Cardcaptor Sakura (カードキャプターさくら kādo kyaputā sakura), also known as Card Captor Sakura (with the space) and often abbreviated to CCS, is a manga series from the well-known all-women artist team CLAMP. It is also an anime show (1998-2000) created from the manga, consisting of 70 half-hour episodes in three series and two theatrical-release movies.

The series begins as a simple girls' anime of the magical girl genre (similar series include Sailor Moon and Pretty Sammy). Ten-year-old Sakura Kinomoto opens a mysterious book in her father's study and accidentally lets loose the magical Clow Cards. As she lost them, it is her job to retrieve them, which involves finding each card and battling its magical personification. She is assisted by Cerberus (a.k.a., Kero-chan), the beast of the seal assigned to protect the cards, but who was asleep when Sakura opened the Clow book. Kero-chan, who appears throughout most of the series rather like an animated plush toy, makes Sakura into the Cardcaptor and gives her the key of the seal which allows her to fight and capture the cards.

As CCS progresses, there is a pattern of foreshadowing and dreams that lead to an unusual conclusion. Like in Magic Knight Rayearth, one of CLAMP's previous works, CCS is a new twist on an old genre.

Due in part to its animation, Cardcaptor Sakura has a wide fanbase on the Internet, particularly in the yaoi, shōjo, yuri and lolicon fandom.

The Cardcaptor Sakura characters also appear in a manga called Tsubasa.

CCS is published in Japan by Kodansha. CCS was once serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi.

English adaptations

Cardcaptors English Anime

Cardcaptor Sakura was dubbed into English by Nelvana and brought to the United States under the name Cardcaptors - but it is almost universally believed that Nelvana could not have been completely aware of show's content, as the assorted romantic pairings are clearly questionable for an American children's programme. Practically all romantic subtext - not just the shojo-ai and shonen-ai - was excised from the show, and entire episodes of the original series were taken apart and spliced together in a haphazard manner, ostensibly to make Cardcaptors more appealing to American teenage boys, as the conception that, with the exception of Sailor Moon, girl-oriented series would not succeed. It's not surprising that this led to the dub of the series being almost completely reviled by viewers of the original, who swiftly dubbed it "Cardcraptors".

For a while it was on the WB Television Network, the same network that carried Pokémon in the United States, where ran for 39 episodes (as compared to the original series' 70-episode run) before it was ultimately cancelled. These episodes ran in a different order compared to the original episodes, and, as mentioned above, some consisted of multiple episodes spliced together, thus there is a feeling that the plot was disjointed. However, in Canada and other English-speaking countries (such as Australia and the Republic of Ireland), it ran in a more complete form, with all 70 episodes being shown in its original order (although in edited form), in some cases eschewing the English opening and closing themes in favor of dubbed versions of the original themes. The DVD line was cancelled after the ninth volume (the beginning of the second story arc).

The two movies have also been dubbed into English, and as both the Cardcaptor Sakura version and the Cardcaptors version can be found on the same DVD, the only major differences between the two are the dialogue. The second movie is more faithful to the original (retaining the original names and much of the original dialogue), and has a different voice cast from Cardcaptors.

In addition to its negative reviews, Cardcaptors merchandise was not widely received as certain parents were concerned that, as the Clow Cards vaguely, but significantly, resembled the tarot cards, the series could be seen as promoting witchcraft or the occult. So much so that when Cardcaptors toys were released in Taco Bell in 2002, two of the four (The tarot-like card book, and one character's Lasin Board) were pulled within a week due to articles published by Christian groups.

Cardcaptors Uncensored provides an incomplete list of changes between the two series. The site was last updated in 2001.

Initial Dub Analysis, written by Moonbrat of Cherry Blossoms contains an in-depth review of many of the aspects in Cardcaptors, as well as multiple comparisons between it and its original.

English Manga

The manga was translated into English by TOKYOPOP (Formerly Mixx); the characters kept their Japanese names in the translated manga. The manga was mostly unchanged from the original. The earlier edition of the first six volumes, were flipped to read left to right, while the later six volumes, under the name Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow, read the original right to left way. The original six volumes have been re-released as the original right-to-left format manga.

Kodansha also published bilingual editions to help Japanese children learn English. Many English-reading fans preferred the paper quality and translations of these editions to the TOKYOPOP editions. Kodansha stopped publishing the editions when it was found that English-speakers in North America imported Kodansha's translations ahead of TOKYOPOP's releases and did not buy TOKYOPOP's releases. Therefore, only TOKYOPOP has all of the volumes translated.

The American translation is imported to Australia by Madman Entertainment.

Characters

See Cardcaptor Sakura Characters

External Links

• Official Cardcaptors Website
• CLAMP Entry at the dmoz.org directory
• Card Captor Sakura Entry at the dmoz.org directory
• Information from Hitoshi Doi
• Cherry Blossoms fan site by MoonBrat
• SLG CCS Network fan site by Saffy
• Kawaii Sakura Shrine fan site by Ruka
• Cherry Blossom festival fansite by Hillary
• Anime Empire : Site for anime info on such series like Fruits Basket, Cowboy Bebop, Cardcaptors, Inuyasha, and Gundam Wing!
• Card Captor Science Theater 3000 MSTings done by the characters from Cardcaptor Sakura