Capturing the Merch: Interview with the Cardcaptor Sakura Memorabilia Guinness Record Holder

Card Captor Sakura is no doubt one of the most popular magical girl franchises to date. In fact, a lot of people I know grew up with the franchise aside from another mahou shoujo series, Sailor Moon.

Its immense popularity has also spawned a huge amount of merch releases over the years. I was happy enough to have a chat with fellow fan Matthew Emblidge, who is currently the Guinness World Record holder of the most Card Captor Sakura memorabilia. I take you through his journey as both a fan and a collector, and why his collection will still continue to grow.

How did you get into Card Captor Sakura? Many U.S. fans were introduced to CCS due to its English dub version Cardcaptors. I'm curious if you got to know about the series during this period.

That is exactly how I got into the series and learned about what anime and manga was as a medium. Before then I had watched Dragon Ball Z, Pokémon, Sailor Moon, and I understood they were “foreign”, but I didn't know what anime was as a medium yet. I caught Cardcaptors on Kids WB, and I discovered the manga when my dad bought it for my sister, but I found it in his car and just took it. Don't worry, she doesn't like the series anyway, so I didn't rob her of anything.

I found out about Card Captor Sakura proper, and the concept of sub vs dub, from old fan sites. That's also where I learned that there were 35 episodes I'd never seen, plus movies. I bought a full box set from my local anime shop and with that I had finally seen the entire original series.

When did you start collecting? What made you start collecting CCS stuff?

Officially the collection began in 2000, when I bought the Clow Book toy from my local Toys'R'Us. But it wasn't until 2006 when I went to my first convention, Connecticon, that I started collecting anime merch properly. I bought my first Sakura plushie there, along with other small things. Then I went to Japan in 2009 and bought the video games, as well as whatever else I could find.

Unfortunately, Sakura was long out of the spotlight and her merchandise wasn't popular, so it was hard to find anything. Then 2014 happened, and that's when my collection exploded. I became interested in the old art books and materials collections, and then companies like Tamashii and Figma started putting out figures. The TCG Precious Memories put out a Sakura-themed expansion in 2015, I discovered Nakayoshi and the free items (furoku) that they gave out that had Sakura on them; the momentum just picked up and never stopped. I kept looking and kept finding things.

How do you feel about getting your World Record at the same time as CLAMP's 30th Anniversary?

I think of it as a lucky accident. I tried to submit for the record in 2019 and I messed up the paperwork. Because of how long the authentication process takes, I did not have a chance to try again before moving. When I realized that 2021 was the anniversary year, I decided that was a much better goal. It feels more significant to get the record on an anniversary year. It is also Card Captor Sakura's 25th anniversary, and that is why I made a big push at the end of 2020, so that I could be certified as early into 2021 as possible.

What kind of CCS items do you collect? Also, are there other types of CCS merchandise that you avoid collecting, and why?

I will collect almost anything from the franchise, but I prefer things that are “weird” so to speak. Like a lot of franchises, Card Captor Sakura was licensed to many products to help move units, and I love the odd diversity that comes from seeing Sakura slapped on any number of random daily use products.

One of the strangest things I own is a pack of dehydrated pudding mix. I've also seen Card Captor Sakura branded curry, which I have not found any boxes of. I would not try eating the pudding, but I own it for the novelty. My favorite thing to collect right now are rubber keychains, which really became popular in the 2010's. I'm sad to say there are very few left I don't own, and they seem to have lost popularity to acrylics, so I'm not expecting to expand that collection much further.

There are things I do not collect. I do not like “statues”, like the recent “Hello Brand New World” or the “Stars Bless You”. These look nice, but they are big, they need a lot of space, and I'd be too worried about breaking them. I also tend to avoid make-up, and I don't do the jewelry and clothing tie-in lines that are popular now, because I can't wear them and there's no point in filling my closet with clothes I can't use. If those lines ever wanted to make some men's sized rings though, I would consider it. Or tie clips. I'm just putting it out there; there are male fans and not a lot of accessories for us.

It is just amazing that you kept more than 4,000+ Card Captor Sakura items in your own home. Can you tell us how you keep each of them in excellent condition? Based on the pictures you shared online, the majority of them look new and fresh out of the box!

I've always taken care of the things I own. I wasn't a rough kid, so a lot of my toys survived to adulthood, and that habit has continued into my collecting lifestyle. Obviously, you can't always get things in perfect condition considering how old some of this stuff is.

Boxes often take a beating in storage, or more commonly, in transit, and I just live with it. The last time I moved though, a few things did get more beaten up than I would have liked. I try not to handle things too often, but I'm not a “mint in box” type of collector. Keeping the boxes just makes storage and moving easier. I've also invested in little plastic baggies to hold all the little things together and individually wrap them. I use soft brushes to keep the dust off and I try not to let anything get too hot or cold. When I pack things for shipping or storage, I use a lot of bubble wrap and paper.

Before collecting CCS merch, were you already collecting other merch from different franchises?

I was always a collector from the time I was a little kid. I started out collecting keychains, so family would always bring me one from the places they visited. I would not say I collected them, but I did have a lot of Power Ranger toys growing up, and Thomas the Tank Engine. Then I moved onto Pokémon cards, and that was probably the first thing I collected with the sole purpose of “having as many as possible”. It was the whole of Pokémon after all. I still collect a few other things, but none are nearly as impressive. I collect Disney Pins now because my mom is really into them. So now every time she goes, she brings a few back.

What was the most expensive CCS item that you ever owned in your collection?

The most expensive single purchase is a full set of the Movie 1 and Movie 2 Amada series collectible cards. They are extra valuable because not only are they over 200 cards each, but they include all of the metal holographic cards. The most expensive single item in my collection is a signed Sakura Tange poster that was given out in 2018 to Kiddyland customers. There are only 100 of them.

Aside from CCS, what are your other favorite CLAMP series? Do you also collect merch from the other CLAMP series?

I was really into CLAMP in the early 2000s, so I read and watched all their series that were readily available at that time. My favorite from that time was Angelic Layer, and I would love to see a revival of that series. Unfortunately, I've never really seen any merchandise for it that I like, mostly statues which as I said I don't like collecting. But in truth I do not have the budget to have two collections of this size. One is enough.

A fellow fan was a previous record holder. Did this somewhat motivate you to give it a try as well?

When Sofia Pichihua got her record, that was the first time I had even considered a World Record was possible for this. When I heard about it, I immediately counted my collection and could almost beat her at the time. But I decided to wait a while, collect more things, and really knock it out of the park. Then I forgot about it until 2018. I went to the Sakura Exhibition in 2018, and I saw Sofia's message in the exhibition. That inspired me to apply.

I tried to apply in 2019. I tried doing the count and submitting my evidence, but it got rejected due entirely to my lack of organization. Also, while I was waiting for my evidence to be processed, Natsumi Shirahoshi took the record, only a couple weeks before my rejection went through. Even though I had almost double her count at that time, around 3,400, I had to move house, and I couldn't organize my volunteers to redo the submission, so I had to let it drop, and promised to get it done for 2021 for the anniversary.

As of this interview, the 50th Chapter of CCS Clear Card was released. Without revealing any potential spoilers, how is the manga going for you so far?

It has been wonderful having the series I love get a sequel. I also feel incredibly blessed that it's a successful sequel that the fanbase approves of. I have heaped a ton of praise on the art direction in Clear Card, both the manga and the anime, and I have really enjoyed the story for the most part, with only minor issues.

Clear Card has had one unique challenge for me though. Usually, I read series well after they are completed, so waiting for monthly chapters has been brutal, especially from a group of writers who love to leave you on a cliffhanger. Also, there have been periods of time where I feel the series should have ended, but it keeps going on. I do YouTube reviews of the chapters, and right before getting the record notification, I uploaded [a review of ] Chapter 49 and expressed how tired I was getting of the series' endless cycle of cliffhangers and lack of payoff, and felt like it was just dragging on for the sake of getting to 12 volumes when 10 would have been enough.

But now I must eat my words because Chapter 50 had a huge jump in stakes, introduced a crazy potential twist, and is maybe setting up the finale for real this time. I might be wrong about that, but I do not see how they can turn back now.

Everything so far has been really informative! Pretty sure a lot of fans would love to see your collection. With the current pandemic and all, where can they see everything you own in detail?

It is my resolution this year to get a lot more of my collection into the public space for fans to view. Currently I upload photos to The Cardcaptor Museum. I did register “The Cardcaptor Museum” on Instagram. It's currently empty but I've received a lot of suggestions to start using it, so I'll get stuff up there soon. I'm also on Twitter where I upload updates on new merchandise, projects I'm working on, and just more casual uploads.

I have my YouTube channel, where I do the manga reviews and I've tried a few formats of talking about merchandise, but I think I'm going to just stick to video showcases rather than reviews. I'm a one-man operation and I just can't be that fancy.

That's about it! With Clear Card still ongoing and CLAMP celebrating its 30th anniversary, the hype of Card Captor Sakura will still continue from this year to the next.

Margs currently works full-time at her dream job. She spends most of her time either on the road with her project car, on her computer, or at front-row seats at musical theatre plays.