Episode 3, "Sakura's Heart-Racing First Date", doesn't deal as much with the whole "first date" aspect as much as Sakura's various amusing facial expressions. I'm not even sure it counts as a "first date", since we only know that Sakura considers it to be one, while the other half of the date, Yukito, probably doesn't. (At least, I hope he doesn't.)

In this episode, we also see the start of Touya's five million part-time jobs, and a few hints that Clow Reed may be a lolipedofin.

Or something.

Sakura's class (of whom we see only Sakura, Tomoyo and the trio of Chiharu, Naoko, and Rika) are on a field trip to the local aquarium. Sakura demonstrates all the enthusiasm and energy of being ten years old, and runs about in a hyperactive mood.

For some reason, if a show focuses on young kids, they're usually shown as being more mature than kids who are in shows that don't focus on them. An example might be given in comparing the attitudes of Nanoha in Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha and Kyon's sister in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Nanoha is nine, Kyon's sister is eleven, and Nanoha can probably fit in with people twice her age. I'm not sure which is more accurate; I don't remember much of being ten, but ten-year olds I've met recently tend to be more like Kyon's sister. Maybe it varies too much to be neatly classified, and I've just been meeting the wrong ten-year olds.

So Sakura goes to see the penguins, and the Watery card attacks the penguins and their keeper. The cards don't seem to have any compunctions about showing their abilities off in public, unlike the Cardcaptor herself.

Touya shows off his l33t baito skillz, which leads me to think that he'll have an insanely long resume by the time he gets into the workforce. Then again, most of his jobs seem to be a one-day thing. He saves the penguins and their keeper, and then disappears, like any good superhero should.

Back in his Oniichan alter-ego, Touya steals a piece of hotcake that Sakura made, leading Sakura to pummel him rather ineffectually. Presumably Touya has a high enough CON stat to withstand these attacks without flinching; I'd think that there should be at least some sense of impact from a ten-year old's punches, especially considering how often she stomps on Touya's foot to great effect.

CHECK!Point: Enter Yukito. The expression on Sakura's face is priceless.

CHECK!Point: Sakura in full hanyaa~n mode.

Sakura later carries a tray of hotcakes up to Touya's room, where Touya and Yukito are (allegedly) studying. Yukito opens the door before she knocks, saying that "somehow" he knew that she was there. Clearly Yukito has Sakura-senses.

Later, Sakura and Kero discuss the problem with capturing the Watery card: it's fluid, and hard to trap in one place. Far too much Final Fantasy made me wonder why they didn't leave it off until they found the Thunder card and then zapped its weak point for MASSIVE DAMAGE, but then I realized what I was thinking.

CHECK!Point: Tomoyo comforts Sakura. Sadly, they do not go into full yuri-rabu mode after this.

Tomoyo presents Sakura with two phones in bright pink. If the anime were made anytime in the present day, it might well have been two pink DS Lites. At the very least, they should have cellphones or something.

But no, these are the days when cellphones were HUEG and having extensible antennas were considered the height of technology or something. (I think CCS has a vintage of about 1998 or something, right?) Tomoyo says that these are "new designs" from her mother's toy company, and that Sakura and Kero (and herself) get to test them out. I'm not sure if Tomoyo has to submit product-beta tester reports or something.

Sakura meets up with Yukito (well, crashes into him), and Yukito promptly offers to take Sakura to the aquarium that weekend to try out the crushed ice there. Yes, Yukito, seventeen years old, is offering to take Sakura, ten years old, out on a date.

To be fair, I doubt Yukito is thinking about it that way, but Sakura certainly does.

CHECK!Point: Sakura goes into hanyaa~n mode all the way back to her room.

And she promptly calls Tomoyo. Now, seeing as she got an automated answering service, I have to assume that these pink things are cellphones, presumably prepaid (at least for the duration of the testing), and designed to be cheaply-produced and easy to operate for children. (For some reason; I know my own cellphone skillz are no match for those who've been truly brought up with them.) In exchange, the pink-phones have few of the functionalities of modern cellphones, like picture-taking, video-recording, and mail/messages.

I believe later in the series Sakura calls some other people on their own landline phones, which makes it even more likely that it's using standard networks, rather than its own walkie-talkie frequency. Also, I would assume that Tomoyo had either given Sakura the necessary equipment (and instruction manual) for usage and charging, or the thing runs on AA batteries.

CHECK!Point: Tomoyo undercover, in preparation for paparazzi. Exactly why Kero-chan also has a pair of (gangsta) shades is uncertain; possibly they were too caught up in the moment.

It may well be a rule of anime that the more undercover a character wishes to be, the more they'll stand out in the end with their clothes.

Also, how did Kero-chan manage to meet up with Tomoyo in the first place?

Super Baito Touya once again. He seems fairly resigned to the fact that his best friend/boyfriend is going on a date with his very underaged little sister.

The Watery causes a crack, and then a hole, in the giant aquarium tank. The sounds made during the cracking were very glass-like… but I'd have assumed that the tank would be made of Plexiglas or something.

When the thing went, Sakura and Yukito were directly under it. So. Not only would they have to contend with the fragments and shards of glass (or Plexiglas), but judging from the diameter of the tank and the amount of water that seems to have filled the area, not to mention the height of the hole, the water must have been under great pressure. And it is this great amount of water at high velocity that descends on Sakura's and Yukito's heads.

Luck must watch over fools and Cardcaptors. And bishounen. Well, that, or Super Baito Touya saved the day once again, somehow.

The fate of the fish (and other patrons) are unknown.

CHECK!Point: Tomoyo and Kero-chan attempt to laugh off Sakura's questions, perhaps successfully.

I'm not sure why Sakura was so surprised to see Tomoyo there, considering she called Tomoyo over the phone about this date. Cause and effect, Sakura.

Sakura gets the idea (from Yukito's apology for not being able to eat the crushed ice) to freeze the Watery. So, in a jester-like outfit (one must assume Tomoyo paid off the security guards outside into carefully not noticing the weird girl in strange clothes, or the mysterious van she must have changed in), Sakura infiltrates the aquarium. Possibly she had a cardboard box as help.

Luring the Watery out of the big fish pool it was in, Sakura leads it to a walk-in freezer, the keys for which Tomoyo had presumably bribed out of the guards. I'm not sure why the Watery wants to stick around the aquarium in the first place, especially since it knows the Cardcaptor is there and willing to capture it. It could have flowed free out of the sewers and into the open ocean, since it can obviously pass through filtration systems (and even the differences between freshwater and saltwater) without difficulty.

The Watery turns out to look a lot more loli than, say, the Windy. Thus far we have a mature-looking woman in the Windy, a big stork-like bird in the Fly, and a Nazgul in the Shadow. I can understand the Fly and the Shadow's forms, but the elemental cards make me think that Clow Reed has a fine appreciation for the female form… of whatever age.

CHECK!Point: Yes, I admit it, I think the Watery looks cute. The wing-like things on her back make her look suitably angelic/demonic/whatever, and this would be a really nice picture if it weren't for the "HELP ME" pose with the outstretched arm that would probably give me nightmares if I were there.

Through the power of MAGIC and modern freezer technology, the Watery is frozen solid in less than a minute. Apparently the Watery can only control water in liquid form, rather than solid or gaseous. Come to think of it, I wonder if the Watery requires a certain amount of actual H2O present in the mixture before it can control it, and even then only in a limited way. Otherwise I don't see why it can't simply control the water (eg agitating the molecules enough to bring it to a boil) which makes up about sixty percent of the human body.

This episode's Kero-chan ni Omakase deals, once again, in the battle costume. Supposedly it's made of some water-resistant material, which makes me wonder why Tomoyo had the outfit in the first place, or if she had done some sort of speed-designing. She may well have an outfit for Sakura suitable for every situation, such as surviving in the jungles or alien invasion or the rising of Atlantis or whatever.

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