is a fictional character

Character (arts)

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

, the heroine of Clamp

Clamp (manga artists)

, is an all-female Japanese manga artist group that formed in the mid 1980s. Many of the group's manga series are often adapted into anime after release. It consists of their leader , who provides much of the storyline and screenplay for all their works and adaptations of those works respectively ,...

's manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 series Cardcaptor Sakura

Cardcaptor Sakura

, abbreviated as CCS and also known as Cardcaptors, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. The manga was originally serialized monthly in Nakayoshi from the May 1996 until the June 2000 issue, and later published in 12 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha...

. In the English anime adaptation of the series, Cardcaptors, her name is changed to Sakura Avalon. For all Japanese-language productions of the anime (including movies, audio CDs, and video games), Sakura is voiced by Sakura Tange

Sakura Tange

Sakura Tange is an idol, seiyū and singer who was born in Ichinomiya, Aichi, Japan. She is best known for providing the voice of Sakura Kinomoto in the anime series Cardcaptor Sakura....

. For English-language productions, she is voiced by Carly McKillip

Carly McKillip

Carly McKillip is a Canadian actress and musician known for her title role in television series Alice, I Think. She is also the former lead vocalist in the Vancouver band Borderline. She was occasionally miscredited as Carly McKillup...

 through Cardcaptors and the first movie. She is voiced in the second movie by Kari Wahlgren

Kari Wahlgren

Kari K. Wahlgren is an American voice actress who has provided English language voices for dozens of anime titles and video games. Her debut role was as one of the main characters of FLCL, Haruko Haruhara. She had a live-action role as Tinker Bell in the 2003 Damion Dietz film Neverland...

.

Creation and conception

Sakura's character design for the manga was originally developed by Mokona

Mokona

is the pen name of the lead artist, colorist, and composition designer of the all-female manga-creating team Clamp. She was formerly known as . Clamp has had a huge impact on the "manga explosion" according to an account in the New York Times in 2006. Their artwork has been characterized as "fluid"...

 of Clamp. She was designed to capture the image of Mokona's then two-year-old niece Kawaji. Kawaji wore short hair in pigtails much like Sakura does in the anime and manga.

In Cardcaptors, Sakura was originally going to be called "Nikki," but Nelvana kept her given name because of the reception of the Cardcaptors adaptation plus the difficulty and expense of editing out numerous appearances of her name in rōmaji

Romanization of Japanese

The romanization of Japanese is the application of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is known as , less strictly romaji, literally "Roman letters", sometimes incorrectly transliterated as romanji or rōmanji. There are several different romanization systems...

in the series. However, her family name

Family name

A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...

 was changed to "Avalon". Her first name is also pronounced differently from the original Japanese.

Her many magical costumes were introduced as CLAMP felt it was "sad" for a girl to wear the same magical costume all the time.

Character

Sakura is a ten-year-old girl who lives in the town of Tomoeda in Japan, where she attends Tomoeda Elementary School. An extremely energetic and cheerful girl, she is very athletic, being a member of her school's cheerleading squad and excellent at track-and-field activities. She lives with her father and older brother. Her mother died when she was three years old. She has a close relationship with her father, whom she adores. She never fails to greet her mother's picture in the mornings. She often fights with her brother, who teases her, but she truly cares about him. Sakura's smile is almost undefeatable and is what draws people to her.

Sakura's optimistic and trustworthy character allows her to be friendly with everybody, and the entire series focuses on the friendships she creates with people, whether strangers, loose acquaintances, or rivals. Her personality is a dominating factor in her relationships, especially with Syaoran.

One of Sakura's most notable traits is her "invincible spell", , which has carried her through innumerable trials and obstacles as she masters her magical skills. While she often comes across as naïve, clumsy, and clueless, Sakura is known for her occasional moments of insight and sensitivity towards the feelings of others. Sakura is so innocent and naive that she fails to recognize Syaoran's feelings for her and unintentionally gets into trouble. Despite this, she retains a determined spirit and attachments to those she cares for.

Magic

Sakura's most sacred and important items are most likely her sealing wand and cards, since they are her main weapons in magic. Throughout the series, Sakura's magical powers get progressively stronger. This is mostly verified by Cerberus at random points in the series, as Sakura would otherwise appear to have equal expertise in each capture, when she summons Clow Cards. Throughout the Clow Card arc, Cerberus's comments seem to imply that Sakura's magic grows as she battles and captures more Cards. This is also implied in the corresponding anime. In contrast of this, in the second half of the series we are reminded of Sakura’s inexperience as she often collapses after transforming the cards. However, as she grows progressively proficient in changing Clow Cards into Sakura Cards, she becomes less tired and more aware of Clow Reed's presence. She also remembers more details about her prophetic dreams. During the last of Eriol's trials, she is able to transform several cards at once. This sequence of events during the second arc is more or less true in the anime version of the series as well, with only a few changes made. The most obvious of these is that Yue (a character who, in the original version of the series is shown as becoming much closer to Sakura throughout Eriol’s trials to the point of accepting her at least as a valued friend ) is shown throwing her a constant stream of criticism as a reminder of Sakura’s lack of experience. Another interesting change made in the anime variation is that, by end of the series, she, subconsciously, manages to create a new Card, the nameless card (which later becomes the Hope Card), which would later serve as a major plot point for the second movie.

After the Final Judgement, Clow Reed tells her that her magic is not drawn from the sun nor from the moon, but from her own star, which may start small, but is ever-shining with its own brilliant light. However, like Clow Reed's magic, Sakura's is a balance of sun and moon magic. Eriol gave half of his powers to Sakura's father, the other half of Clow's incarnation. This made Sakura the most powerful magician in the world, even surpassing her predecessor Clow Reed.

Relationships

Sakura is well-known and loved by everyone for her ability to befriend others, including rivals and strangers. Among those she is close to, the series focuses on Sakura's best friendships and love interests.

Relationship with Syaoran Li

Sakura's relationship with Syaoran is the most recognized in the series, due to Syaoran's change of behavior towards Sakura from rivalry to friendly and romantic. When they first met, Syaoran disliked Sakura and saw her as a rival over the Clow Cards. Despite how he treated her, Sakura never gave back any negative attitude towards him, and even thanked him for his help in critical situations and tried to befriend him. Their relationship remained rocky for a short time due to their mutual goal to collect the cards, but as they spent time together and aided each other, a friendship began to emerge. While Syaoran's feelings quickly developed into romantic, Sakura remained naive and simply thought of him as a close friend. After she is rejected by Yukito and is comforted by Syaoran, there are hints that she returns his feelings, even though he doesn't confess until the very end, which shocks her. After talking with her friends and learning of his plans to return to Hong Kong, Sakura realizes that she does love Syaoran and confesses to him. The expressions from this mAy hint at a future relationship.

Relationship with Yukito Tsukihiro

Yukito is Sakura's first crush. He is 7 years older than her, but it never bothers her. Due to him being her brother's best friend, she tries to get him to come over to her house and goes to school with her brother to see Yukito every morning. She makes snacks for him and tries to spend as much time with him as she can. Even when she discovers that he is in fact Yue, her feelings don't change. She eventually confesses to him, only to be gently rejected and she realizes that she loves him the same way as she does for her father. Although heartbroken, she learns to accept that he loves her brother and maintains a deep friendship with Yukito.

Friendship with Tomoyo Daidouji

Tomoyo is Sakura's best friend and second cousin on their mothers' side. They first met in the third grade, and since then, Tomoyo has adored and worshipped Sakura. They are as close as sisters. Tomoyo tends to exaggerate over Sakura's cuteness; she designs several colorful clothes for Sakura and videotapes her everyday routine. Sakura is a bit bemused by Tomoyo's devotion towards her, but netherless loves her. There are hints that Tomoyo has feelings for Sakura, but doesn't make them known because of her involvement in pairing Sakura up with Yukito and Syaoran.

Appearances in other media

In the first Cardcaptor Sakura film, Sakura wins a trip to Hong Kong, where she meets Syaoran's family and encounters the spirit of a woman angry at Clow Reed who mistakenly calls Sakura to her because of her being the holder of the Clow Cards. In Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card

Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card

is the second anime film, sequel, and the finale to the anime television series adaptation of Clamp's Cardcaptor Sakura. The animation was produced by Madhouse, while it was directed by Morio Asaka and written by Nanase Ōkawa . It won the Feature Film Award at the 2000 Animation Kobe.. The film was...

, she learns that there is a 53rd card, the Sealed card which was created to balance the positive energy of the other cards. While searching for the card, Sakura also struggles to tell Syaoran that she loves him.

Sakura is a playable character in eight of the Cardcaptor Sakura video games, and her character design is featured in the series' version of Tetris

Tetris

Tetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...

. The character design of Sakura Kinomoto is reused in the Clamp series Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle

is a shōnen manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. It takes place in the same fictional universe as many of Clamp's other manga series, most notably xxxHolic. The plot follows how Sakura, the princess of the Kingdom of Clow, loses her soul and how Syaoran, a young...

, which presents an alternate world

Parallel universe (fiction)

A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...

 story that also uses characters from many of the group's previous series. In Tsubasa the design is used for several characters named Sakura, including the central character named Princess Sakura

Sakura (Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle)

, also known as , is a fictional character and one of the protagonists from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, a manga series written and illustrated by Clamp. In the series, Sakura is a princess from the Kingdom of Clow who has her memories separated from her body to parallel dimensions...

. Sakura also plays an important role during the last arc of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle

is a shōnen manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. It takes place in the same fictional universe as many of Clamp's other manga series, most notably xxxHolic. The plot follows how Sakura, the princess of the Kingdom of Clow, loses her soul and how Syaoran, a young...

, in a dream to a reincarnated Princess Sakura. During this vision, Sakura gives her older self the Star Wand and assures her that "everything will be all right". She seems several years older than her final appearance in the manga, but is wearing a similar uniform to that of her old elementary one. The wand is later seen in Yuuko Ichihara's shop.

Sakura also appeared in the OVA Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations as a spirit or vision that Princess Sakura sees, which guides her back to where see came from, the Tocho (government building) when she gets lost. She disappears when Princess Sakura sees the building.

Reception

In both 1999 and 2000 Sakura won the Animage Grand Prix for Best Female Character.
In 2001 Sakura Kinomoto won the "Cutest Anime Girl of the Year" award from All Anime World. In a Newtype

Newtype (magazine)

is a monthly magazine publication originating from Japan, covering anime and manga . It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985 with its April issue, and has since seen regular release on the 10th of every month in its home country...

poll from March 2010, Sakura was voted as the fourth most popular female anime character from the 1990s. She also won the Anime Saimoe Tournament 2002, an online popularity contest for the most moe anime character of the year.