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Cardcaptor Sakura (カードキャプターさくら kādo kyaputā sakura), also known as Card Captor Sakura (with the space) and often abbreviated to CCS, is a manga series from the well-known all-women artist team CLAMP. It is also an anime show (1998-2000) created from the manga, consisting of 70 half-hour episodes in three series and two theatrical-release movies.
The series begins as a simple girls' anime of the magical girl genre (similar series include Sailor Moon and Pretty Sammy). Ten-year-old Sakura Kinomoto opens a mysterious book in her father's study and accidentally lets loose the magical Clow Cards. As she lost them, it is her job to retrieve them, which involves finding each card and battling its magical personification. She is assisted by Cerberus (a.k.a., Kero-chan), the beast of the seal assigned to protect the cards, but who was asleep when Sakura opened the Clow book. Kero-chan, who appears throughout most of the series rather like an animated plush toy, makes Sakura into the Cardcaptor and gives her the key of the seal which allows her to fight and capture the cards.
As CCS progresses, there is a pattern of foreshadowing and dreams that lead to an unusual conclusion. Like in Magic Knight Rayearth, one of CLAMP's previous works, CCS is a new twist on an old genre.
Due in part to its animation, Cardcaptor Sakura has a wide fanbase on the Internet, particularly in the yaoi, shojo, Yuri and lolicon fandom.
The Cardcaptor Sakura characters also appear in a manga called Tsubasa.
CCS is published in Japan by Kodansha.
Cardcaptor Sakura was dubbed into English by Nelvana and brought to the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in under the name Cardcaptors. The dub came to be highly disliked by many anime fans. Entire episodes of the original series were taken apart and spliced together in an attempt to make Cardcaptors more appealing to AmericanThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in teenage boys, as the conception that, with the exception of Sailor Moon, girl-oriented series would not succeed. This makes the plotline of Cardcaptors seem rather haphazard to someone who has watched the original. The shojo-aiYuri (sometimes known as shojo-ai a jargon term amongst otaku for lesbian content, possibly sexually explicit, in anime and manga, or in fan fiction based on such. In Western media the term femmeslash would be used. Definition and semantic drift Much like and shonen-aiShonen-ai ( from shonen young man + ai love) refers to anime or manga that deals with love between young men, especially of the bishonen variety. Shonen-ai is usually less explicit or sexual than yaoi. Usually the characters involved in shonen-ai are of a romantic subtext was also excised. As a result, the series gained a much darker mood and was passed off as a series similar to the PokémonMudkip, Treecko, Pikachu, and Torchic. Based on the Pokemon video games, the Pokemon anime series was created in Japan and then translated for the North American television market. The series appeared outside Japan before the video games did, and has sinc anime. For a while it was on the WB Television Network, the same network that carried Pokémon in the United States.
In the United States, Cardcaptors ran for 39 episodes (as compared to the original series' 70-episode run) before it was ultimately cancelled. These episodes ran in a different order compared to the original episodes, and thus there is a feeling that the plot was disjointed. The U.S. version of the show continues to be shown in Canada, on the Teletoon network. In other English-speaking countries it ran in a more complete form, with all 70 episodes being shown in its original order (although in edited form), in some cases eschewing the English opening and closing themes in favor of dubbed versions of the original themes. The DVD line was cancelled after the ninth volume (the beginning of the second story arc). Because of all of these changes, and the pre-existing fandom of the series, the dub swiftly came to be known in fannish circles as "Card craptors".
The two movies have also been dubbed into English, and as both the Cardcaptor Sakura version and the Cardcaptors version can be found on the same DVD, the only major differences between the two are the dialogue. The second movie is more faithful to the original (retaining the original names and much of the original dialogue), and has a different voice cast from Cardcaptors.
In addition to its negative reviews, Cardcaptors merchandise was not widely received as certain parents were concerned that, as the Clow Cards vaguely, but significantly, resembled the tarot cards, the series could be seen as promoting witchcraft or the occult.
Cardcaptors Uncensored provides an incomplete list of changes between the two series. The site was last updated in 2001.