Photograph Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Every day Beast/Netflix
The Cardcaptor Sakuraanime premiered greater than 25 years in the past this month, and my insides are turning to mud simply occupied with it. Primarily based on the beloved manga by artist collective CLAMP and animated by the well-known studio Madhouse (Demise Be aware, Monster), the TV adaptation debuted in Japan on April 7, 1998. It will go on to be dubbed into English, then renamed Cardcaptorswithin the West.
Cardcaptors turned integral to my after-school routine within the early 2000s. Racing residence, I’d dump myself in entrance of the TV to look at every new episode. Then, as soon as completed, I’d rewind the VHS on which I’d harangued my mom to tape each episode and watch it once more (this time to catch the ten minutes I’d missed whereas strolling residence). That tape is lengthy gone, however a quarter-century after its launch, Cardcaptor Sakura stays beloved—by me and by different followers; not a lot by my mom—for its enduring portrayal of youth and, extra pointedly, its revelatory queerness not like something on TV on the time, all wrapped in a kid-friendly monster of the week package deal.
The sequence follows Sakura, a fourth-grader who lives together with her widowed father and teenage brother, Tōya. One night after college, Sakura by accident releases the seal on a e-book containing the magical Clow Playing cards, which home fantastical spirits that instantly disperse throughout the town. With the assistance of the e-book’s pudding-loving guardian, Keroberos, and her finest “buddy” Tomoyo (extra on that later), Sakura units out to catch and return the Clow Playing cards to the e-book, in an arc spanning 70 episodes and two characteristic movies.
Solely 70 episodes and two quick films isn’t a future by Nineties mainstream anime requirements. But Cardcaptor Sakura grew with its pre-teen viewers in small, relatable increments. Within the face of the perpetual agelessness of Ash Ketchum, Cardcaptor Sakura supplied a way of momentum throughout its series-long narrative. Most meaningfully, its story supplied a extra grown-up different to anime out there to Western children on the time.
Although it tapped into pointedly ’90s developments, together with copious rollerblades—which 10-year-old me thought had been wicked-cool, although by no means cool sufficient to truly attempt—Cardcaptor Sakura by no means felt cynical. Its earnest tone was helped by Sakura not fulfilling the same old “Magical Woman”function, generally held by characters like Sailor Moon. She doesn’t battle evil. Quite, she eases stressed spirits in a means that mirrors her personal emotions of being a preteen: that of being instantly too younger and too outdated.
“I didn’t need Sakura to be a Tremendous Elementary-College Woman,” Nanase Ohkawa, a member of CLAMP, mentioned in an interview revealed in CLAMP No Kiseki in 2004. “She will be able to’t do all the things; she struggles with math, and he or she does effectively with bodily workout routines. Every part she cooks is pretty easy, like okonomiyaki and pancakes, which may be probably the most a standard fourth-grader is able to.”
This sense of genuine storytelling is aided by Madhouse’s observe file of realistically proportioned art work, which positioned Cardcaptor Sakura at odds with different up to date anime. Faraway from the hyper aesthetic of similar-genre exhibits like Sailor Moon, the anime turned remarkably acquainted to fashionable viewers. Sakura might have battled magical beings at evening, however through the day, life revolved round homework, baking muffins, doing chores, hanging out with pals, and navigating first loves.
These relationships type the core of Cardcaptor Sakura’s lasting attraction, whether or not it’s Sakura’s obsession with Yukito, her brother’s finest buddy and later boyfriend, or how sensitively the present handles Tomoyo’s unrequited romantic curiosity in Sakura. The present’s practical grounding helps drive residence its classes on the openness of affection in all its types—classes that stick with you even 20 years after first seeing them.
LGBTQ+ themes had been in no way uncommon in anime on the time, however Cardcaptor Sakura infused its entire being with the concept that love is love. Importantly, it did so whereas additionally making the transition to a much less permissive Western media.
In a Comedian Ebook Sources piecefrom 2020, Anthony Gramuglia asserts how pivotal a non-heteronormative method to like was to the present’s central message. “That love exists no matter all different components,” he writes. “The sequence teaches its target market of younger ladies that love is aware of no bounds.”
By way of its narratives of fluid sexuality, exploration of gender, and the make use of of transgender, bisexual, and agender characters, Cardcaptor Sakura was probably the primary introduction many people younger viewers needed to non-stereotypical, sympathetic LGBTQ+ characters. For me, the present’s open queerness feels particularly vital looking back; I grew up in a bigoted family, and embracing Cardcaptor Sakura was my first step towards shedding all the things I ever subconsciously discovered from my household.
In an interview within the 2001 Card Captor Sakura Memorial Ebook, Ohkawa spoke of the sequence’ numerous, accepting method to sexuality. “I wished a narrative with a protagonist who had an open thoughts in the direction of totally different household constructions, totally different sorts of affection, and totally different views from society,” she mentioned.
That’s not precisely emblematic of ’90s Western TV—which might be why that open-minded model of Sakura was solely seen in Japan. When adapting the present for Western audiences, networks tried to water down its portrayal of the complexity of affection. Episodes had been edited, reordered, and a few weren’t even proven exterior of Japan—all to take away allusions to LGBTQ+ themes and align it with different sanitized imports, like Pokémon and Digimon.
The networks couldn’t get all of these references out, although. So ingrained had been themes of queer love that they managed to interrupt via the a number of layers of censorship within the English-language dub, to take care of the Western Cardcaptors as one of many queerest exhibits on TV on the time. In any case, you may change the script, however the animation stays the identical.
Tōya giving Yukito his magic stays a remarkably tender second between two male-coded characters within the dub, even in 2023. Syaoran—Sakura’s classmate and crush—might not have been brazenly interested in Yukito as he's within the Japanese authentic, however he nonetheless blushed each time Yukito was close to him. And as a lot because the dub tried to color Tomoyo and Sakura as Very Good Pals™, it was clear, even in English, that Tomoyo harbored robust romantic emotions for Sakura.
“I nonetheless picked up on the queerness,” writes Shamus Kelly in Den of Geek, reflecting upon the sequence in 2020. “Indirectly, thoughts you. I used to be 9 years outdated and nonetheless hadn’t had my first crush but. [But] due to Tōya and Yukito, I used to be in a position to determine my sexuality in a secure means. I wasn’t afraid of the sluggish realization that I preferred men and women; I knew it was okay as a result of Cardcaptor Sakura confirmed it was okay.”
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Cardcaptor Sakura was simply that: a welcoming, secure place. And whereas Sakura and Syaoran finally ending up collectively might sound to undermine the impression of the present’s queerness, Ohkawa was eager on followers not seeing it that means.
“I'm glad that the readers are blissful that Sakura and Syaoran obtained collectively, however that anybody would suppose it’s as a result of they make [an obvious] couple… it’s somewhat disconcerting,” she mentioned within the Card Captor Sakura Memorial Ebook. “Sakura didn’t select Syaoran as a result of he’s a boy near her in age. If Syaoran had been a woman, if they'd been far aside in age, so long as he was nonetheless Syaoran, I believe Sakura would have fallen in love with him. It’d sadden me in case you thought they’re a superb couple as a result of they’re [heterosexual].”
This declare isn’t made in performative hindsight, like, say, making Dumbledore homosexual years after the actual fact with no textual reference. That Sakura might have ended up with Syaoran no matter who he was, and that any character might do a lot the identical in their very own relationships, was elementary to the present and to Sakura’s character—one thing even censorship couldn’t masks.
Nonetheless, Cardcaptor Sakura remained a danger, even within the extra permissive panorama of ’90s Japanese anime.
“I puzzled how the sequence could be acquired, because it ran in Nakayoshi [a long-running manga magazine aimed at young girls], however it was acquired higher than I anticipated,” Ohkawa mentioned in 2001, earlier than later including, “There could also be individuals who suppose that elementary college youngsters are incapable of that a lot maturity, however there are lots of youngsters who're that sensible, and undergo for it.”
For all its recognition, Cardcaptor Sakura wasn’t a seminal present within the grand scheme of the medium; it didn’t reignite curiosity within the waning Magical Woman style, nor did it shake up anime. But it surely was totally different. It by no means assumed incompetence on the a part of its younger viewers. It by no means claimed that we weren’t prepared for its classes. It informed us issues had been altering, and that’s okay—it’s all okay. Every part can be okay.
Now, with the 25-year-old present streaming on Netflix (within the US, at the very least) with a extra trustworthy (and gayer) dub, Cardcaptor Sakura may give a more recent era the sense that sure, all the things will be okay.