The main person is Kinomoto Sakura, who's 10. She's going to 4th grade of elemental school in Tomoeda (her hometown - it's a suburb (?) of Toyko) and is happy, perky and loves sport. At the beginning of the series, she finds a book, and upon opening it, suddenly there are cards flying around her and then disappearing. Then Kero-chan appears out of the book and explains to her that because she has opened the book, she now has to catch all the cards again. The cards are magical Clow Cards, created by the magician Clow Reed. And that's what the first season is about - catching all the cards (usually with the help of the cards already collected).

Kero-chan is the guardian of the Clow Cards, and looks like an orange Teddybear with tiny white wings (he can fly), but he does assure Sakura that his real form (Kerberos) is really really cool. It's just that currently he doesn't have a lot of power, so he stays in the 'false' form, which doesn't need as much power. He loves sweets and video-games.

Sakura's family consists of her father, Fujitaka-san, who teaches archeology at the university (and who also cooks, cleans, and can sew), and her older brother, Touya. Her mother died when she was 3. Her father is always very sweet and patient. Touya is 17, very nice-looking, but more the silent type. He keeps calling Sakura 'monster' and teases her (which is rather easy to do <g>), but deep down he's very protective of Sakura (Yuki keeps telling him that he has a 'sister complex' <g>). Also, Touya can see ghosts - including the ghost of his mother, who is still around and looking after her loved ones - and he seems to have other powers, too, tho it's not made explicit just what they are. He does, however, keep giving Kero-chan strange looks... (Kero-chan keeps pretending to be a stuffed animal).

Sakura's best friend at school is Daidouji Tomoyo, who has a very rich mother (who was Sakura's mother's cousin...). She loves to film Sakura, and take pictures of her (she's madly in love with Sakura, tho Sakura doesn't quite get that <g>), and she also found out that Sakura is capturing Clow Cards, and helps her - mostly by supplying her with extremely cute costumes and then filming her (and later re-watching this on a wall-to-wall screen and sighing over Sakura...)

(I should mention that Sonomi, Tomoyo's mother, was in love with Nadescio, Sakura's mother, and was *extremely* upset when Nadescio fell in love with a mere *teacher*, who was also about 11 years older than then-16 year old Nadescio. Nadescio's family - which is very rich - disowned her for that. Sonomi still hates Fujitaka-san, and whenever they meet, usually at some school occasions, she's pretty much growling at him)

Touya's best friend is Tsukishiro Yukito (Yukito translates vagually as 'snow rabbit'). He is very nice, helpful and friendly. He always spends lots of time with Touya - either they're studying together, or they work a part-time job together, and they drive their bicycles to school together every day, or Yuki comes to visit Touya to bring him a book he forgot and stays overnight... Also, Yuki eats an enourmous amount of food - as if he was eating for two...

Touya calls Yukito 'Yuki', and Yukito calls Touya 'To-ya' (eeeh - he pronounces Touya's name a bit differently - this is how that is written in fanfiction). Yukito lives with his grandparents in a house, however, his grandparents are always gone (travelling). I *think* Yukito transferred to Touya's school a year or more ago, and that's how they met.

And there's also Li Syaoran - also 10, who, shortly after Sakura starts looking for all the Clow Cards - arrives as a new transfer student in Sakura's calss. He is from Hongkong, and his mission is - to collect all the Clow Cards.

(there's alternative ways of spelling his name: Shaoran, or Xiao Lan)

The background for this: Clow Reed was *the* strongest magician, and his father was European and his mother was Chinese (from the Li clan). However, Clow didn't use traditional magic, instead, he created a totally new system that incoporated both Eastern and Western magic. Magicians of both tranditions didn't like this, until they realized just *how* powerful he was. The Li clan, who now lives in Hongkong, thus thinks that the Clow Cards should be theirs, which is why Syaoran has been sent to Japan to collect them.

Syaoran is, btw, living alone with a valet.

At first, Syaoran looks down on Sakura - Syaoran has been studying magic all his life, and Sakura basically has no clue what she's doing. He thinks she should just surrender the cards to him - however, when he tries to intimidate her into doing this, Touya observes this and comes to Sakura's rescue. Touya and Syaoran look as if they will start fighting - and then Yuki shows up... and Syaoran immediately falls in love with Yukito. Which is another problem, because Sakura has been in love with Yukito for as long as she has known him.

Now both of them turn red and shy whenever they see Yukito looking at them, and esp if he talks or smiles at them! <g>. Yuki himself thinks this is all extremely cute. He likes Syaoran, and thinks of Sakura as the little sister he never head - but basically, he is always very friendly to both.

Sakura and Syaoran keep fighting over the Clow Cards (whenever they discover where one is, it depends on who can catch it). After a while, however, they (slowly <g>) start to become friends and help each other. Touya on the other hand stays... unfriendly towards Syaoran (when Yuki, at the end of the series, asks him about it, he says it's because he knows that Syaoran will one day take away something very precious to him)

Syaoran and Kero-chan aren't the best of friends either - Syaoran, because Kero-chan is on Sakura's side, and Kero-chan, because Syaoran's reaction upon first seeing him was "the mighty guardian Kerberos is this... this... *plushie*??"

oh, and there's also Kaho. (I think her last name is Mizuki, but I'm currently slightly unsure, forgive me). She's a new teacher at Sakura's school who has just returned from studying in England. Not only does she seem to have magical powers connected to the moon, she also knows Touya from before she left Japan - she used to be an assistant teacher (I think) at Touya's school, and she was Touya's girlfriend for a year (yes, Touya was about 15 and she was about 25). She left him when she left for England, which he was rather unhappy about, but she told him that when they would meet each other again, each of them would have a new 'most special person'. When they *do* meet and she brings it up, Touya does say that yes, he has such a person. She also often shows up when magic is going on, and acutally helps Sakura catch at least one card.

Most of season 1 is spent collecting cards, and there's Syaoran's cousin Meirin, who followed him from Hongkong and also transfers to Sakura's class (she's in love with Syaoran, and thus not very fond of Sakura. She grows on you, tho), and several other problems with school or Sakura's schoolfriends.

Other friends of Sakura from her class are:

Rika: she's rather silent, but she *is* in love with someone older - namely, their home-room teacher, Terada-sensei (who's in his mid- twenties and rather cute-looking). Terada definitly knows that Rika loves him, and according to torch, in the manga there's a clear indication that he loves (or at least strongly likes) her back. No, it's not icky to the Japanese.

Yamazaki: a boy who always comes up with the most *amazing* stories... erm, ok, so they're lies. He always tells them with much conviction, and everyone in class will just stand there and be amazed, until along comes...

Chiharu: ...who will then hit him over the head and drag him away and scold him for telling more lies. I bet these two end up married (they already address each other by their first names, which is unusual - Japanese kids call each other by their last names, with out without a honorific)

Naoko: is quiet, and loves to read.

(I'm just mentioning them because they sometimes show up in stories, they're not really important to the overall plot).

### From here on, there's major spoilers, so if what you've read so far sounds like something you might like to see eventually, you should stop now. ###

After Sakura (and Syaoran) have collected all the cards, Kero-chan tells her that to become the Master of the Cards she needs the approval of the 2nd guardian of the cards, the Moon Guardian (Kero- chan is the Sun Guardian).

At the time, they're at a temple: Sakura, Tomoyo (avec videocamera <g>), Syaoran, Kaho and Yukito (who however has been put to sleep with a card). Touya is there as well, but the others don't know - he's outside of the temple and watching (he has been sensing that something is going on with Sakura, and probably guessed quite a bit already).

After Sakura catches the last card, Kero-chan says that Yue, the Moon Guardian, is now going to appear (and everyone, including the viewer, is pretty much expecting it to be Kaho). However, it's Yukito's sleeping form that's suddenly surrounded by bright light, and huge white wings close over him, and when they open again, he is Yue (that's Chinese for 'moon', btw). He has purple eyes, floor- lengh white hair, huge white wings, wears a strange, mostly white costume ... excuse me while I go take a cold shower...

However, Yue's personality leaves quite a bit to be desired... he's rather cold, and unfriendly.

Yukito is Yue's "false form", just as Kero-chan is the false form of Kerberos (who we now see in his true form, and it really *is* very cool - he's a huge lion with wings. Well, theoretically he'd be a lioness, because he doesn't have a mane... but he's definitly supposed to be male <g>). Yukito however has no clue that he's carrying Yue around inside (Yue, however, is at least somewhat aware of what's going on around him). This is the reason Yukito always eats so much - he *is* eating for two.

Yue states upfront that no, he doesn't think that Sakura is a fitting candidate to become the next Master of the Clow Cards (and neither is Syaoran), and is rather arrogant.

You do learn (later in the series, tho, but anyway) that while Clow was still alive, Clow (and Kerberos) were the only people Yue ever had contact with, and he was very happy with that. Yue and Clow had a father-son relationship, and when Clow annonced one day that it was his time to die, Yue was crushed (and very angry, because in his opinion a magician as powerful as Clow should not have to die). He said then that he'd never accept anyone but Clow as his master.

Anyway - first Yue test Syaoran (who loses) and then he tests Sakura - who also loses (she has to fight him with the Clow Cards, and since he is one of the guardians, he is stronger than any of the clow cards...) The price for losing is that everyone forgets their feeling for their 'most important person' - Sakura suddenly is in a world where her father no longer puts up a new picture of her mother each day, where her brother doesn't tease her anymore, and where Yukito doesn't exist anymore.

However, luckily Kaho has a bell, made by Clow and left for that very reason, which gives Sakura a second chance. Sakura's staff, with which she usually captures the cards, suddenly transforms - and she is no longer using Clow's magic, but her own, and with it, she transforms one of the Clow Cards into a Sakura Card, and manages to defeat Yue with it. Yue finally accepts her as the new Mistress of the Clow Cards - and Sakura promptly tells him that she doesn't want to be his mistress but his friend (which rather confuses Yue - he has *no* people skills <g>).

As a result of becoming the card mistress, she has a vision of Clow Reed, who congratulates her and tells her that from now on she is no longer using his magic (which was Sun and Moon-based), but her own (which is Star-based) - she is still weak, but she should work hard and improve her powers.

Sakura, Tomoyo and Syaoran celebrate, meanwhile, Kaho goes to Touya and asks him if he saw everything. Touya says yes, and when Kaho asks him if he knew that Yukito wasn't human, he says yes to that, too - he sensed it the first time he met Yukito.

Kerberos and Yue have a short talk and say that since Sakura's magic is still rather weak, she will not be able to support them in their true forms, so they return to their false forms, which need a lot less energy to maintain.

And Yukito *still* doesn't know that he carries Yue inside - he's just a bit confused because he woke up somewhere without remembering how he got there.

And that ends the first season of CCS. Season 2: Kaho has gone back to England (Sakura keeps writing her letters, telling her what's going on).

A new pupil transfers to Sakura's class - Hiiragizawa Eriol. He is from England, but he looks like he's got Asian blood. He is extremely polite, and friendly, especially towards Sakura (going so far as to kiss her hand), and that disturbs Syaoran - although he doesn't quite know *why* it disturbs him...

And shortly after Eriol shows up, new problems show up as well, which always mean that Sakura has to do something to fight them (again with Tomoyo taping and Syaoran helping, however, she now also gets help from Yue, and Kero-chan transforms into Kerberos when they're fighting).

(getting help from Yue means that afterwards, Yukito wakes up in strange places with no clue how he got there)

Sakura always ends up having to transfer more cards from Clow Cards into Sakura Cards, which takes quite a bit of energy (and thus is not something that she can do just for fun. I mean, she tries once to transfer a bunch of cards when there's no reason to, and promptly one escapes and has to be hunted down).

It becomes pretty clear (to the viewer <g>) that Eriol is the one behind all the problems - Eriol also has magic (his magic is Darkness-based, and no, this doesn't make it evil. It's neutral, just like magic from the stars, or the sun and moon) and he also has two Guardians: Ruby Moon and Spinel Sun. Ruby Moon spends the days as Nakuru, a new student in Touya's class, and spends most of that time running after Touya, glomping onto him, and trying her best to become his girlfriend (and replace Yukito). 's not like she has a chance (Touya is very disturbed by Nakuru's stalking), but that doesn't stop her. She's very agressively perky, too. (BTW, Nakuru doesn't really have a gender, but "she" thinks that the girl's school uniform is cuter). Her true form is human with pink/purple hair and huge butterfly wings.

Spinel Sun looks like a small black cat with butterfly wings and a corkcrew-like tail. He's always calm, and spends most of his time reading magical books. Nakuru is always calling him Suppi-chan. His real form is a huge back panther with butterfly wings. He does *not* like sweets. No, no, not at all. However, if he's force-fed something with sugar in it... let's just say that you've not seen a sugar high until you've seen Suppi-chan bouncing around like a hyperactive 3year old, desperately trying to get more sweets...

Yes, they're both the pretty much total opposites of Kerberos and Yue and they respective false forms. Which kinda makes you wonder about Yue's gender (or possible lack of one), but sadly, that is never answered in the series...

At the beginning, Eriol's motives are unclear, but after a while you start to realize (at least the viewer does) that everything he throws at Sakura pretty much helps her (well, ok, forces her <g>) to change more cards into Sakura cards. And the one time she fails because she's sick and exhausted and faints, he saves her.

Yue, however, has a problem: Sakura isn't strong enough to support all the cards *and* Yue with enough power (Kerberos doesn't have that problem because he gets power from the sun). This means that with each card Sakura transforms, Yue is getting weaker. And this affects Yukito as well: he eats even more, tho it never seems to satisfy him, and later he starts falling asleep everywhere, even during the day. And, as Touya find out: while he is asleep, parts of him become transparent - he's fading away into nothing.

Syaoran meanwhile manages to tell Yukito how he feels for him (via giving him a teddybear that he sewed himself - it's explained in more detail in the series, but it's basically a way to tell someone that you feel for them). Promptly Yue shows up and explains to Syaoran that the only reason Syaoran feels attracted to Yukito is because Syaoran can feel Yue's magic. He should give up on Yukito and rather try to find out who his real special person is. To Syaoran's shock, he realizes that it's *Sakura*. And he's totally clueless as to what he should do about it, esp since Sakura is still in love with Yukito. Towards the end of the series, he more and more tries to bring himself to tell her, but it always ends up with him not quite managing to say the words and instead, he always turns bright red... (it's so cute <g>)

Touya meanwhile tries (over many many eps) to get Yukito in a quiet place, because there is something that he has to tell him, and it's very very important, but he doesn't quite know how to say it, but ...

Whatever it is, it seems to be difficult to say, and Touya even looks a bit embaressed... (Yes, it looks extremely as if Touya is going to tell Yuki that he's in love with im. <g>)

However, whenever he nearly manages to tell Yuki whatever it is he wants to tell him, they're disturbed (usually by Nakuru, who at one point even climbs into the room they're in via the window - and they're on the 2nd floor... )

After Yukito once again falls asleep while standing (and nearly falls to his death from a balcony in the process), Touya's had enough, and drags Yukito into a room, locks to door, and *finally* manages to tell him what he's been meaning to tell him: "I know you're not human."

As a result, Yukito immediately transfers into Yue, and Touya offers Yue his own power, so that Yue (and thus Yukito) won't disappear. Yue asks him if he's sure that he wants to do this (he will lose the ability to see spirits and ghosts, including his mother), but Touya *is* sure. His only condition is that Yue should look after Sakura and protect her, since Touya won't be able to do it as much as he used to. Yue tells him that he would have protected Sakura anyway.

They embrace, there's a lightshow, and the transfer of power is over. Yue has all his powers back, and Touya faints. After Yue carefully (I'd nearly say tenderly, which is not a word that I'd normally associate with Yue...) puts Touya on the bed, he hears someone listening at the door. Confronting the person, he finds Sakura, who heard everything and is now dissolving into tears because she wasn't strong enough and thus is the reason that Touya had to give up his power.

Yue tries to console her by telling her that Clow created the cards and the guardians at the height of his power, and that it's amazing that Sakura manages to support as many cards as she already does. It doesn't *really* make Sakura feel better... well, maybe a bit.

(from this point onwards, Yukito knows about Yue, tho it's never made clear if Sakura or Touya told him, or if Yue just dumped information into his brain. I'd like to have seen that scene... <sigh>)

However, the incident makes Sakura realize how easily she could have lost Yukito, and thus she decides that it's time to tell Yukito that he's her "most special person", and during the next ep, she does:

"Yukito-san... "
"What is it?"
"I... Yukito-san... I... I... I love you, Yukito-san!"
"I love you, too, Sakura-chan, but the person you love most isn't me. ... You love your father a lot, right? "
"Yes"
"And me?"
"I love you... "
"Those feelings are the same. The way you love your father, and what you feel for me are similar, yes?"
<Sakura thinks> "They are..."
"I'm a lot like him... Since you're so young, you confused about it a bit."
"Yes. You knew the whole time?"
"Yes. I was glad you considered me a part of your family"
"There's someone you love, isn't there?"
"Yes, there is..."
"It's my brother, right?"
"Yes, it's him. I'm not sure what I'd do without him."
"[Touya] seems mean sometimes, but he's really very nice"
"yes"
"he likes to tease me"
"yeah. But, even though I love him, I don't know how he feels..."
"I'm sure he feels the same way! That's why he gave Yue his power... Anyways, he must love you at least as much as I do"
"Sakura-chan..."
"But, if he's ever mean to you, you call me and I'll punish him for you, ok?"
"Yes... thank you. I'm sure you'll find him - the one you'll love most. And I'm sure he'll love you the most, too. Tell me when you find him, ok? And if he's ever mean, I'll punish him for you, ok?"
"ok"

Sakura is not crushed by this, but she *is* rather unhappy, and ends up crying on Syaoran's shoulder. When Syaoran later tells Tomoyo what happened, she tells him to tell Sakura his feelings (tho he declines, because she's just been - very gently, but still - let down by the person she tought she loved, and he doesn't want to confuse her). When Syaoran points out to Tomoyo that she is in love with Sakura as well, Tomoyo explains that this is ok, because she just wants Sakura to be happy, even if it's not with her.

Since Yue now has his powers back, he confirms what Sakura and Kero-chan have been feeling for a long while now: that whenever there are problems that Sakura has to solve by transferring more Clow cards into Sakura cards, they can feel an aura - Clow's aura. Which is rather confusing, because, isn't Clow supposed to be dead...?

Meanwhile, Eriol notes to himself that 'it' will be over soon, and writes a letter to England.

To get to the bottom of the matter of Clow's aura, Sakura uses the Return Card to go back into the past and to ask Clow himself if he did something to cause these problems. She does manage to meet and talk to Clow, but he's not particularily helpful ("If I will, I did. If I won't, I didn't.") He does, however, reassure her that she is going to be a good card mistress, and that she shouldn't try to be like him ("I am me, and you are you, and that's how it's supposed to be").

(I like Clow: he just radiates calmness)

Sakura does however see how much Clow meant to Yue, and how angry Yue was when Clow died (let himself die, I'd say). Clow saw the cards and the guardians as his children, btw.

She *also* observes that the chair that Clow always sits in (ok, more like a throne <g>) is the same chair that's in Eriol's house now and that Eriol always sits in...

After Sakura has returned to the present, she, together with Kero-chan, Syaoran and Tomoyo speculates what this all might mean. Then Eriol shows up (in his magician clothes) and tells them that he might now be Eriol, but in the past, he was Clow Reed (meaning that Eriol is the reincarnation of Clow Reed). Spinel Sun and Ruby Moon show up as well.

Eriol uses magic to make the sun and the moon disappear and everyone falls into a deep sleep. Apart from Sakura and Kero-chan, only Syaoran manages to stay away, and he only manages with great difficulty. Eriol tells them that if Sakura doesn't manage to end the darkness, all the people are never going to wake up again.

Spinel Sun and Ruby Moon attack Yue and Kerberos (and are quite a bit stronger), while Sakura tries to find a way to reverse Eriol's darkness. She realizes that she will have to transfer the remaining 8 Clow Cards into Sakura Cards, so she does - however, she fails to manage to transfer the 2 strongest cards, The Light and The Darkness - and it's these two cards she needs to end the spell. Yue and Kerberos transform themselves into raw power and add that power to Sakura's staff to help her in transforming the cards, but even that doesn't seem to be enough (which would mean that both would be forever caught within the staff). Only when Syaoran manages to add his magic to Sakura's does she manage to transform the cards, and then uses The Light to end Eriol's spell.

Eriol is happy.

and now I'm going to diverge from the anime and sum up the ending of the manga, because it's much better and ties up a lot of loose ends that the anime leaves flapping around. I've not read the manga, but torch gave me a summary of it:

In the manga, Sakura realized earlier in her dreams that Clow Reed seems to have reincarnated into *two* persons. During the above-mentioned fight, Sakura's father suddenly shows up - he didn't fall asleep like everyone else.

After the fight Eriol explains that Clow Reed reincarnated into both Eriol and Fujitaka-san (Eriol is theoretically the same age as Sakura's father, but he kept his body from aging so he could be with Sakura). He has a favor to ask of Sakura: he wants her to take his magic and split it between him and Fujitaka-san, because he doesn't want to be a powerful magician any longer. Sakura does this, and from now on Fujitaka-san can (probably amongst other things, but we don't find out) see spirits and ghosts - including the ghost of Nadescio-san (Sakura's mother).

Eriol, btw, is together with Kaho (yes, *together* together), and she was the one he wrote the letter to. He says that he'll be returning to England to be with Kaho, and later, when he says goodbye to Sakura, he tells her to compare the feelings she has now with the feelings she will have when someone else is leaving her.

Syaoran meanwhile is late to school because he got a call from his mother in the morning. On the way home from school that day, Syaoran managed to tell Sakura how much he likes her.

Kaho and Eriol have left a present for Syaoran (who wasn't there when they left). Sakura goes to Syaoran's apartment to give it to him and realizes that Syaoran is in the process of packing up everything and returning to Hong Kong (since all the Clow Cards are now Sakura Cards, there is no reason for him to stay in Japan). Syaoran tells her that he is very happy that he came to Japan and met Sakura.

Sakura runs away and tries to figure out how she feels because of Syaoran's leaving. She meets Rika (remember, the girl in her class who's in love with their teacher) and asks her what she would do if she could no longer see the person she's in love with. Rika tells her "if you love someone, you love them even if you can't see each other very often".

Sakura goes home, and then stays up the whole night, sewing. Yukito and Touya are in the neighbouring room (studying together, with Touya being unhappy because he knows how things are progressing between Sakura and Syaoran). Yukito brings Sakura a tray with food, and after seeing what she's doing asks her if she's met her 'most special person'. She says yes.

Yuki: Next time we meet again, will you introduce me?
Sakura: *looking down* I might not be able to.
Yuki: *concerned* How come?
Sakura: He's going...far away.
Yuki: But it's not that you'll never see each other again, is it? Even if you're going to be separated by a great distance, you'll meet again. If you think you want to see each other again, that is.
Sakura: ...I think...we both do.
Yuki: *smiling* Then it'll be all right. ...I've been thinking. About what I would have done if I'd known from the start that if the magical power of my true form, Yue, ran out, both Yue and I would disappear from this world. I'm sure I would have tried to find some way that I could live without disappearing. I think I would have done absolutely anything I could. I couldn't stand it, not to be able to see you and... Touya anymore. *eyes closed* Because not being able to see the person you love anymore is truly a cruel thing, I believe I did absolutely everything in my power to keep that from happening.

Next morning, Sakura hears that Syaoran will leave Japan with the flight at 10am, and sees that there's only 1 hr left to meet him. Touya brings her to the bus station, because she wouldn't have managed on her own in time.

Syaoran is in the bus, and opens the window, and Sakura gives him the winged teddybear that she spent all night sewing, and tells him that she now know what she feels. They say their goodbyes while the bus begins to pull away, and Syaoran promises to come back in the future, and Sakura promises to wait for him.

We see time passing, and then an older Sakura, now in junior high, who's on her way to school, and suddenly stops because she sees a boy in the same uniform as hers, standing there with a winged teddy bear in his arms.

Sakura: Syaoran-kun?
Shaoran: The formalities I had to go through in Hong Kong are finally over. From now on, I can stay here in Tomoeda.
Sakura: *approaching him slowly* Really...?
Shaoran: Yeah.
Sakura: We don't have to be patient, with nothing but letters and phone calls, anymore?
Shaoran: Yeah.

Sakura starts to laugh and cry.

Sakura: From now on we'll always be together!

And that's the end of the manga...