Basically the title. I read and watched this series when I was in 5th or 6th grade and I thought it was ok. I also watched and read Tsubasa chronicles (and many other CLAMP works) and I also thought it was ok. Recently when talking with one of my friends who also watched and read CCS in her childhood and we were talking about the series (because of the new Clear Card anime). And I realized, I never really like Sakura. At least, not as a person. I liked her design and her outfits and her wand and magic but I actually dislike her as a character. And the more I thought about it the more I realized that this series wasn't as good as my rose-tinted memories thought it was. I don’t like how Sakura is such a one-dimensional Mary Sue and I also think that the story overall is pretty weak. Sakura is supposed to be this cute, ditzy character who is kind and a little naive. However, her personality doesn’t automatically make her a bad character. Its that she never seems to grow or change at all. Despite everything that happens to her, she’s still pretty much the same Sakura at the end of the series as she was in the beginning. She’s still kind, friendly, ditzy, and determined. These are all good personality traits to have but the issue is that she’s always this perfect character. She has no flaws, no real negative traits to her. Everyone in the series ends up liking her or grudgingly accepting her. She never feels like a real person, just a glorified dress up doll (like a Barbie). In a lot of children’s shows this isn’t really an issue. Like, I don’t have a problem with caricature like characters in kiddie shows like Teletubbies, Barbie Movies, or freakin Caillou. But CCS isn’t made just for vapid kids entertainment. The series tries to combine moral discussions that would go over a lot of younger kids’ heads with a child friendly storyline. And it just doesn’t work. It waxes philosophical about heavy topics like love and loss. At times, the characters don’t talk like real people; they just spout lengthy ideologies that sound more like quotes from philosophy essays. Not to mention, some of their morals are seriously messed up.
One of CLAMP’s most prevalent themes is “Love is love, regardless of anything.” CLAMP believes that when it comes to True Love, (age, gender, religion, incest, etc. )anything goes. One of Sakura’s elementary school friends named Rika has a crush on their teacher, Mr. Terada. As the series progresses, Terada gives her a promise ring to signify that they are Fiance’s. Whats even weirder is that the other characters who find out about this relationship, like Tomoyo, just seem to accept it as though its absolutely normal. It just casually condones pedophilia and it is so messed up. It definitely doesn’t belong in a comic aimed towards young kids. I know some people will try to refute this point by saying the 10+ year age difference doesn’t matter when they’re older or that their relationship isn’t sexual yet because they’re engaged. First of all, an age gap of 10 years isn’t that big of a deal between consenting able-minded mature adults (like say a 25 year old and a 35 year old). But Rika is actually an elementary schooler who has not even reached puberty yet. Whereas her teacher is a grown ass man, who has been through college, who pays taxes, who has a job, and for some reason wants to get with his elementary school students. Rika is described as mature for her age, but that doesn’t (and shouldn’t) mean that she has the mentality of an adult. It just means that she’s a little more responsible than the other 10 year olds running around in her school. And also, theres something fundamentally fucked about an adult thinking about a kid romantically. It doesn’t matter that he’s “waiting for her” so theres no sex or whatever because he’s actively thinking of a little child romantically. And it just proves that EVEN HE thinks there’s a problem with it, since he knows that he should wait for her to at least hit puberty. I read this series when I was in elementary school, when some of my own classmates had crushes on our teachers and even then I (and many others) knew that this kind of dynamic was hella wrong. Basically, the issue that I take with CLAMP is that their very heavy moral lessons (i.e. pedophilia is love, incest is ok) is that they frame it in a world where real problems don’t exist. There isn’t any grooming or sexual urges or opposing view points in CCS. Its this heaven-like, innocent utopia vacuum where there is no real pain or suffering or ugliness.
The progression of action in the plot is okay (just a girl powering up as she gets more magical cards or whatever). But at least for me, the moral lessons/philosophical spiels carry no weight because they’re presented as facts and theres no real discussion. The side characters have slightly better character growth than the Sakura, but even they are all only two dimensional at best. I honestly think that the only thing that makes this manga worth reading is the art. All of their stories tend to be lackluster. Their characters occupy a weird middle line where they’re not quite real people, but they’re also not entirely metaphorical personifications that spout lengthy lines. Does the author want CCS to be a normal tale with relatable characters or do they want to make an abstract piece where the characters are all metaphors of something? CLAMP needs to pick a side and stick with it.
