Meiling Li

Meiling Li (リメイリン Ri Meirin; Chinese: 李 苺鈴, Pinyin: Lǐ Méilíng) is a supporting character of the CLAMP anime version Cardcaptor Sakura. She is the first cousin of Syaoran Li and was his betrothed since early childhood.

Appearance

Meiling has black hair, which is parted in the middle, into two buns on either side of her head and the rest hanging down—the Chinese niújiǎotóu (牛角头) hairstyle. While card-capturing, she wears Chinese garb, with a prominent yin-yang symbol in the middle. Her most iconic everyday outfit is her school uniform, as well as her battle outfit, which changes depending on the season.

Her winter school uniform is a black long-sleeved shirt with red and white sleeve cuffs, a white neckerchief with a red stripe, and a white pleated miniskirt with a frilly white knee-length petticoat. On particularly cold days, she wears a thick black coat with her school's insignia on the back. Her summer uniform is a white half-sleeved shirt with a red neckerchief and a black pleated miniskirt. All year round, black Mary Jane shoes are worn along with white socks and a white sailor hat with a black trim.

Personality

Meiling was initially a spoiled, aggressive, selfish, and an obnoxious young girl. She is a bit hot-tempered, an energetic girl who wants to show off, and chased to Syaoran from Hong Kong. Meiling has no magic power, so she can't use magic, but her martial arts are very strong. Due to her single-minded devotion to Syaoran, she was extremely jealous of Sakura Kinomoto and made her care little for everybody else.

Meiling tried to assist Syaoran in his mission to capture the Clow Cards but would unintentionally often end up interfering or making the situation worse due to her lack of magic powers, which further added to her jealousy towards Sakura. However, as seen when Sakura was ill, and especially during the subsequent capture of The Cloud, Meiling was willing to lend a helping hand to Sakura when the latter was in distress.

After some time in Tomoeda, Meiling slowly integrated into her new surroundings and became friends with the people around her, including Sakura and Tomoyo. When Meiling had to return to Hong Kong, Sakura told her that she wished the former could stay longer, to which Meiling replied that she'd try and visit soon.

Months later, when Meiling briefly returned to Tomoeda, she had become calmer and friendlier, but she also realized that Syaoran was in love with Sakura. After calling her engagement off to Syaoran, Meiling ran to Tomoyo's house to vent her heartbreak, even ranting that it would be easier if she could hate Sakura, but by then, she considered the latter a friend. Eventually, she accepted Syaoran's love for Sakura and rooted for him to be happy with her, showing how mature she had become. In the second movie, she even helps Tomoyo create opportunities for Sakura to confess her own feelings to Syaoran.

In Clear Card arc, Meiling displayed her maturity and calmness, as she was no longer goaded on by Cerberus' attitude towards her and she displays respect to people around her, notably to Fujitaka during her stay at Sakura's house. She also displayed awareness of other people's feelings, particularly Syaoran and Sakura's, and often knew the right words to say at a given situation.

During her visit to Tomoeda, she also managed to be on a first-name basis with Sakura, showing just how much she treasured their friendship. She also showed a desire to be more helpful to Sakura and wishes she had magical powers like Syaoran, said she felt useless without magic.

Plot

Before Clow Card Arc

One day, one of Meiling's birds escaped from its cage, leaving her in tears. Syaoran, after witnessing the situation ran into the woods to find the lost bird. It began raining while he was away, and after what felt like hours he finally returned, successful. Meiling was not only very happy that he found the bird but also quite touched.

Since then, Meiling has watched over Syaoran and been by his side. Not too long after the bird rescue, Meiling confesses her feelings to Syaoran. This appeared to be a random outburst, as Syaoran had been quietly reading opposite her on the patio table. Meiling continued to declare that she liked him more than anyone else, and she argued that Syaoran liked nobody else more than he liked her. Syaoran stuttered in agreement and just looked at her, which further led Meiling to declare herself engaged to him. The promise was that she would give him up if he ever found somebody, he liked more than her; until then, she would be his bride. The promise itself took some persuasion, as Meiling leapt onto the table, nearly shrieking "All right?!" in his face until he finally accepted.

The Movie

Meiling encounters Tomoyo and Sakura when they had come from Sakura "winning a contest" at school. In the Li house, she introduced Syaoran's older sisters to a dazed Sakura. Due to her lack of magic, she is abducted by the vengeful spirit of the hydromancer, Madoushi, and imprisoned in a bubble. She is eventually released and falls unconscious, thanks to Sakura's bravery and compassion towards Suyong's feeling of betrayal.

Sakura Card Arc

Meiling briefly returns to help Sakura sort out the strange occurrences that are happening with the cards. They come across the park where several stone penguins start attacking them. Meiling fights them and hurts her hands in the process while Syaoran and Sakura take the larger one on. Sakura knew that she couldn't stop enough time with The Time Card, but Meiling told her to try using The Freeze card. Once that worked, Syaoran used his lightning spell to destroy them.

Later, at Syaoran's house, Meiling tells him that he is lucky for being needed. She says that he will always be tied to the Clow Card's destiny, as he is a better Clow Reed descendant than her, and he has magical powers. She stays at Tomoyo's house and the next day, goes to the airport.

Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card

Meiling returns with Syaoran over their summer break to visit Sakura and Tomoyo back in Tomoeda, mainly to help Sakura confess her love to Syaoran. She gets a part in the school play performed during the Nadeshiko Festival when Syaoran has to fill in for Yamazaki after he is injured during an attack by the Nothing Card. Meiling and Tomoyo are erased by the Nothing Card at the beginning of the final battle against it and are returned safely after Sakura seals the Hope card and confesses her mutual love for Syaoran.

Clear Card Arc

At one point, Sakura and Meiling had a video chat on their cellphones. She eventually come to surprise Sakura and the two hit it off quite good. She was then introduced to Akiho and noticed how she and Sakura were similar.

At Sakura's home, she encountered Kero, who berated her for making fun of his stuffed animal form again. At dinner, she unknowingly grew kitten ears and tail effected by Mirage card.

After hanging out with Akiho, Meiling and Sakura went on their way home until they encountered a girl dressed in red who suddenly engaged the two in a fight. While protecting Sakura, Meiling managed to deliver a strike on the girl's arm, causing her to freeze off temporarily but regenerate as the girl charges again. Meiling and Sakura noted the girl's attacks were similar to The Twin card. Sakura told Meiling of their plan as they decided to act together in unison to hit the girl's weak spots. Together with Sakura and Meiling's attacks, the girl freezes and Sakura summons her staff to seal the card, Struggle. Soon after, at Sakura's home, Sakura apologised to Meiling for putting her in danger, but Meiling expressed her joy for being able to work together. Meiling told Sakura about what she told her on the way home, telling her that those around her think of others but themselves, making it hard for her to see Syaoran and Sakura not caring about themselves. Sakura told Meiling that she is sometimes worried about the change, but Meiling reminded her of her magical words: "it'll definitely be alright".

Relationships

Family cousins chart

Unnamed Grandparents

Unnamed Husband

Yelan Li

Unnamed Sibling(s)

Wang Wei (First cousin of the Li family)

Syaoran's Sisters

Syaoran Li

Meiling Li

Syaoran Li

While initially intimidated by him, Meiling's infatuation with Syaoran began when she was about five, and he had found and retrieved her lost bird. She then vowed to marry him if he didn't find someone that he loved more than her, a promise Syaoran reluctantly agreed to. Due to this, she tried to involve herself in his mission to capture the Clow Cards despite having no magical powers to the point of being abrasive to others around her.

She eventually mellowed out as she adapted to the people around Syaoran. She was initially heartbroken when she realized that Syaoran loved Sakura, but after a heart-to-heart with Tomoyo, she accepted that fact and gave her support to Syaoran. Afterwards, she remains a close friend to Syaoran and sometimes assists him in his relationship.

Sakura Kinomoto

Meiling was initially hostile with Sakura, beginning when she visited Syaoran in his apartment only to find Sakura having been lent a shirt Meiling had bought for him. This one-sided rivalry was further aggravated as Syaoran continued to spend more time with Sakura to capture the Cards, something Meiling has little knowledge about. Despite the rough start, Sakura's kindhearted personality eventually wore Meiling down and Sakura became a close friend to her to the point that when she realized that Syaoran loved Sakura, she couldn't bring herself to hate Sakura. She has remained a close friend to Sakura and looks out for her, even eventually getting on a first-name basis with her, though she considers Sakura to be quite "spacey" when it comes to noticing things around her.

Tomoyo Daidouji

Meiling didn't have a strong initial reaction, mostly considering her to be nothing more than Sakura's companion. As time passed, Tomoyo became one of her close friends in Japan. Their friendship was further solidified when Tomoyo offered her a shoulder to cry on after having to end her engagement to Syaoran, an offer she readily accepted. Since then, Tomoyo has been a close friend to her and her ally in helping the budding relationship between Syaoran and Sakura.

Powers and Abilities

Martial Artist: Like Syaoran, Meiling has shown great skill with martial arts. This is demonstrated at one point when battling on equal footing with The Fight card and Struggle during her visit during the Clear Card arc respectively. She also fought The Twin card with Syaoran, and much later in the Sakura Card arc, during Eriol's test, she fought several rock penguins, though this did leave her hands injured.

Perceptive Combat: Despite not having magic, she is able to analyze situations and come up with a solution. This is seen when she tells Sakura to use The Freeze card to stop the penguins.

Cardcaptors

In the US version of the series re titled Cardcaptors, Meiling is renamed Meilin Rae so that the relation between Syaoran as cousins is nonexistent due to Nelvana deeming it inappropriate and is instead presented as a childhood friend of sorts. Although Meiling's infatuation for Syaoran is drastically edited, it is still somewhat presented as her having an enormous crush and admiration for him.

Meiling's personality is basically the same, as she is shown to be a braggart, somewhat conceited, and defensive when it comes to anything to do with Syaoran, yet at the same time, having guts, consideration, and determination. Although she still shows jealousy towards Sakura for being with Syaoran all the time, in the English version, the relationship between Syaoran and Sakura is scaled back to being close friends as opposed to lovers. Furthermore, all of the moments pertaining to Meiling having an engagement to Syaoran have been edited out.

Etymology

• Her given name Meiling (苺鈴) consists of "(straw)berry" (苺) and "bell" (鈴).
• Meiling's name has different pronunciations and translations according to the different countries, such as Meiling, Meilin and Meirin.

Trivia

• When Sakura's class performs Sleeping Beauty, the role of the witch is played by Meiling in the anime, while it is played by Takashi Yamazaki in the manga.
• Because Meiling's character was created for the anime only, she has only three "manga styled" pictures. One of them is the image of Meiling that came from the booklet included in the Character Songbook.
• Meiling's niújiǎotóu (牛角头) hairstyle is basically the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese odango (お団子) hairstyle.
• Meiling's character design and personality are reminiscent of those of Aska from Magic Knight Rayearth and Kotoko from Chobits, two of others CLAMP works.
  • Meiling and Kotoko also share the same seiyuu, Yukana Nogami.

Media Appearances

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