Cardcaptor Sakura Nendoroid Preserves the Character’s Charm

There are quite a few Cardcaptor Sakura character Nendoroids, with even a Nendoroid doll in the works, and that also means reruns of ones like the Sakura Kinomoto Tomoeda Junior High Uniform figure. As expected, it’s as adorable as it was during its 2018 run for its 2023 one. 

This is a rather basic Nendoroid of Sakura in her school uniform from the Clear Card follow-up series, so the character does look slightly older. However, because of the diminutive nature of Nendoroids, she still looks incredibly childlike and cute. She’s a charming chibi, with face plates that mimic CLAMP’s trademark eye design. The uniform itself is also an accurate representation, which is great. But all this also means that if you had past Nendoroids of Cardcaptor Sakura characters, you could mix and match easily. Tomoyo could wear this new uniform, for example.

It’s also quite fun for another reason. The face plates cover some great expressions and her teddy bear is more detailed than expected. Her standard smiling and blushing faces are great, but the exaggerated shocked one is so much fun. The sweat drops really sell it, but remain very in-character. As for the bear, I expected it to be a static prop to hold. However, it does have the angel wings on the back and its arms and legs can be moved so it is standing or sitting with its arms up or down. It’s a nice bonus.

There are two elements that are a little frustrating, however. The first is that the packaging means all of her arm parts don’t have their own homes in the plastic insert. Since I tend to keep boxes and leave the parts in there, for when I don’t have certain figures displayed, it feels sloppy to have to have a separate Ziploc bag inside to ensure things aren’t properly organized.

The other is my disappointment that there aren’t designated hand parts for holding her teddy bear. The “grip” hand parts work great for the Dream Form of her Sealing Wand and the book bag. They can’t hold the bear’s arm or wings well. There is one hand part that contours to the bear, but it isn’t great at holding it in place and there’s only one of it. So you sort of have to… work with what you have. It’s a little disappointing.

Both of those are quite minor issues, and this Cardcaptor Sakura Sakura Kinomoto Tomoeda Junior High Uniform Nendoroid is such a cute take on the character. It’s so much fun that I’d love to see another entirely new one of Sakura in one of her various costumes, just so there would be additional parts for posing opportunities.

The Cardcaptor Sakura Sakura Kinomoto Tomoeda Junior High Uniform Nendoroid is available now worldwide. Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card is streaming on Crunchyroll. The manga is handled by Kodansha.