Sakura Kinomoto

Sakura Kinomoto is introduced as a nine-year-old girl who lives in the town of Tomoeda in Japan, where she attends Tomoeda Elementary School. During the Clow Card Arc and Sakura Card Arc storyline, she canonically ages to be twelve years at series end, in both the anime and manga versions.[11] In the Clear Card Arc storyline, she canonically ages to be fourteen years while attending Tomoeda Junior High School. Sakura is an energetic and cheerful young girl.[12] Sakura has short, honey brown hair, fair skin, and emerald green eyes. As a descendant of the sorcerer Clow Reed, Sakura inherited magical powers in and spends the series searching for the Clow Cards (クロウカード, Kurō Kādo) she accidentally lost. Yukito is Sakura's first crush. He is seven years older than her, but it never bothers her. Due to him being her brother's best friend, she tries to get him to come over to her house and commutes to school with her brother to see Yukito every morning. Although heartbroken, she learns to accept that he loves her brother and maintains a deep friendship with Yukito. One of Sakura's most notable traits is her "invincible spell", "Everything will be alright" (絶対大丈夫だよ, "Zettai daijōbu dayo"), which has carried her through innumerable trials and obstacles as she masters her magical skills.

Sakura's outfits number in the hundreds, which change frequently throughout the series. Unlike other anime magical girls, whose costumes seemingly form out of magical energy, Sakura's battle outfits are hand-sewn by her friend and cousin Tomoyo. Her most commonly worn iconic everyday outfit is her school uniform, which changes depending on the season. Her winter school uniform is a black long sleeved shirt with red and white sleevecuffs, a white neckerchief with a red stripe, and a white pleated miniskirt with a frilly white knee-length petticoat. On particularly cold days, she wears a thick black coat with her schools insignia on the back. Her summer uniform is a white half-sleeved shirt with a red neckerchief and a black pleated miniskirt. All year round, black Mary Jane shoes are worn along with white socks and a white sailor hat with a black trim. Her common outfit at home has two double transparent red sometimes green(episode 26 original series) beaded scrunchie to keep her hair on the sides popping out.

After the Final Judgement, a vision of the spirit of Clow Reed tells her that her magic is not drawn from the sun nor from the moon, but from her own star, which may start small, but is ever-shining with its own brilliant light. However, like Clow Reed's magic, Sakura's is a balance of sun and moon magic.[13] Eriol gave half of his powers to Sakura's father, the other half of Clow's incarnation. This made Sakura the most powerful magician in the world, even surpassing her predecessor Clow Reed.[14]

In the ongoing Clear Card arc, her innate magical powers have developed further and increased drastically to the point that she can effectively create entirely new cards subconsciously which embody her various magic. It is a means as to "not being able to control her powers", according to Eriol. As such, she has the very powerful and rare ability to freely see into the past, even with the "Record" card or without her knowledge.

In Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie, Sakura wins a trip to Hong Kong, where she meets Syaoran's family and encounters the spirit of a woman angry at Clow Reed who mistakenly calls Sakura to her because of her being the holder of the Clow Cards. In Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card, she learns that there is a fifty-third Clow Card, The Nothing, which acts as a balance to the positive magic of the others.

Sakura is a playable character in eight of the Cardcaptor Sakura video games, and her character design is featured in the series' version of Tetris. The character design of Sakura Kinomoto is reused in the Clamp series Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, which presents an alternate world story that also uses characters from many of the group's previous series. In Tsubasa the design is used for several characters named Sakura, including the central character named Princess Sakura (Sakura-hime). Sakura also plays an important role during the last arc of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, in a dream to a reincarnated Princess Sakura. During this vision, Sakura gives her alternate self the Star Wand and assures her that "everything will be all right" (which heavily hinted as Clear Card arc cliffhanger ending). The wand is later seen in Yuuko Ichihara's shop.

Sakura also appeared in the OVA Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations as a spirit or vision that Princess Sakura sees, which guides her back to where see came from, the Tocho (government building) when she gets lost. She disappears when Princess Sakura sees the building.[15]

In the short anime film Shiritsu Horitsuba Gakuen Bangai-hen: Tenkōsei ni Dokkidoki Sakura appears as a student from the anime's titular school and the younger cousin from Tsubasa's Sakura.[16]