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Plot Synopsis

CLAMP's Sakura and Syoaran are back, but they're not the same characters we've come to know from Cardcaptors. This time, our pair is from the magical country of Clow, where Sakura is the beloved princess and Syaoran is a commoner working as an archeologist. He's tasked with exploring the ruins of Clow, which seem to hold magical power. Our two characters are destined for each other, but many perils lay in their path.

When visiting the ruins, Sakura is mesmerized and drawn into a strange gateway on the wall. Evil forces are at work and are trying to steal her away to another dimension. Syaoran prevents her from going, but in the process, scatters her feathers (representing her memories) across multiple worlds. With Sakura unconscious, Syoaran must travel to each world and recover Sakura's memories. Upon visiting the time-space witch, Syaoran is given two traveling companions, each with their own reasons for going on a journey between worlds. They are also given Mokona, a white pork-bun that allows them to communicate and travel between worlds.

Their journey begins here and many dangers await them on the road ahead.

Story & Characters

Basically, Sakura and Syaoran, now older as teenagers, live in the Country of Clow. Luckily, there is still the S+S relationship here. This time, Syaoran is pretty much the main character, and he is much more mature here than in Card Captor Sakura. Instead of chanting spells, he fights with a sword, along with another character named Kurogane. Kurogane, is a ninja, and Tomoyo is actually brought in this series too, since she's the princess of Japan, Kurogane being the "guardian" of the castle. Kurogane is hungry for fighting, almost a maniac, but as the series goes on, he keeps his temper down a bit. Also, along with our travelers is Fai, the blond magician. From the city of Celes, he is a polite type of guy that often jokes about Kurogane along with the cute mascot, Mokona! Yes, from Magic Knight Rayearth! Mokona is the one who helps the group travel to different worlds, possessing, as Mokona claims, 108 secret techniques. Mokona and Fai are the ones who are often optimistic. And then last but not least, Sakura! She is rather quiet here, but still cute and sweet. She tries to help Syaoran as much as possible, often doubting herself but determined. To wrap it all up, our Tsubasa group is a variety of different people, but they cause the drama, action, and a bit of comedy here and then.
The story is pretty good, a bit original, although I think there was a plot of something like collecting memories in another anime, just like Tsubasa. The idea of hitsuzen and destiny often comes into the story, causing a mysterious sort of aura in the storyline.

Rating

9 (very good)

Art

The artwork, beautiful and high quality. The artwork might look a tiny bit different from Clamp's other work, like the eyes sometimes, and the characters are extremely thin. The first time I looked at pictures for Tsubasa, I didn't want to watch it just because they were really thin and it just looked strange. Guess I'm too picky, because don't doubt the series because of your first sight at the art. The style matches how Tsubasa has action, drama, and fantasy, because you gotta have high quality and beauty to an anime that has fantasy. The colors are pretty nice (maybe it could be just a bit more colorful) and to try and sketch characters perfectly in Tsubasa; it's extremely hard unless you're skilled, so it seems that the artwork took a lot of time; more time than Clamp's other work. The art is not lazy, but thorough, and just beautiful!

Rating

8 (good)

Sound

To me, I can't complain about sound that much, since it's your first time seeing the anime, and once you continue to hear it, if you start hearing it in another language or different voice actors, it'll get bad. In Tsubasa though, the voice actors for the anime seem alright. For Sakura's voice, it is pretty much perfect, since Sakura is soft and quiet, and Yui Makino does a great job doing it. When Sakura sings, it's really good, if you like quiet and serene songs. Syaoran's voice is perfect too, since it's not too rough, nor quiet. Kurogane requires a voice actor that can do scenes of madness, and it has been accomplished. For Fai, his voice actor has an elegant sense in my opinion, and it fits him. Mokona's voice is hyper and joyful, and it's really cute~!
As for the songs...music gets better in the second season, and alright in the first season. A lot of the background music for scenes like fighting are similar to each other, since many of the background songs are by FictionJunction; almost like an opera. The background music is just too similar to each other, and there are a few songs enjoyable. Basically, the voice acting is excellent, the songs are a variety because sometimes Sakura sings soft songs, but the background soundtrack puts a show on.

Rating

7 (above average)

Presentation

We have our adventure, drama, fantasy, and you can say romance element in Tsubasa. There's fighting, but not too much since it's balanced out with the drama and fantasy. The series starts out with some drama, and then there's some more throughout the series. Fantasy is an important role in this series since it relies on the fantasy, and it's pretty creative of how Clamp came up with all the different worlds in Tsubasa. There IS a bit of comedy as I said, caused by Fai and Mokona. You might have a moment where you laugh like crazy, but not too much. It's just some scenes that make you smile or add some break to the serious plotline. Finally, there is some romance of S+S for all you fans out there, and it mainly brings why the adventure happened in the first place. Very balanced in element, it's not going to be boring.

Rating

10 (excellent)

Final Verdict

8.83 (very good)

Reviewed by Fairywater, 37wk 1d ago