A boy Sakura's age and descendant of Clow Reed, Syaoran Li, arrives from Hong Kong to recapture the cards himself. Their relationship is rocky, because he believes that he deserves the cards more than Sakura. However, he comes to respect Sakura and instead begins aiding her as he spends time with her. Once Sakura captures all the cards, she undergoes the Final Judgment, presided over by Yue, the cards' second guardian, who tests Sakura to determine if she is worthy of becoming the cards' true master. Yue is the true form of Yukito Tsukishiro, Sakura's crush and her brother's best friend. Sakura is aided by her teacher Kaho Mizuki, who was sent by Clow to ensure Sakura is able to pass the test, because he chose Sakura to be the cards' new master when he knew he was going to die. Sakura passes the test and becomes the new master of the Clow Cards.
Life for Sakura is initially peaceful until a boy Sakura's age, Eriol Hiiragizawa, transfers from England, which coincides with new disturbances occurring in Tomoeda. Suddenly unable to use the Clow Cards, Sakura transforms her wand and creates a new incantation, which can transform a Clow Card into a Sakura Card. As strange events continue, Sakura gradually transforms each card into a Sakura Card, unaware the events are being caused by Eriol and two guardian-like creatures, Spinel Sun and Ruby Moon. Yue begins to grow weaker, because he requires magical support from Sakura, but her magic is not yet strong enough to sustain him. Toya gives all of his magical abilities to Yue in order to ensure Yukito does not die. Sakura eventually deals with the pain of Yukito's gentle rejection of her feelings, as he instead loves Toya. Syaoran consoles Sakura, while finding himself falling in love with her, but is unsure of how to tell her.
When only the Light and Dark Cards remain to be converted, which must be done together, Eriol reveals to Sakura he was behind all the strange events. After the cards are transformed, Eriol explains that he is half of the reincarnation of Clow Reed, with Sakura's father being the other half. Eriol, who has Clow's memories and magical abilities, aided Sakura in converting the cards so they would not lose their powers. Before returning to England, Eriol asks Sakura to split his magic between himself and her father, so that he will no longer be the most powerful magician in the world. Afterwards, Syaoran confesses his love to Sakura, but she is unsure how to respond. Sakura is hurt and upset when he tells her he is returning to Hong Kong, and comes to realize she loves him too after talking with her friends. She rushes home to make a teddy bear for him and confesses to him as he leaves for the airport and he promises to return when he has taken care of some things. Two years later, Syaoran moves back to Tomoeda permanently. They embrace and Sakura happily exclaims that they will be "together forever."
The plot of the anime series is extended, featuring 52 Clow Cards from the manga's original 19, and certain scenes are stretched and delayed, such as Cerberus' true form not being revealed until just before Yue's appearance. Sakura creates a 53rd card, Hope, a talent she is not shown to have in the manga. Some of the circumstances around the capturing of the cards is changed, such as Syaoran capturing several cards himself and being tested by Yue in the Final Judgment. Syaoran's cousin and fiancee Meiling Li is introduced in the anime, who positions herself as a romantic rival for Sakura later in the series. The role of Sakura's father as the second half of Clow's reincarnation and the splitting of Eriol's magic is removed from the ending. The TV series leaves the relationship between Sakura and Syaoran unresolved, but Sakura confesses her love to Syaoran at the end of the second anime film.
Main article: Sakura Kinomoto
Sakura Kinomoto (木之本 桜 Kinomoto Sakura) is the eponymous heroine of Cardcaptor Sakura. Sakura is portrayed as a well-loved, cheerful, cute and at times an naïve ten-year old. Named after the Japanese word for "cherry blossom", Sakura is skilled in sports at school, being called the "best baton twirler in school" by her friends. However, she hates math and has an open fear of ghosts. Sakura maintains a crush on Yukito Tsukishiro for most of the manga and anime, but eventually develops similar feelings towards Syaoran Li after he confesses to her upon his own feelings.She becomes the entitled Cardcaptor by guardian beast Kerberus after accidentally opening and releasing the Clow Cards from the Clow Book. Aided by Kerberus, her best friend and cousin Tomoyo Daidouji, and later Syaoran, Sakura successfully captures all the cards and is named the new Clow Mistress by the cards' second guardian Yue (Yukito's true form).In the second half of the manga and anime, Sakura must use the power of her own star to transform the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards, or else the cards would lose their powers.
For all Japanese-language productions of the anime (including movies, audio CDs, and video games), Sakura is voiced by Sakura Tange. For English-language productions where Sakura is renamed Sakura Avalon, she is voiced by Carly McKillip through Cardcaptors and the first movie dubbed by Nelvana. She is voiced in the second movie by Kari Wahlgren.
Syaoran Li (李 小狼 Ri Shaoran, Chinese Pinyin: Lǐ Xiǎoláng) is a distant relative of Clow Reed, the creator of the Clow Cards. As such, he believes that he should be the one to inherit the Clow Cards and tries to capture the cards for himself. As the series progresses, Syaoran comes to respect Sakura and becomes her friend and ally. He eventually falls in love with her, though she is slow to realize it due to her own feelings for Yukito.
Initially, in the anime, Syaoran has a crush on Yukito. Only later, at the beginning of the third season of the "Cardcaptor" series, does Syaoran begin to fall in love with Sakura, and make his feelings visible to viewers. In the manga, Syaoran begins to develop feelings for Sakura around the time of the Erase card's capture. After Yukito rejects Sakura's feelings, Syaoran comforts her and Sakura slowly reciprocates his feelings. Near the second-half of the series, Syaoran confesses his feelings to Sakura. With Sakura now undisputed master of the cards, he decides to return to Hong Kong. At the end of the series, he returns from Hong Kong a few months later to reunite with Sakura. In the anime adaptation, Syaoran manages to catch several cards by playing a major role in helping Sakura seal them. He is allowed to attempt the final judgment but fails. Syaoran is shown to have similar powers to Sakura, such as sensing Clow Cards and magical auras, is a skilled martial artist, and wields a sword which he can use to cast spells when equipped with incantation papers. He can also use a device dubbed a "lasenboard" in Cardcaptors, which can detect and direct him to magical entities.
In the English Cardcaptors adaptation, he is renamed to "Li Showron" and he is introduced in the first episode, as the male lead. He is also called a "Cardcaptor," despite his not being chosen by Kero as such. Another incarnation of the character appears as the protagonist of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, another manga series by Clamp.
In Japanese media, Syaoran is voiced by Motoko Kumai. Syaoran is voiced by Rhys Huber during the Clow Cards arc and the first movie, by Jordan Kilik in the Sakura Cards arc, and by Mona Marshall in the second movie.
Touya Kinomoto (木之本 桃矢 Kinomoto Tōya) is Sakura's older brother. Though he teases her frequently, he cares a great deal for her and works to protect her. He is fully aware of what she is doing as a Cardcaptor, and regularly takes on several part-time jobs that put him in a position to be nearby when she is working on capturing a card. He also initially dislikes Syaoran, knowing that one day Syaoran will "take her away" from him. Similarly, Touya seems to dislike his nephew, Tsubasa, in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.Touya possesses several magical powers, including the ability to see ghosts and other non-humans, the ability to sense when Sakura is in danger, and mild precognition. He has a close relationship with his friend Yukito, despite knowing he is the alter-ego of Yue. To save them both, he eventually gives all of his magical powers to Yue, making him promise to protect Sakura in his stead as well as himself (and, by extension, Yukito). In the Japanese anime adaptation, Touya is voiced by Tomokazu Seki. In the Animax English adaptation, his name is romanized as "Touya". In the English adaptation Cardcaptors his name is changed to Tori Avalon, his romantic relationship with Yukito is removed, and he is voiced by Tony Sampson. In the English dub of the second film, Kirk Thornton takes over the voicing role.
Yue (月, Chinese Pinyin: Yuè) is the one of two Guardians of the Clow Cards, along with Cerberus. His name, which is written in katakana rather than hiragana is the Mandarin Chinese word for "moon". Where Cerebus is the elector of the new Clow Card Master, Yue is the judge who is allowed to test the candidate for their worthiness. He spends most of the series in his temporary form, Yukito Tsukishiro, who initially has no memory or knowledge of his other self. Unlike Cerberus, Yue's powers are heavily dependent on the power of his master. Sakura's power is not yet strong enough to sustain him after he awakens, particularly after she begins transforming the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards. Yue's growing need for power is reflected in Yukito's ravenous appetite, and later constant sleeping. Similarly, the deficit affects Yue himself in instances such as the blatant failure of his magic which causes he and Sakura to fall out of the sky during one of Eriol's synthesized 'situations'. Eventually, Sakura's brother Toya reveals that he knows Yue and Yukito are not human and gives his power to Yue to sustain his existence so he does not lose Yukito.
Though he is not human, he has the appearance of a beautiful young man with long, silver, braided hair, silver-purple cat like eyes, and a pair of white angel wings which he uses for flight. His personality is depicted as more serious and aloof than Yukito's, and while Yukito is fond of Sakura, Yue is reluctant to accept her. As the series progress, he comes to respond to Sakura's request that rather than being his master, she just wants to be his friend. Yue has jurisdiction over the elements wind and water, though he is stated by Cerberus to have control over other cards, including the Wood. In the anime television series, Yue is voiced by Megumi Ogata in Japanese and Sam Vincent in English. In the English dub of the second anime film, his voice is provided by Steve Staley.
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