This Card thief Sakura The anime premiered over 25 years ago this month, and my insides turn to dust just thinking about it. Adapted from the popular manga by artist community CLAMP, and acclaimed studio Madhouse (death Note, Monster), the TV adaptation was released in Japan on April 7, 1998. It would be dubbed into English, then renamed. card thieves west.
card thieves It became an integral part of my after-school routine in the early 2000s. On my way home, I would throw myself in front of the TV to watch every new episode. Then, when it was over, I would rewind the VHS I harassed my mom to record every episode and watch it again (this time to catch the 10 minutes I missed walking home). That tape is long gone, but a quarter of a century after its release, Card thief Sakura continues to be loved by me and other fans; Not so much by my mom—all wrapped up in a kid-friendly monster of the week package—for its enduring portrayal of youth and, more importantly, its revealing weirdness unlike anything on television at the time.
The drama is about Sakura, a fourth-year student living with her widowed father and younger brother, Tōya. One evening after school, Sakura accidentally releases the seal of a book containing the magical Clow Cards, which contain fantastical spirits who have suddenly scattered throughout the city. With the help of the book’s pudding-loving guardian, Keroberos, and her best “friend” Tomoyo (more on that later), Sakura sets out to capture and return the Clow Cards to the book in a 70-episode and two-length arc. movies.
Only 70 episodes and two short films are not long-term by 1990s mainstream anime standards. Yet Card thief Sakura grew in small, relatable increments with its pre-adolescent audience. In the face of Ash Ketchum’s eternal agelessness, Card thief Sakura offered a sense of momentum throughout its series-length narration. Most meaningfully, its story offered a more adult alternative to the anime that was available to Western children at the time.
Although it makes meaningful use of ’90s trends, including baggy skates – I thought it was too cool for my 10-year-old, but it was never cool enough. actually try—Card thief Sakura I never felt sarcastic. Not performing the usual “Magical Girl”, Sakura helped her serious tone. role usually taken by characters such as Sailor Moon. He does not fight evil. Rather, it comforts restless souls in a way that reflects their own feelings of being preteen: the feeling of being suddenly very young. And too old.
“I didn’t want Sakura to be a Super Primary School Girl,” said CLAMP member Nanase Ohkawa. CLAMP No Kiseki in 2004. “He can’t do everything; struggles with math and excels in physical exercises. Everything she cooks like okonomiyaki and pancakes is pretty simple, which might be the most a normal fourth grader can do.”
This sense of authentic storytelling is aided by Madhouse’s past performance of realistically proportioned artworks. Card thief Sakura contrasts with other contemporary anime. Removed from the hyper aesthetic of similar genre shows sailor of the month, anime has become quite familiar to modern audiences. Sakura may have fought magical beings at night, but during the day life revolved around homework, baking cakes, doing chores, hanging out with friends, and navigating first loves.
These relationships form the core Card thief SakuraWhether it’s Sakura’s obsession with Yukito, her brother’s best friend and later boyfriend, or how sensitively the show deals with Tomoyo’s unrequited romantic interest in Sakura. The show’s realistic foundation helps take home its lessons on openness in all its forms of love—lessons that stay with you twenty years after you first saw them.
LGBTQ+ themes were not uncommon in anime back then, but Card thief Sakura instilled in his entire being the idea that love is love. More importantly, he did so as he transitioned to a less permissive Western media.
Inside Comic Book Resources piece As of 2020, Anthony Gramuglia claims how important a non-heteronormative approach to love is to the core message of the series. “This love exists independently of all other factors,” he writes. “The show teaches its young girl audience that love knows no bounds.”
Through flowing narratives of sexuality, exploring gender, and using transgender, bisexual, and sexist characters, Card thief Sakura it was probably the first meeting many of us young viewers had with non-stereotypical, sympathetic LGBTQ+ characters. For me, the show’s obvious weirdness feels particularly important in retrospect; I grew up in a bigoted home and embracing Card thief Sakura It was my first step towards throwing off everything I had subconsciously learned from my parents.
In an interview in 2001 Card Captor Sakura Memorial BookOhkawa talked about the show’s diverse, accepted approach to sexuality. “I wanted a story with an open-minded protagonist to different family structures, different types of love, and different perspectives from society,” she said.
It’s not exactly the epitome of ’90s Western TV – which is probably why the open-minded version of Sakura was only seen in Japan. In adapting the show for Western audiences, networks sought to dilute its portrayal of the complexity of love. Episodes have been edited, reordered, and some have not even been shown outside of Japan; all of this was done to remove allusions to LGBTQ+ themes and align it with other sanitized imports. Pokémon And Digimon.
“Queer love themes were so ingrained that they managed to transcend multiple layers of censorship.”
The networks did not get all of these references though. Queer love themes were so ingrained that they managed to break through multiple layers of censorship in the English dub to protect the West. card thieves as one of the weirdest shows on television at the time. After all, you can change the script, but the animation remains the same.
The way Tōya works his magic on Yukito remains an extremely sensitive moment between the two male-coded characters in the dub, even in 2023. Sakura’s classmate and crush Syaoran may not have been overtly impressed by Yukito as in the Japanese original, but she still blushed every time Yukito approached her. Although Dub tried to portray Tomoyo and Sakura as Very Good Friends™, it was clear even in English that Tomoyo had strong romantic feelings for Sakura.
“I still understand the weirdness,” Shamus Kelly writes in Den of Geek, reflecting on the series for 2020. “Not directly, notice. I was nine years old and hadn’t had my first love yet. [But] Thanks to Tōya and Yukito, I was able to resolve my sexuality safely. I was not afraid to gradually realize that I liked women and men; Cause I knew it was okay Card thief Sakura He showed that he was okay.”
Card thief Sakura it was just that: a warm, safe place. And while the fact that Sakura and Syaoran finally got together seemed to undermine the drama’s weirdness, Ohkawa was curious that fans didn’t see it that way.
“I’m glad readers are happy that Sakura and Syaoran got together, but anyone would think it was because of what they did. [an obvious] couple… that’s a bit of a concern,” he said. Card Captor Sakura Memorial Book. “Sakura didn’t choose Syaoran because she was a close boy to her. If Syaoran was a girl, if their ages were so different, I think Sakura would have fallen in love with her as long as she’s still Syaoran. It would upset me if you thought they were a good couple because they [heterosexual]”
This claim is not made with a performative retrospective, without any textual reference, such as making Dumbledore gay years after the event. The fact that Sakura could be with Syaoran no matter who they were, and that any character could do pretty much the same thing in their own relationship was fundamental to the series and Sakura’s character – something even the censorship couldn’t mask.
Still, Card thief Sakura Even in the more permissive landscape of ’90s Japanese anime it remained a risk.
“I was wondering how the drama would be received as it aired in the queue. Nakayoshi [a long-running manga magazine aimed at young girls]”But it was better received than I expected,” Ohkawa said in 2001, and later added, “There may be people who think elementary school kids lack so much maturity, but there are many kids who are so wise and suffer for it.”
For all its popularity, Card thief Sakura it was not an eye-opening spectacle in the grand scheme of things; it did not rekindle the waning interest in the Magical Girl genre and did not shake up the anime. But he it was different. He never took for granted the ineptitude of his young audience. He never claimed that we were not ready for his lessons. He told us something has changed, and that’s okay—everything’s fine. Everything will be alright.
Now, with 25 years of the show airing on Netflix (at least in the US) with a more faithful (and more gay) dub, Card thief Sakura can give the new generation the feeling that everything is yes will be good.