Story:
This is Cardcaptor Sakura’s weakest point. The story is: Sakura accidentally scatters magical cards across town and it’s up to her to get them back. She’s aided by the guardian of the book Keroberos who offers her advice. She has to collect the cards because an unknown catastrophe will befall the world if she doesn’t. Not to mention the cards can come alive and they cannot be defeated through normal means. The first season focuses primarily on the characters and their interactions with each other. The story is delivered in small increments throughout most of the first season before finally ramping up near the end of the first season and in the second season. The story improves after that point and it greatly improves in the third and final season. Also there is a big change in plot after the second season which I’ll leave off of the review for spoliers’ sake. The story is good but it’s by no means a masterpiece of storytelling. I think the focus on school life also lead to the slow story-telling. There aren’t any major twists although there could have been quite a few if they chose to use them. The ending also isn’t that great if you end up just watching the TV series and you don’t watch the second movie which has the true ending in it.
Story – 8
Art:
The animation in the anime is great considering it was made in the late 90s. The characters all look great. To be honest, I just like the style. I’m not a very good judge of an anime’s art style but I just love Cardcaptor Sakura’s look. Maybe since I saw it when I was a kid I have this image in my head that this is what anime is supposed to look like.
Art – 10
Sound:
The sound overall is amazing. The voice actors do a great job with their characters. The soundtrack also bears mention and it’s extremely memorable. From the opening themes, to the card battles, to the closing themes almost every single soundtrack appropriately suits its situation. There’s the peaceful music when Sakura is skating to school, the intense, suspenseful music that plays whenever a card is around and the epic track that plays whenever she captures a card. I could go on about the soundtrack but I think I’ve made my point. They don’t overload the anime with different soundtracks so eventually you get to know each soundtrack well enough to hum along to it when it comes on.
Sound – 10
Character:
Now if there’s one thing I think everybody I’ve talked to in real life or on the Internet agrees on is that the characters in Cardcaptor Sakura are almost impossible to hate. Considering that one of the themes of the anime is human relationships, it does an excellent job living up to its theme. There’s hardly anything bad to say about the characters. All of them are developed so well over the course of the anime that you’re guaranteed to have a favourite by the end. The changes in most of the characters are obvious by the end of the series. The biggest change in character comes from the male lead, Shaoran. You wouldn’t recognize the Shaoran in the beginning from the Shaoran in the end. He completely changes for reasons that I’ll keep a secret. You may even grow attached to the cards that Sakura uses since some of them have their own personality. There’s also a wide variety of characters so you’re not stuck with two characters with the same personality.
Character – 10
Enjoyment:
The way I would rate enjoyment is if you had a good experience all the way through. I certainly did when I watched Cardcaptor Sakura. Since you don’t watch it for the story, it does have more replay value than one entirely story-driven. If you end up really attached to the characters like I did, you may find yourself replaying this more than once. I’ve already re-watched it a few times already simply because it’s a ‘feel good’ anime that’s great for just sitting down, relaxing and enjoying. There’s also quite a few funny moments mixed in almost every episode and while they won’t leave you in stitches they are enjoyable nonetheless. This is anime’s target audience is girls and while this is true for the most part, there’s enough action for guys to like, and again the humour is great too.
Enjoyment – 10
Overall:
Cardcaptor Sakura isn’t perfect; if I could I would give it a 9.5 on here but since 10 on here is considered a masterpiece, then that’s what I’m rating it. The characters are superb, the overall sound is amazing, and it was just plain fun to watch. If you watch anime for story-telling then Cardcaptor Sakura may not be for you since unlike slice of life animes there is supposed to be a story, but if you watch anime to enjoy yourself then you should definitely check it out. It never takes itself too seriously nor does it mess around too much. It’s definitely worthy of all the praise it has been given over the years so I highly recommend watching it.
Overall - 10
