cardcaptor sakura (1998~2000) is an series about an elementary schooler named kinomoto sakura. one day she finds a mysterious book in her father's collection. upon opening the book and breaking the seal, magical cards named clow cards scatter across the city of tomoeda, awakening a magical beast along with them. keroberos, the guardian of the seal, tells sakura she must recapture the cards - or else a terrible disaster will fall upon the city she holds so dear.

this is the show i hold dearest to my heart. it's the very first anime i remember seeing - my first encounter with it was when i was 4 years old, living in china, where it was playing on the tv at a restaurant in shanghai. i wouldn't come across it again until years later when it aired on funimation. it immediately hooked me and i became obsessed. little did i know that cardcaptor sakura would become a huge part of my life and a series that inspires me stylistically and creatively to this day.

it's no wonder why CCS has been a long-standing fan favourite of its genre. every aspect of the show is a masterclass. the anime is truly a love letter from CLAMP to the rest of the world, and it's truly just bursting with love at the seams. there's honestly so much i could gush about with this series and i'm not sure how to put it all into words, so to try and make it easier i broke up the things i wanted to talk about specifically into sections.

and on that note, let's go!

cardcaptor sakura was made during the good ol' days of cel animation, and by god did madhouse do a phenomenal job with it. if you can manage finding a good-quality version of the show, it's like watching crystal-clear cels dancing in front of your eyes. the painting and colour work are perfect and so charming. this is the pinnacle of madhouse's cel work - i think it's actually impossible for it to get any better than this. the celwork adds so much charm to the series. i recommend watching the show in the highest quality you can find (i can help with this if you need). sometimes you can see the little mistakes in the cels that got transferred to the show, it's really fun!

every episode is an absolute treat for the eyes.

some cel production work:

there's a lot of production work (settei, drafts, cels) floating around on the net, so if you're interested in seeing more you can have some fun searching around!

alternatively, if you want to get a closer look, these 3 books are highly recommended (...by me):

they're pretty expensive nowadays if you want a pristine copy (~$200 CAD) but thankfully the key frames book got a 2023 reprint that can be bought online (animestyle, amazon jp). hoping the other 2 follow suit soon~

one of my prized possessions is a cel from one of my favourite episodes - #27, sakura and the shrine of memories. i knew that if i ever got my hands on a CCS cel i would want it to be from one of my favourite episodes, so when this one popped up on auction i was very excited. when i held it in my hands for the first time i cried a lot! if you look closely there's a dot on the left of the cel, which you can actually see in the show during the episode ^^ i think it's a cute little detail that makes my cel a little bit more unique, hehe.

[photos]

cardcaptor sakura has a phenomenal ost and lots of great insert songs. i've introduced many friends to the series and the thing they always mention they love without fail is the music! the OPs are instant classics and still unique decades later. there's a lot of cds and the lists are pretty fragmented across different sites so here's (to my best ability) a comprehensive list of all the cds:

SINGLES

OPENINGS ~ Catch You Catch Me Tobira wo Akete Platinum
ENDINGS ~ Groovy! Honey FRUITS CANDY Tooi kono Machi de Ashita e no Melody Okashi no Uta
INSERTS ~ Yoru no Uta Hitorijime Tomo e Shiawase no Mahou Yasashisa no Tane Prism Ki ni Naru Aitsu Mienai Chizu
MISCELLANEOUS ~ Anata to Ireba GET YOUR LOVE super duper love love days Chunxiao qingge

ALBUMS
THEME SONG SINGLES ~ Catch You Catch Me Groovy! Tobira wo Akete Honey Platinum FRUITS CANDY Tooi kono Machi de Ashita e no Melody Okashi no Uta
OSTs ~ Cardcaptor Sakura Original Soundtrack Cardcaptor Sakura Original Soundtrack 2 Cardcaptor Sakura Original Soundtrack 3 Cardcaptor Sakura Original Soundtrack 4 Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie Original Soundtrack Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card Original Soundtrack
CHARACTER SINGLES ~ Cardcaptor Sakura Character Single KERO Cardcaptor Sakura Character Single SYAORAN Cardcaptor Sakura Character Single TOMOYO Cardcaptor Sakura Character Single YUKITO Cardcaptor Sakura Character Single SAKURA Cardcaptor Sakura Character Single TOUYA
DRAMA CDs ~ Cardcaptor Sakura ORIGINAL DRAMA ALBUM 1: Sakura to Okaasan no Organ cardcaptor sakura original drama album 2: sweet valentine stories
MISCELLANEOUS ~ Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura no Oshaberi Talk CD Kodansha CD Comic Cardcaptor Sakura Cardcaptor Sakura CHARACTER SINGLE SPECIAL SET Vol.1 Cardcaptor Sakura CHARACTER SINGLE SPECIAL SET Vol.2 CARDCAPTOR
COMPILATIONS ~ CARDCAPTOR SAKURA CHARACTER SONGBOOK Tomoeda Shougakkou Chorus-bu Christmas Concert Cardcaptor Sakura COMPLETE VOCAL COLLECTION Cardcaptor Sakura Theme Song Collection Yasashisa no Tane

fun fact: did you know that this track, "a refreshing morning" from the OST, has been used as wake-up call music in the south korean military for years? there seems to be a diehard CCS fan in the ranks that made this happen...

cardcaptor sakura's family trees and relationships are very complex which is something i've always really liked about the series. everyone is cousins, second cousins, descendants, reincarnations, you name it. i think it adds a lot of interesting layers to the relationships in the series.

rambling about the Clow Cards

the clow cards are a unique form of magic, created by the great sorcerer clow reed. they're a unique combination of eastern and western magic, owing to clow's background. they're based on tarot cards of the major arcana, use the 6 natural elements, and are assigned to either sun or moon. because of their power, they've been highly sought after by magic users across the globe, even long after clow's death. it can be assumed that clow fought a number of battles against people trying to obtain his cards, if we take into account the Li clan and Madoushi.

the hierarchy within the deck is as follows:

The Master
former: Clow Reed, current: Kinomoto Sakura
↓
Guardians of the Clow

Sun: Keroberos, Moon: Yue
↓
The Four Elements

(governed by Keroberos)

(governed by Yue)
The Two Attributes

(governed by Keroberos) (governed by Yue)
↓
The Windy's jurisdiction:


↓
Outside of the Guardians' jurisdiction
The Nameless, The Hope, The Nothing

the clow cards are, without a doubt, my favourite thing about the whole series. they have so much interesting lore behind them. one thing i absolutely love about cardcaptor sakura is that every card has a life of their own. they each have distinct memories, feelings, preferences, temperaments. some are very kind and docile while others are destructive and prone to mischief or even straight-up violence.

some of these cards are absolutely hell-bent on sakura not being their master. whether it's their loyalty to clow or they just want to be free varies from card to card. it's really interesting seeing the cards' different personalities and how they choose to manifest in the world - varying from harmless pranks to trying to kill civilians in horrific ways (watery with drowning and firey with trying to burn people alive as examples).

clow is the one who gave the cards their personalities and it's something he had a lot of fun doing. while making your way through the show you can definitely see his penchant for mischief in the way he designed the cards (lol). [add section about li's chinese magic]

one of my favourite illustrations of the clow cards, illustrated by hiroshi nagahama for the 1999 calendar.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Animetic Story Game (PlayStation, 1999)

sakura accidentally releases all the cards from the book of clow and you have to collect them (again)! it's a very faithful adaption of the first season. there's a cute image gallery, and the original VAs voice the game! ^^
there's a standard and limited edition (above is my copy of the standard).

above are some gifs from the game ^^

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clow Card Magic (Playstation, 2000)

[ADD VIDEO OF POSTER]

clow card magic released with a regular & limited edition - regular has sakura/syaoran gracing the cover, and the limited is tomoyo/sakura.
there are various stages where you move sakura or syaoran left & right while avoiding obstacles, using clow cards to string together combos!

Cardcaptor Sakura: Tetris Eternal Heart (Playstation, 2000)

many people are surprised to find out there's a cardcaptor sakura tetris game. isn't the playstation wonderful?
in eternal heart, which is set during the third and final season of the show, strange events are still happening in tomoeda even after sakura has successfully re-captured all the clow cards.
you can choose from a whopping 13 characters to play as and help sakura turn the clow cards into sakura cards.
am i shockingly bad at tetris? yes. does this stop me from absolutely loving this game? no!!!

Cardcaptor Sakura: Sakura and the Mysterious Clow Card (WonderSwan, 1999)

another adaption of the first season for the wonderswan!

photos courtesy of kurarah!
as of 2025, the wonderful hilltop works is working on an english translation for this!! hurray! link

Cardcaptor Sakura: Tomoyo's Video Campaign (Dreamcast, 2000)
カードキャプターさくら 知世のビデオ大作戦

in tomoyo's video daisakusen, you can live out your biggest tomoyo fantasy and record sakura's card-capturing endeavors!

Cardcaptor Sakura: -Always with Sakura-chan- (Gameboy Color, 1999)
カードキャプターさくら 〜いつもさくらちゃんといっしょ〜

a visually striking adventure game for the gb color based on the first season of the anime (yes, again)

something i really like about this one is how they took note all of the fluorescent greens used in the anime and translated it into the game :>

Cardcaptor Sakura: Tomoeda Elementary School's Sports Day (Gameboy Color, 2000)
カードキャプターさくら ~ 友枝小学校大運動会 ~

features a variety of minigames taking place at tomoeda elementary's school sports meet. there's an album mode and online multiplayer in which you split up into two teams: red and white.

here are some pics from the 20th anniversary artbook! most of these illustrations are included in the older artbooks but its nice to see them
reprinted, and the design of the artbook is so gorgeous