Manga's influence on me personally aka Mostly me talking about Magical Girls honestly

So much like a lot of people my age,  manga was my door to comic and comic making.  When I was some where between 10 and 11 I started reading them.  I was nuts over them. I often got one or two every few weeks, re-read the ones I had 10 or 15 times. In middle school there wasn't a day that went by that I didn't have at least one in my bookbag.

I was drawn to mostly shojo especially magical girls. One of the first manga I've ever read is still one of my favorite and biggest influence.




Most of the volumes I own of Clamps Cardcaptor Sakura are worn from a decade of loving reading.
In my opinion, Sakura stands as the "prefect and purest" idea of what it takes to make a good magical girl story.  A well written concept with set boundaries that leave lots of room from creative.  There isn't a villain or monster of the week to beat. The Cards Sakura must collect cause various issues that need different strategies to seal. This means the conflict turn more into a riddle of sorts.  How can Sakura fix this issues. There isn't one spell or weapon that defends every monster (I love Sailor Moon but these is a reason why I think Cardcaptor is superior.))  You have to think and understand. and sometimes just guess and hope for the best.

Sakura's character is a big pull for me. She's young even for manga, She's not even in middle school when the story starts. She's kind, helpful and caring.  I've actually grown to love her a lot more as I got older. She's a soft light of positive energy and even when things are against her you rarely seen her get down.  The special motto she's got is I'm sure I'll alright.

Positivity rains over all of the story and it's god damn nice to feel and read.  Clamp beyond beautiful illustrations are also amazing to look at and their costume design not only influenced my art but also my own sense of fashion.

Seriously, what's better then being a magical girl with a ton of different outfit of different styles for different occasions? You won't catch me fighting evil in the same outfit every episode