CLAMP's Sakura Kinomoto and Syaoran 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

Aside from things proceeding too fast in the beginning and a bit slow afterwards, this anime is quite fun. This anime is quite entertaining. Although at times Syaoran's all-motivated, idealistic, all-gentle, and all-objective personality gets really boring and flat, I found some of the other characters somewhat made up for it in terms of humor. However, really... the characters are too shallow and none of their "will" or "determination" really impacted me at all. Syaoran can say "im going to get it done" all he wants, but I just don't feel that drive he does.

Nevertheless, there are so many inconsistences in this story line. They also assumed too many things. I guess its understandable when you try to fit so much into 26 episodes. In other words, only the barebones of the story line are touched upon. This made the anime a bit harder to get into. The last few episodes improved this aspect a little bit, but I didn't really gain anything from watching the beginning journey... not enough story elements.

I really liked all the flashbacks with Sakura and Syaoran though :) These were very heartwarming to watch at times. I also liked the parts where they finally stopped in the cafe to find the feather. The story really improved exponentially once they stopped in one place. They finally allowed some development to happen. However, I don't really feel Syaoran's devotion to Sakura. Sakura is too airheaded most of the show and her interesting character prior to losing her memories were gone with those feathers. She's too quiet most of the time.

Fye and Kurogane are great support characters though. They're both like comic relief for the all too serious Syaoran. It'd be nice if he lightened up a little bit. After all, Sakura is still alive next to him while he tries to get those memories back.

And if there were reasons to be sad, this anime doesn't really convey this feeling very well. In the end, there just isn't enough "at-the-moment" enjoying of the story-line.

Rating: 6

Art

It was funny to see all these "grown up" CCS characters, but I really liked the costume design and colors. It made everything more fantasy and dream like, and very easy to get into. I think this is the next-best thing to a computer enhanced animation style if only they drew in more movements.

My only qualm is that the pretty colors seemed to take away from any character movement. If you look beyond the cute characters and fanciful costumes, you'll notice that no one is making smooth movements. (Too much panning and basic movements).

Rating: 8

Sound

Very basic music that captures (makes?) the essence of various environment. Too bad the music rarely heightens the mood... as it never really appeared during the anime during key moments.

The sound effects were sufficient, but nothing really impressive.

Rating: 7

Presentation

Tsubasa Chronicle is a very straightforward anime with few tugging questions or 'mysteries'. Although a lot is left unsaid, the pacing of the anime really doesn't make their mysteries very important. The crew set out on a journey almost immediately with absolutely no background given for anyone. Even up to episode 18 nothing about anyone's powers is told and the groups cooperation with each other is almost too simple and quick. My main qualm with the beginning is how did Kurogane accept Syaoran so quickly? I accepted Fye's reasons just barely.

Putting all personal annoyances aside, this anime is a fun travel/journey anime and there aren't enough of these pure journey animes out there. I really liked the excitement of the characters traveling to different times and dimensions, meeting all sorts of interesting figures. Furthermore, after awhile the fights get more heated and flashy. With a combination of nice visuals and sound effects, Tsubasa Chronicle is a good fantasy anime to enjoy in a laid back manner.

Rating: 7

Final Verdict

6.83 (above average)

Reviewed by nauxolo, 51wk 2d ago

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