Arguably one of CLAMP’s most notable manga series, more than twenty years have passed since Cardcaptor Sakura first debuted in Japan. Over this time, many fans have been treated to the adventures of ten-year-old Sakura Kinomoto, who is tasked with reclaiming the magical Clow Cards which (after she inadvertently released them) begin causing havoc across the fictional city of Tomoeda. Following the initial release of a twelve-volume manga and a 70 episode anime, this 20th Anniversary milestone has seen a wealth of new attention given to the series – including a new sequel manga, an upcoming anime adaptation of this manga and a lot of new merchandise.
The artists at CLAMP have over the years provided a lot of great full-colour artwork for the Cardcaptor Sakura manga, which unlike some other series, have to some degree been made available to English audiences through Dark Horse’s omnibus volumes. 2016 saw the release of the Cardcaptor Sakura 20th Anniversary Illustrations Collection (カードキャプターさくら 連載開始20周年記念 イラスト集), an approximately 144 page book bringing together some of CLAMP’s best artwork for the manga.
Judging a Book By Its Cover
I picked up this book a few months ago from the Kinokuniya book store in Sydney, where they have an impressive array of Japanese artbooks on display in a section of their store. Among the crowd of books nearby, the Cardcaptor Sakura 20th Anniversary Illustrations Collection stood out to me the most. Contained within a decorative plastic sleeve which is adorned with golden designs which complement the cover artwork, I thought they chose an attention-grabbing and incredibly well detailed piece of artwork to set the initial impression.
Content
Those who have read my earlier artbook reviews may know that I tend to cover design compendiums – which provide insight into creative processes. This book is completely the opposite, and aside from a few pages at the back with brief comments on each piece, most of the book is dedicated exclusively to presenting the artwork – uninterrupted by text. There are no chapters categorising artwork by theme or publication medium, but the book appears to be presented, to some degree, in chronological order of them being made public.
As mentioned above, Cardcaptor Sakura 20th Anniversary Illustrations Collection contains a compilation of selected works, with around 100 pieces in total. Many of the images focus on Sakura in a range of downright cute costumes, although other characters including but not limited to Kero, Tomoyo Daidouji and Syaoran Li do have plenty of chances to shine both with and without Sakura. Since this is CLAMP and this collection compiles what could be considered some of their best work, each piece maintained consistently high design quality.
While there is a couple of pieces such as the one above which could be considered mildly fanservicey, since Cardcaptor Sakura is a shoujo manga appropriate for pretty much all audiences, the artwork is cute more than anything else.
Design
Cardcaptor Sakura 20th Anniversary Illustrations Collection is a full-colour, hardcover B5 size book – and I personally have no qualms about the build quality of my book. It is what I would argue to be one of the nicest designed books currently in my collection.
In terms of what I found within its pages, I only have one complaint. Most of the artwork is treated to a B5 page of its own, which although smaller than some artbooks, was a good size to appreciate each piece of art. I was also grateful that there were no pages where they tried to cram three or four pieces onto one page. There were also a number of occasions where one landscape piece was treated to a double-page spread, which is understandable and often treated well.
Although not a complaint exclusive to this book by any means, there was the occasional underutilisation of space – where either items spread over two pages may leave a sizable portion of a page unused, or otherwise a piece of small artwork was left on a page by itself. This is nothing which ruins the experience overall, but as a reader it is hard not to think that the blank space could have housed an additional piece of artwork.
Extras
Each copy of Cardcaptor Sakura 20th Anniversary Illustrations Collection also comes with a 70cm x 100cm double-sided poster. One side chronicles the history of the Cardcaptor Sakura series from April 1996 to April 2016, and the other features a lot of the merchandise they have released over the years. It makes for an interesting read… but I wouldn’t consider it something I would hang up on a wall….
Final Words
CLAMP has a strong creative team, who over the years have managed to produce some artistically impressive works. Therefore, it came as no surprise that this newest artbook offered a compilation of works which are pleasing to the eye. This may not be the only way to appreciate some of this art, even in the English-speaking market, but in my opinion it is one of the nicest.
Where to Buy
While this artbook has been out for a number of months now, it still seems to be fairly easy to find. Below is a small list of online stores which currently list this as being in stock, but would by no means be an exhaustive list. Therefore, be sure to shop around at your own favourite stores as well!
