Sakura (Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle)

Sakura (サクラ), also known as Princess Sakura (サクラ姫), is a fictional character and one of the protagonists from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, a manga series written and illustrated by Clamp. In the series, Sakura is a princess from the Kingdom of Clow who has her memories separated from her body to parallel dimensions. Having fallen catatonic and being near death, Syaoran, her childhood friend, goes on a quest to recover her memories which took the form of feathers. As a payment for travelling, Sakura loses all the memories she ever had regarding Syaoran, with whom she was in love. Nevertheless, as the journey continues, Sakura starts bonding with Syaoran and learns about how the sorcerer Fei-Wang Reed was responsible for the loss of her memories and the recovery from all of them will help Fei-Wang. Besides Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Sakura also appears in other works from Clamp including xxxHolic and the drama CD series Holitsuba.

The character of Sakura was based on Sakura Kinomoto, the protagonist from Clamp's previous manga Cardcaptor Sakura sharing a similar relationship with Syaoran, who is also based on a character from the same series. Her character has been well received by Japanese readers and audiences, appearing in various popularity polls from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle as well as series in general. Publications for manga, anime and other media have also commented on Sakura's character. She received praise for her personality, her relation with Syaoran, as well as her development across the series.

Creation and conception
Using the ideas of Osamu Tezuka and his Star System, Sakura was based on the Cardcaptor Sakura's protagonist Sakura Kinomoto who was also related with character Syaoran was based on Syaoran Li. Both Sakura and Syaoran were used as the series' protagonists for Tsubasa, their Cardcaptor Sakura counterpart had a happy ending, something which Clamp points out that they would have to go throughout the series to get their "own happy ending". She is voiced by Yui Makino in the anime adaptation, and by Monica Rial in the English adaptation. Sakura's character was Makino's first work as a voice actress and she states she did not have to adjust her voice for that, finding the character similar to her. During the series' OVAs, Makino pointed that one of Sakura's scenes was very sad, and worked in it in order to be appealing.

In Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Introduced in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Sakura is the princess of the Kingdom of Clow, who is in love with Syaoran, her childhood friend. In the series' start, a force strips her of her memories and magical abilities, which takes the form of feathers. All the feathers are spread throughout different parallel worlds. To retrieve the feathers and thereby save her life, she and Syaoran are sent to Yūko Ichihara, who gives them the use of Mokona Modoki in exchange for Sakura's memory of Syaoran, which causes him to be absent from any memories restored to her. She is initially confused, and constantly tired, but she grows stronger as she regains her feathers. She becomes very friendly with the group's members, Fai D. Flowright, Kurogane and Mokona and she grows close to Syaoran again. However, even though she notices that she is missing somebody from her memories, when Sakura realizes the one is Syaoran, her memories are reversed to before her thinking. She also starts recover various of her abilities, like seeing spirits of nature, see ghosts, or foresee the future.

As the journey continues, Sakura comes to regard Syaoran as her most important person, but at such time he betrays the group as he is controlled by Fei-Wang Reed, the sorcerer who created him based on another teenager. After learning that Fei-Wang was the responsible for splitting her memories and set up the journey to recover them for his own plans, Sakura still decides to continue it in order to save Syaoran. Since then, Sakura becomes very distant from the group, especially the original Syaoran because of his similarities to the clone. In an attempt to change a future she saw involving Fai killing the original Syaoran as part of Fei-Wang's curse, Sakura is able to take his place, sending at that moment her soul to the Dream World and her body to Celes. Her soul is there destroyed by the Syaoran clone when trying to recover her feathers. Just before her death, Sakura reveals that she is a clone of the original Sakura and requests Syaoran to go back to his previous self. Fei-Wang created her to increase the power from the feathers and needed a back up if the original Sakura would die in the journey. The stored power from her soulless body is then used by Fei-Wang as one of the means to revive Yūko.

As the clones cannot properly die, Sakura is reconstructed by Yūko, along with the Syaoran clone who was killed by Fei-Wang, as Yuko wishes to compensate them for how their existences were used. She causes them to be reborn as humans, and the two eventually meet and start living together. Sakura gives birth to the original Syaoran and they realize they are in the past. They raise him until it is time for him to begin the events of the series, and then they seal themselves in a glass tube in order to await the time where Fei-Wang attempts to shatter reality. Sakura and Syaoran, after breaking free from the tube, reverse Fei-Wang's damage to the dimension using the magic they inherited from the sorcerer Clow Reed when reincarnating. However, both disappear after Fei-Wang's death, leaving behind only a feather which the original Sakura and Syaoran absorb.

Other appearances
Besides the manga and anime series from Tsubasa, Sakura also appears in the animated film The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom in which she still travels with Syaoran, Fai, Kurogane and Mokona across dimensions. She is also a playable character in the two Nintendo DS video games from Tsubasa. In the drama CD series, The Matinée of the Palace, the group performs a play that reenacts the series' story while searching for one of her feathers. Outside Tsubasa, Sakura also makes various appearances in Clamp's manga xxxHolic which shows some events happening in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. Additionally, Sakura also appears in later volumes in the Dream World after her soul is separated from her body. There, she meets Yuko's assistant, a teenager named Kimihiro Watanuki, whom she finds similar to the original Syaoran. One of her feathers - that of her memories of Syaoran - appears in Watanuki's world which gives the medium Kohane Tsuyuri the ability to exorcise spirits. After Kohane wishes for the removal of her ability, the feather stays with the black Mokona Modoki. She does not appear in the animated adaptions of xxxHolic until the original video animations series xxxHolic Shunmuki in which she appears in the Dream World talking with Watanuki. The drama CD series Holitsuba Gakuen feature Sakura as one of the students from the fictional school Holitsuba which features characters from Tsubasa and xxxHolic.

Reception
Sakura has been popular within readers from series, having placed second among all the characters in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle in a popularity poll held by Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 2005. She took a lower spot in the second poll, but has nevertheless taken high places in other related polls from the series. In the Animage's Anime Grand Prix poll from 2006, Sakura was voted as the fifth most popular female anime character. The next year, she remained as the seventh most popular female character. In the Animedia "2006 Animedia Character Awards", Sakura took high ranks in various of its categories. Her biggest rank was second in the categories "Most Beautiful / Loveliest Character Award" and "Most Heroic Character Award". Singer Maaya Sakamoto wrote the anime's insert song "Spica" based on Sakura's character pointing to how she moves forward across the series, but also shows weakness at times. Various types of merchandising have also been made based on her appearance such as plushes and keychains.

Sakura's character has been well received by publications for manga, anime and other media. While commenting on the series' protagonists, Ed Sizemore from Comics Worth Reading stated that Sakura had "natural grace and charm", with comments also pointing to how she changes as the series continues. Comparing her with her Cardcaptor Sakura counterpart, Carl Kimlinger from Anime News Network found Sakura as a likeable female lead character based on her personality and how she cares for others. Animefringe writer Lesley Smith commented that Sakura was "becoming a much larger character" the more feathers she recovered, but still found a crux due to how her relation with Syaoran in the series' start changed. Sakura's change in the second half from the manga has also received various comments with Carlo Santos calling it a large improvement due to how she starts manipulating events from the series in order to obtain what she wants. On the other hand, Mania Entertainment's Sakura Eries had mixed feelings about this, stating that while it is not surprising how she volunteers to get involved in dangerous task, the outcome was "unbelievable" due to how she ended facing the creatures from Tokyo. Megan Lavey from the same site found Sakura's death in a later volume as unexpected and the revelation of her being a clone like Syaoran made her feel "cheated" as the two of them were the series' initial protagonists.

Her relationship with Syaoran has often been described as one of the series' strongest points due to how Sakura starts caring for him despite having lost all of her memories involving him. Carlo Santos stated that such relationship even makes up for the issues found in the TV series from Tsubasa, while Active Anime's Christopher Seaman found such romantical relationship between as one of the most mature parts from the series. IGN's N.S. Davidson mentioned that while some people may not like romances, it would still appeal to them, because of the situation from the two characters. Megan Lavey initially called "pretty simple love story", while liking their personalities.