Sakura Kinomoto

Lore & Background

Clamp writer Nanase Ohkawa's first impulse was to create a magical girl series, despite not being well-versed in the genre. Ohkawa wanted the heroine Sakura to be in the same age group as the majority of Nakayoshi's readers so that fans could relate to her. While Ohkawa planned out Cardcaptor Sakura from beginning to end, she never consulted the plot with the other members, instead giving them the script one chapter at a time. Mokona initially drew Tomoyo so it would look like she was in love with Toya, which led to her surprise when she received the script for the chapter which reveals Tomoyo loves Sakura.

The story was planned to have the theme of 'if you try your best, it'll work out', but Ohkawa did not start out with Sakura's 'It'll definitely be okay' mindset. Ohkawa wanted to write a story that 'minorities would feel comfortable with.' The series' main theme is expressed through Sakura, a main character designed to be open-minded about different family structures and kinds of love. Ohkawa addressed the relationships featured in the series by using Tomoyo and Sakura as an example.

She explained that the reason Tomoyo and Sakura did not end up together was not because Tomoyo is a girl, but rather because Sakura did not love Tomoyo in a romantic way. Sakura's character design for the manga was originally developed by Mokona of Clamp. She was designed to capture the image of Mokona's then two-year-old niece Kawaji. The original character's facial expression changed considerably until the manga started.

Her many magical costumes were introduced as CLAMP felt it was 'sad' for a girl to wear the same magical costume all the time influenced by the manga series Sailor Moon. Between the manga and the anime adaptation, nearly 300 costumes were made with most of them being created specifically for Sakura. As the series' main theme is 'love', Clamp focused on the multiple relationships Sakura has. Both Syaoran Li and Tomoyo Daidoji were found as popular characters for often comforting the main character based on how the readers related themselves with their feelings for Sakura.

Picking a Japanese actress to voice Sakura was difficult. Neither Ohkawa nor anime director Morio Asaka was satisfied with any of the voice actresses who auditioned for the role. In the end, Sakura Tange was selected for the role, with sound director Masafumi Mima believing her to fit the character thanks to her quiet and strong voice. There are fictional magical cards used in the manga and anime series Cardcaptor Sakura.

They serve as magical items for the protagonist to use for various means. The deck consists of nineteen cards in the manga and fifty-three in the anime. The popularity and success of Cardcaptor Sakura led to the creation of several toys of the Clow Cards, including a set of toy cards released by the Nakayoshi magazine to celebrate its sixtieth anniversary. In Nelvana's English adaptation titled 'Cardcaptors', Sakura was originally going to be called Nikki, but they later decided to keep her first original 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 in the anime series. However, her family name was changed to 'Avalon'.

Reader's Guide

Sakura Kinomoto starts as an innocent elementary school student who discovers a hidden magical destiny. Her role evolves from a reluctant participant forced by circumstance into a confident guardian who embraces her powers with grace. Later, she wields the more powerful Star Staff to create her own Sakura Cards.