Reception
Syaoran's character has well received by Japanese readers of the series. In two popularity polls held by Weekly Shōnen Magazine, Syaoran placed first among all the characters in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. He was also featured in high places in other polls, which included best groups and best scenes from the series. In March 2010, Syaoran was ranked twenty-third best male anime character of the 2000s by the Japanese magazine Newtype. In the Animage's Anime Grand Prix poll from 2006, he was voted as the twelfth most popular male anime character. In the year, he remained as the fourteenth most popular male character. In the Animedia "2006 Animedia Character Awards", Syaoran appeared in various categories including "Strongest Character Award", "Best Newcomer Award", "Most Heroic Character Award" and "MVP (Most Valuable Player) Award", with his highest place being the "Best Newcomer Award" as third. Various types of merchandising have been made based on Syaoran's appearance including plush, keychains and patches. In the 2007 Seiyu Awards, Miyu Irino was a nominee in the category "Best New Actor" for his portrayal as Syaoran, but lost to Tetsuya Kakihara and Masakazu Morita.
Publications for manga, anime and other media have commented on Syaoran's character and role in the series. He received mainly positive responses with Ed Sizemore from Comics Worth Reading labelling him as "the perfect young hero" due to his seriousness, with points given due to his care for Sakura. Although Carl Kimlinger found various differences between Syaoran and his Cardcaptor Sakura counterpart, he still found the traits from the former appealing. Similarly, Michael Aronson from Manga Life found that while the character behaves differently from Syaoran Li and acts considerably older, it helps the reader who has not read previous Clamp series understand him, pointing that some crossover characters only share the names and designs. When watching the animated adaptation of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Japanese singer Maaya Sakamoto felt that Syaoran's straightforward feelings and strength to protect Sakura were very touching. Therefore, within "Kazemachi Jet", the ending theme of the second season of the anime, she tried to capture the image of Syaoran growing from his "naive" self into a young man as a result of experiencing the repetition of meetings and partings over his journey and Syaoran continuing to try to protect his loved one in spite of the mishaps along the way. Singer Kinya Kotani also described a sad feeling in Syaoran's strength, noting he had both forwarding-facing and backward-facing characteristics.
The plot twist regarding Syaoran's being a clone and his fight against his original self has been regarded as a "a titanic clash". Following this, Syaoran has been labelled as "evil Syaoran" as well as "Syaoran's evil clone". The development from such twist has said to have a "potential real upset" as Syaoran is revealed to have been created by the series' main antagonist, Fei-Wang Reed. On the other hand, the relationship between both Syaorans has also been found confusing for some readers to understand, while other opinions pointed how while there was confusion in this scene, such event ends well executed, pointing also to the bond both have regarding their eyes. His actions since such twist have been regarded by Sakura Eries from Mania Entertainment as disturbing due to its violent acts while at the same time, Syaoran has been labelled as "an agent of destruction" due to how he ignores seemingly mortal wounds and encounters various opponents in a single manga volume. When writing "Saigo no Kajitsu", Sakamoto described Syaoran's fate as sad due to how he becomes the antagonist of his friends and that he was a clone. Moreover, Eries commented that she felt "cheated" following the revelations regarding Syaoran's and Sakura's true nature as it changed the readers' view on them.
Syaoran's and Sakura's initial relationship has been found by Mania Entertainment's Megan Lavey as a "pretty simple love story", while liking their personalities. Similarly, IGN's Jeff Harris pointed Syaoran's interesting role due to how he sacrifices his relationship with Sakura, while also sacrificing his life to recover her memories. Active Anime's Christopher Seaman found such romantic relationships between them as one of the most mature parts of the series, and it helped balance the other fantastic themes which added more variety to the series' audience. Kimlinger similarly pointed such relationship as one of the series' parts, which made up for some issues found in the anime adaptation. Jason Liebrecht's role as Syaoran's English voice has been noted to be better than Irino's work by Kimlinger, who, nevertheless, praised both performances due to how Syaoran's emotions are played.
Read more about this topic: Syaoran (Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle)
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