My review is a bit late cos I had to start making the OP and ED karaokes right away...
Anyway, the first episode...to sum it all up, is awesome! I was smiling the whole time I was watching it for the first time.
Maybe I'm just so happy to see S+S back on screen...
I'll comment on some of the points raised here...
About Sakura being light as a feather..
when I saw it, the first thing that came into my mind is that the animators wanted some humor in that scene so they did that. I don't think it has to be taken seriously, really... or maybe, they just want to let the viewers know how strong Syaoran is.
On the character design... there were some scenes where I didn't like how Sakura and Syaoran were drawn. come to think of it... all I ever cared for is them! The other characters were drawn just fine, except maybe for Yuuko.. >.<
The animation... really, really awesome! The effects were all cool and I'll enjoy watching this episode again and again just because of the cool animation special effects and of course.. for the cute S+S scenes.
The music as I've mentioned in the TRC music thread is all good! Very, very good.
The opening video is really cool too although the song didn't really catch me at first listen. Now I like it..I've heard it for a hundred times already while making the karaoke video of it. I'm glad they put a lot of action in the opening video.
The ending video, contrary to what others have previously said here, I think is really good and very meaningful. At first, it was really weird but because of this, the video is good for it's uniqueness and it's something you wouldn't expect. Quite extraordinary for me. And I loved the last scene where they hug...finally, something we didn't get to see in CCS movie 2.
Comparing it to the manga, I think the animators did a good job not to disappoint us. It was neither too fast nor too slow. They all included the important scenes, as far as I'm concerned.
Now, I can't wait for the subbed version Kancho Fansubs will be releasing and of course episode 2!
phew! long post... I think I'll just copy/paste this on my blog and yahoo 360 page...