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Sakura returns to monthly serialization as a junior high student.

What a slew of new toys, a themed cafe, and now even a hair dryer based on Cardcaptor Sakura, you could say there’s never been a better time to be a fan of the hit magical girl franchise. Well, except maybe the late ‘90s, when the series was still in full swing with new manga chapters coming out monthly and new anime episodes airing every week.

But it looks like Cardcaptor Sakura is poised to enter a second golden age this summer. Nakayoshi, the monthly girl’s manga anthology in which Cardcaptor Sakura ran from 1996 to 2000, announced last month that a new Cardcaptor Sakura manga was coming soon from creators Clamp. While this was good news for fans, oftentimes manga revivals that happen several years after a series’ conclusion are single-chapter affairs, such as the recent one-shot epilogues for fellow shojo manga hits Nodame Cantabile and Kodomo no Omocha.

But it turns out Clamp has something much more substantial planned for its longest-lasting success. The most recent issue of Nakayoshi contains an announcement that not only is Sakura about to make her triumphant return to the magazine’s pages, she’s going to be sticking around for a while, as the new Cardcaptor Sakura isn’t a one-time appearance, but the start of a brand-new sequel arc!

“It all starts when Sakura has a mysterious dream,” teases the Nakayoshi promotion, which also reveals that Sakura is now a first-year middle schooler, as opposed to the elementary school student she was during the original series.

“The new serial begins in the July issue!” the magazine goes on to boast, and if you’re one of Sakura’s many fans who can’t wait to see her again, you’ll be happy to know that the July issue of Nakayoshi actually goes on sale June 3.

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Source: Jin
Top image: Nakayoshi