Sakura Kinomoto (Japanese: 木之本 桜, Hepburn: Kinomoto Sakura) is the main protagonist and title character of Clamp's manga series Cardcaptor Sakura. In the English anime adaptation by Nelvana of the series, Cardcaptors is known as Sakura Avalon, though her surname was changed back in the second film's dub by Bang Zoom! Entertainment.

Sakura Kinomoto
Cardcaptor Sakura character
Sakura in her elementary school uniform, illustration by Clamp
First appearance	Chapter 1 (manga)
Created by	Clamp
Voiced by	Japanese Sakura Tange English Carly McKillip (Nelvana dub) Andrea Kwan (Animax dub) Kari Wahlgren (2nd film) Monica Rial[1] (Clear Card arc)
In-universe information
Alias	Cardcaptor Sakura Sakura Avalon
Weapon	Wand Cards Book
Family	Fujitaka Kinomoto (father) Nadeshiko Kinomoto (late mother) Toya Kinomoto (older brother) Yukito Tsukishiro (brother-in-law)
Significant other	Syaoran Li (boyfriend)
Relatives	Tomoyo Daidouji (maternal second cousin; best friend) Sonomi Daidouji (maternal aunt) Masaki Amamiya (maternal great- grandfather) Clow Reed (ancestor) Eriol Hiiragizawa (reincarnated ancestor)

For all Japanese-language productions of the anime (including films, audio CDs, and video games), Sakura is voiced by Sakura Tange. For the Nelvana English-language dub production, she is voiced by Carly McKillip through Cardcaptors and the first film. In the Animax English-language dub production, which is much closer to the Japanese original than the Nelvana version (in terms of scenes cut), she is voiced by Andrea Kwan.[2] She is voiced in the second film by Kari Wahlgren. For the English-language dub of the Clear Card series, she is voiced by Monica Rial,[1] who also does the voice of her counterpart in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.[3]

Creation and conception

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 Nakayoshi's readers so that fans could relate to her. 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 wanted to write a story that "minorities would feel comfortable with," referring to the same-sex and taboo relationships featured in the manga. The series' main theme is expressed through Sakura, a main character designed to be open-minded about different family structures and kinds of love. 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 not because Tomoyo is a girl, but rather because Sakura did not love Tomoyo in a romantic way.[4]

Sakura's character design for the manga was originally developed by Mokona of Clamp. She was designed to capture the image of Mokona's then two-year-old niece Kawaji. The original character's facial expression changed considerably until the manga started.[5] Her many magical costumes were introduced as CLAMP felt it was "sad" for a girl to wear the same magical costume all the time influenced by the manga series Sailor Moon.[6] Between the manga and the anime adaptation, nearly 300 costumes were made with most of them being created specifically for Sakura. As the series' main theme is "love", Clamp focused on the multiple relationships Sakura has. Both Syaoran Li and Tomoyo Daidoji were found as popular characters for often comforting the main character based on how the readers related themselves with their feelings for Sakura.[7]

Picking a Japanese actress to voice Sakura was difficult. Neither Ohkawa or anime director Morio Asaka were satisfied with any of the voice actress who auditioned for the role. In the end, Sakura Tange (who previously voicing Sakura Mitsukoshi, which also have green eyes like Sakura Kinomoto, in 1997 Face/SNK's Neo Geo puzzle game Money Puzzle Exchanger) was selected for the role with sound director Masafumi Mima believing her to fit the character thanks to her quiet and strong voice.[8]

There are fictional magical cards used in the manga and anime series Cardcaptor Sakura. They serve as magical items for the protagonist to use for various means. The deck consists of nineteen cards in the manga, and fifty-three in the anime. The popularity and success of Cardcaptor Sakura led to the creations of several toys of the Clow Cards, including a set of toy cards released by the Nakayoshi magazine to celebrate its sixtieth anniversary.[9]

In Nelvana's English adaptation titled "Cardcaptors", Sakura was originally going to be called Nikki, but they later decided to keep her first original given name because of the reception of the Cardcaptors adaptation plus the difficulty and expense of editing out numerous appearances of her name in rōmaji in the anime series. However, her family name was changed to "Avalon".[10]

Characterization and themes

Sakura is portrayed as a young girl with magical powers she inherited from Clow Reed. Her first power is the ability to see the future through her dreams which serves as an ideal protection for the protagonist. In some of her dreams, Sakura sees the man she loves, Yukito Tsukishiro, and often interacts with him as her brother, Toya, is a classmate of him. Despite not knowing her late mother due to being too young when she died, Sakura still cares for her based on what her father, Fujitaka, used to tell her. Sakura is unaware Toya also possesses magic powers but she keeps it a secret though Toya is clearly able to tell when her sister is making magic.[11] Sakura goes through a character arc when Toya is hurt by the spirit of the magic card Mirror. As a result, Sakura goes from a passive to a more active characterization in regards to her journey of finding all Clow Cards.[12]

In contrast to the distant Syaoran Li who keeps off his distance from people related to magic, Sakura becomes attached to her math teacher Kaho Mizuki. This sort of attraction is not specified to be the cause of the magic or just how Sakura sees Mizuki. Although Sakura cares for her journey he is oblivious what disaster might the Clow cards give. Through her talks with Kerberos, Sakura becomes afraid that such disaster would be her loss of memories.[12] Sakura is also unaware that Syaoran develops feelings for her rather but they become close when he aids her whenever she becomes concerned about how to solve her issues. Sakura herself also develops romantic feelings towards Sakura but her naivety makes her not understand her own feelings. However, the evolution of Sakura's magic and improvement of her staff solves as a symbolism of Sakura's growth. Another major impact in her journey is how Sakura gains allies, most notably Yue, the true form of Clow's servant who had developed a human form, Yukito. Although Yue is devoted to Clow Reed, Sakura's kind heart causes him to choose her as second master.[13]

In the last chapters of the series, Sakura confesses her feelings towards Yukito. As Yukito was always aware of the young girl's feelings, he tries to help her but this gives her depression. However, Syaoran comforts Sakura in regards to her feelings she does not understand.[14] Eriol, the reincarnation of Clow Reed, tests Sakura both in terms of magic and emotions. During the climax, Eriols performs his test by attacking Syaoran which causes a more aggressive feeling in Sakura not seen before. This helps Sakura realize that Syaoran is important in her life rather than their initial misrelationship which comes to the realization of the girl that Syaoran is the person she loves the most.[15]

Sakura's relationship with Syaoran highly stands out within other love interests in Clamp's works because the manga is aimed towards a younger demographic in contrast to darker stories. Writer Kiyoshi Saiga comments that the focus on multiple types of relationships is Clamp's signature style of writing and Cardcaptor Sakura heavily focuses on these ideas rather than the search for magic cards. The handling of unconditional love is early portrayed through Tomoyo who is in love with Sakura but, as she can tell Sakura does not share such feelings, her dream is that Sakura meets the person she lives and thus she can achieve happiness. Saiga further comments that Sakura is an audience surrogate as across the narrative, both the reader and Sakura mature and explore the concept what is the love they seek.[16] Still, Sakura also stands out within magical girls as, rather than changing like other superheroes, Sakura's optimistic feelings remain the same in the manga.[15]

Appearances

In Cardcaptor Sakura

Sakura Kinomoto is introduced as a nine-year-old girl who lives in the town of Tomoeda in Japan, where she attends Tomoeda Elementary School. During the Clow Card Arc and Sakura Card Arc storyline, she canonically ages to be twelve years at series end, in both the anime and manga versions.[17] In the Clear Card Arc storyline, she canonically ages to be fourteen years while attending Tomoeda Junior High School. Sakura is an energetic and cheerful young girl.[18] Sakura has short, honey brown hair, fair skin, and emerald green eyes. As a descendant of the sorcerer Clow Reed, Sakura inherited magical powers in and spends the series searching for the Clow Cards (クロウカード, Kurō Kādo) she accidentally lost. Yukito is Sakura's first crush. He is seven years older than her, but it never bothers her. Due to him being her brother's best friend, she tries to get him to come over to her house and commutes to school with her brother to see Yukito every morning. Although heartbroken, she learns to accept that he loves her brother and maintains a deep friendship with Yukito. One of Sakura's most notable traits is her "invincible spell", "Everything will be alright" (絶対大丈夫だよ, "Zettai daijōbu dayo"), which has carried her through innumerable trials and obstacles as she masters her magical skills.

Sakura's outfits number in the hundreds, which change frequently throughout the series. Unlike other anime magical girls, whose costumes seemingly form out of magical energy, Sakura's battle outfits are hand-sewn by her friend and cousin Tomoyo. Her most commonly worn iconic everyday outfit is her school uniform, which changes depending on the season. Her winter school uniform is a black long sleeved shirt with red and white sleevecuffs, a white neckerchief with a red stripe, and a white pleated miniskirt with a frilly white knee-length petticoat. On particularly cold days, she wears a thick black coat with her schools insignia on the back. Her summer uniform is a white half-sleeved shirt with a red neckerchief and a black pleated miniskirt. All year round, black Mary Jane shoes are worn along with white socks and a white sailor hat with a black trim. Her common outfit at home has two double transparent red sometimes green(episode 26 original series) beaded scrunchie to keep her hair on the sides popping out.

After the Final Judgement, a vision of the spirit of Clow Reed tells her that her magic is not drawn from the sun nor from the moon, but from her own star, which may start small, but is ever-shining with its own brilliant light. However, like Clow Reed's magic, Sakura's is a balance of sun and moon magic.[19] 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.[20]

In Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card

In the ongoing Clear Card arc, her innate magical powers have developed further and increased drastically to the point that she can effectively create entirely new cards subconsciously which embody her various magic. It is a means as to "not being able to control her powers", according to Eriol. As such, she has the very powerful and rare ability to freely see into the past, even with the "Record" card or without her knowledge.

Appearances in other media

In Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie, Sakura wins a trip to Hong Kong, where she meets Syaoran's family and encounters the spirit of a woman angry at Clow Reed who mistakenly calls Sakura to her because of her being the holder of the Clow Cards. In Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card, she learns that there is a fifty-third Clow Card, The Nothing, which acts as a balance to the positive magic of the others.

Sakura is a playable character in eight of the Cardcaptor Sakura video games, and her character design is featured in the series' version of Tetris. The character design of Sakura Kinomoto is reused in the Clamp series Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, which presents an alternate world story that also uses characters from many of the group's previous series. In Tsubasa the design is used for several characters named Sakura, including the central character named Princess Sakura (Sakura-hime). Sakura also plays an important role during the last arc of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, in a dream to a reincarnated Princess Sakura. During this vision, Sakura gives her alternate self the Star Wand and assures her that "everything will be all right". The wand is later seen in Yuuko Ichihara's shop.

Sakura also appeared in the OVA Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations as a spirit or vision that Princess Sakura sees, which guides her back to where see came from, the Tocho (government building) when she gets lost. She disappears when Princess Sakura sees the building.[21]

In the short anime film Shiritsu Horitsuba Gakuen Bangai-hen: Tenkōsei ni Dokkidoki Sakura appears as a student from the anime's titular school and the younger cousin from Tsubasa's Sakura.[22]

Reception

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In both 1999 and 2000, Sakura won the Animage Grand Prix for "Best Female Character".[23][24] In 2001 Sakura Kinomoto won the "Cutest Anime Girl of the Year" award from All Anime World.[25] In a Newtype poll from August 2001, Sakura was voted as the fourth most popular female anime character,[26] and in a March 2010 poll, she was voted as the fourth "Most Popular Female Anime Character" from the 1990s.[27] She also won the Anime Saimoe Tournament 2002, an online popularity contest for the "Most Moe Anime Character of the Year".[28]

On April 1, 2016, as part of her 20th anniversary, eight "Card Captor Sakura"-themed × Animate Cafe national stores opened.[29]

The Mori Art Center Gallery, located in Tokyo, Japan, featured Cardcaptor Sakura Exhibition -The Enchanted Art Museum- gallery dedicated to Sakura and her story.[30] The exhibition, which opened in October 2018, is the single largest gathering of Cardcaptor Sakura art ever amassed. The exhibition has an entire section set up as "Tomoyo’s Sewing Room", with a number of real-world replicas of Sakura's fashions.[31] Concurrent with the exhibition is the adjacent Sakura Cafe & Parlor, a Cardcaptor Sakura restaurant and gift shop.[32]

Clamp's editor Editor Kiichiro Sugawara commented that when Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle started, most of his colleagues kept mentioning the series was interesting for having an alternate version of Sakura Kinomoto as he found that the original Syaoran Li was not popular within Cardcaptor Sakura. As a result, Sugawara wanted Syaoran to also become popular within readers of the series.[33]

References

На других языках

[es] Sakura Kinomoto

[fr] Sakura Kinomoto

[it] Sakura Kinomoto