The Card Captor Sakuraofficial website has been renewed to accommodate the upcoming celebrations for the series’ 25th Anniversary.
The previous 20th Anniversary logo has been replaced by a new one for the 25th Anniversary — featuring a new illustration drawn by CLAMP — but other than that, the website looks the same as before.
In addition, a special website dedicated to the series’ 25th Anniversary was launched within the official website: http://ccsakura-official.com/25th/
CLAMP have drawn a new illustration for the occasion (it’s the same illustration that is being used for the new logo) and it’s possible to see it in its entirely at this special website.
For the time being, this 25th Anniversary website only contains the special comic movie that was announced in this month’s Nakayoshi magazine and the first volume of a “Special Information” newspaper, which shows Card Captor Sakura news taken from this month’s Nakayoshi magazine. A new batch of goods is planned but hasn’t been announced yet.
The “special comic movie” is a 1:43 minutes long short video that does a quick recap of the series:
The June issue of Nakayoshi magazine is a special issue celebrating the 25th Anniversary since the beginning of Card Captor Sakura‘s serialization.
Among the things that make this issue so special: a) Card Captor Sakura is featured on the front cover; b) Chapter 53 of Clear Card arc is published in this issue; c) a special article dedicated to the series’ 25th Anniversary is included; and d) this issue also has two special extras related to the series: a notebook and an exclusive SMILE clear card, illustrated by CLAMP.
In addition, the magazine will be announcing three pieces of news:
The official website of Card Captor Sakura will be renewed for the occasion of the 25th Anniversary.
A new batch of goods will be released.
A commemorative 25th Anniversary “Special Comic Movie” is being made.
No more information about this “comic movie” has been given but I am assuming that it will look similarly to that Holitsuba short animation that was dubbed live in CLAMP FESTIVAL 2011. Given that it’s a special comic movie about the series’ 25th Anniversary, it might use the manga as source material so we may not see that many new illustrations (yet to be seen, though!).
The June issue of Nakayoshi magazine goes on sale officially on May 1st.
The official website will probably be updated on the same date as Nakayoshi magazine goes on sale (May 1st) so please check back the website on that date.
It’s the end of the 20th Anniversary era but buckle up, the 25th Anniversary era is about to start!
The official website of the CLAMP x Kyoto City: Kyoto Yell! Project is announcing that due to the current situation in Kyoto city and surrounding areas regarding the rapid spread of the new coronavirus, the event will be halted temporarily. They expect to be able to hold the event once it’s safer to do so.
The event was originally scheduled to run from May 8 to June 30.
The organizing committee apologized for everyone who had anticipated participating in the event.
Official statement posted at the event’s website.
This is definitely the best decision to make. Let’s hope things will get better and everyone will be able to enjoy this in much safer conditions.
The tenth volume of Card Captor Sakura ~Clear Card arc~ dropped to the 31st position in Oricon’s weekly ranking, with an estimate of 35,530 copies sold in its second week of sales. This time, only the regular edition made it to the Top 50. Sale numbers for the special edition are unknown. Overall, volume 10 has sold an estimate of 110,788 copies since its release date — excluding pre-orders.
This represents a slight improvement in comparison to the second week of the previous volume (9), which by week two had sold an estimate of 107,406 copies. It still looses when comparing to the overall sales by the second week sales for all the other volumes of Clear Card released so far.
It is worth mentioning that Oricon only takes into account a certain number of shops and pre-orders are excluded. These numbers are only an estimate and it’s possible that the real figures are higher than these.
The chart below shows the progress in the sales of Card Captor Sakura ~Clear Card arc~ over the weeks and compares it with previous volumes’ performances (click on it for dynamic version):
Let’s wait and see if volume 10 will show up in next week’s ranking at all.
As an effort to restore the economy of Kyoto city, deeply affected by the new coronavirus as many other cities across the globe, and due to their connection to Kyoto, CLAMP are joining a new collaboration project with the city in order to support it.
The project will last from May 8 to June 30 and it will involve:
Kyoto Pilgrimage
The CLAMP 30th Anniversary chibi charactes will be spread around the city of Kyoto and you are invited to find them all and collect their stamp in a stamp rally.
Kyoto Industry Events
From tradicional food, souvenirs and cultural experiences, CLAMP will collaborate with two major city events:
I have a little bit of mixed feelings about this. It’s really good to see CLAMP using their popularity as a means to support the city in which they have strong bonds to — 3/4 of them were born there and currently all 4 of them are living there. At the same time, I am not there to judge how safe these events can be, but it’s still valid that they are doing something supportive for their city in these trying times we are all going through.
I wonder if we will be getting new chibi illustrations with the characters in Kyoto traditional clothes or if it’s going to be the same ones already released… hmm.
The tenth volume of Card Captor Sakura ~Clear Card arc~ debuted at the 9th position in Oricon’s weekly ranking, with an estimate of 54,943 copies sold in its first week of sales for the regular edition. The Special Edition (Character Song CD) debuted at the 46th position, with an estimate of 20,315 copies sold. Combining the numbers of the regular and special editions together, it sold an estimate of 75,258 copies in its release week.
This is the second lowest first week sales for a Clear Card volume, only behind volume 2. This also happened last time, with volume 9, but unfortunately the numbers for volume 10 were even lower. It is also the lowest debut position along with volume 6, which also ranked 9 at Oricon in its first week.
Special edition numbers aside and looking at regular edition numbers alone, volume 10 had the worst performance in a first week for all volumes released so far, but combined with the special edition, volume 10 only looses to the first week sales of volume two.
It is worth mentioning that Oricon only takes into account a certain number of shops. These numbers are only an estimate and it’s possible that the real figures are higher than these.
The chart below shows the progress in the sales of Card Captor Sakura ~Clear Card arc~ over the weeks and compares it with previous volumes’ performances (click on it for dynamic version):
Let’s wait and see how it will perform on next week’s ranking. Hopefully this is not the last we’ve seen of volume 10.
The April issue of SPUR magazine featured a fashion photoshoot inspired by Tokyo Babylon.
Up until now, the pictures were available only in the magazine’s print version, but yesterday, on April 1st, the magazine’s official website shared what seems to be the article in its full length, including the pictures.
For archiving purposes, I will be sharing it here as well this really cool photoshoot.
It’s been announced that XXXHOLiC will be getting a musical theatre adaptation.
The title is Engekichouitan XXXHOLiC (XXXHOLiC Theatrical Style) and it’s scheduled to open in this Fall in Japan.
The planning is by CLAMP’s Nanase Ohkawa and theatre producer Matsuda Makoto, known as the pioneer of 2.5D musicals.
Direction will be by Fumiya Matsuzaki and the script will be written by Masafumi Hata, the same duo in charge of the two-part Banana Fish stage play in June.
The only two cast members announced so far are Motohiro Ota, who will be playing Yuuko Ichihara, and Shougo Sakamoto, who will be playing Watanuki Kimihiro. One interesting detail is that the actor who will be playing Yuuko is a man.
Engekichouitan XXXHOLiC
Opening Fall 2021 (Japan)
Planning Nanase Ohkawa Matsuda Makoto
Original Work CLAMP『XXXHOLiC』(Kodansha)
Director Fumiya Matsuzaki
Script Masafumi Hata
Cast Yuuko Ichihara: Motohiro Ota Watanuki Kimihiro: Shougo Sakamoto Others
Cooperation Japan 2.5-Dimensional Musical Association
Good news! This project seems to be in really good hands. The staff is involved in several good quality stage play adaptations, and it’s really good to know that Nanase Ohkawa is in the planning committee. That first key visual looks absolutely amazing.
I was surprised to learn that the actor playing Yuuko is a man. I am not sure yet how I feel about a man taking a powerful female role, but I can also see this working really well.
XXXHOLiC continues to be the most versatile CLAMP work, having been adapted to multiple media formats: movie, TV anime, OAD, video-game, stage reading drama and now stage play.
This also indicates that CLAMP might be planning to resume XXXHOLiC Rei in the near future. Mutual promotion between the original work and the adaptation always works well.
Chibi Yuuto's CHRoNiCLEs 