Overview
Opening an old book she finds in the basement, 12 year old Sakura
accidentally unleashes the magical Clow Cards. To retrieve the
scattered cards and reseal their powers, the card's guardian, Keroberos,
empowers Sakura to become the "Cardcaptor". With her new
powers and her new magical friend, Sakura must capture all the cards
before they wreak havoc on the world. In addition to the TV series
and manga, two movies have been made.
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Book - Cardcaptor Sakura (Manga)
DVD - Cardcaptor Sakura (TV) 70 episodes
DVD - Cardcaptor Sakura (Movie) 2 movies
DVD - Cardcaptors (TV)
More Info
First Episode
The Clow cards were created long ago by the wizard Clow and somehow
came into the possession of Sakura's father, who is an archeologist.
One day, Sakura found the Clow card book in her father's basement
library. When she touched it, the lock binding the book opened and
the cards fell out. Each card contains a power and the first card to
become activated was "Windy". The "Windy" card
blew the other cards away and scattered them all over the city.
After the cards had scattered, a tiny animal, like a miniature lion with
wings, appeared out of the book. He was Keroberos, guardian of the
cards but since the book had not been opened for many centuries, Keroberos
had fallen asleep. Keroberos speaks with a strong Osaka accent
because the book had been stored in Osaka for many years. When
Keroberos discovered that the cards had gotten away he enlisted Sakura to
help him recover them.
He said that since Sakura had been able to
open the book, it meant that she had some ability to use its magic.
Keroberos (or Kero-chan for short) gave Sakura a key that turns into a
magical wand. The wand can be used to activate the power of a card,
or to force a captured power to return to card form. At first,
Sakura only had the "Windy" card. Soon after, she and
Kero-chan found a magical power that looked like a giant bird. It
was the "Fly" power. Sakura was able to use
"Windy" to capture "Fly", then she used the wand to
return "Fly" to its card form. Once Sakura captures a card
and writes her name on it, she can use its power and the card will obey
her.
 Cardcaptor Sakura Manga Volume 1 |
Cardcaptors Cardcaptors is an edited-for TV version of Card Captor Sakura. In America, "Cardcaptors" began airing on the Warner Bros TV Network June 17, 2000 and on Cartoon Network June 4, 2001. In Canada, "Cardcaptors" aired on Teletoon. The American TV version ("Cardcaptors") and the original version ("Cardcaptor Sakura") are both available on home video: "Cardcaptors" is suitable for children of all ages. Cardcaptor Sakura delves more into the character's pasts and romantic interests and is more suitable for viewers 13+. |
Changes in "Cardcaptors"
Cardcaptors is the American TV version of Cardcaptor Sakura.
Cardcaptors is changed quite substantially from the original show, mainly
to minimize any mention of romantic feelings between the various
characters. In the original Japanese version, Sakura is in love with a high
school student (Yukito), Rika is in love with her schoolteacher, Li is in love with
another male, and Tomoyo is obsessed with Sakura.
For example,
in the original version of the episode
"Sakura and the Mysterious Brooch", Sakura needs to distract
Rika-chan so she will let go of the magical sword that is controlling
her. Sakura uses the Illusion card to "create an image of the
person Rika thinks of the most". The card creates an outline of
their (male) schoolteacher, who Rika has a crush on. Later, Sakura
meets Yukito (who she has a crush on) and gives him chocolates as a
thank-you for helping carry Rika home after she fell unconcious. Li,
who is lurking nearby, overhears this, rummages in his pockets and then
rushes out and presents Yukito with chocolate too. Yukito happily
accepts anything edible. Then Tomoyo appears out of the bushes
(video camera in hand) and comments to Sakura that Li is Sakura's rival in
both card-capturing and love. Sakura makes a hilarious embarrassed
face. Earlier in the episode, Tomoyo says that she'll go to the
curio store so she can "spend more time with Sakura"; then
Sakura is shown surrounded in imaginary rosy flowers with Tomoyo looking
on admiringly. Sakura looks a little freaked out. These scenes are
all removed or changed in the Cardcaptors version. As far as I can tell, Tomoyo
and Li's crushes are meant to be humorous, but I suppose it's all open to
personal interpretation. The episode order is also different between
Cardcaptors and the original series. Both the edited and original
versions of this series are sold on home video in North America under the
titles Cardcaptors
and Cardcaptor
Sakura, respectively.
The Characters
| English Name | Japanese Name | Identity | English Voice Actor |
| Sakura | Kinomoto Sakura (Sakura-chan) |
our heroine! | Carly McKillip |
| Keroberos (Kero) | Keroberos (Kero-chan) | the Clow card's guardian beast | Matt Hill |
| Madison | Daidouji Tomoyo (Tomoyo-chan) |
Sakura's camera-toting friend | Maggie Blue O'Hara |
| Tori | Touya | Sakura's older brother | Tony Sampson |
| Julian | Yakito-san | handsome older boy that Sakura likes | Sam Vincent |
| Li Shaoran | Li Shaoran | relative of Clow Reed, looking for the Clow Cards | Rhys Huber |
| Meilin | Li Meilin | Shaoran's fiancee |
Sakura means "Cherry Blossom" and is a common word in Japanese. The series Sakura Wars and Sakura Diaries are not related to Cardcaptor Sakura.