Cardcaptor Sakura Watch Order: TV, Two Films and Clear Card
The 70-episode TV series in broadcast order, the 1999 film after episode 46, The Sealed Card after episode 70, then the Two Bears prologue and Clear Card.
Spoilers throughout. This page assumes you have finished the series.
Cardcaptor Sakura on screen is one 70-episode television series, two films, a short prologue and the 22-episode sequel Clear Card. The short answer: watch the TV series in broadcast order, slot the first film in after episode 46, watch The Sealed Card after episode 70, then the Sakura and the Two Bears prologue and Clear Card. Nothing in the TV series has to be reordered.
The TV series: two arcs, 70 episodes
Madhouse's series aired in Japan from April 7, 1998 to March 21, 2000 and runs 70 episodes, according to Anime News Network's encyclopedia. The official site splits it in two. The Clow Card arc is episodes 1 to 46: Sakura opens a book in her basement, scatters the Clow Cards and has to recapture them, and the arc closes with the Final Judgment in episode 46. The Sakura Card arc restarts its own numbering at 1 and runs 24 episodes, which is episodes 47 to 70 overall. It begins with a new transfer student, Eriol, and a voice from the book, and the official guide's synopsis for the arc's first episode has Sakura going out in the rain as a Cardcaptor again. Watch the two arcs straight through; the second depends on how the first ends.
Where the two films go
Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie premiered in Japan on August 21, 1999 (ANN lists an 82-minute running time), while the TV series was still airing. The official film page has Sakura win a trip to Hong Kong in a shopping-street lottery, with Touya as her guardian and Tomoyo and Yukito along, and a mysterious sorcerer waiting there. The official synopsis does not tie the film to an episode, so its placement is a judgment rather than a rule. Meiling joins Sakura's class in episode 20, and the film's official cast list includes her; Sakura tells Yukito how she feels in the Sakura Card arc's 20th episode, while the film's synopsis still calls him the boy she admires. Those two facts put the film somewhere between episode 20 and the Sakura Card arc's 20th episode, and its cast list has no Eriol, who arrives at the start of the Sakura Card arc. Any point from episode 20 to 46 fits that evidence. This guide puts it after episode 46, at the break between the two arcs, because a break is the least disruptive place to stop, not because the film says so.
The Sealed Card premiered on July 15, 2000 (ANN). Its official synopsis has Sakura run into Syaoran in town after he had gone back to Hong Kong, still not having properly answered his confession. That only makes sense after the last TV episode, so it goes after episode 70. The same official page lists a short film, Leave It to Kero, a slapstick piece about Kero and Suppi squabbling over takoyaki; it is optional and has no place in the story order.
The prologue and Clear Card
Clear Card adapts CLAMP's sequel manga, which ANN reports began in Nakayoshi in June 2016 and follows Sakura into her first year of junior high. The anime aired from January to June 2018 for 22 episodes, per ANN, and the official episode guide opens with Sakura reunited with Syaoran, back from Hong Kong, before her cards turn transparent.
Before it comes the 25-minute Clear Card Arc Prologue: Sakura and the Two Bears, which had its world premiere at Anime Expo in July 2017. ANN's report on the premiere says it links the Sakura Card arc to the Clear Card arc and is set after the Sakura Card arc's final confrontation: Sakura sees Eriol off to England, starts to sort out her feelings for Syaoran, hears that he is going back to Hong Kong and starts making something for him. That is the point at which the TV series ends, so in story order the prologue sits alongside episode 70 and before The Sealed Card, whose synopsis has Syaoran already gone and back again. This guide still lists it directly before Clear Card episode 1, a viewing choice rather than anything a source sets, because it was made as the bridge into the sequel.
The sequel is not finished on screen. ANN reported in April 2023 that the Clear Card anime is getting a sequel that will tell the rest of the story to its conclusion. When this guide was checked on October 14, 2026, ANN's encyclopedia entry for that sequel listed no air date, so the order below ends at episode 22 of Clear Card for now. The manga is complete: ANN reported its final chapter in the January 2024 issue of Nakayoshi.
The order, in one place
1. Cardcaptor Sakura, Clow Card arc, episodes 1 to 46. 2. Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie (1999). 3. Sakura Card arc, episodes 47 to 70. 4. Cardcaptor Sakura: The Sealed Card (2000), with Leave It to Kero as an optional short. 5. Sakura and the Two Bears (2017 prologue). 6. Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, episodes 1 to 22 (2018).
English versions
ANN's 2016 report says NIS America licensed the TV series in 2014 for Blu-ray and DVD, Discotek licensed the first film in 2013, and Geneon released The Sealed Card on DVD in 2003 with a new dub cast. Funimation announced in July 2021 that it would stream all 70 episodes, with Clear Card already on the service, and ANN's 2023 report says Funimation streamed an English dub of Clear Card. Those are dated reports, not a promise of where any of it streams today. ANN also lists Cardcaptors among the series' alternative titles, the name of an English-language version.
After watching
The manga tells the original story in nine Kodansha Collector’s Edition hardcovers and the sequel in 16 paperbacks; our Cardcaptor Sakura manga buying guide explains why the two runs should not be mixed up, and the checked inventories are on the Cardcaptor Sakura and Clear Card pages. The best Cardcaptor Sakura quotes collects the TV lines this site has checked.