Syaoran (Japanese: 小狼, Hepburn: Shaoran) is a fictional character and protagonist in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, a manga series written and illustrated by Clamp. Syaoran is introduced as a young archaeologist who is in love with Sakura, his childhood friend and the princess from the Kingdom of Clow. When Sakura's memories are scattered throughout parallel dimensions, Syaoran goes on a quest to recover them, at the cost of Sakura never remembering him. Later in the series, Syaoran is revealed to be an artificial human created by the sorcerer Fei-Wang Reed—the sorcerer who wants to use him to collect Sakura's magical feathers. Controlled by Fei-Wang Reed's will, Syaoran becomes one of the series' antagonists in the second half of the series. Syaoran has featured in other works by Clamp, including the manga xxxHolic and the drama CD series Holistuba. Syaoran's character is based on Syaoran Li, a character from Clamp's manga Cardcaptor Sakura and had several changes to appeal to the series' demographic rather that Cardcaptor Sakura as such series was aimed toward female readers. This included making this Syaoran more heroic and serious to fit the narrative and atmosphere. Clamp took multiple notes about the handling of this character from their editor in order to make him stand out. In Japanese, Syaoran is voiced by Miyu Irino in Japanese and Jason Liebrecht in English. The character has been well received by readers of the series, placing high in popularity polls from Tsubasa and manga and anime series in general. He also received positive comments by manga and anime publications, mainly due to how heroic he is in order to save the person he loves: Sakura. Syaoran's role as an antagonist has also received positive comments; some writers use nicknames to differentiate his antagonistic self from his original self, often calling him evil.
Creation and conception
Clamp designed Syaoran using the ideas of manga author Osamu Tezuka and his Star System. Syaoran was based on Syaoran Li, a character from Cardcaptor Sakura—another series written by Clamp. Syaoran and Sakura were chosen to be the series' protagonist because their Cardcaptor Sakura counterparts had a happy ending, but Clamp said that the characters would have to go throughout the series to get their own happy ending. Because Syaoran Li was written as "charming" often seen in series aimed towards a female demography, shōjo manga, the older Syaoran from Tsubasa was changed to be been as a more heroic protagonist in order to appeal to the male demography, the ones who read shōnen manga instead. Editor Kiichiro Sugawara commented that when Tsubasa 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. In order to further appeal to the demography and the company, Sugawara suggested Syaoran needs to be stronger based on how popularity polls from this genre works. Although Syaoran is popular with female readers for his kind personality, male readers would instead prefer him if he was a strong fighter. As a result, the manga's second story arc focused on more on fight scenes which Clamp reflected they could have drawn more if they went back. At the start of the manga, Syaoran's character was already planned to go through development. The characters Fai D. Flowright and Kurogane were added to provide additional characters who were older than the lead. In early versions of the manga, Syaoran was portrayed as a mechanic rather than an archaeologist, with Fujitaka having taught him about machines. In the original design, Syaoran wore a cap, a different outfit and an enormous adjustable spanner. In building up his character, Syaoran was written to act as a detective when confronting Fei-Wang Reed spy Kyle Rondart in the Jade World story arc. Ohkawa studied detective storylines when writing this events of the manga. Clamp said Syaoran became popular with male readers as a hero and relationship with Sakura, based on the demography. After events of the Oto country where Syaoran participated in several battles fighting for the king Ashura and was at disadvantage, Clamp's editor for Tsubasa, Kiichiro Sugawara, wrote that he wondered whether "anything good ever happen[s] to Syaoran"; Clamp said that their publishing company, Kodansha had received demands from readers for Syaoran to become stronger, and advised Clamp to let him have occasional good experiences. Sugawara stated that he wanted Syaoran to become a stronger fighter and further expand his bond with Kurogane in order to appeal more to the shonen manga demography. In order to make his fight scenes more entertaining, Clamp thought about giving Syaoran named sword techniques like those of Kurogane but in the end this was not added to the series. Clamp originally planned Subaru to be Syaoran's teacher. However, the group later decided to replace Subaru with Seishiro. In the second half of the manga, it was revealed Syaoran was a clone from another character who became the protagonist. Clamp aimed to make both of them equally different based on their actions despite being virtually identical. The usage of two characters with the same appearance was noted by Clamp to be a common elements in their stories, but Clamp also aimed to create another link between Syaoran, Sakura and Kimihiro Watanuki, the protagonist of xxxHolic. Nanase Ohkawa referred to both clones appearing in the series with the term "utsushimi" (写身) to make them look like a departure from the original English word that fans often mention, aiming for different take of the cloning.
Casting In the animated adaptations of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Syaoran is voiced by Miyu Irino in Japanese, and by Jason Liebrecht in English. Irino said that ever since the introduction of the original Syaoran—who he also voiced—he sometimes had problems voicing both characters. Fellow voice actress Yui Makino also discussed Irino's role, saying that he was the most difficult character to cast because of the requirement to portray the two Syaorans. Irino said that he grew attached to the role since he played the role of Syaoran for several years starting doing the television series when he was in high school and that he was in college by the original video animations. Still, he was interested by the fact that the two characters he was voicing, Syaorans, were also fighting each other.
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