The 70-episode Cardcaptor Sakura Japanese anime television series is based on the manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. Cardcaptor Sakura is directed by Morio Asaka and animated and produced by Madhouse. The series focuses on Sakura Kinomoto, a fourth-grade elementary school student who discovers that she possesses magical powers after accidentally freeing a set of magical cards from the book in which they had been sealed for years. She is tasked with retrieving those cards in order to avoid an unknown catastrophe from befalling the world. The episodes are spread over three seasons: the first season contained 35 episodes aired between April and December 1998, the second season contained 11 episodes aired between April and June 1999, and the third season contained 24 episodes aired between September 1999 and March 2000. The series was released by Bandai Visual to 18 VHS, LD and DVD compilation volumes between September 1998 and May 2000. Two Blu-ray Disc box set volumes were released by Geneon, one in March 2009 containing the first two seasons, and the second in June 2009 containing the third season. Three short, bonus original video animation (OVA) episodes were released with the first-print, limited edition versions of the VHS, LD and DVD releases. Cardcaptor Sakura was initially licensed for the English-speaking market by Nelvana, which dubbed the full series into English and released it under the name Cardcaptors. In the US, the series only ran for 39 episodes, which were heavily edited and re-ordered. Geneon USA/Pioneer Family Entertainment released dubbed Cardcaptors episodes to nine VHS and DVD compilation volumes between November 2000 and July 2002. Pioneer Entertainment also released the uncut, unedited Cardcaptor Sakura series in its original Japanese form, with English subtitles to 18 DVD compilation volumes between November 2000 and November 2003. Pioneer also contracted with Nelvana to release the dubbed episodes. The Cardcaptor Sakura TV series DVDs went out-of-print at the end of 2006 when the license expired. Madman Entertainment released Cardcaptor Sakura in its uncut form in two DVD collection boxes in September 2012 and November 2012. NIS America re-released the entire series on DVD and Blu-ray in August 2014, featuring Japanese audio and an unedited English dub. Episode list Cardcaptor Sakura is directed by Morio Asaka and animated and produced by Madhouse. Art direction is handled by Katsufumi Hariu and character design is done by Kumiko Takahashi. The chief