‘Cardcaptor Sakura’ Resurfaces in the Most Unexpected Way 27 Years After Its Release

The anime series that we love never truly leave us, but it’s always a nice surprise to realize that other people have been thinking about it too. This past week, Crunchyroll created a handy list of anime titles that fans can quickly search for when they are craving some specific types of stories. In the enemies-to-lovers list, the platform included several titles but one stood out, an anime series that was first released 27 years ago: Cardcaptor Sakura.

One of the biggest titles of the late 90s, Cardcaptor Sakura followed the adventures of an elementary school student (voiced by Sakura Tange in the original Japanese and by Carly McKillip in the English dub) that mostly just wants to excel at school and hang out with her friends. However, her life is turned upside down when she unlocks a secret book that releases a set of Clow cards into Japan. Then, she is forced to retrieve each card and deal with each of them’s powers as she gains more confidence and agency in her own life.

The anime series was also famous for its good dose of romance — during the early episodes of the series, Sakura meets Syaoran Li (Motoko Kumai/Ernesto Jason Liebrecht) a boy who is also capturing Clow cards and doesn’t take Sakura very seriously. Despite working together, the duo has a beef for several episodes that only starts to disappear once they realize they actually might be in love with each other. Fans of the couple had to be patient, because they only talked about their feelings for each other by the end of the show’s 70-episode run.

Why It’s Important To Rewatch Sakura

U.S. audiences that watched Cardcaptor Sakura back when it premiered and never returned to it might have a big surprise when they watch it again on Crunchyroll. The anime series was heavily edited to appeal to younger boys, and the most surprising and cruel cut was to ignore the first seven episodes of the series in order to start the show with the arrival of Syaoran in the story. Additionally, the romance undertones of Sakura and Syaoran were underplayed by the dub in order to make the series less “girly.”

Cardcaptor Sakura is one of the titles that immensely helped popularize CLAMP, an all-female company formed by Japanese artists that also created xxxHolic, Chobits and Magic Knight Rayheart. In case you missed it, Cardcaptor Sakura received a sequel series that revisited the story almost 20 years after its release, titled Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc.

You can stream all episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura and Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc on Crunchyroll.

Source: Crunchyroll