In the English anime adaptation by Nelvana of the series, Cardcaptors, she is known as Sakura Avalon, though her surname was changed back in the second film's dub by Bang Zoom!

Breaking the seal on his spellbook, she released several powerful spirits from their prison in the form of tarot cards, which then went out to cause chaos and havoc in her hometown.

Working alongside the two familiars of the book, Cerberus and Yue, Sakura set out to capture each of the cards and restore their seals, gaining their abilities for her own use in the process.

In the Animax English-language dub production, which is much closer to the Japanese original than the Nelvana version (in terms of scenes cut), she is voiced by Andrea Kwan.

[3] Clamp writer Nanase Ohkawa's first impulse was to create a magical girl series, despite not being well-versed in the genre.

Ohkawa wanted the heroine Sakura to be in the same age group as the majority of Nakayoshi's readers so that fans could relate to her.

While Ohkawa planned out Cardcaptor Sakura from beginning to end, she never consulted the plot with the other members, instead giving them the script one chapter at a time.

In the end, Sakura Tange was selected for the role, with sound director Masafumi Mima believing her to fit the character thanks to her quiet and strong voice.

[10] In Nelvana's English adaptation titled "Cardcaptors", Sakura was originally going to be called Nikki, but they later decided to keep her first original given name because of the reception of the Cardcaptors adaptation plus the difficulty and expense of editing out numerous appearances of her name in rōmaji in the anime series.

Her first power is the oneiromancy and precognition ability to see the future through her dreams which serves as an ideal protection for the protagonist.

In some of her dreams, Sakura sees the boy she has a crush on, Yukito Tsukishiro, and often interacts with him as her brother, Toya, is a classmate of him.

Despite not knowing her late mother due to being too young when she died, Sakura still cares for her based on what her father, Fujitaka, used to tell her.

[13] In contrast to the distant Syaoran Li, who keeps off his distance from people related to magic, Sakura becomes attached to her math teacher Kaho Mizuki.

[13] Sakura is also unaware that Syaoran develops feelings for her rather but they become close when he aids her whenever she becomes concerned about how to solve her issues.

This helps Sakura to realize that Syaoran is important in her life (in contrast to their initial bad relationship) and is the person she loves the most.

[17] Sakura's relationship with Syaoran highly stands out among other love interests in Clamp's works because the manga is aimed towards a younger demographic in contrast to darker stories.

[16] In a February 2001 interview, Nanase Ohkawa praised people for supporting Sakura and Syaoran's relationship, but dismissed potential concerns that this ending was chosen for heteronormative reasons, outright stating that Sakura loves him as a person in the first place and would still have fallen in love with him under different circumstances like greater difference in age or even the same gender.

"[20][19] During a CLAMP Twitter Space discussion in April 2024, Nanase Ohkawa indirectly revealed that Sakura will one day marry Syaoran, but expressed doubts at the time about their wedding ever being shown, expressing the view that "it’d be best for everyone to imagine Sakura and Syaoran’s wedding in their own hearts," but did not rule out the story continuing at some point after Clear Card.

In addition, without her cards, or even her staff, Sakura lacks physical or magical abilities, not even having basic self-defense techniques.

Sakura has a differing amount of usable cards depending on the source material: 19 in the original manga and 53 in the expanded anime and film series.

One of Sakura's most notable traits is her "invincible spell", "Everything will be alright" (絶対大丈夫だよ, "Zettai daijōbu dayo"), which has carried her through innumerable trials and obstacles as she masters her magical skills.

Her common outfit at home has two double transparent red sometimes green(episode 26 original series) beaded scrunchie to keep her hair on the sides popping out.

[32] On April 1, 2016, as part of her 20th anniversary, eight "Card Captor Sakura"-themed × Animate Cafe national stores opened.

[34] The exhibition, which opened in October 2018, is the single largest gathering of Cardcaptor Sakura art ever amassed.

The exhibition has an entire section set up as "Tomoyo’s Sewing Room", with a number of real-world replicas of Sakura's fashions.

[36] Clamp's editor Editor Kiichiro Sugawara commented that when Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle started, most of his colleagues kept mentioning the series was interesting for having an alternate version of Sakura Kinomoto as he found that the original Syaoran Li was not popular within Cardcaptor Sakura.