The rear-face design of the Clow Cards
The Clow Cards (クロウカード, Kurō Kādo) are magical cards used in the manga and anime series Cardcaptor Sakura.
The Cards were created by the half-English, half-Chinese sorcerer named Clow Reed. They are the result of the combination of Eastern and Western magics and formed the basis for a new kind of magic unlike any other seen so far. To contain the incredible power of the cards, after his death Clow had the card's sealed in the Clow Book, only to be released when the "chosen one" appears.
The cards represent a combination of Eastern and Western magic centered on the concepts of natural forces and elements. The original Clow Cards fall under a specific sign, sun or moon, corresponding to the guardians Keroberos and Yue.
The cards can only be controlled under your command if you become it's owner. In order for it to be yours, you must sign your name, otherwise they can run loose again. The card will go to whoever binds it's power, meaning the one who defeated it.
In the manga series, there are nineteen cards specifically named, while the anime series has fifty-three (fifty-two in the series proper, the last from the second movie). The nineteen cards in the manga are The Light, The Dark, The Windy, The Earthy, The Firey, The Wood, The Watery, The Flower, The Fly, The Jump, The Erase, The Mirror, The Maze, The Illusion, The Sword, The Shield, The Shadow, The Thunder, and The Glow. These cards also gain slightly different appearances in the manga when transformed into Sakura Cards (Star Cards in the English dub). Changes mainly include the addition of a star however The Sword and The Shield cards gain completely different appearances.
About
Attributes
Each Clow Card has its own personality, ranging from good-nature to violent and its own powers that are mostly centered around an elemental force or performing a specific task. When in use or acting on their own, the cards assume alternative forms that vary from card to card. All cards appear to be able to float. Example: the Sword was floating immediately before it was captured.
Most of the cards may be seen represented in four ways: most of the time a beautiful woman or pretty girl dressed or holding an object according to its power (Arrow, Windy, Bubbles), an animal related to the power (Jump, Change, Dash), an object (Sword, Shield, Float) or a Man (Old or Young) dressed or holding an object according to is power (Time, Firey).
Hierarchy
Within the deck, there is a hierarchy. Clow Reed and later Sakura Kinomoto as Master/Mistress of the Clow have command of all cards and both guardians. Below them are the Guardians of the Clow, the physical incarnations of the powers used to create the cards. Cerberus representing the sun and the Western magic Clow inherited from his English magician father and Yue, the spirit of the moon and the Eastern magic from his Chinese mother. Beneath the guardians are the Four Elements (the Earthy, the Firey, the Windy and the Watery, two under each guardian) and the Two Attributes (Light and Dark one for each guardian). The remaining forty-six cards are divided up between those six. Each attribute has seven cards under them, while each element has eight under it.
The only cards outside the jurisdiction of either Yue or Keroberos are the Nameless Card and the Hope (created by Sakura well after the creation of the Guardians so she couldn't appoint one of them as protector of it) and the Nothing, a negative card made simply to balance the Yang that the Clow Cards make whenever they are used.
Description
Clow Cards
Based in Tarot cards from the Major Arcana, the Clow Cards are tall, roughly 12 inches long[citation needed] cards share the same image in the back and frame in the front. The back consists of an orange frame with 4 stars in the corners and the Clow circle in a crimson background (distorted in an oblong to fit the thin frame). The said is decorated golden ring with a sun in the center and a moon in the lower left with a pattern making a star with twelve points.
The front consists of the same orange frame with two stars in the center-side portions with a flowing, thin golden frame around the central picture representing the card. Above, the half of a golden sun with the Chinese/Japanese symbol of the card, and below, a ribbon with the card's de facto name, below a waning moon. In the center of the card, in front of a purple background, the card's representative figure. A clow card can be represented by either an object or a person, usually a female character dressed representing it's properties (sometimes, the character's anatomy do so, such as wings, ears, etc). the art of the cards follow a pattern, the purple background, the characters always in beige with a small portion of them in a different color each (a necklace, earrings, other forms of decoration). The cards represented by objects follow the same pattern. Some unique cards can be labelled as "sisters", cards that share opposite elements, and therefore, are represented by remarkably similar characters, like twins, such as Dark and the Light, The Time and The Return, The Little and the Big.
Sakura Cards
After Sakura transformed a Clow Card into her own Sakura Cards, they changed drastically in the frame and rear figure, while the represented characters suffered little to no change at all. The color palette changed all to shades of pink with the stars in bright golden. The rear figure changed to a star with twelve points, but in a different position, with a large golden star in the centered, sided by a waxing moon and a sun.
The front remained the same thin frame, albeit bright pink, the sun in the top changed to a large Star and the ribbon in the bottom switched position and shape, with a star in the top, and the name written in Japanese below and the name "Sakura" written in the card's very bottom. The figures also suffered the same change in the color pattern, becoming shades of pink, but keeping something small in their own colors each.
Regardless the cards are Clow or Sakura, the humanoid figures remain exactly the same outside their cards. Only the Fly became different, changing where the wings will manifest.
Comparison
The changes in the cards after the transformation can be noticed in the following image.
Clow and Sakura cards comparison by TheTempestWind
The image can be clicked to view it in 4000px.
List of Cards
Alphabetical
- In descending order:
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Capture
- In descending order:
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- N In the anime Windy is the only Clow Card that Sakura does not have to formally capture, as it is in her hand at the time the other Cards are scattered. Likewise the Nameless Card and the Hope were never captured: the former being created by Sakura.
- M Only appeared in the first movie, set sometime between episodes 35 & 36.
- * These cards capture was not shown, although they were briefly seen already captured at the beginning episode 36.
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Sakura Cards
The rear-face design of the Sakura Cards.
The Sakura cards, (Star Cards in the English dub), are the Clow cards transformed by Sakura's own magic, (the name was Tomoyo Daidōji's idea, she was originally going to call them Sakura-chan cards but Sakura disagreed).
As Clow cards, the cards had a golden frame with a sun at the top, a moon at the bottom, a six pointed star at the sides and Clow Reed's magic circle at the back.
As Sakura cards, the frame turns pink, the sun and moon are at the sides, a star at the bottom and top and Sakura's magic circle at the back. In the anime, the entity's on the cards merely turn pink while in the manga the entity's are decorated with stars or star-related accessories, (eg. Windy was given a winged star on her forehead and above her breasts and Jump gets a star at the back of it's head and star earrings).
In both the anime and manga The Firey is the first card to be transformed and The Light and Dark are the last.
Transformation
- In descending order:
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- * These cards transformation was never shown in the series, although they were mentioned briefly at the beginning of episode 61.
- OVA Transformed in the Second OVA.
- Note: The Nameless Card and the Hope existed already as Sakura Cards.
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Fortune Telling
Using the cards for fortune telling:
Use left hand to shuffle the cards. Still with the left hand, put them in a pile and split them into three groups. Than put them into a pile again. One by one pulled the cards at random from the deck and arrange them in one card at top, next in front of the cardcaptor or master, put on in one in the middle row of the far left in that row, and in front again until you get this arrangement:
Turn over the top card. Turn over the three in the middle room, the show cards are their for guidance. Turn the card at the bottom over. Tell you what a card is after.
Gallery
References
- Cardcaptor Sakura, Series 1-3, Bandai Visual
- Cardcaptor Sakura, Volumes 1-6, Nakayoshi
- Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow, Volumes 7-12, Nakayoshi
- Cardcaptor Sakura Art-book (I-III)
- Cardcaptor Sakura - Official Website (NHK)
- Card Captor Sakura Clow Card Fortune Book, Kodansha (2000), ISBN 4063342980
| List of Clow Cards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main cards | | |
| Cards under The Dark | ||
| Cards under The Earthy | ||
| Cards under The Firey | ||
| Cards under The Light | ||
| Cards under The Watery | ||
| Cards under The Windy | ||
| Negative Card | ||
| Original Sakura Cards | ||
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