CARDCAPTOR SAKURA WIKI

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CARDCAPTOR SAKURA WIKI

Syaoran Li

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Syaoran Li
李 小狼

Syaoran Li

Series Cardcaptor Sakura

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card

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Also Known As Li Showron (Cardcaptors)

Li-kun
Syaoran-kun (by Sakura)
Syaoran-sama (by Wei)
Brat/Kid (by Kero and Touya)
Xiao-lang（by Meiling, in Cantonese)

Syaoran Li (リ・シャオラン) is the deuteragonist of

the Clamp's Cardcaptor Sakura manga series and its
anime adaptation. He is introduced as Sakura’s rival
for the Clow Cards but they gradually becomes
friends and close allies. He also falls in love with
Sakura and they start dating in the Clear Card arc.

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Name

The name Syaoran is of Chinese origin, and both in

this language and in Japanese, it means "little wolf".
His last name is very common in China and that
means "plum".

Syaoran's name has di!erent pronunciations and

translations according to the di!erent countries, such
as Syaoran, Xiaolang, Shaoran and Showron.

Appearance

Young Syaoran

Syaoran has short chestnut hair and large amber

eyes. He is short in height compared to his male
classmates, such as Yamazaki, but is overall taller
than Sakura and Tomoyo. He appears to have grown
in Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card and,
later, the Clear Card series.
His summer uniform is a white, T-shirt with short
sleeves along with a red neckerchief with a black
stripe and a black pants, along with a white sailor-like
hat with a black tassels. He wears white socks and
black shoes. His winter school uniform is a black long-
sleeved shirt with red and white sleeve cu!s, a white
neckerchief with a red stripe, black pants, white socks
and black shoes.

It is also said that he looked like his father, when he

was young, but there are no pictures of him in his
house to actually compare.[1]

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Personality

Syaoran Li is initially a cold and cynical ten-year-old

boy. As the heir of the famous Li clan of sorcerers
from Hong Kong, of which Clow Reed's mother herself
was also a member, Syaoran had firmly believed that
he should be the one to capture and inherit the Clow
Cards, not Sakura Kinomoto.[2]
Unlike Sakura, who enjoys sports, skating and playing
video games, Syaoran is more serious, especially in
studying magic. He enjoys reading books that Clow
Reed had written, and hates Japanese grammar.

He first appears as Sakura's rival in the story,

capturing a few cards for himself in the anime. His
initial attitude towards her was cold, critical, and
socially awkward, to the extent of never even
addressing her by her first name until the third
season, and often criticized her bluntly for her flaws
and clumsiness.[3]

He was also portrayed as somewhat of a loner, given

that he had been taught to be independent and self-
reliant since childhood. However, as the series
progresses, and especially after Sakura is o"cially
deemed the new mistress of the Cards, Syaoran
drops his rivalistic attitude towards her, and becomes
a reliable ally and a beloved friend. As they spend
more time together, Syaoran begins to develop
romantic feelings for Sakura and becomes annoyed
when she pays more attention to another guy. He
himself would not admit these feelings until late in
the series, after the advice from Yue and Tomoyo, the
latter of whom served as his confidante about his
feelings. However, the naive and innocent Sakura is
completely oblivious to these feelings, and thinks of
him simply as an intimate friend. It was only after their
final magical duel with Eriol did he find the courage to
confess to her how he truly felt about her. By the end
of the series, he has completely mellowed in
comparison to his initial attitude, becoming a genuine
caring and friendly person.

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Relationships

Sakura Kinomoto

“
Syaoran finally confessing romantic a!ections for
Sakura

I...I LOVE YOU.

Sakura and Syaoran

In the beginning of the series, Syaoran is extremely

antagonistic towards Sakura; spawned from his belief
that they should compete for the cards to see who is
worthy of wielding them. On his first day at Sakura's
school, before he even knows her name, he glares
hatefully at her, causing her to worry. During recess,
he proceeded to say she was hopeless as the cards'
holder and physically attacked her in an attempt to
steal them but was thwarted by Touya and
Yukito. This was the start of a rocky relationship
between the two.

Syaoran would ignore Sakura and reject her constant

attempts to befriend him, seeing her as nothing more
than a rival. Despite this, he does at times save her in
critical moments and provides her with information
about the cards. Trying to capture the cards at the
same time, gradually allows the two to learn to work
together and they build a friendship that Syaoran
doesn't fully recognize until halfway through the
series.

In episode 27, he blushes when Sakura hugs him and

the following episodes show him being shy around
her and growing increasingly worried for her safety
and well-being, something that confuses him.

After the Final Judgment, Sakura is declared the new

master of the Clow Cards, leaving Syaoran,
essentially, a failure. However, he congratulates her
and even smiles, showing his respect for her.

At the start of the third season, Syaoran plans on

returning home to Hong Kong, now that Sakura is the
o"cial mistress of the cards, and promises to visit her
someday. Then, the newcomer, Eriol Hiiragizawa,
comes from the United Kingdom and starts charming
Sakura; much to Syaoran's dismay and disgust. When
Sakura becomes quite sad that Syaoran is leaving, he
decided to extend his stay in Tomoeda.

At this point in the series, Syaoran's feelings toward

Sakura have slowly changed from that of rivalry to
that of an elementary school crush, and then to true
love. Sakura's consistently cheerful attitude and warm
smiles cause more and more blushes to form on
Syaoran's cheeks. Much to his surprise, Syaoran finds
himself jealous over the fact that Eriol is getting
closer to Sakura. As he becomes more aware of his
deep feelings for her, his denial over the romantic
nature of them also increases. However, with advice
from Yue and Tomoyo, he eventually accepts that he
indeed loves Sakura and wants to be with her. He
tries to confess to her several times, but something
continuously happens and derails the conversation.

After Sakura confesses to Yukito and is rejected,

Syaoran comforts her and assures her that she will
find the person she truly, deeply loves. While he feels
grateful at being able to help her, he is worried that
his true romantic feelings may be a burden to her.
Tomoyo manages to convince him that if he does
confess, Sakura will really think about it and give him
her answer.[4]

Some time later, after the final battle with Eriol,

Syaoran finally confesses that he is in love with her
face-to-face at the end of episode 69. [5] The news
comes as a major surprise to Sakura, who had always
viewed Syaoran as a close, good friend. Sakura
broods over the thought, especially after he tells her
that he is glad he met her.

At the same time, Syaoran is planning to leave for

Hong Kong. Sakura hears about his unannounced
leave just in time to run and catch him at the airport.
He is holding a homemade teddy bear, which he had
considered giving to Sakura, but never found the right
time.

Instead, Sakura asks if she could have the bear in his

arms. There is a tradition stated in the series (it is not
a true Japanese tradition) that when someone gives
someone else a personally-made plush, and the
receiver names the plush after its maker, then both
people will be together forever. Sakura is never seen
giving a name to the bear, but the symbolism of her
accepting his bear is enough to suggest that Sakura
returns the feelings, despite how sudden they
appeared.[6]

In the second movie, four months after the final

episode, Syaoran returns to Japan with his cousin
Meiling Li, who had been having secret phone calls
with Tomoyo, who helped plan their return.

Tomoyo and Meiling attempt to organize outings for

Sakura to tell Syaoran about how she feels but, rather
amusingly, she gets interrupted until the end of the
movie, where Syaoran sacrifices himself to The
Nothing card's attack.

In tears upon his return, Sakura confesses her deep

romantic love, believing that Syaoran had forgotten
his romantic love for her. She begins to cry but
Syaoran surprisingly replies "Me too, Sakura." Sakura is
so overjoyed by the revelation, that she recklessly
leaps across a large hole in the floor to reach Syaoran,
despite his protests for her safety.

The film ends with a still of Sakura halfway across the

cap in midair. A special bonus poster released with
the film along with it's DVD shows that she does in
fact makes the leap, right into Syaoran's arms.

The manga (as well as the sequel Clear Card Arc

anime) concludes the development of their
relationship di!erently. After a major battle, Syaoran
finds a quiet moment in Penguin Park to confess his
love to Sakura. Sakura, again, is left in a mild state of
shock as she tries to absorb the words, while Syaoran,
content after revealing his feelings, tells her to be
careful going back home and then leaves.

The rest of the volume of Cardcaptor Sakura is

focused on Sakura trying to work out her feelings for
Syaoran. She eventually runs into Syaoran as he is
packing up to leave for Hong Kong. Now that the
purpose for his coming to Japan is over. After Sakura
realizes (with help from her friends) that she too loves
Syaoran, she succeeds in confessing her feelings to
him just as he is about to leave; along with giving him
the teddy bear she made. Syaoran promises her that
he will return once his work in Hong Kong is finished,
and she promises to wait for him as long as it takes.

Two years later, a 13-year-old Sakura. now in Middle

school is walking home, when she suddenly comes
across Syaoran waiting for her, holding the bear that
she gave him. Syaoran is happy to announce that he
is through with his duties in Hong Kong and is now in
Tomoeda to stay; there would be no more need for
letters and phone calls any longer. Sakura, filled with
happiness, jumps into Syaoran's arms and happily
exclaims that they can be "together forever".[7]

From then on, they begin dating. Syaoran is

concerned over Sakura's powers increasing as he has
been told great power will lead to the unhappiness of
the one who wields it.

Yukito Tsukishiro

Before his relationship with Sakura, Syaoran had a

sensed on Yukito Tsukishiro; often blushing madly
and abruptly running away at the sight of him. While
Sakura also had a crush on Yukito, Syaoran would
often compete with her for his a!ections.

As he shows no interest in Sakura in the first season,

the impression is given that he and Sakura are rivals,
for the cards and for love. It is revealed later that
Syaoran was attracted to the magic-energies of the
moon, which sometimes gave the sensation of "love".
Syaoran drew his magical power from the moon, as
Yue, the guardian under the sign of the moon, resided
within Yukito. He still admires Yukito as a friend and
upperclassman.

Tomoyo Daidouji

In the beginning, Syaoran neither liked nor disliked

Tomoyo Daidouji, seemingly preferring to not take
much notice of her. However, as he grew to open up
his heart to others, they became good friends, though
it did not stop Tomoyo from frequently teasing
Syaoran about his secret love for Sakura, or provoking
his jealousy by pointing out how gallant and charming
Eriol is. Nonetheless, she proves herself to still be a
reliable friend and ally to Syaoran by giving him
advice on his feelings for Sakura. Like Sakura, Syaoran
gets bemused by Tomoyo’s obsession to record
Sakura’s card capturing adventures and he is
dismayed when Tomoyo begins making outfits for him
in Clear Card.

Touya Kinomoto

Touya and Syaoran at a festival trying to win the white rabbit. Syaoran
for Yukito and Touya for Sakura.

Since the beginning to the end of both anime/manga

series Syaoran Li and Touya Kinomoto (Sakura's older
brother) never got along well or friendly with each
other at first. Their first encounter was when Syaoran
harassed Sakura for the Clow Cards. Since then, every
time they met, they'd either have a competition or
give each other a wicked stare, like they were trying
to pick a fight. Even after Syaoran became close to
Sakura, both of them still continued to resent each
other. In Touya's part, it is due to his overprotective
attitude to his sister and his awareness of Syaoran's
feelings towards her. When Syaoran and Sakura start
dating, him and Touya still did not get along, as
Syaoran states he doesn’t know how to act in front of
Touya due to the latter’s grumpiness. However, Touya
considers Syaoran to be the one person he trusts to
protect Sakura.
Cerberus

“
The Beast of the Seal is...a stu!ed animal?

SYAORAN FIRST MEETS KERO

Syaoran and Kero fighting

Due to Syaoran’s initial cold treatment of Sakura,

Syaoran and Cerberus did not have a good
relationship: they often get into passionately heated
arguments, Syaoran calls him a "plush toy", or a
"stu!ed animal", while Cerberus retorts with
patronizing terms like "kid", and "brat". It was stated
that this was probably because Syaoran draws his
magical powers mainly from the moon, while
Cerberus draws his from the sun, which is why they
do not get along, which is utterly unlike Sakura,
whose powers have a balance of both the sun and
the moon. Though they do not get along at all, they
put up with each other for Sakura's sake, and were
shown to be actually capable of civil conversations,
especially in Clear Card, despite the fact that such
instances are extremely few and far in between.

Meiling Li

Syaoran and Meiling had known each other since they

were little kids due to them being cousins. Despite
the fact that Meiling had no magical powers, she
trained in martial arts alongside with him. Syaoran
initially brushed her o! and preferred to be alone
rather than play with her and other children. Later on
Meiling would lose her pet bird and Syaoran runs out
into a storm to find it and after hours pass he returns
with it. Meiling later pressures Syaoran into becoming
engaged with her. Although Syaoran's romantic
feelings for Meiling were non-existent, he did care
about her as his cousin, or the way a boy would care
for his family. She would recklessly join him in
collecting the Clow Cards, much to his chargin, as she
tended to cause more trouble than help him. Syaoran
and Meiling call o! their engagement after Syaoran
falls in love with Sakura. Despite Meiling’s heartache,
they remain friends.

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Magical Abilities and

Techniques

Syaoran using 'Raitei Shourai'.

Magical & Supernatural detection: Due to his