Just posted this on my site:
This will sound strange but I honestly believe that this anime would be better without Sakura. She's honestly the most cliched and less interesting character on this show, plus her voice actor is annoying as Hell. What's more, thew riters continue to devote half of the storyline to hammer in the fact that Sakura is cool and powerful and oh, so nice. We get it already.
The way this episode started, I assumed that we would be led right up to the confrontation with Kurogane and Fay (thankfully it looks like we get that next week, making this arc a 3, maybe 4 episode one). Instead we get Sakura, being "cool" and a flashback with a supporting character that is only with the cast for this act. We get it. Her mother was killed. We don't need one flashback PER EPISODE to remind us how traumatised she is.
Mokona was cool though and the animation was top notch. But nothing really happened!!! Grrrr....