Character · Cardcaptor Sakura
Kero
The guardian of a book of magic cards is the size of a stuffed toy, and he would like some pudding.
In Otakana the clue reads: Small winged guardian who loves sweets
- Type
- Character
- Series
- Cardcaptor Sakura
- Letters
- 4 · Hard
Kero wakes up when Sakura Kinomoto opens the Clow Book in her father's study and scatters the cards inside it across the city. He was supposed to be watching them. His response is to declare her the Cardcaptor, hand her a sealing wand, and appoint himself the mission's supervisor, which in practice means giving advice from inside a drawer while eating whatever is in the kitchen.
His full name is Cerberus, guardian beast of the seal, and he does have a true form: a winged lion with armour and a serious voice. Getting there requires more magic than he has while the cards are loose, so he spends most of the series as a small yellow thing with stubby wings. He also speaks in Kansai dialect, plays video games badly, and loses arguments about sweets.
CLAMP began Cardcaptor Sakura in the shojo magazine Nakayoshi in 1996 and ran it to twelve volumes, with Madhouse adapting it from 1998. The show is remembered for its costume changes and its animation, and Kero is the reason a series about magical destiny keeps stopping to discuss cake.
Spelling KERO
KERO is the four-letter nickname, short for Keroberos, which is how Japanese renders the Greek Cerberus. The R is the trap in reverse. English turns that sound into an L in Cerberus and keeps it as an R here, so the tiles want KERO and never KELO. Two vowels, two consonants, alternating, and no long vowel hiding in the middle.