50 Fun Facts About Cardcaptor Sakura

The heroine of Clamp's Cardcaptor Sakura takes her given name from the Japanese word for which flower?

Cherry blossom is what sakura means, and the flower follows her to the very end: petals fall around her and Syaoran in the closing scene of the sequel manga.

From which city does Syaoran Li arrive in Cardcaptor Sakura, determined to recapture the Clow Cards for himself?

Hong Kong is home to the Li clan of sorcerers, distant relatives of Clow Reed, which is why Syaoran believes the deck should be his to inherit.

Which fast-food chain handed out Cardcaptors prizes with its children's meals during a month-long promotion?

Taco Bell expected to give away up to 7 million of them in January 2002, and a conservative Christian group complained that the Clow Cards looked too much like tarot.

Kero, the guardian beast of Cardcaptor Sakura, speaks in the dialect of which Japanese city where his book once sat?

Osaka is where the Clow Book lay for a long stretch before it reached the Kinomoto basement, and Kero picked up the local accent while sealed inside.

Which real landmark appears in Sakura Kinomoto's dreams before she opens the Clow Book in the anime's first episode?

Tokyo Tower keeps returning in her sleep because the dreams are previews of the Final Judgment, the test that awaits once every card has been caught.

In Cardcaptor Sakura, which color did Clow Reed deliberately choose for the sealing wand with its future owner in mind?

Pink was a deliberate choice: Clow Reed could foresee most of the future, so he knew his wand would pass to a young girl.

Sakura Kinomoto faces down runaway Clow Cards in Cardcaptor Sakura, yet she is openly terrified of what?

Ghosts send her running, while her classmate Naoko, a lover of scary stories, is fascinated by every haunting, and the English dub Cardcaptors cut the fear entirely.

Which high-school student, her older brother's best friend, is Sakura Kinomoto's first crush in Cardcaptor Sakura?

Yukito turns her down gently when she finally confesses, then admits that the person he cares for most is her brother.

Kero's full name in Cardcaptor Sakura, Cerberus, comes from a three-headed guard dog in which mythology?

Greek myth posts Cerberus at the gates of the underworld, while the manga's version guards a book and spends most days as a small orange stuffed animal with wings.

Tomoyo Daidouji hands Sakura prototype gadgets in Cardcaptor Sakura because her mother runs what kind of firm?

A toy company headed by her mother Sonomi supplies the phones and gadgets, and its wealth explains why Tomoyo lives in a mansion watched over by maids and bodyguards.

Which Clow Card is Sakura Kinomoto's first capture, sealed in the anime's opening episode with Kero's coaching?

The Fly is caught on the same day the deck scatters, and from then on it lets her take to the air in pursuit of the others.

Which school club does the athletic Sakura Kinomoto belong to alongside classmates Chiharu and Naoko?

Cheerleading suits a girl her friends call the best baton twirler in school, and Naoko made the squad too despite being bad at gymnastics.

In the English dub Cardcaptors, what new first name was given to Sakura's costume-making best friend Tomoyo?

Madison also lost Tomoyo's formal, elegant way of speaking, which the dub swapped for valley girl speech.

Which family name replaced Kinomoto for Sakura, her father Aiden and her brother Tori in the English dub Cardcaptors?

Avalon was a compromise: the dub's producers first meant to rename the heroine altogether, then kept Sakura because her name is written on screen so often.

The US broadcast of Cardcaptors was heavily re-edited in the hope of winning over which audience?

Male viewers were seen as animation's biggest audience, so the dub played up the action, opened with episode eight, the arrival of rival Syaoran, and dropped episodes centred on Sakura.

Fujitaka Kinomoto, the widowed father in Cardcaptor Sakura, is a busy university professor of which subject?

Archaeology is also what he comes to his daughter's school to talk about, a visit that turns Syaoran into an instant fan until he learns whose father the speaker is.

Which Clow Card roams town as Sakura Kinomoto's double, getting her blamed for trouble she never caused?

The Mirror lures Sakura's brother off a cliff while wearing her face, then sheds tears and apologizes before it is sealed.

Which self-declared fiancée of Syaoran Li appears in the Cardcaptor Sakura anime but never in the manga?

Meiling has no magic at all and relies on martial arts, and she ends the engagement herself once she sees that Syaoran loves someone else.

In which fictional town near the Japanese capital do Sakura Kinomoto's adventures in Cardcaptor Sakura take place?

Tomoeda lends its name to her elementary school too, and the second film's hidden card wipes out pieces of the town one at a time.

Which winged guardian puts Sakura Kinomoto through the Final Judgment once all the Clow Cards are captured?

Yue is the judge where Kero is the elector, and failing his test would make everyone tied to the cards forget their feelings for the person they love most.

Which transfer student from England turns out to be the reincarnation of Clow Reed in Cardcaptor Sakura?

Eriol stopped himself from ageing long ago so he could sit in Sakura's class, and he stages the magical incidents that push her to turn the cards into her own.

Which relative of Sakura Kinomoto can see spirits and quietly knows about her card captures all along?

Toya, her teasing older brother, keeps taking part-time jobs that happen to put him nearby whenever she is out sealing a card.

Which song by Gumi is the opening theme of the first season of the Cardcaptor Sakura anime?

Catch You Catch Me was re-recorded in English for the dub shown in Australia, while North American airings swapped in a brand-new opening theme.

Which animation studio made the Cardcaptor Sakura television series and came back for Clear Card in 2018?

Madhouse also produced both feature films, and the series was the first television anime that its director Morio Asaka ever helmed.

Which distributor licensed Cardcaptor Sakura for North America and turned it into the heavily edited dub Cardcaptors?

Nelvana spent roughly $100,000 an episode on new music, scripts and vocal tracks, and fans answered the licence news with a petition for a subtitled release.

On which American children's block did Cardcaptors premiere in June 2000, cut down to 39 episodes?

Kids' WB shuffled the running order as well, though its run still finished on the show's real final episode.

Which Clow Card leaves Syaoran Li and Kero stuck in each other's bodies for a day in Cardcaptor Sakura?

The Change only reverses after twenty-four hours, and only if the pair are touching on the spot where the spell was cast, so each has to bluff through a day as the other.

Which Clow Card, disguised as a brooch, possesses Rika Sasaki and makes her attack Sakura Kinomoto?

The Sword is beaten without a blow, because Sakura refuses to hurt her friend and distracts her with the Illusion card instead.

Which shrine maiden and substitute teacher gives Sakura Kinomoto a second chance during the Final Judgment?

Kaho Mizuki had been sent from England for that moment, and she once dated Sakura's older brother while she was his junior high teacher.

Which Cardcaptor Sakura character spins elaborate fake histories of everyday things, usually with his eyes shut?

Takashi Yamazaki often takes in both Sakura and Syaoran, until his childhood friend Chiharu cuts the story short by throttling him.

Which later Clamp manga borrows its two lead characters, a new Sakura and Syaoran, from Cardcaptor Sakura?

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle recasts the pair in a journey across many worlds, an idea Clamp devised to link all of its earlier series together.

Which head writer plotted the Cardcaptor Sakura manga and then led the scriptwriting for its anime adaptation?

Nanase Ohkawa planned the story from beginning to end but never told Clamp's three artists what was coming, handing them the script one chapter at a time.

How did Sakura Kinomoto's mother Nadeshiko first meet Fujitaka, then a new teacher at her high school?

She fell out of a tree while returning a baby bird to its nest and landed right on him, and the two married against her family's wishes.

In the Cardcaptor Sakura manga, what handmade gift does Sakura give Syaoran Li before he leaves Japan?

A teddy bear she made herself goes with her answer to his confession: she tells him he is the person she loves the most.

After the Final Judgment, Clow Reed's spirit tells Sakura Kinomoto that her magic is drawn from which source?

Her own star may begin small, the vision says, but it shines with a light of its own, and the tip of her wand reshapes itself to match.

In the Cardcaptor Sakura anime, what must Sakura do to a newly sealed Clow Card before it is fully subdued?

Sign her name on it, a lesson she learns the hard way when two dormant cards she found while cleaning wake up and fill the house with jungle.

Which hidden Clow Card makes pieces of Sakura's hometown vanish in the second Cardcaptor Sakura film?

The Nothing was made to balance the positive magic of all the other cards, and it steals them one by one so that it will no longer be alone.

Under which human name does the guardian Ruby Moon enrol in the same high-school class as Sakura's older brother?

Nakuru Akizuki enrolled out of sheer boredom, then beat the entire boys' basketball team in a game for fun.

Which publisher first put the Cardcaptor Sakura manga into English, initially flipping its pages left to right?

Tokyopop flipped the first six volumes for Western readers, then reissued them in the original right-to-left orientation as two box sets.

Which Japanese broadcaster first aired the Cardcaptor Sakura anime, on its satellite channel BS2?

NHK gave it a timeslot that normally drew small audiences, yet the show was a hit in Japan and one of its laserdisc volumes topped the sales chart.

Which monthly Kodansha magazine for young girls serialized the Cardcaptor Sakura manga from 1996 to 2000?

Nakayoshi brought the story back in 2016 for the sequel Clear Card, and it once released its own set of Clow Cards to mark its sixtieth anniversary.

Which earlier Clamp series was ending its run in the same magazine when Cardcaptor Sakura was first conceived?

Magic Knight Rayearth was unlike anything Clamp had done before, so for the follow-up the group set out to make a series that felt at home in the magazine.

Which singer performed both Platinum for the original Cardcaptor Sakura anime and Clear for its 2018 sequel?

Maaya Sakamoto also acts in the franchise: she voices the second film's antagonist, a lonely Clow Card that steals Sakura's deck.

What does Kero unwittingly feed the bookish guardian Spinel Sun, turning him into a hyperactive eating machine?

Sweets send the normally calm Spinel Sun out of control, and Kero hands them over only because he has taken the stranger for a monster.

Clamp filled the Cardcaptor Sakura manga with flower imagery but made a point of never drawing which bloom?

Roses were ruled out even though artist Tsubaki Nekoi combed through books for new flowers and tried not to repeat one within a chapter.

In Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie, the vengeful sorceress once lost her livelihood to Clow Reed in which trade?

A fortune teller by trade, she went out of business when his predictions proved more accurate than hers, and her hatred bound her to another dimension.

Which Clow Card takes the form of an untitled book and brings to life whatever Naoko Yanagisawa writes in it?

The Create ends up materializing a dragon from her fantasy story, which Sakura has to wrestle as a giant with help from the Big card.

Which voice actress, also Sailor Mercury in Sailor Moon, plays the small form of Kero in Cardcaptor Sakura?

Aya Hisakawa hands the role over whenever Kero takes his true form, when the deeper voice of Masaya Onosaka steps in.

Which Japanese prize, voted at a fan convention, named Cardcaptor Sakura its Best Manga winner in 2001?

Seiun Award ballots are cast by members of the annual Japan Science Fiction Convention, much as with the Hugo, and the prize is named with the Japanese word for nebula.

How are best friends Sakura Kinomoto and Tomoyo Daidouji related through their mothers in Cardcaptor Sakura?

Second cousins, because their mothers were first cousins: Sonomi adored Nadeshiko and long resented Fujitaka for marrying her.