Cardcaptor Sakura

By "Cardcaptor Sakura" I am of course talking about the anime in its original form. Original without the hacking up and redubbing of the American released version which, I must admit, is awful beyond belief. However, Cardcaptor Sakura has proved to be one of my favourite anime series of all time. It is a sweet, simple story about a girl named Sakura Kinomoto who finds a mysterious old book in her basement. When this book is opened she find it holds cards, the top one of which is named 'the windy', but as soon as the reads this name aloud, a great wind blows up and the rest of the cards are carried away with it.

And so it spans across three seasons, as Sakura learns to use the cards in order to catch the rest of them, with the enthusiastic help of friends like Tomoyo Daidoji, a loyal friend with an eye for videoing her in cute outfits, and Keroberos, the legendary creature and apparent gaurdian of the cards (excepting the fact that he let them all fly away).

The characters and relationships in this anime are what I believe to be its point of making, since, let's face it, the storyline is somewhat "done". Relationships like between her and her older brother by a large gap, Toya. He teases her at home (calling her a monster) and is apparently always busy with his part-time jobs, however as the series progresses it is obvious that he is extremely protective of his little sister. There is also a running gag of Sakura bumping into Toya all over the place at various different jobs which, as well as making you wonder how often that boy gets fired, outlines the lengths to which he will go to ensure that he can keep an eye on his little sister. Sakura spends the vast majority of the anime completely infatuated with her older brother's best friend Yukito Tsukishiro, a nice guy who lives with his grandparents and eats staggering amounts for a skinny bloke. Yukito is the human camouflage for Yue, the other guardian of the clow cards who only becomes active when Sakura has recaptured all of them and challenges her right to control them. Until quite far into the series though, not even Yuki himself knows about this. For a while this crush is shared by a boy who transfers into Sakura's class from Hong Kong, Shaoran Li. This attachment may appear strange all things considered, but Shaoran is also not entirely normal. He is the son of a powerful sorceress who transfers for the purpose of also collecting the cards, his rivalry with Sakura turning to an alliance fairly quickly. On Shaoran's heels is his cousin and fiancé Meilin Li who made him promise that he'd marry her if he didn't find the person who he was in love with before he was grown up. Characters are introduced periodically throughout the series, each full of personality and depth which was apparently missed out when it was redubbed as Cardcaptors and released in America.

I suppose there are parts of this anime which are not so much slashable as mild, cute slash. First off there is Shaoran's initial crush on Yukito. Next and immeasurably more satisfying is the relationship between Toya and Yukito which is more than just a close friendship. Hints are dropped throughout the earlier episodes as well as the later episodes to do with this pairing in little ways such as Toya turning down a girl because he "likes someone else". Also, in the episode when Sakura and Shaoran are collecting the "reverse" card, Sakura goes back in time and sees her brother with a young woman called Kaho Mizuki, a teacher who Toya was in a relationship with in his first or second year of high school. She tells him that though she was leaving, the next time they saw each other they would both be in love with other people. She and Toya meet again in the series and once again there is no obvious girlfriend present. Nearer the end of the series, in episode 65, Toya makes a huge sacrifice in order to save Yukito from disappearing by giving the natural power he's had from birth, which allows him to see things others can't, to Yue to sustain him since Sakura's magic alone could not. And finally, in the episode after that when Sakura finally confesses her feelings to Yukito, Yuki's feelings towards Toya are made clear. After she is gently rejected, Sakura asks Yukito if it's because he loves someone else, he replied yes, then she asks if the one he likes is her older brother, to which he also replies yes. The relationship is one of the sweetest I've come across and one of my favourite pairings of all time.

This anime is packed full of cute moments and cool scenes, despite dragging a little bit on the storyline front it stands up on its own and is very easy to get hooked onto. And spanning over 70 episodes it will certainly keep you busy for a while if you undertake to watch it. The voice acting is very good I believe, though the little kid's squeakiness may take some getting used to. And best of all, Toya and Yukito are voiced by two almighty actors, Seki Tomakazu and Megumi Ogata.