Review: Cardcaptors

Sakura's close friend Madison finds out about what's happening and volunteers (somewhat to Sakura's dismay) to assist in their capture... and in capturing Sakura's attempts on video. Madison also makes weird and, er, stylish costumes to suit each capture.

When Li enters the picture, as a powerful sorceror-in-training and successor to Clow Reed, the creator of the Cards, he is contemptuous of Sakura's somewhat dubious prowess and insists that she turn over to him "his" inheritance... but despite his rivalry, he does assist in capturing a number of the cards.

Each episode chronicles the capture of one or more Clow cards and Sakura's adventures in discovering and overcoming each card.

Note that Madman do not intend to release further titles in this series, even though the series is much longer (the subbed version is 19 volumes long, with 4 episodes for most volumes). Since the Australian version is incomplete and likely to remain so, I would strongly suggest either skipping this or sourcing later volumes from the US.

CardCaptors is a very cute series, in most ways aimed at an audience of young girls, but still has depth and interest to spare for an older audience. The plots are usually of the "puzzle" variety - what card is this? Or How do I defeat this card? which risks making the series formulaic, but the variety in cards and strategies means that this is rarely a major issue.

We get a fair bit of background information as the series progresses, and also hints at greater depth behind it. As with all the best series, it may be enjoyed on several levels; on the surface as straight Magical Girl anime, but at a deeper level for the mysteries that lurk beneath its surface.

The series is highly episodic, but there is noticeable character development as the series progresses, as relationships deepen. Of course it also has its silly moments, which are equally worthwhile in their own way.

Each episode ends with "Kero's corner", a lighthearted look at the fashions of the show. Kero praises the practicality and stylishness of the truly outlandish getups produced by Madison. The Kero's Corner segments may also be viewed as a group from the main menu by moving right from the menus to select Kero in the picture on the right.

While there are only three episodes (70 minutes) on each DVD, the release price is fairly low at about the $20-$25 mark, putting it on a par value-wise with most series with more episodes per DVD.

Animation is of fairly high quality; unusually for a "Magical girl" anime, the "transformation sequence" appears to be largely unique in each episode. There is some use of stock footage, particularly in the morning-trip-to-school which is shown in most episodes, but generally animation is smooth and imagery is attractive and colourful. Character designs can be a little dull, however, with many faces varying little beyond hair colour and style and eye color.

The English dub quality is fairly good; Sakura sounds exactly right, as do most of the other characters. The exceptions are Madison and Kero. I can't pin down exactly why Madison's voice sounds wrong, but it does... most of the time it's fine, but there's something about it which is offputting. Kero's voice is offputting in its own way - basically he just sounds dumb, in fact almost the classical "halfwit" voice. Neither are show-breakers, but they are mildly annoying.

There are no Japanese tracks or English subtitles in this release.

Other audio is reasonable, with particular care being lavished on the battles with the cards.

Packaging is standard DVD cases with a transparent cover allowing the inside cover design to show through. Designs are colourful and attractive, usually showing Sakura in one of the getups produced by Madison.