Card Captor Sakura

Card Captor Sakura is a cute series about a girl named Kinomoto Sakura in 4th grade who is charged with the task of collecting magic cards called Clow Cards. The Clow Cards were created centuries ago by a mysterious magician named Clow Reed who sealed them in a book. However, Sakura mistakenly let the cards loose, and she has to collect them again before they stir up too much trouble with their magic. Sakura is accompanied by Kerebos, a little cute thingy that she disguises as a stuffed animal but actually flies around and gives her advice.

Sakura's best friend is Tomoyo, whom Sakura fondly calls Tomoyo-chan. She basically follows Sakura around with a video camera all the time, commenting on how cute Sakura is. Tomoyo loves designing new outfits that make Sakura look cute, and she often videotapes Sakura capturing the Clow Cards. Competing to get the Clow Cards is Li Sayoran, a boy from Hong Kong who is a descendent of Clow Reed. He also competes with Sakura for the attention of Sakura's big brother Touya's "best friend," Tsukishiro Yuukito. It is revealed later in the series that Yuukito has something deeper than expected to do with Clow Reed and his magical creations.

Card Captor Sakura is one of my favorite series right now. I was first attracted to this series by its total cuteness -- an attribute that usually doesn't get my attention that quickly. The storyline is very well planned out with many twist and turns in the plot that'll easily captivate an audience; after all, it's done by CLAMP. The manga and anime are still running in Japan; volume 11 of the manga is the most recent one. As for the TV series, the overall plot gets revealed bit by bit, with the first major breakthroughs coming near the end of the first season.

The TV series is currently airing on the Kids WB channel under the name "Card Captors." Of course, they cut out the suggestions for the Sakura/Tomoyo and Yuukito/Touya pairings -- the latter of which has a *major* role in the plot later on in the series. They also cut out the Rika/Tereada-sensei pairing. Believe me, the butchering of Sailor Moon can't even compare to what they did to this series.