Thursday, December 4, 2008

Cardcaptor Sakura

This Magical Girl Anime series follows the daily life of a young girl named Sakura Kinomoto. When the series starts, she is a normal Japanese elementary school girl, but all that changes when she stumbles across an ancient book called The Clow. She accidently scatters the book's magical contents - the Clow Cards - all over the small town of Tomoedo, where she lives. With the help of the Beast of the Seal, Kerberos, Sakura finds herself dubbed a "Cardcaptor" whose job it is to quickly capture all the cards in order to prevent a terrible world disaster that many would consider "worse than death".

This series is easily the best of the famous Magical Girl genre of Anime. While the premise is simple, the characters and their relationships with each other are not. With CLAMP animation studios behind it, it has beautiful artwork and animation - it's one of the only shows ever where all the characters change their clothes every day! Despite each episode having the same base idea, the presentation is so varied that it never seems the least bit repetitive. The storyline has a number of very mysterious elements and twists that keep viewers good and glued to the screen. All of these things have made it one of most popular Anime series of all time.


Main Characters:

Sakura Kinomoto

Sakura is a very outgoing, energetic elementary school student who loves atheletics. When she accidently releases the magical Clow Cards from their book, it becomes her job to collect them by becoming the world's only Cardcaptor.

Tomoyo Daidouji

Tomoyo is Sakura's best friend. She is a gentle, polite girl with an incredible singing talent. Her favorite pastime is to hand-make all of Sakura's battle costumes and then video tape her beloved friend's adventures large and small.

Kero

Kero is the Guardian Beast of the magical book The Clow. It's his duty to watch over the cards... but he fell asleep on the job. When he's not helping Sakura capture the cards, his favorite pastimes are eating, sleeping, and playing video games.

Shaoran Li

Shaoran is a talented young Chinese sorcerer who is also collecting the Clow Cards and comes into the series as Sakura's rival. Despite being a very serious young man, his age shows itself in the fact that he is easily embarassed by any mention of love.

Sakura's Family and Friends:

Touya Kinomoto

Touya is Sakura's big brother. Even though he teases Sakura all the time, he actually loves his little sister very much. Like Sakura, he was also born with magical powers - including the ability to see spirits and sense the supernatural.

Fujitaka Kinomoto

Fujitaka is Sakura and Touya's devoted father. As a single parent, he is very good at cooking, sewing, and generally doing his best to fulfill the role two parents usually play. He is a professor of archeology at the University.

Nadeshiko Kinomoto

Nadeshiko was Sakura and Touya's gentle mother who passed away when she was just 27 years old. Even though she has passed on, her family still loves her very much and her spirit watches over them from Heaven.

Yukito Tsukishiro

Yukito is Touya's best friend and Sakura's crush. He is a very kind person who seems to be extremely talented at just about everything he tackles. Despite his slight size, he has a voracious appetite, often eating 3 times more than a normal person.

Chiharu Mihara

Chiharu is one of Sakura's close friends and a member of the cheerleading squad. She loves stuffed animals and is always full of energy.

Rika Sasaki

Rika is another of Sakura's close friends. She is a mature, quiet girl who has a huge crush on the class's 4th grade teacher Mr. Terada.

Naoko Yanagisawa

Naoko is the third member of Sakura's close circle of friends. She is unatheletic, but more than makes up for it in creativity and intelligence.

Takashi Yamazaki

Takashi is a boy in Sakura's class who likes to tell stories that sound very convincing, but are actually not true. This irritates his close friend, Chiharu, quite a lot, but seems to work well on Sakura and Shaoran.

Meiling Li

Meiling is Shaoran's Chinese cousin who tranfers from Hong Kong just to be with him. While being a good martial artist, Meiling lacks any real magical powers - not that she's about to let that prove that Sakura is better than her!

Kaho Mitzuki

Miss Mitzuki is at first Sakura's 5th grade math teacher and later one of her close friends. From the beginning, Sakura and Shaoron both sense a strong power around this friendly, but mysterious woman.

Magical People and Creatures:

Kerberos/Cerberus

Kerberos is the true form of Kero-chan. He only has the power to use his magic and change into this form when all the cards are collected. In this form, he is ruled by the sun and truly looks the part of Guardian Beast.

Yue

Yue is the Judge of Sakura's worthiness as Mistress of the Clow Cards. Once the judgement has passed, he is Kerberos' partner and polar opposite as the other guardian of the Cards and their owner. He is ruled by the moon and has a very stoic demeanor.

Eriol Hiiragiza

Eriol first appears as a mysterious British transfer student in Sakura's class. He quickly charms Sakura with his sophisticated ways and perfect manners, but Shaoran can't stand him. Before long it's revealed that Eriol is actually...!

Nakuru Akizuki/Ruby Moon

Nakuru first appears as a transfer student in Touya's class. She is very good at sports and dresses like a girl, but actually isn't a girl at all - she isn't even human! She is actually a supernatural being called Ruby Moon who seems to know more than a few secrets that she isn't quick to reveal.

Spinel

Spinel is a mysterious little black cat-like creature who is always in the company of Eriol and Nakuru. Usually a humorless little thing, he quickly becomes happy-drunk when fed any kind of sweets.

Minor Characters:

  • Clow Reed - The creator of the Clow Cards and the magical creatures protecting them.
  • Yoshiyuki Terada - Sakura's teacher and the object of Rika's affections.
  • Sonomi Daidouji - Tomoyo's beautiful mother who was best friends with Nadeshiko.
  • Maki Matsumoto - The owner of the toy shop in Tomoedo Town.
  • Great-Grandfather - Sakura's estranged great-grandfather who resents Mr. Kinomoto for taking away his granddaughter.
  • Wei - Shaoran and Meiling's guardian.

    The Clow Cards:

    The Clow Cards are an ancient, magical set of cards that each have their own power and personalities - some much stronger than others! This show revolves around these cards and their powers, so I thought it was important to list them for reference. In alphabetical order they are:

  • The Big - Makes anything it touches bigger.
  • The Change - Makes things switch with each other.
  • The Create - Allows imagination to come to life - literally!
  • The Dark - One of the most powerful cards - It is #1 under Yue and possesses most of his powers. Must be captured with the Light.
  • The Dash - Allows things to move faster.
  • The Dream - This one is obvious, yes?
  • The Earthy - One of the four most powerful elemental cards.
  • The Erase - Makes people disappear.
  • The Fight - Makes a warrior stronger.
  • The Firey - Another of the four most powerful elemental cards. Very aggressive.
  • The Float - Allows the user to float themselves or objects.
  • The Flower - Creates flowers. The most gentle of the cards.
  • The Fly - The most useful card to Sakura. Allows her wand or her to grow wings.
  • The Freeze - Freezes whatever it touches, including people.
  • The Glow - Produces little spots of light. Another passive card.
  • The Illusion - Reflects the image of what a person is thinking.
  • The Jump - Another very useful card to Sakura. Allows her to jump very high and out of danger.
  • The Light - Dark's sister card, it is #1 under Kerberos and inherits his powers.
  • The Little - Shrinks whatever it touches.
  • The Lock - Locks doors so no power can open them.
  • The Loop - Turns an enclosed area into a loop.
  • The Maze - Creates a maze in an area. Used mainly for plot development.
  • The Mirror - Creates a mirror image of a person complete with emotions. Has a special bond with its master or mistress.
  • The Mist - Weakens buildings it wraps around.
  • The Move - Moves sought objects out of reach.
  • The Power - Gives the user great strength. An aggressive card.
  • The Rain - Obviously, it creates rain. A rather weak card on it's own.
  • The Return - Allows the user to travel to the past, but at a great cost to their power.
  • The Sand - Creates Sand. Again, basically created just to move the plotline.
  • The Shadow - A restaining card.
  • The Shield - Creates a shield to protect the user.
  • The Shot - Allows the user to shoot fireballs. Very aggresive card.
  • The Silent - Removes sound from whatever it touches.
  • The Sleep - Puts those it touches to sleep. Very useful when a magical girl doesn't want to be seen!
  • The Snow - Creates snow, a lot of it.
  • The Song - Replicates the voice of the best singer. A very gentle card.
  • The Storm - Works like a tornado.
  • The Sweet - Turns whatever it touches disgustingly sweet.
  • The Sword - Creates a magical sword and makes the user a master swordsman.
  • The Thunder - Creates thunder, a very aggressive card.
  • The Time - Reverses, Speeds Up, or Pauses time.
  • The Twins - A set of battle cards that must be captured together.
  • The Voice - Seals people's voices.
  • The Watery - The 3rd powerful elemental card. Very aggressive.
  • The Windy - The 4th Elemental Card and Sakura's favorite. She is a gentle card who works defensively.
  • The Wood - A very gentle card that loves water and light.
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    Character

    At the start of the series, Sakura is 10 years old and living in a fictional town called Tomoeda in Japan, [1] located not far from Tokyo.[2] One day in early April, shortly after her birthday and only slightly into her fourth grade year at Tomoeda Elementary School (Reedington Middle School in Cardcaptors), young Sakura stumbles across a mysterious old book called The Clow in her father’s study.[3] Instantly upon touching the book, a confused Sakura mistakenly awakens one of the card’s guardians, Cerberus who was sleeping on the front cover where he was supposed to be guarding the Clow Cards: a deck of 19 (52 in the anime) magical cards with incredible powers. [4] Upon emerging from the book, Cerberus admits to having let the cards slip away as he slumbered, and, realizing Sakura’s magical potential, cunningly tricks her into becoming the "Cardcaptor" and duty bound to collect all of the missing cards and return them to the book where they will then be under her control.[5] What is not revealed until much later is that Cerberus, by appointing Sakura this position, was marking her as his one and only chosen candidate to become the next master of the Clow Cards and their guardians. [6] The anime version of the series presents a slightly altered chain of events in which, on the afternoon after her first day of fourth grade, Sakura hears a mysterious sound coming from her father's library in the basement. She, nervously armed with her cheerleading baton, goes downstairs and there discovers the book of the Clow with all of its cards (the anime extends the deck to contain 52 cards) still within it. In this altered version of the story, Sakura picks up the top card and reads its name aloud, "Windy". This activates the Card, summoning a large wind that blows the remaining Cards out of the house and into the distance after which Cerberus emerges and appoints her to retrieve them. This was most likely added to not only give Cerberus a more justifiable reason to send Sakura on her mission, but also to give her an easier time at completing it, as she now begins her adventure with one of the cards, Windy, already under her control, as opposed to starting with no cards at all as in the original manga.

    Personality Outline

    Sakura is an extremely energetic and cheerful character. She is very athletic, being a member of her school's cheerleading squad and an excellent runner. [7] Her "invincible spell", "Everything will surely be all right." (「絶対大丈夫だよ。」 "Zettai daijōbu da yo."?), has carried her through innumerable trials and obstacles as she masters her magical skills. She often comes across as naïve, clumsy, and clueless, but she has her perceptive moments on occasion. Her favorite foods are omelet and noodles with seafood and her favorite recipe is pancakes. Her birthday is on April 1. She hates Mathematics, loves Gym and Music, and her blood type is A.[8]

    Sakura's optimistic and trustworthy character allows her to be friendly with everybody, and the entire series focuses on the friendships she creates with people, whether strangers, loose acquaintances, or rivals. In fact, her personality is a dominating factor in her relationships, especially with Syaoran.

    Family

    Sakura lives with her older brother, Toya Kinomoto (Tori Avalon), and her father, Fujitaka Kinomoto (Aiden Avalon). The three help manage their home together, often rotating cooking and cleaning chores. Sakura's mother, Nadeshiko Kinomoto (Natasha Avalon), became seriously ill, and died when Sakura was three years old.

    Creation

    Sakura's character designs for the manga were originally developed by Mokona of Clamp. She was designed to capture the image of Mokona's then two-year-old niece Kawaji. Kawaji wore short hair in pigtails much like Sakura does in the anime and manga.

    Magic

    Sakura's most sacred and important items are most likely her sealing wand and cards, since they are her main weapons in magic. Throughout the series, Sakura's magical powers get progressively stronger. [9] This is mostly verified by Cerberus at random points in the series, as Sakura would otherwise appear to have equal expertise in each capture, when she summons Clow Cards. Throughout the Clow Card arc, Cerberus's comments seem to imply that Sakura's magic grows as she battles and captures more Cards. [10] This is also implied in the corresponding anime. In contrast of this, in the second half of the series we are reminded of Sakura’s inexperience as she often collapses after transforming the cards. [11] However, as she grows progressively proficient in changing Clow Cards into Sakura Cards, she becomes less tired and more aware of Clow Reed's presence. [12] She also remembers more details about her prophetic dreams. [13] During the last of Eriol's trials, she is able to transform several cards at once. [14] This sequence of events during the second arc is more or less true in the anime version of the series as well, with only a few changes made. The most obvious of these is that Yue (a character who, in the original version of the series is shown as becoming much closer to Sakura throughout Eriol’s trials to the point of accepting her at least as a valued friend [15]) is shown throwing her a constant stream of criticism as a reminder of Sakura’s lack of experience. Another interesting change made in the anime variation is that, by end of the series, she, subconsciously, manages to create a new Card, the nameless card (aka, HOPE in the English version: the unsealed card), which would later serve as a major plot point for the second movie.

    After Final Judgement, Clow Reed tells her that her magic seems to be drawn from the power of the stars, which may start small, but are ever-shining with their own brilliant light. However it should be noted that like Clow Reed's magic, Sakura's is a balance of sun and moon magic. [16] Eriol gave half of his powers to Sakura's father, the other half of Clow's incarnation. This made Sakura the most powerful magician in the world, even surpassing her predecessor Clow Reed. [17]

    Relationships

    Syaoran Li

    Sakura's relationship with Syaoran Li (Li Syaoran) is the most recognized relationship in the series, mostly because the second half of the series is heavily devoted to its development.

    Most significant to the development of their relationship is Syaoran's changing opinion of Sakura, mostly because of Sakura's own heart-warming personality. In the beginning of the series, Syaoran immediately considers Sakura a rival when he finds out she is the Cardcaptor and concludes her unworthy of bearing the responsibility of the Clow Cards. [18] Sakura is constantly intimidated by his glares and brash attitude both at school and while capturing Clow Cards. However Sakura never gives back any negative responses or behavior. Most of the time, despite Syaoran's aggression, she thanks him for his help and effort. This eventually becomes very confusing to Syaoran, whose gentler side soon causes him to be more humble than arrogant.

    An important turn in their relationship occurs when the Earthy reveals itself in the manga chapter entitled "The Power of the Elements", where Sakura falls into a deep crevice created by the card. [19] Running to save her, Syaoran yells out to her, calling her by her first name. [20] After being rescued by Cerberus, Sakura returns this by asking if she can start calling him "Syaoran-kun". [21] This is paralleled in the anime where, in episode 57, Tomoyo, Syaoran, Eriol, Sakura take a visit to a teddy bear museum. (The journey through the museum is accompanied by the song Ki Ni Naru Aitsu or That Girl I Can't Ignore , sung by his voice actress, Kumai Motoko). This is followed by a scene in an elevator between Syaoran and Sakura where events similar to those centered around the Earth card occur. Syaoran screams out Sakura's name here when she falls into a hole. Sakura later tells him she heard this, and asks if she can call him "Syaoran-kun" instead of the more neutral "Li-kun".

    Throughout the series, Syaoran gradually becomes more committed to caring for Sakura romantically, most especially after Yue forces him to confront his feelings early on in the second story arc, but she remains completely oblivious of his feelings. [22]Syaoran's blushes become more frequent, and there are some occasions where he would suddenly become clumsy when in her presence. [23] Sakura will either keep an innocent smile on her face or look confused and worried at Syaoran whenever he trips and falls.

    When Sakura confesses her feelings to Yukito, only to have them essentially rejected, Syaoran is there to comfort her in the park afterwards. [24] It is a very emotional period in the series, but she is able to recover, thanks to Syaoran being there to help her get her emotions out. [25]To give thanks, she spends a week making him a scarf. Similarly, in the manga, Sakura returns the favor by spending a week making him a yukata which she gives to him after he agrees to accompany her to a festival. [26] Sakura is finally made aware of Syaoran's feelings when he personally confesses them near the end of the series, after the final battle with Eriol Hiiragizawa. [27] The news comes as a complete shock to her, and it is ever present in her thoughts over the next few days. After talking to her friends about why she is upset and confused about her feelings, those feelings lead her to conclude that Syaoran is her true "number one person," and she confesses her newfound feelings as Syaoran suddenly leaves for Hong Kong (though only temporarily). The anime stretches out the suspense, with Sakura not yet answering Syaoran in the last episode of the series. Instead, her confession comes at the end of the second movie, after several failed attempts throughout the film.

    The teddy bears (seen in the above picture) are named Sakura and Syaoran, respectively, referring to a fictional tradition where if two people make teddy bears for each other and the recipients name them after their donors, the two will be a couple forever. [28] In the manga, Sakura and Syaoran name their bears after each other after she confesses her love to him. However this is slightly changed in the anime, where, Syaoran gives Sakura his bear (she asks to have it) in Episode 70, but Sakura never gives him one, having already given it to Yukito earlier in the series.[29]

    In the second movie, Syaoran returns to Japan with his cousin Meiling Li (Meilin Rae) (anime only character) who was having secret phone calls with Tomoyo Daidōji who helped plan their return. Tomoyo and Meiling attempted to organize outings for Sakura to tell Syaoran about how she feels but, rather amusingly, she gets interrupted until the end of the movie where Sakura confesses her love believing that Syaoran had forgotten his most important feeling. She begins to cry but Syaoran surprisingly replies "Me too, Sakura." The song Ashita e no Merodi plays with the sunrise clear in the background to symbolize happiness and victory. Sakura is so overjoyed by the revelation, that she recklessly leaps across a large hole in the floor to reach Syaoran. The film ends on a cliffhanger with Sakura halfway through the air, but a still image released with the film shows that she makes the leap, right into Syaoran's arms.

    Yukito Tsukishiro

    In the first half of the series, before any hint of a relationship with Syaoran, Sakura's primary romantic focus was on the older Yukito Tsukishiro. On a class trip in the fourth volume, Sakura reveals to Syaoran that her crush on Yukito began when Toya brought Yukito home on the day Yukito transferred to Toya's school. Yukito's presence always causes a significant effect on Sakura's feelings, commonly provoking her "floaty" exclamation, "Hanyaan~" (はにゃあん～). Unlike Syaoran, who is attracted to Yukito because of his power, Sakura is truly in love with Yukito.

    Sakura always does her best to impress Yukito, on rare occasions even competing with Syaoran to give the better compliment or gift. [30] She often looks forward to going to school with Yukito each day, and she is worried when he is not there. [31] Most times when her brother, Toya, is present, Sakura is often provoked to raise her voice or else act "unladylike" at Toya, which immediately elicits her embarrassment when she realizes Yukito is also there watching her.

    Late in the series, Sakura finally decides to confess her love to Yukito instead of forever skirting around the issue. [32] However, Yukito does not return the feelings, admitting that he loves her also but only in a platonic way. [33] He asks her to reevaluate her feelings towards him and suggests that she feels attached to him more because he resembles her father. Sakura agrees with Yukito after some thought, and he continues to reassure her by saying that the real "number one person" for her is still out there somewhere, and she should not give up searching for him. [34]

    After an emotional afternoon in the park, Sakura is able to get over Yukito but still remaining a close friend through the end of the series. She, in a rare perceptive moment, also realizes that Yukito's feelings have always been aimed towards her brother, Toya. [35] She accepts that fact, also, and wishes them the best.

    Interestingly, in the last book of the manga (episode 70 of the anime), Eriol reveals to Yue that when Clow chose Sakura as the future new Master of the Clow Cards and their guardians, he had expected that in the future Yukito would love Sakura more than anyone else and vice versa. [36] Yukito's feelings for Toya and Syaoran and Sakura's feelings for each other were the unforeseen occurrences, a few of the deviations from Clow's plan, that Eriol mentions to Sakura and friends at the party in Clow's mansion.

    Tomoyo Daidōji

    Though non-romantic, Sakura's close relationship with Tomoyo Daidōji (Madison Taylor) is likely the second most significant relationship in the series. Sakura and Tomoyo are best friends (and second cousins as their mothers were cousins), meeting randomly for the first time in the third grade when Sakura offered Tomoyo one of her erasers. [37] Since then, Tomoyo has been very attentive to everything that Sakura does, including finding a passion for filming her throughout her daily activities.

    Sakura holds a lot of trust in Tomoyo, often allowing her to take lots of measurements for the multitude of battle costumes and dresses that are made for her. Tomoyo is also one of the few keepers of Sakura's secret as the Cardcaptor, often accompanying Sakura in many of her adventures for filming and costume-testing opportunities. In the second half of the series, when Sakura gets a new wand and mission, Tomoyo is responsible for choreographing Sakura's new action poses.

    Tomoyo holds a special, arguably romantic, attachment to Sakura; of which Sakura is completely oblivious. In both the manga and anime, Tomoyo admits that she loves Sakura, but Sakura replies innocently, "I love you, too," in the platonic sense. (This is emphasized using manga conventions: Tomoyo declares her love against a background of flowers, while Sakura replies against a blank white background). The manga takes the scene further where Tomoyo comments that her love is more than what she is thinking it is. Sakura gives a confused look, but Tomoyo drops the topic, adding, "I'll tell you when you're older." [38]Throughout the series, Sakura never realizes this deeper attachment, simply remaining Tomoyo's best friend. Tomoyo, however, selflessly does not mind this at all and even helps Sakura most times in setting up situations with Yukito and Syaoran, as Tomoyo understands they are the ones who would make Sakura the happiest.

    Because Tomoyo lacks any magical powers, Sakura takes on a protective responsibility most times when capturing or transforming cards. If Tomoyo is ever in danger (or missing), Sakura will be the one concerned for her most, and her focus changes from that of the Card at hand to Tomoyo's safety. Fortunately, Sakura always succeeds and hugs Tomoyo warmly whenever she reunites with her. [39]


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