Category: CLAMP

Tomoyo Daidouji – The Perfect Girl Who Deserves More Love

It’s September 3—Tomoyo Daidouji’s birthday. As a tribute to the best girl, it’s fitting that I would be talking about her today.

It seems to be pretty obvious that I recently got back in the hype of the Card Captor Sakura franchise after I did another Card Captor Sakura – Clear Card anime marathon a while back. I did write about the Card Captor Sakura franchise (well, you can see them all here) in general but I never really got to write about my favorite girl specifically.

So Tomoyo deserves more love—because she never really got the love she wanted in return. Honestly, it hurts me a bit. She is the perfect girl you would ever want to have: beautiful, rich (very rich), intelligent, and very talented. 99% of the time, she has always been with Sakura’s side through thick and thin. I admit that if Sakura never had Tomoyo in the picture, she might have not have reached a lot so far both as a Card Captor and also as an ordinary girl.

Honestly, there is that part of me that wished Sakura did return her feelings to Tomoyo (both in the manga and in the anime). Until now, I still do. But I know that CLAMP would never really do this because Sakura was meant for Syaoran in the end. No contest.

But why would they make such a perfect character just be in the friendzone?

She deserves to be with someone. Honestly, you can ship her with all the other characters in the series like Meiling or Eriol (please don’t), but all the other characters aren’t really a perfect match. I guess you might say that Tomoyo is just completely perfect to be with anyone, with an exemption to Sakura. I know it would be so wrong in comparing this to the Phantom of Opera musical situation where there is a romantic love triangle involved—but it just hurts me to know that this girl only lacked that one piece of her almost perfect life.

If you check out the hashtag #大道寺知世誕生祭2020 on Twitter, you would notice the great amount of love that fans give Tomoyo on her birthday. I also posted mine too. I will never forget this tweet because this was liked by Tomoyo’s seiyuu herself, Junko Iwao. This smile hasn’t worn off since I saw the like on my Twitter notifications.

 

Tomoyo is a great and memorable character that I am not ashamed to repeat that over and over again. You might say that she doesn’t really do much because she doesn’t have powers unlike Sakura and Syaoran. However, the devotion, love, and support that she gives are more than any kind of magic. I do hope that Tomoyo gets more love as the Clear Card manga is still ongoing. Perhaps maybe a special chapter dedicated to her (or a side-story manga of sorts perhaps?)

Anyways, Happy Happy Birthday Tomoyo-chan. You are one of my favorite anime characters and I do hope you continue to inspire many fans like me with your kindness, generosity, and your complete perfection.

 

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I hope you enjoyed this small birthday tribute. If you like this article, you can check out more of my articles here in The Lily Cat. Also, you can also help me continue do yuri and fandom reviews and news through tipping me a cup of coffee or be part of the Kitty Squad in Patreon.

The Sakura and Tomoyo Relationship: Revisited

Well, hey! I am back (again), from the grave! For good reason, too. As a way to celebrate Pride Month, I went back into writing something I love the most.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I finally was able to fully marathon Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card anime without the fan noise and after so long of avoiding some key spoilers. Due to the immense hype and the return of an “O.G. magical girl series,” I knew that people would be talking about it for a long time. So I avoided it and waited. The wait was worth it. I enjoyed it to its full glory, and I wanted more.

Now also, as of this writing, the first Card Captor Sakura anime is now available for streaming on Netflix. Honestly, this write-up isn’t entirely a review about the anime series (I’ll probably make a separate one for this). This review, however, will be focused on two particular characters—the two specific people that got me into this beautiful genre of loving and shipping two-dimensional girls: Sakura Kinomoto and Tomoyo Daidouji.

Previously, I made a feature of Sakura and Tomoyo. I decided to go back into talking about them here because, God, I just love these two very much!

While watching Clear Card, I am just wholly hands down to how very loyal and caring Tomoyo is to Sakura. Although her comedic moments were a bit too cheesy for me (I guess CLAMP wanted her to make part of the comedic relief aside from Keroberos), I am happy to know that we got to see more of Tomoyo being ahead and doing whatever it takes to help Sakura. Not missing an opportunity to get footage on all her heroic acts (though some of them didn’t go well as planned.)

Every time Sakura and Tomoyo had a “moment,” it always makes me want to fangirl and giggle. These two were just completely cute together. Also, let’s give props to Tomoyo y’all—she was there for Sakura all the way when Syaoran wasn’t around for a while. Imagine if Sakura didn’t have Tomoyo, and she had to deal with the pain of not having her date because he left for Hong Kong. She was there for Sakura when no one never did.

Also, it amazes me that because of wanting to capture almost all of Sakura’s heroic moments, Tomoyo upped her game. She let her mother (the President of Daidouji Toys, mind you) create better gadgets so she could get better footage of Sakura. Imagine that dedication. Never have you seen someone from anime go into this level just for the person they care about the most.

Aside from watching Clear Card, I also took the time to do a small rewatch of Card Captor Sakura the Movie. Oh, Lord! How I loved this movie—in fact, watching both the CCS movies have become a tradition of sorts for me every New Year’s Eve.

In the first movie, Sakura and the gang won a trip to Hong Kong and encountered a mysterious person calling for Sakura. When Sakura finally got to meet the said person (which appeared to someone from Clow Reed’s past), this person took all of Sakura’s friends, and our heroine Cardcaptor would have to defeat her if she wants them back. Sakura wasn’t able to rescue everyone with the magic she had (and time was ticking), but she was able to successfully rescue Tomoyo. This scene is probably one of my favorites as it shows how Sakura really cared for Tomoyo.

Okay, now we go back to Clear Card. Same as the first anime, Clear Card Tomoyo still plays the best friend-sidekick role. There was no hint of borderline romantic moves from her because, well, Sakura had Syaoran already. A lot of people would revolt if ever there was a hint that Tomoyo DID make a move on her.

As much as how I wish there was a hint of more romance between the two girls, but I think we would just end up having the CLAMP-flavored subtext that we have always gotten over the years. Regardless, I will always be proud enough to say that I got to love this genre (and writing Yuri-related stuff) because of the Tomoyo and Sakura ship. I would probably not stop talking about them anytime soon. In fact, I even talked about it a recent podcast with Jay Agonoy (keepsakes.).

I still look forward to what’s to come with the Card Captor Sakura franchise. Although the franchise itself isn’t really yuri, the subtext and the characters were my gateways into getting into this beautiful genre.

This is definitely one great comeback into writing Yuri-related stuff again after almost a month of no updates whatsoever here on the site. Hey, there’s definitely more to come. As always, Sakura and Tomoyo will always be one of my favorite Yuri ships of all time.  

Now, to formally end this post, I would like to share one of my recent favorite Sakura and Tomoyo fan art created by @neko_cer on Twitter. Still can’t get enough of this, really. Come on, CLAMP! Give Tomoyo some love, please?

Tomoyo and Sakura fanart by neko_cer

 

New Cardcaptor Sakura Anime to Premiere This January 2018!

Get hyped! The popular magical girl returns in a new anime series!

As a way of celebrating the manga’s 20th anniversary, the all girls manga group CLAMP released a new Cardcaptor Sakura manga this year titled Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc. The manga is still ongoing but what’s cool is that an anime adaptation of the manga is slated for a January 2018 release. Still a long wait for fans who have read the manga, watch the 70-episode anime series, and the two films. This announcement was confirmed in the February issue of Nakayoshi magazine (a publication under Kondansha).

The reason why I am so excited for this upcoming anime series is that the former seiyuus will be reprising their roles. Sakura Tange and Junko Iwao will return as Sakura and Tomoyo! I’m currently in a wave of nostalgia now because these two are the reasons why I got into the Yuri genre.

I’m still in the process of getting my hands on the new Cardcaptor Sakura manga (which takes place just after Sakura graduated from elementary). Now because of this announcement, I feel like featuring more stuff related to the series in the coming weeks like a review on the 70-episode anime, their specials, video games, and the two movies. For those who missed the Sakura and Syaoran pairing, I’m pretty sure you’re going to love the current manga series because some previews of the manga chapters reveal of them being together.

2018 might be a long wait but at least there’s something to look forward to for CCS fans!

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