Customer Reviews

Cardcaptor Sakura - 100% Authentic Manga Volume 1 (Cardcaptor Sakura Authentic Manga)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Someone reccomended this series to me because me and Sakura shared a name. I wasn't a big shoujo fan, but I ended up buying them all. Funny, endearing and heartfelt, Cardcaptor Sakura is one of the best manga ever written. (Although I must say, something is lost when it is translated into English. It's good nonetheless.) The story goes that a girl named Sakura opens a book in her father's library and releases spirit cards created centuries ago by a magician named Clow into the world. It is now her task, accompanied by the sun guardian Kero (looks like a lion in full form) and (later) the moon guardian Yue (reminiscent of an angel) to capture them and return them to the book. The cards periodically appear to wreak havoc, and Sakura goes out to combat them with a mix of magic and courage. Her best friend Tomoyo (Madison in the TV series) is always there to make sure she looks sharp in one of her costumes and film the whole affair. Along with capturing the cards, she strives to win over her rival Li Shaolan, a descendant from Clow's family and fellow cardcaptor. Through all the typical fantasy manga in the series wends a funny, painful story about Sakura's relationships with her friends and family, and about their relationships with each other. A must have, with a little bit of fantasy, comedy, and romance and drama to please everyone.

This series is absolutely wonderful. It's about Sakura, a 10-year-old girl who finds a magic book inside her father's library. Inside the book is a set of magic cards, which escape and cause trouble all over the city. So, she sets out to find and capture all the cards, with the help of a magical beast named Kero.

This is a series by CLAMP (for those who don't know, they're a very popular comic-making team from Japan) , so of course the artwork is beautiful, and the story is sweet without getting too sugary. It's mostly meant for girls, but some boys might like the card-capturing action scenes.

And it's an "all-ages" book, so it's good for everyone to read!

Sakura Kinomoto, a Japanese fourth grader at Tomoeda Elementary, has been thrust into her destiny with the discovery of the "The Clow", a book of magic which contains the powerful "Clow Cards". These magical cards were imbued with the sorcery of the great magician, Clow Reed. Unfortunately, Sakura had no idea what she was doing when she opened it and the cards have been scattered all through the city. It's not totally her fault since Cerberus, or Kero-chan, the guardian of the book was napping on the job. Now, not only are the living cards wreaking havoc, but he has lost most of his power and now displays his weakness in the form of a winged lion cub with an Osakan accent. Dubbing Sakura a "Cardcaptor", its up to the duo to find all the cards before the spirits contained within them hurt someone. They won't be alone though. Tagging along for the adventure is Tomoya, Sakura's classmate and best buddy, whose ultra-rich mother will supply the dough for neat gadgets right out of James Bond, and also a constant line-up of costumes. Add to that Tomoya's video documenting of Sakura's exploits and the adventure begins!

There's not a lot of originality in Cardcaptor Sakura. It's not her fault that Sakura has to conform to the magical girl mythos of transformation and battle scenes with sometimes barely scary spirits. One of the things that makes this book more interesting is the absence of Sakura's mother who died many years ago. Her at times melancholy thoughts of this relationship that never had time to blossom really informs everything she does, especially when she thinks she sees her mother disturbing the living as a ghostly apparition. I also enjoyed the pluck and innocence of most of the storyline as Sakura takes on the daunting task of being a Cardcaptor with hardly a protest to atone for her mistake. The action scenes were done well and the manga as a whole has great art which at times seems uber-cute but can be creepy and spooky at other times. Perhaps the creepiest thing about it is that the male characters all seem like castrated geldings and have an odd capacity to invade the space of traditional Japanese women.

This is, as you probably already know, a mind-meltingly adorable series that manages not to be "kiddish". It's certainly unique, and it's made by the girls from CLAMP. Really, if you have a thing for cuteness, you'll fall in love with it. But don't think it's quite so shallow, because there's quite a bit going on in each volume--the story and the relationships between characters rapidly develop, and there is the occasional somber moment to humanize them. It's wonderfully written and never overwhelms. The art style is very clean and attractive, and the action sequences are well done and capture the moment with grace.

There are a couple minor issues: If you have never seen the TV series, you won't be familiar with Sakura's trademark "Hooee!" (as they spell it) that she cries (humorously) when in distress or in curiosity. She vocalizes it like "Hweee!", and in this series it is often spelled simply as "Hoe?" when she says it quietly out of curiosity. This will probably make people first read it as, well, hoe, and I can't imagine many who are unfamiliar with the vocalization would translate it correctly. There are also a few grammatical errors, although it's no worse than other TokyoPop releases.

I am trusting my fellow reviewers on how good the series is and Clamp of course. I became a fan of xxxHolic and now am reading many of the Clamp series. I loved Suki also which isn't in print anymore. I have students from Japan, Korea, and China and this series got very high marks from them too. It seemed very interesting and I will read the others.

the anime for this was on all the time when i was younger and i really enjoyed watching the show, but the manga differs from the anime a bit, which isn't a bad thing. fist off, the first series is only 6 books, the second one is only six too, and this kind of surprised me at first because the anime had something like 50 episodes, and after reading the manga i saw how much filler was in the anime. the captures in the manga are all major cards (none of the cheap cards like the move card...) and the captures all meant something, meaning they either developed plot or developed character, so if it was not for plot development it was a capture that required some effort, like the water card. on top of this, the manga also has homosexuality in it. nothing explicit, just a character implying that he/ she likes someone of the same sex. people might make a big deal about it here, which is probably why they took it out of the anime, but it's so subdued and platonic that taking it out is kind of pointless. they basically took it out because they're afraid of the idea, but as the characters don't even tell who they like that they like them, as it is a children's comic book, they're taking out the homosexuality on principle rather than necessity. and by doing so they lessen the intricacy of the plot development and the connection between the characters, so i'm glad i read the manga for that reason (among others).
sakura is a great heroine. i've read over 100 mangas, and i'd say that sakura is one of the strongest heroines i've read about in manga form. it's kind of ironic that it's for kids, but great i suppose. it's hard to find proactive females in manga. even in the shoujos, the ones focused on girls, the 'action' is still left to the guys and the girls are for the most part withering, weak, delicate, know nothings; or if they do fight they are portrayed as kind of heartless. it's rare to find a happy medium. cardcaptors would be an example of the girl getting some action. overall its a cute manga, i mean those who've watched the anime already know the basic story line, its a good one. its an original story and its well told. i recommend.

Please note this is just Volume 1 of the series and not the boxset! I think Amazon has their links mixed up as everyone else is reviewing this as the First Box Set of the Cardcaptor Sakura Manga Set. It isn't! For proof, the 1st Box Set is $21 and this is just $10, hint hint, it's just one Manga.

What to say about this adorable series? Well for a start it is different to the Anime version. I've only watched the American version and didn't see anything wrong with it, but I am planning on buying the Japanese version so I may have a different opinion when I own it.

The story is pretty basic; Sakura is an average (Japanese) 10 year old (very different from American kids!) in love with her older brother's best friend, but that changes when she gets finds the Clow Book in her father's basement and releases the Clow Cards upon the world...well around the city anyway. Having only 1 card left in her pocession, Kero the Guardian of the Cards demands Sakura recapture the cards one by one in order to restore peace. And this is where the Manga begins: Sakura is capturing her third card; the Jump Card. Already with Earth and Windy in her grasp, she also captures Watery and Illusion in this Volume.

The only problem I found with it was Sakura's constent referring to Yukito, she's obsessed with her brother's best friend. That got a little silly.

The Art is lovely and the cute storyline makes it stick out. I think everyone has at least heard of Cardcaptor Sakura. I might as well point out, this is the original Manga Right-to-Left unlike Tokyopop's first -edited- version.

There were also rumors in Japan that Yuna was based loosely off Sakura and her urge to collect Aeon's.

Overall I think this is a wonderful Manga for smaller kids; boys or girls to start them into Japanese Grpahic Novels.

This is the first volume of the Cardcaptor Sakura series. I won't bother explaining what the main plot is about, if you want to know that, read the description of the book! This book has (not in this order) the Jump Card, the Fly Card, the Watery Card, and the Illusion Card. This book explains a LITTLE bit about how Sakura came to be a cardcaptor. This book has all the beginning caracters, such as: Yukito, Toya, Kero, and Tomoyo. Li isn't in this book! BOO HOO!!!!!! I love Li, he's the coolest!!!! But enough about that. He he he. Anyway, this book is a pretty start to the series.