Hey everyone, and welcome to this week’s Troop Spotlight! We’re looking at the literal airy-fairy of the Calling All Heroes lineup – the Air Elemental. This one was heavily inspired by one anime series, and some of you may have already guessed which one.
I was 12 in 2001, and Channel 50 (my favorite) started airing what I then called “a Japanese cartoon” called Cardcaptors. To be honest, the story didn’t make a whole ton of sense, but I was fascinated. The way magic worked in the show, the artistic nature of it (very different from the American cartoons I was used to), the way girl power was girly but not simpering, powerful but not heavy-handed – it was amazing to me. I watched every day that it was on, and worked hard on my own set of Clow Cards.
It was only years and years later that I learned of Cardcaptor Sakura, had a chance to read the manga (then published by Tokyopop), and realized that the entire thing had been truly butchered by 4Kids Entertainment, with the goals of removing anything remotely gay from the show and making it less a “girls’ show” (they cut all episodes that didn’t include Syaoran/Lee’s character).
But the impression was made anyway: All those years ago, watching Cardcaptors in the basement and cutting out cardstock strips inspired me to not only get interested in anime and manga, but want to make it myself.
So, fifteen or so years later, when given the opportunity to create an Air Elemental, I was transported back to the moment when Sakura captured the Windy card – the Clow deck’s Air Elemental – and I just had to draw something inspired by, if not the actual Windy card, at least my mental image of her. Without further ado, the Air Elemental:
I finally invested in a nice omnibus (collection) version of the full Cardcaptor Sakura and Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow series, and I’ve read them all several times in recent years. But I still treasure my memories of the first anime I really watched and loved – and whenever I see the Air Elemental, I can’t help but smile.
If you’d like to play Calling All Heroes and take a shot at “capturing” the Air Elemental yourself, click here to play in your browser or click here to download the Android .apk file.
Until next time…
-Taylor