Cardcaptor Sakura

Sakura Kinomoto awakens from a dream of standing near the Tokyo Tower. She introduces herself, her family, and her friends. After coming home from a normal day at school, Sakura hears a sound coming from the basement. She finds a glowing book and opens it to find a deck of 52 cards. When she accidentally activates the Windy card, the other cards blow out of her house. Cerberus appears from the book and formally appoints Sakura as the "Cardcaptor" and gives her the Sealing Wand. Sakura captures the Fly Card, but she adamantly insists she does not want the job. All the same, she shows quick thinking, considerable magical power, and sheer joy on her first ride on the tamed Fly

Tomoyo meets Cerberus after she discovers Sakura's secret and gets a full explanation of the lost Clow Cards and Sakura's designation as Cardcaptor. Cerberus gets given the nickname "Kero-chan" that will stick for the rest of the series. The next day, the students find the school's desks and equipment in large piles. Kero believes it was the work of the card and forces Sakura to go to school at night where she confronts The Shadow. Using the Windy card's binding ability, Sakura is able to capture the Shadow card. Sakura finally accepts her role as a Cardcaptor because of Tomoyo's support.

Sakura's class is on a field trip to the aquarium. During the penguin show, something catches the trainer's leg and a penguin and pulls them into the water, but they are saved by Sakura's brother, Toya, who is working part-time there. At school, Tomoyo gives Sakura and Cerberus mobile phones and on the way home, Sakura bumps into Yukito who invites her on a casual "date" which is at a cafe where Yukito knew Toya was working. While they are eating, The Watery breaks the glass of the aquarium causing a flood. For the first time Sakura has to formulate a plan to capture a card, rather than jumping into battle and attacking with Windy. Using her wits and an unintentional clue from Yukito, she lures Watery into a freezer to immobilizes and capture it.

While cleaning the house, Sakura finds two dormant Clow Cards, The Wood and The Rain. But while running an errand for her father, the two cards activate creating a jungle inside the house. Sakura uses The Watery to capture The Rain card and The Wood yields on her own. Sakura gets the hard-earned lesson that a card is not fully subdued until she signs her name on it.

On the way to school, Sakura meets Maki Matsumoto who is opening a stuffed doll shop called Twin Bells. Sakura and her friends visit the shop after school to find most of the merchandise unpacked, so they offer to help. Chiharu Mihara, who has a fondness for stuffed animals, buys a stuffed panda, but it disappears shortly after taking it home. Sakura discovers the panda back in Twin Bells and Maki explain the reason for opening the shop and her business has been plagued by mysterious happenings that almost forced her to close down. While Tomoyo distracts Maki in the back, Sakura and Kero search the shop to find The Jump, which escapes with all the stuffed dolls in the shop. At Penguin Park, The Jump grows into a giant by absorbing the stuffed dolls, but it knocks itself out after it trips and falls allowing Sakura to capture it.

Naoko tells everyone a scary story about a bright light she chased into the woods. After school, Sakura and her friends visit the woods to see the light Naoko saw. When they do see it, everyone runs in fear, claiming they saw something appearing from the light, but everyone saw something different. Sakura returns at night in case it was a card despite her fear of ghosts. After following it near a cliff, the light takes the form of Sakura's deceased mother, Nadeshiko. Sakura, who is delighted to see her mother, walks towards it and off the cliff, but she is saved by an unknown entity and safely lowered into Yukito arms who is passing by. Sakura returns to the cliff a few days later and once again walks off the cliff. She realizes that it couldn't be her mother and discovers it to be really The Illusion.