Sakura Kinomoto is a cheerful, energetic girl who attends Tomoeda Elementary School. She lives with her father and elder brother. One day, she finds a mysterious book her father has stored away. When she opens it, the sealed beast “Cerberus“ (Kero) appears, who tells Sakura that the book contained “Clow Cards“, cards that cause trouble and bring disaster. To gather the cards, which have been scattered around the outside world, Kero grants Sakura the ability to become a “Cardcaptor“.

This is the start of CLAMP’s take on the magical girl genre. It was published in the monthly shojo manga anthology “Nakayosi“ (KODANSHA) from the June 1996 edition to the August 2000 edition. In contrast to their previous series published in this magazine, “Magic Knight Rayearth“, this time the art was light and airy, with predominantly pastel colors. In addition, the game-like setting, where each card collected gives her new magic to use, and magical properties and affinities can be combined to create even stronger magical effects created a world that captured the hearts and imaginations of the younger generation. And what would a magical girl story be without transformations? In this story, Sakura receives new costumes made for her by her friend Tomoyo. By adding new challenges to the standard tropes of the magical girl genre, it’s easy to see how much effort CLAMP puts into creating their titles. The manga sold a total of over 22 million copies. An animated series was aired from 1998 to 2000 on NHK, and two animated movies were released in theaters.