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T is for Tomoyo
Apr. 23rd, 2018 11:00 amWhen I first saw Tomoyo in Carcaptor Sakura, she reminded me of Ozma. The long, full hair, the sweetness, she had a fairytale princess’s beauty.
Tomoyo wasn’t a princess, at least not in Cardcaptor Sakura. She was the daughter of a wealthy, powerful woman. I could see how she might grow up in a sheltered sphere of prosperity and power much like that which might engulf a princess.
Such a girl might well see herself as the center of the world, being pretty and priveleged. It would have made a certain amount of sense.
Tomoyo didn’t. Her world centered around Sakura, to whom she dedicated herself to heart and soul. She designed Sakura’s wardrobes. She accompanied Sakura on all her adventures, capturing them on camera. Her entire purpose was to help Sakura. Her happiest moments were ones that involved Sakura.
In another character, this might have seemed clingy, co-dependent, or creepy. Tomoyo made these qualities charming. Eccentric, yes, but cute.
Another brilliant bit of homoeroticism CLAMP managed to work into their manga in a sweet, wholesome way. I watched Tomoyo grinning, blushing, at times rolling my eyes, and finding her crush on Sakura utterly adorable.
Tomoyo makes her support an essential part of the plot of Cardcaptor Sakura. She designs all of the distinctive costumes which are an essential part of Sakura’s ensemble as a magical girl. She tries to make the costume fit whatever Clow Card Sakura finds herself trying to capture and tame. She’s often the sounding board Sakura bounces her ideas and thoughts off of when Keroberos isn’t available. At times she mediates between Sakura and Kero-chan, when he’s feeling especially cranky or missed out on cake. :) If anything is bothering Sakura, Tomoyo is the first person to see it.
It’s an impressive thing, holding her own as a character in a cast including magical girls and creatures, but Tomoyo manages to do both.
It’s also refreshing to see a little girl in a speculative fiction manga series showing a crush on another little girl. This was done in a Japanese manga back at a time when I almost never saw such a relationship, certainly not in this sort of setting.
This is one of the reasons Cardcaptor Sakura remains one of my favorite CLAMP manga. To this day, Tomoyo remains one of my favorite CLAMP characters and manga characters in general. I was sorry Tomoyo and Sakura didn’t get thrown together in different worlds in the Tsubasa Reservoir multi-universe as often as other characters did. Nor does the Tomoyo I loved from Cardcaptor Sakura show up quite as I remember her in that multi-universe. (It is easy to imagine a version of Tomoyo crossing paths with a version of Hokuto and the two of them opening a clothing boutique together. Actually, I did picture the two of them doing so in fanfic with a very young Kotori acting as their surrogate daughter and model. :))
It was wonderful to encounter a little girl like Tomoyo in a story who was beautiful, smart, and in love with another little girl. If there were more characters like that in stories, maybe little girls who get crushes on other little girls would feel less alone.
Thank you, CLAMP, for easing some of that loneliness by creating Tomoyo. Thank you for showing that a child’s crush can take a variety of forms that are OK.
This is another reason I think Cardcaptor Sakura is a great find for young readers.
Tomoyo wasn’t a princess, at least not in Cardcaptor Sakura. She was the daughter of a wealthy, powerful woman. I could see how she might grow up in a sheltered sphere of prosperity and power much like that which might engulf a princess.
Such a girl might well see herself as the center of the world, being pretty and priveleged. It would have made a certain amount of sense.
Tomoyo didn’t. Her world centered around Sakura, to whom she dedicated herself to heart and soul. She designed Sakura’s wardrobes. She accompanied Sakura on all her adventures, capturing them on camera. Her entire purpose was to help Sakura. Her happiest moments were ones that involved Sakura.
In another character, this might have seemed clingy, co-dependent, or creepy. Tomoyo made these qualities charming. Eccentric, yes, but cute.
Another brilliant bit of homoeroticism CLAMP managed to work into their manga in a sweet, wholesome way. I watched Tomoyo grinning, blushing, at times rolling my eyes, and finding her crush on Sakura utterly adorable.
Tomoyo makes her support an essential part of the plot of Cardcaptor Sakura. She designs all of the distinctive costumes which are an essential part of Sakura’s ensemble as a magical girl. She tries to make the costume fit whatever Clow Card Sakura finds herself trying to capture and tame. She’s often the sounding board Sakura bounces her ideas and thoughts off of when Keroberos isn’t available. At times she mediates between Sakura and Kero-chan, when he’s feeling especially cranky or missed out on cake. :) If anything is bothering Sakura, Tomoyo is the first person to see it.
It’s an impressive thing, holding her own as a character in a cast including magical girls and creatures, but Tomoyo manages to do both.
It’s also refreshing to see a little girl in a speculative fiction manga series showing a crush on another little girl. This was done in a Japanese manga back at a time when I almost never saw such a relationship, certainly not in this sort of setting.
This is one of the reasons Cardcaptor Sakura remains one of my favorite CLAMP manga. To this day, Tomoyo remains one of my favorite CLAMP characters and manga characters in general. I was sorry Tomoyo and Sakura didn’t get thrown together in different worlds in the Tsubasa Reservoir multi-universe as often as other characters did. Nor does the Tomoyo I loved from Cardcaptor Sakura show up quite as I remember her in that multi-universe. (It is easy to imagine a version of Tomoyo crossing paths with a version of Hokuto and the two of them opening a clothing boutique together. Actually, I did picture the two of them doing so in fanfic with a very young Kotori acting as their surrogate daughter and model. :))
It was wonderful to encounter a little girl like Tomoyo in a story who was beautiful, smart, and in love with another little girl. If there were more characters like that in stories, maybe little girls who get crushes on other little girls would feel less alone.
Thank you, CLAMP, for easing some of that loneliness by creating Tomoyo. Thank you for showing that a child’s crush can take a variety of forms that are OK.
This is another reason I think Cardcaptor Sakura is a great find for young readers.
