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nauxolo's Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle Tv Review

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle tv Review

CLAMP's Sakura Kinomoto and Syaoran Li are back, but they're not the same characters we've come to know from Cardcaptor Sakura. 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 try 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 dimensional 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 magical creature 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

6.8333 (above average)

Reviewed by nauxolo, Nov 12, 2008

Comments

  1. peta14 Dec 23, 2008

    I have to agree. The anime storyline is a bit slow, but still a lot of fun. I would have rated the animation a little higher. But then again, there were a few episodes where the quality of animation wasn't up to par. But at least the OVAs are much better in terms of quality ^^.

  2. yukirina Jan 16, 2009

    I love this anime!

  3. Sorron Jan 20, 2009

    A good anime but the book is better.

  4. DOUBLESKIPHEART Feb 05, 2009

    I really enjoy reading the manga. Yeah, the storyline for the anime is slow, I didn't like the art very much for it either.

  5. crazy-kuro Banned Member Feb 09, 2009

    Yup . I agreed the storyline is really slow , in season 1 the storyline is better , but starting from season 2 the storyline starts to get boring , mayb the storyline slow gua .

  6. tsuyoshi7171 Feb 21, 2009

    el manga es muy bueno lo recomiendo

  7. narunarunarunaru Feb 28, 2009

    well.. keep it up...

  8. Kiara4ka Mar 01, 2009

    Very good anime, the story is interesting & you won't be bored...

  9. beryl0402 Mar 15, 2009

    wow

  10. rukasu04 Mute Member Apr 28, 2009

    manga is better >.<

  11. pigmypuff Jun 03, 2009

    clamp ar D best

  12. yuyuppi Jun 07, 2009

    princess sakura
    fight!

    merged: 06-17-2009 ~ 07:29am
    sugoi

  13. pmgbapm Jun 23, 2009

    manga is better than anime///.... it is more beautiful

  14. ResonantSoul Jul 23, 2009

    I should watch this, -w-

  15. yukirina Aug 06, 2009

    I love this anime!

  16. SchRita Aug 23, 2009

    Thanks for the review!

  17. Ninininha Aug 30, 2009

    So cute...

  18. Rodrigo0010 Sep 03, 2009

    good job! nice review

  19. Sanisa Sep 21, 2009

    Cool review

  20. mars19902004 Oct 03, 2009

    I will try to find and watch it. Sound interesting.

  21. SchRita Oct 31, 2009

    Thanks for the review!

  22. meiling Nov 01, 2009

    I love this picture.
    So everybody let's be my friend.

  23. animalandia Nov 14, 2009

    esta serie es muy buena lastima que no tenga final, gracias por el aporte

  24. SchRita Dec 22, 2009

    Thanks for the review!

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