Manga Match 93 Cardcaptor Sakura

This is a real childhood nostalgia moment for me. When I was in elementary school, before I knew anything about the world of anime and manga, I went to the bookstore with my grandparents and encountered Cardcaptor Sakura in the form of this tome of comics that you read from right to left. I didn't know what manga was and I didn't really know what I was getting into, but I really liked that book. I liked it so much that I tried to find more online and I found these random, really poor quality rips of the anime on Youtube or something and watched those. But then someone took them down I think so that was the short life of my independently discovered love of this manga. 

Fast forward like 10 years and I finally finished the manga. To be honest, I think I had the second or third volume of the manga all along, because only halfway through did things start to look familiar and it made sense why I was always so confused over what was happening. 

{Spoilers, but it's pretty cutesy so not a whole lot of plot twist}

As we all know, Cardcaptor Sakura is a magical girl manga created by the iconic CLAMP. It centers around this elementary school girl Sakura and her quest commissioned by Kero-chan (aka Kerberos) to capture all the unruly Clow Cards wreaking havoc on her city. Clow Cards are kind of like spirits trapped inside each of the cards with a different power such as illusion or fire and were all created by this famous powerful magician named Clow Reed. Sakura goes around with her friend Tomoyo and later on Shaoran to capture the cards. This is the basic summary of the first arc anyway. In the second arc, Clow Reed's presence is mysteriously felt after the Clow Cards have been captured and mischief is afoot once again in the city. To deal with this new obstacle, Sakura changes the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards and becomes more powerful along the way. At the pinnacle of this second arc, Clow reveals himself to be reincarnated as Eriol, a transfer student in Sakura's class. He needed Sakura to gain magical strength in order to split his magic into two so that he was no longer the most powerful magician and could live a normal life. 

While the plot may seem a little bit childish and like every hero story, I think there's a bit of charm to be found in the whimsy of childhood found in this manga. Because it centers around elementary school children there's lots of wonder and innocence to be found. And there's quite a bit of diversity in terms of Yukito and Touya being a canon ship as well as Tomoyo's unrequited love for Sakura. 

Maybe I'm just partial due to the childhood nostalgia factor, but this was such a fun read. It really brought me back to my little magical girl stint and made me really appreciate the genre once again. I think it's obvious that I'd say you should read the manga. It's full of a little girl with a can-do and hopeful spirit saving the world and all of her friends supporting her along the way. It's wholesome and whimsical and delightful beyond words and I think if you like my recommendations, you'll find this one to your liking as well!