Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and I wanted to write a Valentine’s Day themed post. I may not have a Valentine of my own to share the day with, but I can indulge in the warm and fuzzy feelings of love through my favorite mangas. As you can see from the title, I have chosen to feature one moment from Cardcaptor Sakura. My favorite moment from the series has got to be the bear exchange between Sakura and Syaoran.
Sakura and Syaoran of CCS are one of my favorite couples in anime/manga. Watching their relationship go from rivals to friends and eventually to love is one of the best things to watch in the anime/manga.
In the anime, Syaoran has finally admitted to himself that he has fallen for Sakura and has taken the time to make a stuffed bear for her. I haven’t been able to watch the full Japanese episodes of CCS but my knowledge of the bear exchange comes from the heavily edited North American airing of CCS. There are a lot of cute moments when Syaoran is trying to admit his true feelings for Sakura and finding the right time to give her the bear too. Unfortunately, each opportunity is interrupted and Syaoran is forced to try and express his feelings another day. I love how Syaoran blushes every time Sakura is around him or Tomoyo calls Syaoran out on his feelings for Sakura. It’s so sweet it’s enough to give you a toothache.
I was so happy when Sakura races to see Syaoran off at the airport before he flies back home to Hong Kong. It’s in that moment that he is able to finally give her the bear he has been carrying around with him in the final half of the series. Sakura accepts Syaoran’s handmade bear and the image you see in the anime is the gentle exchange of the bear giver’s hands passing the bear into the hands of its new owner. Focusing on the hands with the bear being passed on is a simple image you see in that particular episode. It’s very touching and poignant when I saw the episode a long time ago.
The manga does it a little differently. Anime Sakura never gives a bear to Syaoran, but in the manga you have Sakura and Syaoran with their own handmade bears to give to each other. I remember in the manga how Sakura would work extra hard at making her bear for Syaoran. The bear became a labor of love because I think I remember seeing stitches on Sakura’s hands from all the needle pricking it took to make her bear for Syaoran. There is also the added sense of urgency to finish the bear just before Syaoran leaves to go back to Hong Kong to settle last minute things there.
I liked the idea of Sakura and Syaoran having a little piece of each other which is symbolized through the bears. Time passes, and by the end of the manga you see a high school aged Sakura being met by a high school aged Syaoran. They are both in uniform and Syaoran is seen holding the bear Sakura gave to him all those years ago. Syaoran is back in Japan and here to stay for Sakura.
My heart swelled and I was grinning like a goofball when I reached the end of the manga series. It was a wonderful way to end such a magical series.
Sakura and Syaoran are such a sweet and innocent couple. Like Tomoyo, you really can’t help but gush every time you see them. No matter how hard they try, there is nothing they can do to make themselves any less adorable. Syaoran in love is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. CLAMP does a really good job on drawing his expressions. The way he would blush and get shy around Sakura is for lack of a better word––kawaii!
I dedicate this Valentine’s Day to the sweetest anime/manga couple I know. Love doesn’t have to be dramatic, sexy, or tragic. It can be simple, innocent, and cute with a smile and a subtle expression of the emotion with something like a bear exchange. Who needs roses when you have stuffed, handmade bears?
simpleek 
I soooo love this couple!!! It was my favorite anime during high school =D used to give me goosebumps! =) I watched the Japanese version a few years back and it absolutey rocked(the voice actors are better – not that the english actors are bad)!! Then I got the Sakura-Syaoran fever again and found that they are back in Tsubasha Chronicles o.O what a hugeeeeeeeeee disappointment it was!! =(
But then, I stumbled across this amazing fanfic – http://wishluv.revolutionhosting.net/newtrials.htm <- The New Trials of Cardcaptor Sakura and Friends =D absolutely brilliant(if you didn't already know… hehe). The storyline is sooooo REAL!! The first few chapters are dumb but later it picks up amazingly =) it's been exactly a year since it had an update =( *sigh*
I actually enjoy Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, mainly because it has more Sakura and Syaoran even if it’s an alternate universe type story. What about Chronicles did you find disappointing?
I dunno I just don’t feel what I felt for Cardcaptors and Sakura behaves very lame and Syaoran a bit hyper (i think) 😦
I think I get what you mean. At times they are like Sakura and Syaoran from CCS and other times they aren’t? Probably less like the CCS versions I think. Then again it’s Sakura and Syaoran all grown up in Tsubasa and a different time period all together. I suppose we can’t expect these two to be the same as in CCS. And they are two different stories, just using characters CLAMP has created in the past.
Yes! I love them too~ They are one of my favourite couples as well for the exact same reasons. About Tsubasa: I liked them in Tsubasa as well and TRC Syaoran was exactly how I pictured and older Syaoran acting, but the ending wasn’t as good as the one in CCS and their romance isn’t as cute, so I prefer the CCS incarnations. :3
I haven’t read TRC through the end and I’m still working on the anime. The Sakura and Syaoran of TRC are definitely different from their CCS counterparts and I think that’s the idea for CLAMP anyway. Besides, I heard manga TRC is better than anime TRC.
Definitely love the sweetness you get from CCS Sakura and Syaoran. It’s a heart melting kind of anime/manga moment. 🙂
I love seeing pictures of Sakura and Shaoran in Cardcaptor Sakura; they’re so sweet together! I also really love the premise of giving a bear – CLAMP was totally taking advantage of how young and adorable their characters are. But actually, I’m a sucker for when couples in shojo series give gifts to one another, like the medallions in Marmalade Boy or the Saturn necklace in Hana Yori Dango/Boys Over Flowers.
CLAMP definitely has the advantage of selling the adorableness of Sakura and Syaoran. They just made them too cute! Hard not to like them at all. Gift giving in anime/manga seems much more sweet and significant than in real life. I sometimes feel gift giving in real life doesn’t have that same one-two punch that it does in anime/manga.
Sakura-Syaoran is definitely my all-time favorite couple ^_^ Been in love with them since the I watched the series 🙂
And even though the anime/movie and manga endings are different, I actually like both — I actually merge the two endings together 🙂
I also like the Syaoran and Sakura of TRC. Yes they’re pretty different from their CCS counterparts, but CLAMP justified that difference really smoothly (the very reason why I love CLAMP ^_^) . I can’t say more because those would be considered spoilers, but indeed, the manga is way better than the anime you should go for the manga once you finish with the anime ^_^
Thanks for the comment, Alyssa. 🙂 CCS is one of those series that’s an oldie, but goodie for me. It will always be very dear to me just like Sailor Moon. I’ve collected and read up to Volume 11 of TRC, but I do want to continue with the manga. The anime isn’t bad so far, but what I don’t like is the amount of previous episode recaps they do to start a new episode. Seems more like filler before getting into the actual episode to me.
I’ve noticed a lot of anime that air on tv weekly and are following a manga tend to do that. I think it’s a way to slow the pace down so that they don’t get ahead of the manga (that and doing filler arc), but yeah, even knowing this, it’s still annoying. 😐
I don’t see the recapping happen too much with series like Sailor Moon, Ceres, Fushigi Yugi, Trigun, etc. unless I’m not remembering it right? I know practically every series has at least one episode that’s filler which is an entire recap of the series thus far. What TRC does is recap the previous episode as their opening which is a waste of time in my opinion. 😦
Sorry, I should have been more specific. Recent anime. The older stuff is didn’t do it as much and it’s usually shounen series too. I guess it’s because shounen tends to be long running and the anime eventually catches up to the manga and they start resorting to this or other similar things (like making episodes about nothing but 2-3 actions like DBZ). I remember Bleach never had these long recaps, but a few hundred episodes in, the recaps started going for 5 minutes. D:
If you want to see the anime ending, why don’t you watch Cardcaptor Sakura: The Sealed Card.
Aww…I also love these two so much, they are so adorable together and I have quite many pictures of them on my computer. I quite like their relationship a lot, starting off on not really good terms then slowly fell in love with each other.
One more thing, according to the poll on Biglobe (a Japanese website) this couple ranks as the #5 most favorite among the Japanese anime fans.
That’s really interesting. I’m glad Syaoran and Sakura are among the top 5 couples for Japanese anime fans. Their relationship is so sweet, and I like how it gradually develops from sort of enemies, then friends, and finally into love. I think a love like theirs really does endure. It’s something we all hope we’re lucky enough to find someday.
Here is the prove:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2013/06/05-1/poll-ranks-top-10-anime-couples
Quote from the article:
“Whether they admit it or not, everybody has one: a couple they root for. Whether their mutual dysfunctions make them work perfectly together or they just kick too much ass as a duo, an OTP is a sacred thing. Over 5,000 anime fans in Japan got together and voted for their favorite couple on Biglobe. The results aren’t terribly surprising.”
I love Card Captor Sakura. It’s such a friendly anime. At times there is a mild sense of antagonism, but the series is consistently gentler than most I’ve seen. Very relaxing.
It’s one of my favorites, both for the sweetness factor and the how charming every single character was in their own way. Especially Sakura!