And yeah I remember reading about CCS when the internet had first came out, and thinking, "whoa those episodes aired in Japan but not here? Wait a minute…Card Captors came from Japan? Sakura means cheery blossum? What's this anime stuff?" Nostalgic and still my favorite anime.

Nevertheless, a remastering does sound like it could work, although I've never actually been able to compare an old version to a remastered one.

I've been reading up a bit on Cardcaptor bootlegs to do a quality comparison (as legit US releases are drying out), and I came across a three-part box set release for Cardcaptor Sakura (here's box set one). The three box sets together total at ￥81,081, or US$724.95 (and the two movies together are ￥11,500 or US$102.82)

I find the following piece from the page to be interesting:

現在もNHK教育にて再放送中の作品が、ハイビジョン・ネガテレシネと5．1chDDの映像と音声で蘇る！

What I take from this is that there are a re-mastered release (they came out in 2005), with 5.1ch audio, and remastered audio and video. ハイビジョン (High-Vision) refers to a hi-definition digital satellite television service by NHK (a Japanese television station). The Japanese Wikipedia has a list of shows airing on this hi-definition station, including Cardcaptor Sakura (カードキャプターさくら).

The ネガテレシネ part is a combination of ネガ and テレシネ. The latter part, Telecine (a combination of "television" and "cinema") is taking a film and making it digital, which makes sense for use on NHK's High-Vision service. The first part, "nega", might refer to using negatives (I don't know).

Does this mean there's a digitalized release with cleaned up video and improved audio? I would love to find out, but the box sets are way too expensive, especially as I'm buying various bootleg and non-US releases to do a quality comparison write-up. Maybe I should have saved up for a remastered box set to write-up on, rather than doing a write-up on bootlegs in hopes to inform anyone looking to buy the series in a time when the places to buy the official subtitled releases are drying up.

(Just realized Aanusha was talking about how Meilin wasn't in the manga, but since I've already got a little post on how she came and went in the anime…)

As far as I remember, Meilin left somewhere in the middle of season 1 (before the Yue fight) for some irrelevant reason; Wiki says "her mother called her back" and I suppose that's code for "take me out of the storyline by any means possible."

She returned later in season 3 (post Yue, circa 50-odd?) for a few episodes to officially give up her engagement with Syaoran and, y'know, declare Sakura the winner and all. There was a really touching scene in 60, I think, where she keeps the emotion back when telling Syaoran that she's breaking it off, then goes and lets it all out in Tomoyo's lap later. It's the kind of character interaction that makes Cardcaptor Sakura more than just an average magical girl anime.

Again, MANGA AND SOME ANIME SPOILERS ARE BELOW!

In the manga, Sakura notices that Eriol is "familiar" to her somehow. He wears glasses and smiles the same as her father and Yukito. The three all seem "familiar" somehow. In the anime, Eriol is revealed as a reincarnation of Clow. Because Eriol is from Clow, and Clow created Yukito, they might have similar features.

In the manga, Eriol is not the reincarnation of Clow. Instead, Clow did not die. He wanted to no longer be the most powerful wizard, so he split himself into two different characters. He became Eriol, and he became Sakura's father. This might explain why Toya is able to "see" things with his "sixth sense". This can also explain why Fujitaka gets the Clow book after it was in Osaka for a long time.

Even though Clow split, Eriol still has all the power. In the anime, Sakura has to transform the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards to save them from "dying", but in the manga this is not true. Eriol does put Sakura through challenges so she changes the cards, but this is to make the cards use Sakura's power. This makes Sakura stronger. When Sakura transforms every Clow Card into a Sakura Card, she is strong enough to split Clow's power between Eriol and Fujitaka. Incidentally, while Toya loses his power to save Yukito, this split gives Fujitaka a similar power. Toya can no longer see his mother's spirit, but Fujitaka now can.

The entire ending with Sakura and Shaoran is also different. The bear Shaoran made is left behind, and Sakura takes it with her. Shaoran later tells Sakura to keep it. When Sakura learns Shaoran is moving back to Hong Kong, she begins to realize her feelings for him. She makes him a bear, and gives it to him as he is leaving on a bus to the airport. Sakura tells Shaoran he is her special someone. Fast-forward a few years, and Shaoran returns having gone through the process to become a citizen of Japan.

Méilíng was added to the anime, so she was never in the manga. There isn't anything to say about that, but I think she returns home in series one in the anime so the first series can end similar to the manga.