10-year-old Sakura Kinomoto returns home from a typical day at school, after having a mysterious dream about a book that morning, and hears strange noises coming from her basement, where her father's library is. Upon investigating, Sakura stumbles upon the magical book of The Clow, and breaks its magical seal. Inside of the book, she finds a stack of cards, known as Clow Cards. She accidentally scatters the cards after she says the word "Windy", the name of the first card she picks up.
When the wind dies down, a small yellow creature named Cerberus rises from the book. He introduces himself as the guardian of the Clow Cards, and Sakura, upon scattering them, has woken him up. He tells Sakura that she must now gather all of the Clow Cards to prevent a certain catastrophe from happening. The story begins here, and with the help of Kero-chan (Cerberus's nickname), and Sakura's best friend Tomoyo Daidouji (who videotapes all of Sakura's adventures and makes all of her costumes), Sakura sets out on her journey to collect all the Clow Cards. Along her way she meets new friends, new enemies, and many challenges.
Story & Characters
While Card Captor Sakura is considered more of a "kiddy" anime, targeted toward a younger audience, the plot
is relatively complex, especially toward the end where everything builds up to the climax. The beginning is interesting,
too, for there are many mini conflicts that the characters must go through.
The characters are nicely developed as well. Relationships between them include romance, jealousy, resentment, etc...
All the different types of relationships give a real-life feel to the show. As for the romance in the show, it is
considered subtle, but very sweet and innocent, for the main characters are approximately ten years of age. Some scenes
between the couples are very heart-wrenching though, despite their age. Because this series is categorized as shojo,
there are inevitably angsty parts to the story.
As a whole, the idea of the story is quite intriguing. Card Captor Sakura is a magic girl series, but contrary to
popular belief, magic girl series do have some plot and depth to them. Card Captor Sakura is one of the magic girl
series that breaks the stereotype.
Rating: 8
Art
The creator of Card Captor Sakura is CLAMP, a popular and acclaimed group of four. The manga art style for this
particular series is very modern. The lines are thin, and the details are pretty amazing in some images. Every character
is beautiful in his or her own way. This tends to be the case in many shojo series. However, the pretty art makes for
good eye candy.
The anime design differs slightly, but not much. Because it is animated, some details are lost, such as the many strands
of Sakura's bangs. In the anime, they are grouped together, giving Sakura thick locks for bangs instead of
individual strands. But this is the case for many anime, for the budget in production is limited. Overall, the animation
is pretty good compared to some others. The characters always look the same. In poorly animated series, the characters
occasionally look different from their usual self.
Rating: 8
Sound
Card Captor Sakura is generally very bright and happy. It can be categorized as teenybopper music. True, I do not
understand Japanese, but the music itself — the beat and rhythm — conveys that. Because it is categorized
as pop, most of the songs are very melodic, and work very well as midis. Some highlighted pieces in Card Captor Sakura
would be "Catch You Catch Me," "Fruits Candy," and "Purachina." Like many other anime, the
soundtrack has songs sung by the seiyuus themselves. There are four original soundtracks, but there are additional CDs
for the motion pictures as well.
Rating: 7
Presentation
In the sense of originality, Card Captor Sakura can be both. In many stories that involve a quest, the protagonists
usually has to gain a little something at each point. For Card Captor Sakura, our protagonist Sakura must capture
different cards that hold a different power, Clow Cards. This series is unoriginal in the sense that it involves this
type of quest (which can also be seen in the quite popular series "Pokemon.") However, it is original the same
time, for the design and power of each Clow Card is unique and holds a style of its own.
There is not much witty humor in Card Captor Sakura, but like any other anime/manga, Card Captor Sakura has its classic
anime humor, ie. anime falls, sweatdrops, and popped-out veins when angry. Card Captor Sakura does not fit in the
category of humor, but is still entertaining to watch.
There is a total of seventy episodes and two movies. Because it is fairly long, some episodes seem dragged out, and
almost insignificant to the main plot. This tends to be the fault in series that stretch over twenty six episodes.
However, if you are truly interested in Sakura's journey to master the Clow Cards, every episode will be
interesting.
Overall, Card Captor Sakura is above your average anime and manga.
Rating: 8
Final Verdict
7.8333 (good)
Reviewed by shirahana, Nov 27, 2004