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How Cardcaptor Sakura Was Cancelled in the Philippines

Stories of battles between governments and media have become common across the world. However, one such recent fight in the Philippines has been the backdrop to a poignant story of heartbroken anime fans, looking forward to the return of a favorite anime heroine. That heroine is a character most ANN readers will know – Sakura Kinomoto of the CLAMP-created Card Captor Sakura.

The story has been tracked by Victoria Rahbar, a graduate student at Stanford University's Center for East Asian Studies whose research includes the global reception of Card Captor Sakura. Rahbar shared her observations about events in the Philippines with ANN.

The biggest broadcaster in the Philippines is the network ABS-CBN. Founded in 1946, it employs around 11,000 people and owns multiple radio and TV stations. Among those stations is a digital channel with massive significance to Filipino anime fans. Yey! is the channel which screened anime such as Haikyu!! and My Hero Academia. This summer, fans were waiting eagerly for a new addition to the line-up, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card (pictured right).

This sequel to the original Card Captor Sakura was broadcast in Japan in winter 2018, and simulcasted to American fans in both English-language dubbed and subtitled formats. However, fans in the Philippines had been waiting two years for the series to arrive and to be dubbed into Tagalog, one of the country's main languages. Like anime fans in other parts of the world, Filipino fans have a strong affection for CLAMP's magical girl heroine. The original Card Captor Sakura anime (pictured left) had been screened in 2001, in a Tagalog dub broadcast by ABS-CBN. Expectations for the sequel were stoked by the original Tagalog dub cast reuniting to voice it, with Marick Dacanay and Jefferson Utanes reprising their roles as Sakura Kinomoto and Syaoran Li respectively.

“Multiple fans report how (Sakura) brought them back to feelings of childhood and were looking forward to watching the [Card Captor Sakura Clear Card] season officially in Tagalog,” Rahbar comments. Sadly, for many viewers, Sakura's return to the screen was for one night only.

The reason is bound up with a long-running feud between the ABS-CBN network and the country's leader, President Rodrigo Duterte. According to a New York Times report, ABS-CBN has closely followed Duterte's bloody war on drugs; the report also says the President has made open death threats against reporters. In 2016, Duterte was infuriated when the network refused to run his campaign ads. In return, ABS-CBN issued an apology while also stating the network aired most of Duterte's campaign ads.

On May 5, ABS-CBN was ordered by the National Telecommunications Commission to shut down. The network had been waiting for its license to be renewed by Congress, the national legislature of the Philippines. ABS-CBN claimed it had been told it could continue broadcasting, but the National Telecommunications Commission's cease-and-desist order ultimately forced the network off the air. Duterte had previously said that he would not allow the network's license to be renewed.

Commentators denounced the move, with the head of the Philippines section of Amnesty International calling it “an outrageous attack on media freedom.” Opposition lawmakers claimed the suspension also undermined the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the main ABS-CBN channel was pulled off air, other parts of the network continued broadcasting. Among them was the ABS-CBN TVplus terrestrial service and the Sky Direct satellite subscription service. The Yey! channel, which broadcasts anime alongside children's television programming, was available through both, and was still set to broadcast Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card.

The anime's first two episodes did indeed air on Yey! on Monday, June 29. They were double-billed in an hour time slot airing from 6pm to 7pm. The series was scheduled to be shown from Mondays to Fridays. As a Yey! promo video shows, it was broadcast alongside other Japanese imports including Power Rangers: Dino Charge and Rurouni Kenshin (entitled Samurai X). Anime is shown in Yey!'s primetime programming block, called All Yey! Anime, from 5pm to 9pm on weeknights and 9pm to 10pm on weekends.

Rahbar showed ANN multiple excited social media posts written by Filipino fans as Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card debuted. A huge number of fans posted photos of the series screening on their TV sets. There was even a picture of Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card screening on a TV set on a public bus. Fans swapped comments on the quality of the Tagalog dub, with gripes about quality issues mixed with nostalgic pleasure, and eager anticipation for the next day's episodes.

Except for many viewers, there were no more episodes to follow. The National Telecommunications Commission issued another cease-and-desist order and on June 30, ABS-CBN TVplus and Sky Direct were kicked off the air in Metro Manila, a wide metropolitan area composed of 16 cities and one municipality. (Metro Manila includes the City of Manila and Quezon City.) By the following night, July 1, Yey! had ceased broadcasting in all other areas as well.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines had issued a statement on June 20 stating, “[The] two cease and desist orders … effectively deprives millions more Filipinos - an estimated 11 million homes," according to ABS-CBN CEO Carlo Katigbak, "of their right to know and to choose how to access their news, information and entertainment.” ABS-CBN also issued a statement that it would seek clarification on the scope of the cease-and-desist order.

“We hope Congress approves our franchise and gives us the opportunity to return our service to all our TVplus viewers,” it said. “We thank our viewers for their support and understanding.”