Nakayoshi-esque" series, as opposed to Rayearth, which Clamp described as unlike anything they had done before. Head Clamp writer Nanase Ohkawa's first impulse was to create a magical girl series, despite not being well-versed in the genre. Ohkawa wanted the heroine Sakura to be in the same age group as the majority of Nakayoshis readers so that fans could relate to her. Due to it being different from how Clamp normally conceived characters, Ohkawa designed the other characters such as Tomoyo and Cerberus to be more like Clamp's previous creations. Once Ohkawa had enough information on the characters, she had the three artists in Clamp—Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi—design them based on her descriptions. When designing Cerberus, Ohkawa wanted a mascot-type companion for Sakura, but Nekoi tried various forms, including dogs and squirrels, before designing the final version. Syaoran and Toya were conceived to be a common type of character featured in Clamp's works.Various other titles were suggested for the series such as Cardcaster Sakura and Card Character Sakura before Nekoi suggested Cardcaptor Sakura. While Ohkawa planned out Cardcaptor Sakura from beginning to end, she never consulted the plot with the other members, instead giving them the script one chapter at a time. Mokona initially drew Tomoyo so it would look like she was in love with Toya, which led to her surprise when she received the script for the chapter which reveals Tomoyo loves Sakura. The story was planned to have the theme of "if you try your best, it'll work out", but Ohkawa did not start out with Sakura's "It'll definitely be okay" mindset. Ohkawa addressed the relationships featured in the series by using Tomoyo and Sakura as an example. She explained that the reason Tomoyo and Sakura did not end up together was because Sakura did not love Tomoyo in a romantic way.
The central theme of Cardcaptor Sakura is love and human relationships. Throughout the series, many forms of love are showcased, including "sibling love, childhood crushes, unrequited love, true love." At times, Clamp even ignores the Clow Cards for several chapters to focus more on the relationships of Sakura and those around her. Each of these relationships are presented nonjudgmentally and without commentary on the correctness of the relationships. In particular, the romantic relationship between elementary student Rika Sasaki and her teacher Yoshiyuki Terada is presented in such a way that it can be seen as a sweet and innocent tale of "wish fulfillment", or if examined more seriously, as a mildly disturbing story of pedophilic love.
The artists, especially Mokona, were told by Ohkawa to use thin lines and to try to express things through curved lines as opposed to straight lines. The style of artwork was decided at the beginning to unify the world view of Cardcaptor Sakura. Ohkawa wanted the series to have a "soft, cute-like" feel, so she asked the artists to not use a lot of ink and to make the pages light. For the multitude of flower imagery used in the manga, Nekoi looked through various books to find appropriate flowers, and tried to avoid using the same flower more than once in one chapter. Igarashi remarked that they "never had to draw so many flowers for one series," but they made a point to not use roses. Clamp wanted to incorporate transformation scenes into Cardcaptor Sakura, but because many magical girl manga have the girls wearing the same outfit, they wanted Sakura to wear different costumes. They felt that "it's pretty sad for a girl to wear the same outfit all the time."