Title: Card
Captor Sakura
Author/Artist: Clamp
Publisher: Kodansha Comics
Style: Shojo -- Adventure/Fantasy
# of Books: 10+
Rating: PG
Summary written by: Gloria Oliver
Main Characters:
Sakura Kinomoto
Sakura is a bright, tomboyish girl. She's 10 years old, blood type A, born April 1st, her favorite food is Hotcakes. One day, when down in her father's library, she seemingly accidentally opened/dropped a book called The Clow. In this book, rather than pages, were a set of cards, which by the book being opened have now been released and have escaped. Sakura is then told by the book's guardian that since she let them escape, she will now have to work to get the Clow Cards back into the book. The guardian gives her a wand and with the word "release" Sakura now becomes a Card Captor.
Cerberus
Cerberus awakens after the Clow Cards have escaped from the book. He charges Sakura with the task of retrieving the cards since she is the one who set them free (we won't make mention that though he's the Guardian, he was sleeping on the job--or so it seems...) As Kero-chan will tell you (This is Sakura's nickname for Cerberus and though he doesn't like it, he can't get Sakura to stop calling him by it. :-)) he is not a cat, and he is not a dog--he is an impressive, cool, big Guardian--he just doesn't have the power to show his true form at this time. His birthday is a secret, he loves sweets, hates spicy food. He loves to watch TV and his favorite colors are red and orange.
Kero-chan initiates Sakura as a Card Captor after doing a ritual in which the power baton/book key accepts her as the new Card Captor. Kero-chan tries to guide her as best he can and uses his previous knowledge of the cards to help her catch them. When Sakura does capture one, she must write her name on the cards to make them her own.
It is my opinion that though he comes to love Sakura very much, and does have her best interests at heart, Kero-chan also has many secrets which he's not telling about.
Tomoyo Daidooji
Tomoyo is Sakura's best friend. She's rich, beautiful, smart, and as Sakura says, a little strange. She takes the news that Sakura can do magic and has magical friends totally in stride and is quite excited at the prospect of being able to film Sakura as a super herpo as she tries to retrieves the cards. Tomoyo is so excited, she even creates a line of beautiful costumes for Sakura to wear so she will look that much better as a Card Captor.
Tomoyo's mother is the president of a large corporation and has a troop of security guards which are all female. As we find out later in the manga, Tomoyo's mother was a very close friend of Sakura's mother, Nadesico, and never was too happy with her marriage to Sakura's father, especially since she then died at the age of 27.
Tomoyo is very aware of Sakura's love interest, Yukito (9/3, blood type A) (He's Toya's(2/29, blood type O), Sakura's older bother's best friend.) She does what she can to encourage Sakura in her pursuits, later informing her she has a new rival for her love, even as she watches this same rival slowly fall for Sakura herself and encourages it.
Clow Cards
The Clow Cards were created by Clow Lead, a man using Western and Eastern magics. He created the cards, which are in their own way alive and have personalities, as well as the book that holds them. The book has two guardians, Cerberus (Earth) and Yue (Moon). While Cerberus we meet almost immediately at the beginning of Book 1, Yue works in more mysterious ways and is not revealed for a while. (He is one of the secrets Cerberus holds, for he never mentions him until later.)
In order for a Card Captor to retrieve the cards, they must be subdued, returned to their card form, and then the name of the Captor written on them so they become hers. While independent when escaped, they can become quite loyal to the Card Captor as long as the Captor is pure of heart.
The cards not only have their own power, but together can be used for divination. Also, depending on the innate power of their owner, they can convey dreams of the future. One prophecy that has been made from the cards before Sakura came into the picture, was a prophecy of future disaster. Yet Cerberus has not real details on what it is. Or so he says...
The Cards are as follows:
Windy, Fly, Jump, Wood, Watery, Illusion, Flower, Sword, Thunder, Shadow, Mirror, Shield, Maze, Erase, Glow, Light, Dark, Firey, and Earth.
Story Summary
The manga is incredibly cute and interesting as well. There are at least a couple of story lines running simultaneously, and they are all integrated through Sakura or the cards. Sakura is able to actually get all the cards within a few volumes, but then other mystifying things begin to occur. First she finds a rival in the card collecting department when she meets a relative of Clow Lead named Li Syuoran (7/13, O negative blood). At first he becomes a rival for the cards and for Sakura's love, Yukito (Yukito wears glasses and is a very sensitive person, and eats like a horse without gaining any weight). Later, Li finds himself thinking less and less of Yukito and as he is more and more attracted to Sakura. (Tomoyo happily points this out to him any number of times! :-) )
As Sakura gets better, and Li becomes more of a helper, she begins having dreams of a new mysterious person. Also, she finds out that someone related to the moon is keeping an eye on her and is someone close to her. The cards, once she has them all, and a new threat enters town, begin to change. Wether this is a good change or bad, it is yet to be seen. But as each card gets used to offset the mysteriuous threats, their backing changes.
Add to all this mess the fact that innocent Yukito sometimes seems to know things he shouldn't, that her brother Toya keeps being spoken of by others as someone of power, the mysterious new foreign student and others and you get a big mix of things going towards the vague mentioned disastrous future. Where will it all lead?
As an extra treat, each manga comes with a colorful bookmark made to look on the back like one of the Clow Cards yet holding a picture of one of the varied cast of characters. A definitely fun read with some very nice inventive touches. If you've seen the anime, you still need to read the manga for the TV series deviates heavily from some of the card capturing incidents. Personally, I like the way they do a numbers of these a lot better in the manga. A definite fun read with lost of first love sentiments and realizations. Too cute!