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'Card Captor Sakura'
a welcome new seriesMy tastes in Japanese animation run to the obscure -- at least, my contributions to this column do. Reason being that there isn't much about more mainstream anime ("Dragonball Z" and "Sailor Moon," for example) that commands my attention.
But, I must admit, one finally has.
"Card Captor Sakura" is based on the manga by the ubiquitous CLAMP and -- a nod to the regular readers of this column -- belongs to the "mahou shoujo" (magical girl) subgenre of anime.
Sakura is an ordinary 10-year-old girl who stumbles upon an ancient book holding the powerful Clow Cards, tarotlike cards with magical powers. She accidentally invokes the Windy card, scattering the rest of the deck far and wide.
Only then does the cards' guardian appear: Kerberos, who looks like a big-eared bear with wings. Kero-chan was sleeping on the job after 30 years or so, but of course that doesn't stop him with charging poor Sakura with the job of recapturing the cards. Thus she becomes the Card Captor.
The first thing to notice about this anime is that it's cute. It simply oozes cuteness from every cell in the animation and every pixel on the screen. While that's normally a hugely annoying trait, this is the more touching kind that calls to mind the oohing and aahing over a cute baby doing cute baby things.
For one, Sakura has an immense crush on her brother's friend, Yukito, a fragile but kindhearted person. The way she rushes to catch up with him walking to school, then stands frozen in love watching him with a muted sparkle in her eye, is too funny to behold. Ah, the innocence of childhood.
And when Sakura becomes the Card Captor, her immensely rich best friend, Tomoyo, makes the most outlandish costumes for the girl to wear. With Tomoyo a big photography buff, her eye is almost perpetually glued to a video camera, cheering on Sakura as she records her friend's semiheroic actions.
Kero-chan even gives us a little fashion show of each new costume at the end of the episode, pointing out things such as the "lovely decorative bows" and various other accessories. (Cosplayers, take careful note.)
And Kero-chan's curious investigations of the modern world strike a humorous chord as the guardian, stuck in Sakura's room most of the time, quickly gets addicted to sweets, watching television dramas and playing video games.
ONE THING that weighs down what would otherwise be a buoyant bastion of bubblegum is Sakura's dour-faced and practical brother, Touya. He and Sakura have the usual sibling arguments that usually end with the girl dealing an injurious blow to her brother.
The main thing that makes "Card Captor Sakura" more bearable than some other series is its lack of overused slapstick. The cast has enough charm that such extreme humor is unnecessary and the anime thankfully avoids it.
With such a combination, it's easy to understand the series' popularity. An English-dubbed "Card Captor Sakura" was broadcast on the Kids WB network in edited form.
Two different sets of DVDs are available: "Card Captors," which has the dubbed, edited-for-television episodes; and "Card Captor Sakura," with the uncut Japanese, subtitled episodes.
Wilma Jandoc covers the universe
of video games, anime, and manga for
the Star-Bulletin. She can be e-mailed at
wjandoc@starbulletin.com
