Now this is a classic one. It launched several people involved with it into mainstream success (I seriously think that this one is the one who made it for the CLAMP collective) and, should be you surprised, this is actually pretty damn good.

Sakura Card Captor was a manga done by the girls at CLAMP, published at Nakayoshi and being a smash hit enough to gain it's own adaptation around 1998 or so. It's considered by many to be a quintessential piece on the magic girl's genre and his legacy has inspired other many other authors because of its childish approach, yet more mature nature.

Sakura Kinomoto is a 10-year old girl who's good at sports. One day she finds the Clow Book, which contains the Clow Cards. Accidentally she scatters them around the city by unwillingly releasing a wind spell and it's now up to her to seal the cards back before they make any harm to people.
She's accompanied by Cerberus or Kero-chan, a selfish but caring lion-like entity and the guardian of the Clow Cards, and Tomoyo Daidouji, her best friend and "fashion consultant" who always end up recording everything that happens during our heroine fights, much to Sakura's chagrin.
Sakura often dreams of a battle on the Tokyo Tower, which will become a main turning point in the series.

The story is well written, and although long to watch (around 70 episodes) the pacing can do wonders here, developing into a great, compelling story. And while aimed generally for kids, the CLAMP people actually puts together a very mature storyline, covering love seen from different sides of society, such as same sex relationships and age gaps between lovers. The character development is one of the key elements of this, even secondary characters have deep and nurtured backstories and good development.

The animation is actually pretty good for it's age (1998) and while you get to see some quality moments, the animation is fluid and decent where it needs to be, the color choice is accurate and the art direction is beautiful, all courtesy of Madhouse.

The sound is pretty decent, while the Japanese dub it's well performed, the mixing ain't that great. The English adaptation is poorly done (mainly because of the cut content and lack of good V.A's).
Background music is godlike, a lot of orchestral arrangements, pieces ranging from progressive jazz to breakbeats, chill out and house, with a lot of usage of mellotrons, recorders, and some light synthesis.

What could make you skim this?: A number of chapters. We're usually used to adaptations being no longer than 36 episodes (and yet those are rare to see) so if you're up for a quick all-nighter then you're in for nothing. However if you like long stuff to keep you coming for several nights, this is the anime for you. If you're not fond of magical girls, you might be actually surprised that the treatment it's not like one and it could make you pick this up.

Pros: Compelling story, Great sound, and Romantic sub-plots.
Cons: English dub has a lot of cut content, Some quality issues, Lengthy.

Overall, this is a really good anime to binge watch or just to watch one or two episodes daily. Anyway, you're in for a treat. My treat hehe.