A review of the Cardcaptor Sakura movie (1999)

Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie was based on the successful shojo manga comics released in 1999. It was followed by another movie in the year 2000 and this was named Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2. The target audience, as the shojo (little female) suggests is girls in the age group of nine to eighteen, with rather precocious dreams of romantic adventures.

Sakura manga comics

The origin of the TV series and the movie lies in the Cardcaptor Sakura manga comics which became popular in Nakayoshi magazine between 1996 and 2000. The stories revolve around Sakura Kinomoto, a little girl with big fantasies. She is a student in an elementary school, but is in love with her brother, Toya Kinomoto’s high school friend, Yukito Tsukishiro. Her best friend is Tomoyo Daidouji, who is always making video recordings of Sakura.

Clow cards

The movie revolves around the magical Clow cards which Sakura had unwittingly released and scattered. She has to gather all the Clow cards one by one again, thus the name Cardcaptors.
Sakura’s constant companion is also the magical Kero-chan who is the guardian of the Clow cards. He is the creation of Clow Reed, the originator of Clow cards. Clow Reed was a magician who combined western and eastern magic. Sakura is his descendant.

A journey to Hong Kong

The Sakura movie is an entertaining magical fantasy. The little cardcaptor does not have a mother, but she loves her father with all her heart. On the way back from school, she goes into a store and wins a trip to Hong Kong. Sakura is haunted by Sorceress Madoushi who is looking for vengeance from Clow Reed. In the end, cardcaptors Sakura and Kero-chan are able to convince her that Clow Reed is dead.

Central theme is love

The Cardcaptors movie cards are very attractive, but viewers who are not familiar with the TV or manga series are puzzled with the functions of the Cardcaptor Sakura Clow cards. It is necessary to see the television Cardcaptors Sakura episode one with English dubbing to understand the basics of the storyline. There were nineteen cards in the manga comics original. In the TV series, the Sakura cards increase to 52 and one more is added later by the little heroine in the form of a Hope card. All the features and attributes of the cards are confusing for the first time viewer of Cardcaptors Clow cards. The ones which can be easily understood are Windy, Fiery, Watery and Earthy. The central theme behind the successful Cardcaptor Sakura manga, TV series and movie is love. The original animation team of Clamp has written the story for the movie. The movie is directed by Morio Asaka.