Animation / TV Series Spotlight - Cardcaptor Sakura
Last year, I declared to a handful of friends here and there that I had a fun, frivolous goal to "get really into shoujo/magical girl anime". Having never done a complete watch-through of many of the classics, for series like Sailor Moon or Revolutionary Girl Utena, I thought it was about time to get my knowledge brushed up. Now, while summer is slowly beginning to wind down where I am, it's also already got me in a nostalgic mood for the kind of carefree feeling that the season brings out in many of us. So today's blog post is dedicated to appreciating a show that feels fitting for both of these moods!
Cardcaptor Sakura is an anime that many would probably consider a pretty central pillar to popular understandings of the shoujo and magical girl genre. When young grade-schooler Sakura stumbles upon a book of mysterious magical cards, the Clow Cards, in her basement and accidentally sets them all free, she ends up taking on the mantle of Cardcaptor in order to collect them all together again. Her ensuing adventures to safely reclaim all the cards include learning to harness her growing magic powers, many a dazzling magical girl transformation, and navigating the shenanigans of daily life with a colourful cast of friends, family, classmates, and mysterious magical forces around her.
While Cardcaptor Sakura originated as a manga by CLAMP, its 1998 anime adaptation by Madhouse is likely to be the first or more formative introduction to the series for a lot of fans, particularly outside of Japan. To some extent, this also includes Cardcaptors, the heavily edited version of the series that was brought to North American audiences with its own dub, script, and story that often diverges so vastly from the original narrative that it should be considered a different show. Still, for anyone who grew up with any iteration of the show, the world of Sakura and her friends remains distinctly memorable with an enduring 90s-era charm that can't be beat. Also, the anime attempts to circumvent most of the original manga's particularly terrible and poorly-aged aspects (but if you plan to get into it on your own time, here's a potential spoiler warning and content note for it: romantic involvement with some pretty inappropriate age gaps between minors and adults, mostly between secondary characters).
I didn't grow up with Cardcaptor Sakura, outside of occasionally glimpsing snippets of the Cardcaptors iteration of the show on TV, though none of those were cohesive enough to really stick with me. So it wasn't until last year's quest to expand my magical girl/shoujo knowledge, wherein I decided to watch through all of the original Cardcaptor Sakura anime (plus both of the excellent movies!) for the first time, that I got to experience what an absolute delight the show is. It is truly a classic for a reason! There is a lot to love about the show, from its strong art direction and consistently high-quality animation to its heartfelt characters and utterly sincere, emotional storytelling. The fact that Sakura has a unique outfit for all of her different magical girl transformations was an impressive enough decision on CLAMP's part in the manga, but each one is also rendered brilliantly with great detail in the anime. Plus, anyone with a taste for city pop is likely to add the brilliant music of the Cardcaptor Sakura original soundtrack to their regular rotation.
But Sakura is by far my favourite part of the show. She is cheerful, sweet, and thoughtful as much as she is powerful, outgoing, and determined. Kindhearted and always willing to help out a friend (sometimes to a fault, when it becomes self-sacrificial), yet also adorably shy in moments that make you want to shout out encouragement like "COME ON, you can do it, girl!!", her character is such a joy to spend time with. It's probably no exaggeration to say that she had a hand in shaping generations of young children, especially girls, to whom she was a role model as they grew up watching her. I have definitely wondered who else I might have become if I had grown up with Sakura as a young heroine to look up to. She is so endearingly earnest. And her sincerity inspires the same in me, too. So after all these years, I'm glad I did finally get to enjoy Sakura and her story in the wonderful journey that is the Cardcaptor Sakura anime!