Today, I finished the wonderful series, Cardcaptor Sakura. And normally I don’t write series overviews anymore but I just had to for this series. It has taken me a few months to watch all 70 episodes (at a relaxed pace) of Cardcaptor Sakura but it was really worth my time. I would have to say that this is my favorite mahou shoujo series of all and I would have to include it as in my top ten favorite anime series.

My first glimpse of Cardcaptor Sakura (CCS) was several years ago when it aired on Cartoon Network’s Toonami. At the time, Toonami only showed a few episodes but it was enough for me to peak my interest. I know my first impression was from a not so good English dub but I enjoyed the few episodes I saw before Toonami dropped. Now, a few months ago I decided to download and watch it. This time the Japanese subbed version. From what I remember of the dub, the Japanese version is so much better.

So what makes this series so great? Well, first off I really love the story about how Sakura-chan must find all the Clow Cards and figure out how to capture them. What’s great is that she has to figure out how to use the cards that she captured previously to capture the rest. It’s interesting to see how she accomplishes this. This is mostly what makes up the plot of over half the series, the next half is of Sakura-chan changing the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards. This is just as interesting because she uses them to stop strange things that keep happening around her.

The next great thing about CCS is the cute battle costumes that Sakura-chan wears when she capturing cards. You see they are made by her adorable friend, Tomoyo-chan, who likes to dress Sakura-chan up and film her. Tomoyo-chan is about the cutest girl in the series and she just adores Sakura-chan. Tomoyo-chan gets all giddy, so to speak, when she thinks about the costumes she will make and film Sakura-chan in. I have to say that the cute battle costumes is one of features of the first two seasons that I love and the reason I watched this series to begin with.

Speaking of Tomoyo-chan, she is my favorite character of the whole series. (And not because some say she is a lesbian.) She is about the cutest character in all of CCS. I just love her hair and how she keeps it. Tomoyo-chan’s seiyuu is perfect for her character and it goes well when Tomoyo-chan has to sing in the series. She is after all the one who designed those wonderful battle costumes of Sakura-chan.

Sorry for that little fan-boy rant but I just get that way sometimes. Continuing on, I find that the character designs are just great. After all, this a CLAMP series so you know they are going to be good. A word about CLAMP’s designs, you know at first I didn’t like CLAMP’s designs but the more I’ve seen the more I like it. This is my favorite CLAMP series that I’ve seen so far. I hope to see more of their work.

Lastly, the next thing that I enjoyed was the background music. So may say that it’s not that great but I think it goes well with happening with the story. And I not sure if this is just me but some of the music sounded a lot like some of the music of Evangelion. Well, mostly one particular piece of music. Not sure how to describe it but it plays when mysterious things happen and it reminds me of the music in Eva when they are waiting to fight. Perhaps it’s just me but I enjoyed the music nevertheless.

Overall, I love this series. One of the best mahou shoujo series around and I recommend this to anyone even those who are not fans of mahou shoujo. Now, I just have to see the second movie and I’ve seen all of Cardcaptor Sakura.