Ask John: Is Card Captors a Girls’ Show?

Question:
Is Card Captors a girl show? I mean, it’s kinda hard to tell.

Answer:
I’ll limit my answer to the Japanese version of Cardcaptor Sakura for two reasons. I haven’t seen any of “Card Captors,” and based on what I’ve heard of it, it’s difficult for me to consider Card Captors Japanese animation after it’s been so heavily edited and modified to suit American tastes. Simply put, Cardcaptor Sakura is a girls’ show. But don’t let that persuade you not to watch it. I believe that part of reason behind the immense popularity of works from the ladies of CLAMP is their ability to straddle the distinction between shoujo and shounen genres. Manga and animation including RG Veda, Tokyo Babylon, X and Rayearth all featured either female characters or very effeminate men, but also included enough swordplay, blood, supernatural action and giant robots to hold the interest of male viewers. Cardcaptor Sakura and Angelic Layer are a bit more obviously shoujo due to their lack of obvious male-oriented action, but the quality of writing and characterization in Cardcaptor Sakura (CCS) are good enough to appeal to any viewer, male or female. By definition, CCS is a shoujo series because its focus is on emotional growth and development, on characterization rather than action, introspection rather than excitement. CCS has a single, continuing, developing story, and that story, while superficially about Sakura collecting the Clow Cards, is actually about Sakura growing and maturing in responsibility. This is evident from the fact that Sakura actually collects all 70 Clow Cards just over half way through the TV series, signifying that the collecting wasn’t actually the focus of the show.

Now, if you’ll allow me to expand my answer a bit, shoujo anime, while present in America, still has quite a way to go before being really recognized in America. Sailormoon, CCS, Utena, Magical Project S, Rayearth and Fushigi Yuugi are all distinct examples of shoujo anime available in the US. Sailormoon and Magical Project S both represent the magical girl genre, which is large relegated exclusively to the domain of “girls’ anime.” Rayearth and Utena are both the sort of cross-genre types with shoujo themes and exciting action set-pieces, and Fushigi Yuugi exemplifies the dramatic aspect of shoujo anime. Yet all of these shows shouldn’t be limited to only female viewers. Fans looking for only hyperkinetic violence, action and exploitation may want to look elsewhere, but very few of these type of shows can match the quality of writing, storytelling, characterization and affectiveness of good shoujo anime. It may be useful to categorize anime as shoujo or shonen for the sake of discussion, but this sort of distinction should never be used to determine what to watch and what not to watch. Cardcaptor Sakura is a girls’ show, but the very fact that it may be difficult to recognize that fact proves that CCS isn’t a show targeted exclusively to girls.

In other words, distinctions like “shoujo” and “shounen” aren’t intended to distinguish who should and shouldn’t watch particular shows. These categorizations only identify the intended target audience of the shows and, more importantly, the style and focus of the shows. Avoiding shoujo anime would limit a viewers exposure to some of the best writing and stories anime has to tell. Watching only shoujo anime, though, would create a vacuum in the hard-boiled, heart-racing, pulse pounding excitement anime has to offer.