Card Captor Sakura - episode 3

After a short scene involving Sakura and her older friend Julian (Yukito) visiting an aquarium to provide background for everything we are going to be treated to, the plot begins in earnest. By that it's meant the major introduction of Julian.

He serves as Sakura's romantic interest although he's noticeably older than her. Thankfully, the feelings are one-sided and he also happens to be Tori's (Toya/ Sakura's older sibling) closest friend. So there are no awkward moments as everyone is comfortable with each other's presence. It's also here where another side of Tory is revealed: despite deriving joy from tormenting Sakura, he also deeply cares about her, to the point of taking whatever job it's necessary to keep a close eye on her. One of these days he's going to wake up and realise that constantly jumping from job to job doesn't make him look a steady employee, but the understanding that he devotes a lot of time to look after Sakura also makes it a noble endeavour. A possible explanation is that he's also in on the card capting business, but it's still too early for the series to give it away like that...At least his meddling comes in handy when he has to intervene to save a penguim from drowning in the pool and help everyone leave a dinner room post-haste when the water card threatens to wash everything away.

This is also the first episode where Sakura makes the requied capture mostly on her own, after having lured the water spirit to a walk-in freezer while everyone else was wondering how to trap it. However, it has to be said that Maddison was also instrumental in encouraging Sakura to think it through when the latter seemed at her wits' end before sussing out the best way to seal the Water card. Something that I love about Card Captors is how team's work is always a big part of it; the team makes its move purposely towards its objective and there isn't never a hint of disagreement between its members. Why can't other friendly groups be like this?