REVIEW of: Card Captor Sakura

Fourth grader Sakara comes home by herself one afternoon, and upon arriving she hear's a funny scratching noise coming from her father's study. Thinking that it is an intruder she goes to investigate, but finds nothing but a book, which just happens to be glowing. She,of course, picks it up, opens it, and finds a deck of cards inside: a very special deck of cards. These were actually created by a wizard, and are "The Clow" (which are incidently named after their creater). Each card is essentially alive and has its own brand of magic. Picking up the first card and saying it's name (by saying a cards name it's powers are released, in this case the card has the power of the wind), Sakura creates a whirl-wind which scatters the rest of the cards. The Cerberus guardian (Kero-chan) of the book awakens , and tries to convinces Sakura that she must collect the rest of the cards before they spread their chaos in the world. She agrees (rather reluctantly), and with his help captures her first card. She learns from Kero that she can catch a card with a card she already owns, or by any means that she can, and once the card is hers, she is free to use it. Unfortunately she can only use one card at a time. To compound Sakura's troubles her best friend, Tomoyo Daidouji, captures Sakura's first mission on videotape. Since she already knows Sakura's secret, Tomoyo sets out to help her friend by making their costumes, somtimes scouting ahead of Sakura, and for posterity's sake she tapes all of Sakura's adventures. - Ari

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-Quick Scale-(click here for the details on scoring)
10 = EXCELLENT!! 5 = Average 0 = TERRIBLE!!

	*Kiwi-san* (info)	*Ari-chan* (info)	*Akito-san* (info)
Artistry	8	9	8
Character Development	6	8	7
Clarity	8	8	8
Plot & Storyline	7	8	6
Style	7	7	7
Comments	A thoroughly entertaining anime, Card Captor Sakura was an pleasant, if somewhat unexpected, surprise. Not being big a fan of magical girls anime, when I started watching CCS my first thoughts were "Oh no!" but I continue to be pleasantly entertained by it. The characterizations are good, although there isn't quite as much character growth as some anime (as might be expected from a magical girls show). I particularly enjoy the "innocence" of the characters, as well as the unique and original situations that they are placed in. This isn't another one of those magical girls shows where the heroines fight a losing battle, team up at the end, get their butts kicked, and then the mysterious 'man in the mask' shows up and saves them... instead, the plot is original and different every episode, a considerable relief in my opinon. =) I like the idea that Sakura must use previously captured cards to capture new ones, but this trend (unfortunately) seems to die down around the 8th episode or so, though more time is spent on character development, so I suppose it's an even trade off. Unless you thoroughly hate any and all magical girls shows, I say give this one a try... you might be surprised as well!	Okay, I really liked this one. It's cute,it's funny, and the transformations are not cheesy. She actually dresses herself! The best part about this particular anime is that they don't seem to mind making fun of themselves, Tomoyos speach: "A costume and a pose is what makes a magic girl..." Really cracked me up. The characters themselves are well developed, and while this is a 'magic girl' anime, Sakura doesn't use her magic as a crutch. Instead she uses her brain to capture her cards, that doesn't seem to happen very often in a 'magic girl' anime. The character design is excellent, but then this is by Clamp, so that's not surprising. The seiya chosen fit the characters, and the music is really catchy.	Ok, honestly at first I wasn't too fond of the anime because of my bias towards "children" anime. I figured this was going to be one of the Sailormoon type shows when I saw the transformations, but I definitely have to say this show has class. A unique story line and interesting characters make for a enjoyable anime (not to mention all those little bizarre love interests =) I definitely have to agree with Ari when she comments on the artistry. CLAMP always makes well drawn anime PERIOD. Together with unique and interesting characters (minus Cerebus, cuz' I find him annoying.... ESPECIALLY at the little snippets at the end of the show.) the combination works. One more little annoying thing are the names of the clow cards. Hmmm.... I wonder who is causing the time to repeat itself.... DUH its the TIME card =) Other than those minor minor minor notes you should be sure to catch this anime!!!!
OVERALL	7	8	7

TOTAL OVERALL RATING = 7+ (7.33)

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