Geek It! Anime Couple Spotlight: Top 10 CCS Sakura x Syaoran Moments

CARDCAPTOR SAKURA presents one of the cutest love stories in Japanese animation, and that is none other than Sakura Kinomoto and Syaoran Li‘s romance.

From rivals to friends to lovers, this evolving relationship between Sakura and Syaoran is definitely a worthy journey to follow. At the start, Syaoran resented Sakura for being the chosen Cardcaptor and not having high-quality skills to capture the cards on her own. Thanks to Sakura’s kind and caring personality, Syaoran eventually warms up to her and assists her in capturing the cards to avoid trouble for Tomoeda.

Even though there were many SxS memories, we take a stroll through our Top Ten Sakura X Syaoran moments. Here we go! 

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Episode 40: Sakura and the Sakura from the Dream

In Episode 40, Sakura, Tomoyo, Syaoran, and Meiling decides to spend the day in the city. From playing arcade games to watching a romance film, it was all fun and games until they each began to notice something a little off. 

After seeing Sakura’s cute face during the movie, Syaoran dramatically announces that he needed to get a drink. As he leaves the cinema room, the ‘Dream Card’ casted a spell on Syaoran. Distracted by his inner turmoil, he soon encounters a moment where he is shown a scene of his future self giving up his Clow Cards to Sakura.

With the dramatic soap-opera music and Syaoran’s defensive (yet funny) reactions, this scene made our hearts go wild as it secretly confirmed Syaoran’s crush.

Episode 42: Sakura and the Blacked Out School Arts Festival

In Episode 42, we see Sakura’s class making preparations for the Sleeping Beauty school play. In the lead up to the play, Syaoran was coming to terms with his feelings for Sakura and it doesn’t help when he has to play the Princess alongside Sakura ….who is the Prince!

Comedy and cross gender roles — what more could we ask for? And also, it was cute to see both Sakura and Syaoran vying for Yukito’s approval whilst seeing Touya brimming with resentment towards Syaoran.

Things were going great for the play until the entire room suddenly turned dark and it was up to Sakura to overcome the darkness on her own. After encountering the Light Card and Dark Card, everything goes back to normal, and Sakura, out of excitement, jumps and hugs Syaoran in front of everyone. Classic CCS moment!

Episode 57: Sakura, Syaoran, and the Elevator

Episode 57 is without a doubt the turning point in Syaoran’s internal strife with his feelings for Sakura. His crush has now grown into romantic love, and we see Syaoran’s realisation and acceptance through the beautiful watercolour art and a theme song. Everyone around Syaoran seems to be aware of his feelings now (even Yukito!) — except for Sakura, of course.

In this episode, Sakura invites Syaoran to go to a Teddy Bear Festival with her, Tomoyo, and Eriol. As part of Eriol’s sly plans, Eriol secretly traps Sakura and Syaoran in an elevator. In the midst of lost hope and mere darkness, Syaoran tries to comfort Sakura as much as he can. But when a large black hole opens up in the elevator, we see Sakura falling into the hole and Syaoran was unable to save her in time.

Thanks to her smart thinking, Sakura uses the Float Card to rescue herself. Relieved, Syaoran gives her a big hug [insert fangirl scream] but instantly pulls away when he realises what he was doing.

After this incident, Sakura acknowledges their close relationship and asks Syaoran if she can call him ‘Syaoran’. The heartwarming feeling that you get when you’re in love  … the final scene pretty much confirms Syaoran’s feelings.

Episode 64: Sakura and the Snowy Ski Class

It’s field trip time and luckily for Sakura’s class, they get to go to the mountains for skiing lessons! During his trip, Syaoran still can’t shake off his growing feelings for Sakura and feels pressured to tell her. Lost in his thoughts, he accidentally calls out her name — and Sakura heard him! 

They soon have a conversation in which Sakura tells him that she knows he’s a kind-hearted guy because he looks out for her. After seeing snow outside, they take their conversation outside and Sakura remembers that he had made his own Teddy Bear.

When Sakura asked if he has given the bear to Yukito, Syaoran admits that he was only attracted to Yukito because of the powers of the Moon. This then prompted Sakura to ask Syaoran about his ‘crush’. We can’t help but feel sorry for Syaoran — Sakura can be so dense! 

Episode 66: Sakura’s Most Favourite Person

After viewing Nakuru’s film, Sakura tours the high school fair with her friends. In one of the school attractions, Sakura decides to tell Yukito about her feelings whilst they’re alone together [insert internal screaming].

However, Yukito gently declines her confession as he knows that she sees him like a fatherly figure. At the end of the day, Sakura asks Syaoran if they could hang out at the local park. She then tells Syaoran about what happened between her and Yukito, and despite being understanding of the situation, she emotionally breaks down in front of him.

As much as it hurts him, Syaoran knows that it wasn’t the right time to tell Sakura about his feelings. Instead, Syaoran comforts and assures her that she will find her special person one day.

The fact that Sakura decided to confide in Syaoran — and not Tomoyo — was a major surprise to all of us. Now that Sakura has been rejected by Yukito, it forces her to look at things differently. Could this be the blossoming start of her feelings for Syaoran? 

Episode 67: Sakura, Syaoran, and the Tsukimine Shrine

Much to Sakura’s delight, Syaoran accepts her invitation to go to Tsukimine Shrine’s festival. After noticing Sakura’s unusual sleepiness in class, Syaoran becomes worried as Sakura is not meant to be tired from Sakura-card conversion anymore. Sakura reassures him that it is nothing.

It turns out that Sakura has been knitting a scarf for Syaoran all this time! Wanting to express her gratitude, Sakura said she was able to go back to ‘normal’ thanks to Syaoran.

Still concerned about Sakura’s health, Syaoran (best boy!) decides to drop by early at Sakura’s house so they can walk over to the Shrine. As they walk to the shrine, Sakura gives Syaoran her scarf in which Syaoran shyly accepts. This is such a sweet moment between Sakura and Syaoran — it’s a shame that Sakura hasn’t recognised her feelings. 

Episode 69: Sakura meets Clow Reed

Sakura knows the feeling of liking someone but they like someone else instead. And because of what happened between Sakura and Yukito, Syaoran doesn’t want to trouble Sakura because it will make things awkward between them.

Despite not wanting to tell Sakura, Syaoran randomly declares his feelings for Sakura after their battle with Eriol. Personally, we were shocked by the interesting timing of the confession. Considering Sakura got ‘rejected’ two episodes ago, it was probably still too early to let Sakura know. And besides, they barely recovered from the battle! 

When we first watched this episode, we couldn’t help face-palming ourselves. Sakura might be cute but she is very dense. So when we saw Sakura’s reaction to Syaoran’s confession, we were gobsmacked, especially after everything they have gone through together. The cliffhanger at the end of the episode doesn’t help!

Episode 70: Sakura and her true feelings

After the confession from the previous episode, this episode kicks off with the most awkward intensity between Sakura and Syaoran. Sakura, unsure about her feelings towards Syaoran, keeps distance from him and acts odd when he tries to engage with her. Even Tomoyo can sense something was off between the two good friends. 

After getting a sudden call from his mother in Hong Kong, Syaoran asks Sakura for a chat after school one day. Uh oh.

The conversation was basically Syaoran’s goodbye to Sakura — but Sakura didn’t pick up the signs. 

While Sakura was moping around in her house, she gets a call from Tomoyo who says that Syaoran was leaving for Hong Kong later that day. Sakura is notably upset and confused — except she still doesn’t understand her feelings, especially after she misinterpreted her feelings for Yukito. 

When a Sakura Card gets created from her tears, Sakura automatically acknowledges her true feelings. Syaoran, whom still curious about her reply, is shocked by Sakura’s appearance right before he boards his flight.

Can Sakura finally reply back to his confession? Tell him Sakura, tell him! 

Unfortunately, Sakura was a bit lost for words and couldn’t exactly say anything to Syaoran. With a bit of push from Wei, Syaoran was able to give Sakura ‘the’ Teddy Bear. Unlike adult rom-coms, Syaoran still had to leave for Hong Kong, and the mystery kicks in as to when Syaoran will ever come back to Japan one day. 

Cardcaptor Sakura the Movie: The Sealed Card: The fairytale dance

This is the ultimate scene for fangirls of Sakura and Syaoran’s relationship. It’s another school play again — Syaoran plays the Prince and Sakura plays the Princess … in their rightful roles!

In this cute scene, Syaoran plays the Prince with such confidence and charm. With his smile and composure, how could you not fangirl over him? And Sakura, being Sakura, is just perfect as the Princess. This is every girl’s fairytale dream — to be in a pretty dress (with wings!) and dancing with her Prince Charming …! To be honest, we can watch this fairytale dance scene a million times and never get sick of it. 

Cardcaptor Sakura the Movie: The Sealed Card: The Final Scene

Sakura had just saved the world but it’s not the happy ending that she wants. Knowing that Syaoran wouldn’t be able to remember her anymore, Sakura blurted out her feelings to him. With no response from Syaoran, Sakura reduces to tears. 

But of course, it turns out that Syaoran still has his memories, and Syaoran acknowledges her confession [insert fangirl screams]. Not wanting to wait any further, Sakura decides to jump across the building towards Syaoran to be with him. Ahhh, our hearts!!!

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And that concludes our Top Ten favourite Sakura x Syaoran moments! If you want to check out all the cute moments between Sakura and Sayoran throughout the CCS series, check out the following compilation videos. Enjoy! 

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