Hello, folks. Steve here. I have given Crystal a break this week and once again taken over the Building Character duties. In keeping with the classic anime theme Crystal started at the first of the month with Konata from Lucky Star, this week, we are going to focus on one of my all-time favorite anime characters, Sakura Kinomoto from Cardcaptor Sakura. If you have never watched the series, I strongly recommend you do so. It is one the best magical-girl anime out there. But be warned: there could be a few spoilers ahead if you have never watched the series.
Sakura, who starts the series as your average 10-year-old girl, finds a magical book in a basement filled with magical cards known as Clow Cards. The cards fly out of the book and are scattered when Sakura reads the Windy card, accidentally activating it. She is then greeted by the keeper of the Clow Cards, Cerberus, or Kero for short. Kero basically rooks Sakura into becoming the Cardcaptor and tasks her with retrieving all the scattered Clow Cards.
Sakura is a very energetic and outgoing person who always strives to do her very best. Through all the trials and hardships she encounters over the course of the series, she always keeps her head held high with a smile. She often feels if she showed that she was doubting herself or that she was sad, it would trouble others. She often says that her invincible spell is to say, “Everything is gonna be all right.”
At times, she may come off as a little clueless about the things going on around her, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. Other times, she can be very perceptive, often wondering if she is worthy of being the owner of the Clow Cards or a worthy owner of Kero and Yue (the other keeper of the Clow Cards). She often compares herself to their former owner, Clow Reed, a very powerful magician. Eventually, she realizes although she will never be the same as him, being herself is all that really matters.
Some will think Sakura is just a clumsy airhead most of the time. But she only seems this way because she’s pure and innocent and doesn’t realize the things going on around her. The way the world is these days, it’s really easy to only focus on all the bad in something without ever seeing the good in anything. I may be a little naïve for thinking this way, but if we all had someone around us like Sakura, we’d feel better just knowing they were there. This is likely what made rival-turned-friend Syaoran Li fall in love with her by the series’ end.
Sakura, to me, represents the perfect person someone should aspire to be: someone who is always happy and upbeat, who stays positive when the world around them is falling down, who looks for the good in any situation, and who always tries to do their very best. I think if there were more people like Sakura in this world, it would be a better place to live. This may be only be wishful thinking on my part, but one can always dream, can’t they?
