IIRC; Chiyo and Sakaki* were also scattered in the final spots. Unless it was slow year, having three characters from the same series making it into the finales, (then I think the fallowing year as well) is pretty damn sexy.
Much like how the Grammies is useless, it's who's influence is still remembered years later that wins in the end and not some hoe who happens to be whoring out at the time.

*Yomi might have been in there somewhere, too. I'm not sure.

Who were the other five that finished ahead of Osaka in that poll?

Wow, bitter much?

There's a little manga and anime called Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles that's been going on for the last few years. It's gotten a small bit of press.

Sakura was cool before she became THE ONE in CCS.

Osaka is THE ONE.

>>211746
None of the AzuDai girls other than Osaka made it past the 3rd round, much less a group final. On the other hand, if Osaka hadn't beaten Tomoyo in the tournament semi-finals 266-232, it would have been an all-CCS championship match.

Osaka's performance in Saimoe was impressive, given that she wasn't the show's lead or second character. (Based on screen time and how much we learn about her non-school life, I'd say that Chiyo was the lead, with Sakaki not too far behind.)

[rambling]

I think the factor keeping the AzuDai girls somewhat popular despite the show's age is the age of the target audience. It's really aimed at people out of high school and college - those who look back with nostalgia and fondness at the times when you saw your friends EVERY day, and they meant THAT much to you. These people have a longer attention span than the target audiences of, say, Figure 17 (another Saimoe 2002 quarterfinalist).

The real travesty concerning Cardcaptor Sakura is what Nelvana did to the English dub. Take out Sakura's name from the title, and then edit the show to make it seem as though she's not even the lead character? What retards. At least AzuDai had a pretty decent dub.

AzuDai's in my top 5, but the original subbed version of CCS is still the best anime I've ever seen.

[/rambling]

tl;dr - Osaka is cool. Sakura is cooler. The one time AzuDai and CCS competed in Saimoe, Sakura beat Osaka, and Tomoyo advanced further than any other girl from AzuDai.

Did you bring this up because the new edition of the CCS manga is out this week? My guess is that Sakura has an advantage over Osaka in the moe stakes because she's a little sister, saying "onii-chan" and all that. I'd like to see Osaka as a Cardcaptor, but she'd need her own distinctive set of cards--Hemorrhoid, Elevator, Hiccup, etc.

> a longer attention span than the target audiences of, say, Figure 17

I don't know if you've seen Figure 17, but "attention span" probably isn't the term you want. From what I recall of the director's commentary, they tried to cast a wide net in terms of target audience, and the show contains a lot of long, slow sequences. I actually like it a lot, partially for that reason, and I first watched it after graduating college.

Dude, you did not just diss Sakura Kinomoto!

Sakura fucking kicks niggas asses! This bitch is definitive magical girl. Not only that, she was a hardcore badass of a magical girl.

In the first episode she roller blades up a near vertical wall and leaps onto a giant magical bird. She didn't even use her magic card powers until AFTER she landed on a the bird. No powers, just skill.

In the Water Card episode and in the first movie she was restrained underwater but instead of panicking and using up her air, instead she remained calm and tried to think her way through the situation. I'm not just talking about being held underwater for an unrealistically prolonged amount of time. No, Sakura was VISIBLY calm despite the fact some ancient hundred year old magic was trying to drown her. That kind of focus and level headedness you only find in special BlackOps units, Sakura learned that skill just from taking after school extracurricular.

Not only that, she pissed off conservative America. Not because she associates herself with homosexuals, pedophiles, and incestuous cousins, but by being associated with the occult. You heard me, an elementary aged school girl prancing about in frilly outfits made by her lesbian second cousin was considered in league with Satan.

Also, you know who her male lead was? A fucking male tsundere. And the fucker was no pussy either, he was trained in the martial arts, studied magic, and carried a sword he fucking summoned into being. Not only that, he was gay.
So no only did she keep his ass emotionally in check, she also converted his fucking sexuality. You heard me, she made the gay straight and horribly insecure about themselves.

All this shit before she was old enough to be in Justin Bieber's fan demographic. That's right, she was able to do ALL of that while being able to resist Justin Beiber's feminine wiles.

You don't mess with Kinomoto.

Actually, there is a /sakura/ board, and it could seriously do with Kinomoto or some Sakura Taisen pics to offset all the Naruto currently infesting it. Personally I rather like (non-Nelvana) Sakura.

>>211762
I think we've just found a worthy successor to the Badass Manly Anime Review of Ouran.

Pic related, the only true magical girls. All others are just attention whores with costumes and wands.

Sailor Moon > Sugar Sugar Rune > Yes! PreCure 5 > every other magical girl series > Card Captor Sakura > Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha

THIS ARE FACT.

>>211768
┐('～`；)┌

Only Sakura can share a drink with Chiyo-chan in just their underwear.

>>211776
Of course it's best to not investigate what exactly are they drinking.

Haven't heard anyone say Kinomoto Sakura for years. Made me go to my storage locker and get out my CDs with real player encodes from the mid 90s.

320x240, blast from the past.

Little did we know we could have it all in a few years...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ1lAyy4nJA&feature=related

Sakura And Tomoyo: Friends Forever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICC1gl3JV4w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lulCWURuFzM

My favoutie EP (in three parts):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yROgwgSBBgg&p=C8DA0CDF1BA222F0&playnext=1&index=32

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCtJr7ivEds&p=C8DA0CDF1BA222F0&playnext=1&index=33

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bYtXrOC3I8&p=C8DA0CDF1BA222F0&playnext=1&index=35

>>211787
Kinda creepy EP..

The whole series and movies are instantly available. Kids these days days don't know how easy they have it.

>>211767
Sailor Neptune called. She wants her fuku back.

Great, now I feel compelled to finish the quest I started back in middle school and complete my DVD set of this series.

Bad enough this has never been sold as a boxset but they're also out of print. Not only that, this series is long. Not shonen fighting long, but at least 5 times as long the standard modern anime series.

Oh well, it's only a little over twice as long Azumanga Diaoh, and I bought that show one DVD at time as well.

>>211806

Well, you need the two CCS movies as well. They add storyline and some interesting characters, unlike most series-based movies. So now you're up to about 3x the length of AzuDai.

DVD availability can be a problem. I've seen boxsets containing 8 DVDs but I don't know about the quality of those sets. Also, sometimes vendors sell the terrible "Cardcaptors" dub DVDs as "Cardcaptor Sakura" DVDs, so look out for that.

>>211809
I watched like 3 or 4 episodes of Cardcaptor Sakura when it aired on Saturday mornings next to Pokemon back in the late 90s.

All butchering aside, I decided it was too 'magical-girl' for my taste as a young teenage boy.

I used to watch this with my sister.

>>211810
I was introduced to it by the same butchered translation. But I saw through the nonsense and thought, "I like this. These kids having their own little secret world where they capture cards and fight stuff. I wonder what the original was like." I think I was about 22 around that time.