Post One - Why I chose this show

I chose the anime Cardcaptor Sakura because it is, in my opinion, the best show ever made. The animation has received widespread acclaim, and the art style, while being rather cutesy, is appropriate for the show, and at times does get darker and grittier in times of peril or conflict. The dialogue between characters is rarely repetitive, and stays fresh and enticing throughout the show, leaving the viewer hooked on the characters’ words. However, the real star here, past the animation or sound, is the incredible dynamics between characters. Whether it is love, hate, competition, or even simple friendship, every relationship is thrown into great detail, and the characters’ personalities mesh and clash flawlessly, creating a believable universe with relatable, human characters, which is incredible for the genre it fits in. In addition, it is one of the few anime that is long for a reason, yet not overly long. Cardcaptor Sakura spans over seventy episodes and two movies, which is not disappointingly short, like the twelve episode long Magical Pokaan, or needlessly long 700+ episode long and still running Bleach.  It allows you to be able to pick it up from the beginning, and still have a hope to make it to the end, and it never gets stale. And for those reasons, I chose this work.

~ Joseph Meyers

Post Two - Brief Plot Summary

In the first episode of the show, we are shown a ten year old girl, Sakura Kinomoto, getting up and starting her daily routine. The first half of the episode sets up her normal life as a preteen, setting up friendships, conflicts, and even a mildly controversial love interest. When she gets home, her father, a college professor, has left a note saying that he’s gone to give a lecture, and her brother has gone to help. When she hears a noise in her father’s library, she goes to investigate, and accidentally releases a book of sealed cards, and waking their guardian, a beast by the name of Keroberos (Cerberus in the English dub.) Kero appears as a small plush toy, with angelic wings on his back, earning him the name of “Kero-chan” from Sakura, which irritates him to no end. Kero reveals that the cards Sakura released are the mystical “Clow Cards” a deck of cards containing magical beings created by the great Eurasian magician Clow Reed. Each of them, Kero says, will become activated, and will wreak havoc on Sakura’s home city unless she can capture them and reclaim them into cards. Kero makes a deal with Sakura and gives her a key, that when released by her will, turns into a wand that allows her to capture and then use the magical Clow cards. The first card released is Windy, a wind spirit that in its wild form appears as a giant bird, and its captured form as a fairy. Sakura captures the card, and Kero shows her how to use it, giving her wand wings and allowing her to mount the wand and fly through the air, which is caught on camera by her best friend, Tomoyo Daidouji. Tomoyo, who is fiercely loyal to Sakura and may or may not have a sort of burning love for Sakura (The anime suggests an “I want her to be happy” kind of love, while the original manga work suggests a “dating” kind of love.) In the next episode, Sakura is forced to reveal Kero and the Clow cards to Tomoyo, who falls in love with the idea, and proclaims herself Sakura’s camerawoman and costume designer, forcing Sakura to wear costumes that she designed on her card-capturing missions. The next block of episodes, about 35 or so, is centered on Sakura finding the cards, and living her daily life. There are some episodes where a card capture is a side plot, or not even featured at all, which prevents the show from becoming stale and uninteresting. About halfway through the show, a new character appears, called Syaoran Li. Syaoran is presented as an antithesis and a rival to Sakura. Syaoran is also a Cardcaptor, trained by his family his whole life should the Clow Cards be released. He is stubborn, determined, and mature, and sees Sakura as nothing but an annoyance, her being untrained and barely capable. The next block of episodes, and two movies, very much centers around their deepening relationship, as well as finishing the deck of Clow Cards. In addition, Sakura’s initial love interest, Yukito, who is in the eleventh grade and is seventeen, and her brother’s best friend, meets Syaoran, and Syaoran finds himself attracted to Yukito as well, which leads to more competition between the pair. In the end, after seventy episodes and two movies, about a year in the time of the show, Sakura FINALLY realizes that Syaoran has feelings for her, and she jumps toward him, yelling “I love you Syaoran-kun,” and the frame is cut to still frame just before the pair connect, being the most frustrating ending in history. Yukito is shown to have mutual feelings with Sakura’s brother, and poor Tomoyo is left all alone. The Clow cards are all collected and sealed, and we are left to assume that everyone lived happily ever after.

Post Three - Character Analysis

Syaoran Li - I picked Syaoran Li to analyze because, in my view, he is one of the most interesting characters in the story, and certainly has the most growth and development of his character as the series goes on. When he arrives, he belittles and is downright antagonistic towards Sakura, and is very much a loner. He was raised to be fiercely independent and self-reliant, so his social standing is understandable. He is shown to be a master martial artist and swordsman, and is able to use magic freely without cards, although he still needs his sword and scrolls to do so. As a character in the beginning, he was stubborn, rude, and pushy to the end, capturing a few cards and outshining Sakura with ease. However, when Sakura is declared the new mistress of the cards by Clow, he drops the attitude and becomes more helpful, and eventually one of her best friends. Later in the anime, he becomes helpful, comforting, and extremely affectionate to both Yukito and Sakura, although his attraction to Yukito is explained away, and he focuses his love on Sakura. Sakura, of course, being rather ditzy, does not notice this and friend-zones him pretty hard. By the end, he often blushes whenever Sakura touches or compliments him, and he grows intensely jealous of any male she shows affection to. He is brave and confident, and in the end, is Sakura’s greatest ally, and love interest.

 

^Syaoran Li, in everday clothing

 

 

^Syaoran Li, in battle and cardcaptor attire

Post Four - Theme

Cardcaptor Sakura has many major themes, and most of them center on the attitude of Sakura herself. The importance of an upbeat attitude is major, as many times in the show, when she falters, her mantra "Everything will surely be all right." genuinely gives her the strength to achieve, and finish her task. But, in my opinion, the most important and over and over, restated, hammered in themes, is the transcendence of love. In the show, and the manga, many couples that would be taboo are shown freely. For example, Sakura’s mother was 16 when she fell in love and married Sakura’s father, who was her high school professor. Tomoyo is shown to have deep feelings for Sakura, who is, yet again, completely oblivious, and Toya, (Sakura’s brother) and Yukito have mutual feelings for each other. One of the most controversial relationships, and one of the ones that was COMPLETELY cut out of the English dub, is the relationship between Rika, one of Sakura’s friends, and their teacher, Terada. In the original work, they were engaged in the middle, with the teacher holding her at arms distance until she is older. These relationships in many societies would be considered taboo, with cries of pedophilia and homosexuality slung around like accusations, but the show makes no big deal, and it’s not being activistic, but rather, it simply show pure, innocent love, in all of its forms.

Post Five - Biography

The creator of the Cardcaptor Sakura manga is Clamp, a small Japanese mangaka group comprising of four women, who make Shoujo (Aimed at young to adult females) manga. They are one of the most popular firms in japan, and out of their offices have come a great number of hugely successful works, such as Cardcaptor Sakura, Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles, xxxHolic, Angelic Layer, and Wish. Clamp originally began as an 11 member group, although their numbers have dwindled down to four over the year, three artists and one storyboard writer. The women share a working space, making regular meetings unnecessary, and have no assistants, as assistants would slow them down due to “years of jargon” they had created among themselves. In 2004, the members of the group changed their names, for aesthetic and personal reasons, and as a celebration of the group’s fifteenth anniversary. In addition to the unique art style they use, and the captivating stories, characters from their works are often re-used in later works, resulting in a loose “clamp universe” in which the characters reside, rather than having a separate universe for each work.

Works Cited

Cardcaptor Sakura. NHK Educational TV, Japan 7 Apr. 1997. Television.

Sakura Kinomoto. Cardcaptor Sakura Wikia. Web. 6 January 2012. http://ccs.wikia.com/wiki/Sakura_Kinomoto.

Yukito. Bishonen Info. Web. 6 January 2012.

http://bishounen.info/yukito/index.html

Photo Gallery of Characters

^Sakura Kinomoto, Heroine

^Syaoran Li, Rival and later friend and love interest

^ Tomoyo Daidoujii, best friend of Sakura

^Yukito, initial love interest of both Sakura and Syaoran, and inert form of Yue

^ Kero, Friend of sakura, and inert form of Keroberos

^ Toya, Older brother of Sakura, love interest for Yukito

^ Fujikata, father of Sakura and Toya

^Keroberos, Active form of Kero and sun gaurdian of the Clow Cards

^ Yue, active form of Yukito and moon gaurdian of the Clow Cards

^ Example of relationship between Sakura and Yukito

^Example of relationship between Sakura and Toya

^Example of relationship between Sakura and Syaoran