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Cardcaptor changes – Fan makes cool before/after relationship chart for anime magical girl Sakura

Casey Baseel Apr 28, 2017
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The anime heroine’s magical powers aren’t the only things that evolve in Cardcaptor Sakura.

Reboot Sailor Moon Crystal may have met with a mixed reaction so far, but hopes are still high for the upcoming anime continuation of Cardcaptor Sakura, Japanese animation’s other 1990s smash-hit magical girl franchise.

As is the norm for a series from creative team Clamp, the relationships between characters in Cardcaptor Sakura are anything but simple. Between reincarnations, secret identities, and magical misunderstandings, the interpersonal links among the core cast evolve into something very different than what they start out as.

But with nearly a 20-year gap between the last and next Cardcaptor Sakura anime installments, even devoted fans might feel like they could use a reminder of who feels what about whom. Highlighting just how many twists and turns the story has taken up to this point, Japanese Twitter user @i26600208 recently tweeted this (spoiler-heavy) recap, framed as protagonist Sakura talking about her first love.

https://twitter.com/i26600208/status/857118009260900353

Sakura’s somewhat flustered statements translate to:

My…my first love?? I’ve haven’t really talked to anyone about this, so it’s kind of embarrassing.

See…the first person I had a crush on was my brother’s best friend. He was so cool and kind, a great athlete with a wonderful smile.

There were a lot of times he and I spent time together and it was almost like a date, but in the end, my brother ended up being the one who won his love.

Ah, and there was another guy who also wanted my brother’s friend for himself. But that guy, my old romantic rival, is now my boyfriend. You just never know what life has in store for you.

If all those male pronouns seem mighty conspicuous, bear in mind that, at the time of its broadcast, Cardcaptor Sakura had one of the highest-profile depictions of male homosexual romance in a relatively mainstream anime. So while Sakura herself is a girl, all the other players in this love quadrilateral are guys: brother Toya, his eventual life partner Yukito, and Sakura’s (as of this point in the story) love interest Syaoran.

As a further refresher course, @i26600208 also slapped together a pair of character relationship charts, one for the beginning of the series (on the left), and one for where it left off before it’s decade-plus hiatus (on the right).

https://twitter.com/i26600208/status/857254945141047296

Repackaged as text form, the earlier version explains:

Sakura and Toya: siblings
Sakura and Syaoran: rivals
Sakura loves Yukito
Syaoran loves Yukito
Toya and Yukito are best friends

And later on?

Sakura and Toya: siblings
Sakura and Syaoran: in love with each other
Sakura is romantically rejected by Yukito
Syaoran realizes “Wait, this isn’t what I want” and gives up on Yukito
Toya and Yukito are in love with each other
Toya gives something very important to Yukito

Within these bounds, the only static relationship is the one that’s hard-wired in DNA: Sakura and Toya being brother and sister. Everything else is fair game to change as events unfold, and that sort of dynamic storytelling is why Clamp’s fanbase remains so unchangingly loyal.

Source: Twitter/@i26600208 via Jin

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he feels really silly that his initial reaction to the announcement Clamp was doing a magical girl series was “Eh, I don’t think it’s going to catch on.”