Cardcaptor sakura

Cardcaptor Sakura (カードキャプターさくら, Kādokyaputā Sakura^?, also known as Sakura, card hunter in Spain and Sakura Card Captors in Latin America, or simply abbreviated as CCS or SCC) is a manga series written and illustrated by the mangaka group CLAMP, and whose anime adaptation was directed by Morio Asaka. The story centers on Sakura Kinomoto, a little girl who discovers her strange magical powers after accidentally releasing a set of letters that were inside a book. After this Sakura with the help of her friends is forced to collect and care for the "Clow cards" to prevent a "catastrophe" from occurring in the world.

The manga was first published in May 1996 by Kōdansha, in the Japanese monthly shōjo manga magazine Nakayoshi, until it came to an end in June 2000 with the twelfth volume, compiling fifty chapters. Subsequently, the manga story was adapted into an anime series by Madhouse studios, which aired in Japan from April 7, 1998 to March 21, 2000 on the NHK television network, where it ended with a total of seventy episodes. In addition, the work has been adapted into two animated films, numerous video games and several supplementary books, such as artbooks, picture books and anime comics. In addition, various types of merchandise related to Cardcaptor Sakura have been produced. The Spanish versions of the manga were published by the publisher Editores de Tebeos —formerly known as Ediciones Glénat— in Spain, by Editorial Toukan in Mexico for distribution in the rest of Latin America, and by Editorial Ivrea in Argentina.

Since the authors wanted to create links between some of the fictional universes of their works, they added numerous crossovers of the characters from Cardcaptor Sakura in other of their series, such as in Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE and ×××HOLiC, and their stories are closely related. Both the anime and the manga have achieved great success inside and outside of Japan. In 2000, Cardcaptor Sakura won the Anime Grand Prix Award for Best Anime, an award given annually to the most notable anime. The following year, it won the Seiun Award for Best Manga. Also, in a ranking published by TV Asahi of the 100 most popular anime of 2005 based on an online survey in Japan, the series ranked sixty-first. nine. However, by 2006, it reached position forty-four in the same ranking.

Plot

Image of a flower Sakura, representative of the main character homonym.

The work narrates the adventures of Sakura Kinomoto, a little ten-year-old girl who accidentally releases a set of letters that were inside a book, which she had discovered in her father's library. After this, Kero - the guardian of the book - emerges and, upon learning that most of the cards known as the "Clow cards" had been scattered everywhere, he tells Sakura that it is now her responsibility to become a "cardcaptor" and go in search of them to prevent a "catastrophe" from occurring in the world. Therefore, Sakura acquires special abilities to face the magical powers of each card and manage to capture and seal them. Kero becomes Sakura's guide and mentor during the search, while her best friend, Tomoyo Daidōji, makes her great varieties of suits, since according to her "she must wear special clothes for a special occasion". Also, Tomoyo often makes recordings of Sakura's battles.

As the story progresses, new characters appear, such as Sakura's rival, Shaoran Li, a boy originally from Hong Kong and a descendant of the magician Clow Reed —the creator of the cards, hence their name—. However, he manages to establish a friendship with her that little by little turns into love. Likewise, it is discovered that Yukito Tsukishiro, Tōya's best friend -Sakura's older brother-, is the other guardian of the cards and whose true appearance is a being similar to a white angel and his real name is Yue. Yue is the one who judges who will be the next master of the Clow cards, and in this case it was Sakura who became the new master and guardian of these.

Differences between formats

At the start of the manga, three months had passed since Sakura had released the Clow Cards and she already had three of them in her possession. However, in the adaptation it was shown from the first moment Sakura had released the cards. of the book. Also, some of the dramatic moments in the series were made longer, such as the reveal of Kero's true form, which was not shown until just before Yue appeared. the number of cards to be captured, adding thirty-three more than in the original version, reaching a quantity of fifty-two cards. Also, in the second anime of the series, Sakura created a new card, "Hope" (希望, "Hope" ^?), thus increasing to fifty-three in total. anime, Eriol Hiiragizawa was the only reincarnation of the magician Clow, but in the manga there were two; Eriol, who kept all the magical powers and remembered that in his previous life he was Clow Reed, and Fujitaka —Sakura's father—, who did not remember anything but kept many of his characteristic physical features. Likewise, in the last chapters of the manga, Eriol asked Sakura to split her power to give half to Fujitaka. However, since Fujitaka was not a reincarnation of Clow in the anime, Eriol left for England with all his power.

Shaoran's role in the anime was expanded, as he had to capture several of the additional cards, as well as being tested by Yue before Sakura. A new character was created, Meilin Li, who was introduced in this adaptation as Shaoran's cousin and fiancée, being a kind of rival to Sakura in love. The ending of the anime was also modified a bit, since she left the relationship between Sakura and Shaoran unresolved, because the former had not responded to Shaoran's confession of love. However, in the second animated film, Sakura tried to confess, but this only happened in the last few minutes of the film. The relationship between Yukito and Tōya was also not clarified in the anime, as well as Tomoyo's affection for Sakura, which was beyond friendship, or the fact that Eriol and Professor Kaho Mizuki were in love and the secret relationship between Rika and Professor Terada since the beginning of the story.

Relationships with other series

The CLAMP group tends to establish relationships between their works, and, according to their own words, they wanted to create a series where they could link the different fictional universes of some of their works. After considering this idea, they decided to start ×××HOLiC and Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, and in the latter, Sakura and Shaoran were added as protagonists, but the characters also appear. real Sakura Kinomoto and Shaoran Li as characters. Also, other characters from Cardcaptor Sakura were included, such as the magician Clow Reed, Yukito, Tōya and several more. In the story of ×××HOLiC, for its part, both characters from Cardcaptor Sakura and objects from the same series can appear.

The story of Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE is closely related to that of ×××HOLiC. Tsubasa begins with the introduction of childhood friends: Shaoran, a young archaeologist who is investigating some ruins in the Kingdom of Clow, and Sakura, the princess of the Kingdom of Clow. When Sakura visits Syaoran in the ruins, a pair of wings suddenly appear that transport his soul in the form of feathers to other dimensions. Soon after, the priest of the Kingdom of Clow, Yukito, realizes that Sakura is about to die and therefore sends her along with Shaoran to the world of the "witch of dimensions", Yūko Ichihara. While the story continues to take place in Tsubasa, in ×××HOLiC something similar happens, since Yūko Ichihara was already prepared for the event and receives a visit from Sakura and Shaoran, where the latter he asks for her help in order to save the princess's life. Yūko explains that there are multiple parallel universes and that each person could exist in all of them, although their souls would remain the same even though they had totally different lives. With the help of Yūko, they are transported in the various worlds to fulfill their mission of collecting each of Sakura's feathers.

Aspects of the series

The series takes place in a fictional town called Tomoeda, which is located in modern Japan, and is where most of the events of the play occur. Most of the characters that appear in the series are normal human beings. However, there are also magical beings like Kero and Yue or other characters like Sakura Kinomoto and Shaoran Li who, despite being human, possess special magical abilities to be able to fight against Clow cards and thus manage to capture and seal them.

In the original manga story there are only nineteen Clow cards (クロウカード, Kurō Kādo^?), while thirty-three more cards were included in the anime adaptation and an additional card was created in the second film, making a total of fifty-three cards. The cards, with the exception of the fifty-third, were created by a powerful wizard and sorcerer named Clow Reed—hence the name "Clow cards"—who in turn created Kero and Yue, symbolizing the Sun and Moon, respectively. When Clow died, the set of cards were sealed in a book and he left Kero and Yue as guardians; the first is the judge who selects the person who will capture the cards, while the second is the judge who will decide if the person selected by the first judge is worthy of being the master and guardian of both the cards and them. Each card has its own personality and can range from kind to violent. In addition, their powers can be based on the natural elements or simply in performing a specific task, as well as having the ability to tell the future once a certain number of cards is possessed.

On the other hand, when Sakura captures a card and writes her name on it, they can only obey her commands even if someone else tries to use them. Also, having passed Yue's test, the protagonist became the new mistress and guardian of the cards. It is later revealed that Sakura creates a new type of magic thanks to her growing abilities, thus being able to renew the cards and make them become "Sakura Cards". The fifty-third card, "Hope » (希望, "Hope"^?), was created by Sakura herself in the second animated film after uniting "the nameless card" with the "Nothing" card (無, "Nothing" ^?).

Main characters

The main characters will be briefly described below, the seiyū of the original Japanese version and the dubbing actors in Latin America and Spain will be named:

• Sakura Kinomoto (END END, Kinomoto Sakura^?)

She is the protagonist of the story; a sweet, naive girl, and good at sports, although somewhat clueless. She was responsible for converting the Clow Cards to Sakura Cards. For most of the series, Sakura believes she is in love with Yukito Tsukishiro, the best friend of her older brother, Tōya. However, when Shaoran declares her love for her, she is emotionally confused, and later she realizes that she was actually in love with Shaoran. In the Japanese adaptation her seiyū is Sakura Tange, while in the Spanish-American dubbing she is Cristina Hernández, and in Spanish she is Isabel Gaudí.

• Syaoran Li (Русский, Li Syaoran^?)

He is a descendant of the wizard Clow Reed; His entire family has magical powers and since he was little he was trained to capture the letters in case they were released. At first, Shaoran appears as Sakura's rival, but later they develop a friendship that little by little turns into love. In the Japanese adaptation his seiyū is Motoko Kumai, while in the Spanish-American dubbing he is Uraz Huerta, and in Spanish he is Pepa Agudo.

• Kerberos (▪, Keruberosu^?), known as Kero (▪, Kero^?)

It is the solar guardian of the Clow cards. Over the course of the series, he helps Sakura capture the cards, as well as gives her advice regarding magic. His initial appearance is that of a teddy bear, but it is later revealed that his true form is that of some sort of winged feline. In the Japanese adaptation, his seiyū is Aya Hisakawa for the stuffed form, and Masaya Onosaka for his true form. For the Spanish-American dubbing, Yamil Atala voices the character in his two forms, while which in the Spanish dubbing features Jaime Roca, and Regino Ramos, for the stuffed and true forms, respectively.

• Yue (September, Yue^?) / Yukito Tsukishiro (Русский, Tsukishiro Yukito^?)

He is the lunar guardian of the Clow cards. His appearance is that of a white angel, but he normally wears that of Yukito Tsukishiro, an ordinary human being and Tōya's romantic partner. He usually only transforms when he has to help Sakura on her mission. In addition to being a guardian, Yue is in charge of judging who will be the new master of the Clow cards. In the Japanese adaptation his seiyū is Megumi Ogata —both in human and angel appearances—, while in the Spanish-American dubbing he is Enzo Fortuny, and in Spanish he is Alfredo Martínez for the human appearance, and Jorge Saudinós for his guardian form.

• Tomoyo Daidōji (0,000 sterling Exposing, Daidōji Tomoyo^?)

She's Sakura's best friend; a kind, reliable girl with a prodigious voice. She serves as Sakura's costume designer for the Clow Card capture and often accompanies her to film her during her battles. In the last stage of the series, Tomoyo helps Shaoran to confess his true feelings to Sakura, despite the fact that he also keeps his feelings for her a secret. Junko Iwao, while in the Spanish-American dubbing she is Mónica Villaseñor, and in Spanish she is Yolanda Quesada.

Theme

The main theme of Cardcaptor Sakura is love and human relationships. Various types of love are shown throughout the series, such as "sibling love, unrequited love, and true love." Sometimes the CLAMP group would take a moment away from looking for the Clow or transparent cards, or the conversion of Clow cards to Sakura, to focus on Sakura's sentimental relationships and the characters that surrounded her. Each of the relationships that are presented in the work were carried out with a certain ambiguity so as not to delineate them exactly. An example is the love relationship between elementary school student Rika Sasaki and her teacher, Yoshiyuki Terada, which is presented in such a way that it can be seen as a sweet and innocent story with "the simple desire to fulfill her dreams" or, if is examined more seriously, as a slightly disturbing story of "pedophile love". Additionally, the presence of same-sex love can be noted, as is the case with Tomoyo Daidōji, who was in love with her best friend, Sakura.. However, these two did not end up together not because they were of the same gender, but because Sakura did not love her in a "romantic way". These two types of relationships are the most observed in Cardcaptor Sakura, mainly because Ageha Ohkawa—CLAMP's leader and scriptwriter—wanted to create a play where "minorities would feel at home".

Production

The idea for Cardcaptor Sakura came before CLAMP finished Magic Knight Rayearth, published in Nakayoshi magazine. the mangaka, Yamonouchi, asked them to make a new series to be published in the same magazine. Thus, they decided to do something different from Magic Knight Rayearth, which they had already described as a different work from what they had done before. The group's head writer, Ageha Ohkawa, first came up with the idea of creating a mahō shōjo series, even though they didn't have much experience with that genre. In addition, Ohkawa wanted the heroine of this new work to be the same age as most Nakayoshi readers, since that way "they could feel related to her". When creating the characters, Ohkawa designed some based on those of her previous works, resulting in Tomoyo Daidōji and Kerberos. Once Ohkawa decided what the other characters were going to look like, she asked the other members of the group—Tsubaki Nekoi, Satsuki Igarashi, and Mokona—to draw them based on the description she gave them. In the case of Kerberos, Ohkawa planned for it to be a type of pet for the protagonist, so Nekoi tried various designs, including dogs and squirrels, before drawing the final version, a teddy bear. Also, she planned for Shaoran Li and Tōya Kinomoto to just be stock characters in the story.

The members of CLAMP at the Anime Expo 2006.

When deciding on the name of the work, several titles were suggested, such as "Cardcaster Sakura" and "Card Character Sakura", but then Nekoi proposed "Cardcaptor Sakura". While Ohkawa was devising the beginning and ending of the story, she did not discuss with her companions what the plot would be like. Mokona pointed out that Tomoyo might be in love with Tōya, but Ohkawa later informed him that Tōya was in love with Sakura, as she wanted to write a story where "minorities would feel comfortable", referring to "taboo relationships" between people of the same age. sex that appear in the story. Thus, this theme was expressed in the series through Sakura Kinomoto, "an open-minded character who represents the family structure and the different types of love".

On the other hand, Ohkawa told female artists, especially Mokona, to use thin lines and to try to express things, use curved lines instead of straight ones. This style of illustrations was decided mainly to unify the vision. from the world of Cardcaptor Sakura. He also noted that she wanted to have a "soft and cute" series, so he asked them not to use too much ink. As for the flowers used in the play, Nekoi said that she had to go through large amounts of books to find the right flowers and tried not to use the same flower in more than one chapter. Igarashi commented that he had "never drawn so many flowers for a series". The mangaka also wanted to incorporate transformation scenes into Cardcaptor Sakura, but since this already happened in many manga mahō shōjo, decided to wear different outfits for Sakura, noting that "it's pretty sad that a girl wears the same clothes all the time".

Content of the work

Manga

Sakura's Magic Loft from the second part of the sleeve.

The Cardcaptor Sakura manga ran from May 1996 to June 2000 in the Japanese monthly shōjo manga magazine Nakayoshi of the publisher Kōdansha. The manga ended with a total of fifty untitled chapters, collected into twelve volumes. The first tankōbon—the volume format—was published on November 22, 1996, while that the twelfth and final tankōbon was released on July 31, 2000.

Kōdansha also published the first six volumes of the series in a bilingual edition in Japanese and English between May 2000 and July 2001. These volumes were part of an experimental line to help Japanese children learn English.. However, Kōdansha stopped distributing the bilingual editions after licensing TOKYOPOP for distribution in English in North America. Kōdansha later republished the work between March 5, 2004 and February 2, 2004. 2005, but this time in a "hardcover" edition. In addition, in 2001 the work won the Seiun Award in the category of best manga, one of the most prestigious awards in Japan.

In honor of the 60th anniversary of Nakayoshi magazine, Kōdansha reorganized the manga into nine special edition volumes containing new covers illustrated by CLAMP, and published them between March 27 and January 28. August 2015. Since June 2016, to commemorate the work's 20th anniversary, Kodansha began publishing a sequel to the manga in Nakayoshi magazine, titled "Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Edition» (カードキャプターさくらクリアカード編, Kādokyaputā Sakura Kuria Kādo-hen^? ). This sequel starts from the first year of Sakura and her friends in high school and introduces the plot of some mysterious transparent cards that Sakura sees for the first time during one of her dreams.

The Spanish versions of the manga were distributed by the publisher Editores de Tebeos —formerly known as Ediciones Glénat— in Spain, by Editorial Toukan in Mexico for distribution in the rest of Latin America, and by Editorial Ivrea in Argentina.

Anime

The Cardcaptor Sakura anime was directed by Morio Asaka, animated by Madhouse, and produced by Kōdansha. CLAMP was also involved in the production of this adaptation, with Ageha Ohkawa writing and composing the scripts, and Mokona supervising the character costumes and Clow card design. It first aired in Japan on NHK television on January 7. April 1998 until it ended on March 21, 2000 with a total of seventy episodes of about thirty minutes each and divided into three seasons.

The first season, consisting of thirty-five episodes, aired between April 7 and December 29, 1998. On the other hand, the second season, with eleven episodes, aired between April 6, 1998. April and June 22, 1999. While the third and final season, which contains twenty-four episodes, aired between September 7, 1999 and March 21, 2000. created three original animations as a bonus gift, titled "Suteki desu wa, Sakura-chan! Tomoyo no Cardcaptor Sakura Katsuyaku Video Nikki!» (すてきですわ、さくらちゃん！ 知世のカードャゼ さくら活躍ビデオ日記！, «Suteki desu wa, Sakura-chan! Tomoyo no Cardcaptor Sakura Katsuyaku Video Nikki!» ^?), as well as a prologue for the anime Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, titled "Sakura to futatsu no kuma» (さくらとふたつのくま, Sakura and the two bears^?). In a ranking published by TV Asahi of the hundred most popular anime of the year 2005 based on an online survey in Japan, the series reached number sixty-nine. However, by 2006 it reached number forty-four in the same ranking.

The Spanish dubbing of the anime was made in two different versions, one in Mexico for Latin America and another in Spain. The dubbing in Spain was done by the Arait Multimedia studios, while the dubbing in Mexico was done by Intertrack.

Movies

The series has also been adapted into two films, all of them directed by Morio Asaka—the same director of the series—and produced by Bandai Visual, Madhouse, and Kōdansha, both based on the story that takes place in the anime.

The first film of about seventy-nine minutes, «Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie» (劇場版カードキャプターさくら, Gekijōban Kādokyaputā Sakura ^?), premiered on August 21, 1999. Set between the first and second seasons of the anime, this film shows Sakura and her friends going to Hong Kong, where they encounter an evil spirit that had fought Clow Reed in the past. The VHS and DVD versions were released in Japan by Bandai Visual in February 2000. On the other hand, the second film —also seventy-nine minutes—, "Cardcaptor Sakura: Movie 2, The Sealed Letter" (劇場版カードキャプターさくら 封印されたカード, "t_nihongo_romaji">Gekijōban Kādokyaputā Sakura Fūin Sareta Kādo^?), premiered in Japan on July 15, 2000. It is a kind of ending to the anime in which Shaoran returns to Tomoeda hoping to get an answer from Sakura about his confession of love, but this is interrupted after a new Clow card appears. which tries to destroy everything in its path. The DVD version was released in January 2001, while the VHS version was released in July 2001. Also, a ten-minute comedy short directed by Masayuki Kojima and titled Kero's section! was additionally added at the end of the second film.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Cardcaptor Sakura was composed by Takayuki Negishi, who also composed the soundtrack for each film in the series. However, before the start of the anime, Kōdansha released a compact disc, titled "CD Comic Cardcaptor Sakura", in August 1997, which contained songs performed by what would be the seiyū of Sakura and Tomoyo. The first album of the The soundtrack, "Cardcaptor Sakura: Original Soundtrack I", was released on July 23, 1998 and contained a total of twenty-six tracks, including the first opening theme, "Catch You Catch Me" by Megumi. Hinata. This was followed by the second disc, "Cardcaptor Sakura: Original Soundtrack II", which was released on December 19, 1998 and contained thirty-four tracks, as well as the same theme song. opening than the previous album and a closing one, "Groovy!" by Kohmi Hirose. The third, "Cardcaptor Sakura: Original Soundtrack III", released on June 23, 1999, contained nineteen tracks and included Anza's "Tobira wo Akete"—the opening theme. - and Chihiro's "Honey" - ending theme. the songs "Platinum" by Maaya Sakamoto and "Fruits Candy" by Megumi Kojima.

In addition, each movie has its own album, "Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie - Original Soundtrack" was released on August 25, 1999. While "Cardcaptor Sakura: The Sealed Card - Original Soundtrack" was released on August 2, 2000. Both had more than thirty tracks and included the ending themes from the films: "Tōi Kono Machi de" by Naomi Kaitani and "Ashita e no Melody" by Chaka., respectively. He also featured "Okashi no Uta" by Aya Hisakawa and Yumi Tōma for the short film Kero's Section!.

Six songs performed by the seiyū of Sakura, Tōya, Kero, Tomoyo, Yukito and Shaoran were published in June 1998. Subsequently, an album called "Cardcaptor Sakura: Character Songbook" was released in January 1999. It contained the songs from the previous release, as well as new songs performed by other seiyū. i>. "Tomoeda Elementary Choir Club Christmas Concert", released in December 1999, was an album containing seven songs performed by a children's choir, among which was the seiyū by Tomoyo. A series of four CDs called "Complete Vocal Collection" was released in February 2001, featuring various theme songs, remixes and new songs. A final album titled "Cardcaptor Sakura: Theme Song Collection" containing the theme songs from both the anime and the films was released in December 2001.

Drama CD

There are two drama CD series about Cardcaptor Sakura; the first story of the first drama CD, titled «Sakura to Okaa-san no Organ» (さくらとお母さんのオルガン, «Sakura to Okaa-san no Organ»^? ), was released in July 1998 and also had a script written by Ageha Ohkawa —a CLAMP member. In it, Sakura has a dream about her mother playing an organ and decides to write about her the next day for a school project. The second story, Sweet Valentine Stories, was published in February 1999, and this one focuses on a day in the lives of Sakura's classmates, as well as the life of Sakura herself.

Video Games

Like other series, numerous Cardcaptor Sakura video games have been created and have appeared on different types of consoles. The games take place in the fictional universe of the work and are mainly based on the same plot, following Sakura Kinomoto in her task to collect all the Clow cards. Video games have been released on both home video game consoles and portable video game consoles and are mostly role-playing and adventure games. In addition, these have been developed and distributed by various video game companies, such as MTO and Arika, which have produced three games each.

A total of ten video games were developed and the first to be released for sale in Japan was "Cardcaptor Sakura: Itsumo Sakura-chan to Issho!", on May 15, 1999 and was distributed by MTO for the Game Boy Color console. While the tenth, "Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura-chan to Asobo!" was released by NHK Software for the PlayStation 2 on December 2, 2004. Additionally, a role-playing game for smartphones about Cardcaptor Sakura, titled "Cardcaptor Sakura and the Mysterious Cards", was released in Japan on December 12, 2012, which was created and illustrated by CLAMP and developed by the company Arika.

Artbooks and guides

There are multiple Cardcaptor Sakura supplement books, such as artbooks, of which six have been published by Kōdansha and one on the art of the animated series by Kumiko Takahashi—the designer of the anime's characters—three of the artbooks were published for the manga series, titled "Cardcaptor Sakura Illustration Collection" (カードキャプターさくらイラスト集, «Cardcaptor Sakura Illustration Collection»^?), between August 1998 and December 2000. While for the anime the other three were published between April of 1999 and September of 2000, this time titled «Cheerio! TV ANIMATION CARDCAPTOR SAKURA Illustration Collection >, «Cheerio! TV Animation Cardcaptor Sakura Illustration Collection»^?). In addition, a set of fifty-two Clow cards that appear in the anime were released in August 1999 and a book called the "Clow Card Fortune Book" (クロウカードフォーチュンブック, «Clow Card Fortune Book» ^?), which contained information on how to use copies of the Clow cards as tarot cards, was released in March 2000.

A fanbook for the manga, "Cardcaptor Sakura Memorial Book" (カードキャプターさくらメモリアルブック<span class="t_nihongo_comma" style="display:none", «Cardcaptor Sakura Memorial Book»^?), which contained various illustrations and information about merchandise based on it and some interviews. Between July 1999 and June 2000, four books were published for the anime. known as "Complete Books" and between October 1999 and 2000 for the films. Ten anime comics were also published about the first two seasons of the series — although some episodes were omitted—from August 1998 to November 2000. Three more were released between March 2001 and February 2002, covering up to episode fifty-nine, but once again, some episodes were omitted. Additionally, four picture books for the anime were published between September 1998 and November 2000.

Reception

Cosplayers of several characters from the works of CLAMP, including Sakura Kinomoto and Shaoran Li in the version Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE and Yūko Ichihara ×××HOLiC; these characters have connection in the different series thanks to the crossovers that the authors make in the stories.

Both the Cardcaptor Sakura anime and manga have achieved great success inside and outside Japan. The manga, on the one hand, was listed among the top five best-selling manga when it was published, and in 2001 it won the Seiun Award, one of Japan's most prestigious awards. The anime, on the other hand, won the Anime Award. Grand Prix, which is awarded annually to the most notable anime series of each year. Likewise, in a ranking published by TV Asahi on the hundred most popular anime of 2005, Cardcaptor Sakura reached number sixty-nine. However, by 2006 it reached number forty-four in the same ranking.

Various publications from different media have served to praise and criticize the series. Shaenon K. Garrity of The Comics Journal described the series as "an excellent shōjo manga", especially after the second part, which is more "mature and interesting". While Christopher Butcher of Comics212 described it as a "critical work". Robert Nguyen—a reviewer for Anime News Network—noted that the series is "not your typical shōjo manga" and that it has "an emphasis in the emotions of the characters".

The manga has also been rated as "[very] cute"; however, Lisa Anderson of Twisted Manga commented that "just like Magic Knight Rayearth, even a cute story has its intensity and drama". Furthermore, the manga's illustrations were praised for being highly detailed. and featuring "beautifully drawn images of the Clow cards", adding that "[The cards] are a clever mix of fantasy and magical reality". The anime adaptation has also received very good reviews. Kevin Lew, a contributor to Animerica, noted that "the series had a sophisticated design", which allowed it to convey its message to both children and adult viewers. Likewise, Winnie Chow, another contributor to the magazine, commented that He found [<Cardcaptor Sakura] "superior to a run-of-the-mill TV series", and in turn praised Sakura's magical scenes as being unique due to the regular costume changes. Zac Bertschy, also from Anime News Network, mentioned that the series "delivers something funny, intelligent, very well animated, touching and exciting at the same time", adding that it considers it "the best mahō shōjo series ever produced". The animation has been described as "very fluid" and with characters developed to "maintain a consistent and impressive level of detail, even in action scenes". Despite the fact that the series is primarily aimed at female child audiences, it has been praised for contain "elements that can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of age or gender, as long as they possess 'an open enough mind'". While the anime has received rave reviews, the edit made by the company Nelvana Limited, renamed simply Cardcaptors, it was considered "ridiculous" for having cut several scenes that allowed us to correctly understand the plot, especially that of the relationships of the characters. Also, due to the popularity, it was noted that "it was the worst thing that could have happened to an anime that had a good Japanese title".

In January 2002, the Taco Bell restaurant franchise began a lengthy promotion in which four Cardcaptors Sakura toys were available in their children's meals; the company hoped to distribute about seven million of these toys. However, the conservative "Christian values" organization, the American Family Association, considered the Clow cards in the series too similar to tarot cards and Eastern mythology. The organization's complaints were not filed until the promotion was nearing its end, so it is not certain that the complaints had any effect.

Further reading