who says an anime has to follow a manga?
Exactly... People have been overly critical of the anime lately. Look at CCS. I bet anything that these were the same reactions when the first episodes of the CCS anime were released. Please people. The anime never has to follow the manga in each episode. It's not just in Tsubasa. Most anime adaptations have differences from their manga counterparts as well so there's no need to whine about this in Tsubasa.
I was... highly disappointed with this episode. It's not because it didn't follow the manga, but rather because I felt there was absolutely NO PLOT DEVELOPMENT!!! What exactly was the point of this episode? It's not needed to understand the story one bit. Such a waste of a production.... *sigh*
Well, this episode in my opinion basically showed us Sakura's personality (in Tsubasa). That's needed because not all people are Sakura fans who are already smart enough to know that.
Also, it concluded what happens to the fat guy's gang. The last Hanshin episode I think won't feature them so it's best that their story is already ended on this episode. Also, there were things that needed talking about (the scene of Fai and Syaoran talking on the bench). And, Bee Train wanted to give more hints as to the whereabouts of Sakura's feather. And lastly, but most importantly, they didn't want to keep Sakura asleep in a lot of episodes.
So far, I think Bee Train has done its best to follow the manga. We're seeing more stuff that's already in the manga not the other way around. So that's a good thing. Let's just wait for more episodes to be released before criticizing it.