Tsubasa Chronicle 2nd Season

Like I said in my Season 1 review for this show, this is my single favorite anime series of all time and I'm not going to even pretend to be objective because I know I can't be.

It's flawed, and Season 2 is worse than Season 1 with a higher number of mediocre episodes/lower number of standout episodes, no resolution to the story and a number of unanswered questions but I just don't care.

The characters, charm, soundtrack, humor, adventure and love story just really, really do it for me.

PLEASE TSUBASA SEASON THREE ONE DAY!!!

OBJECTIVE RATING- Strong 6/Weak 7
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 9

A lot of the issues season two carries with it were largely already present in season one such as the multiple smaller stories making less interesting ones drag.

Though when they drag in season two, the drag is more noticeable as season two is less eventful overall than season one. They take on a lot of foreshadowing, but return very little substance and that makes it feel like the series progresses very little by the end of 26 episodes.

That said, the best episodes of the series are from this season so while the season overall is lacking at best with its wild fluctuations in storytelling quality, ... a few select episodes/arcs are worth watching. (Sorrowful Miracle - which follows up on the events of season one's The Last Wish - and Black Steel were two personal favourites.)

As for character, I found myself liking certain familiar characters less and other ones more, which surprised me since the main cast developed very little in season two with Kurogane being the only exception. It's probably because most characterizations became static and without anything to move the characters forward, there was very little to be enthusiastic about.

As for the art and sound, very little changed in terms of quality from season one to season two so if you were fond of season one with these items in mind, you won't be disappointed with season two.

They still desperately need reference material for fight scenes and fewer panning stills.

Overall, not the worst, though if you were strongly attached to season one, season two may end up being a disappointing watch.

The first season of Tsubasa Chronicle was riddled with problems that bogged down an otherwise great show concept. Having an expanded universe of in-house creations across different worlds/dimensions is an exciting idea. Sadly, when coupled with mediocre animation, flat voice acting, and worst of all, one-off stories that don't go anywhere, it's hard to still justify that concept. The 2nd season promises more exciting and dangerous adventures and to possibly repair the mistakes of the past. But does it actually deliver on its promise? Personally, I have to disagree.

With the last major arc of the 1st season, we are left with a few unresolved questions. ... Who is the mysterious clone of Syaroan kept by Fei Wong? Will Syaroan's rival Seishiro come back to impede his progress? How many more memory feathers are there? What about the pasts and significance of Fai and Kurogane? There's a lot for this show to explain and cover in 26 episodes and yet it seems that the series seems more content dragging its feet than to hold its viewer's attention. More "feather of the week" episodes are abound in this season, many of them never relating back to the main questions at hand. The first 3 episodes are dedicated to a race with a feather as the prize. During the preliminaries, it is discovered someone is meddling with the race and causing the "dragonfly" cars to explode! Fast-paced action plus a dash of psychological insight would have made this a stellar beginning to the season. Instead, it's a slow watch as the race plays out predictably up until a nonsensical twist. You could say the same for many of the arcs in this season - they have an interesting premise, play out slow and predictably, then throw a random twist in there that's more confusing than entertaining. Considering the series has been quite straightforward thus far, I doubt it's anything that you need to think about - it's more or less a way so the story can start moving to the next world.

What could be considered the most disappointing is that a rather large chunk of the season is filler! The first 17 episodes are more or less canon, while the last 9 are all originals. Are the original episodes at least a worthwhile watch? Normally I'd say no, but considering the material I've seen up until these episodes, I'd say stick with it if you like what you see. Most of the originals are bland like the one where Kero from Cardcaptor Sakura and Mokona meet, but some of them have some fairly interesting ideas. The one where they return to Koryo to meet Chu'nyan and enter a demon parallel world is decent for extended world building and the last arc in Tao Country with the ruler Chaos had a lot of good ideas. But I've said this before - this show is great with ideas but it doesn't know how to properly execute them. With a better studio or writing staff at the helm, it would've made for a great OVA. Instead, its underdeveloped and is more content being padding for a season than it is showing off the team's creative talents.

As curious as some of these originals are, it begs the question - why not adapt the manga portion for the last 9 episodes instead of coming up with originals? There's a rather intriguing answer behind this. According to a comment made by a fan of the series, the show originally aired on a channel that was more educational and made for kids. A major arc in the series, the Tokyo arc, shows a lot of violence and gore(!) - rather than adapt this, they instead filled up the rest of the requested episodes with their own. There are many conclusions you can walk away with from this story - the studio weren't fully aware of the restrictions and they did it out of necessity, they wanted a kiddie series like Cardcaptor Sakura and instead they got something much more dark, etc. Whatever the case, everyone loses with the end result and the Tokyo arc could've showed off the strong potential the series has.

So does this season at least do anything better than the previous one? Gladly, it does! The biggest takeaway from this is Kurogane's backstory, in which we see a tale of a young swordsman hone his craft in a royal family only for tragedy to strike and scar him permanently. It's not as impactful as a solid "wandering ronin" tale, but it's a shining moment that the series desperately needed. Though Fai doesn't get any real backstory (again), an early one-off episode gives a small peak as to what it may be. Even without all the finer details, it still is a rather sweet story that shows off Fai's boyish charm. Though we don't get all the pieces to the puzzle, there's enough to help shape a better image of Syaroan and Sakura's partners.

The animation is still the same for the series, bland and second rate. It needs help from Bee Train's parent company, Production I.G., badly. Compare this to the flashiness the Birdcage movie had - it's a real disappointment. As a general rule of thumb, if your show is action oriented, shortcuts only hurt it overall. This wouldn't be as bad if the series were a slice of life but the cutaways during a critical scene and off-models really damage the appearance of the show. I will say that there seems to be more variety in the music, with a few more original songs. I take back what I said about the first season music-wise - the soundtrack to this anime is very good and helps save a few scenes with Yuki Kajiura's wonderful songwriting. The voice acting also seems a bit more lively this time - it's not perfect but it evokes more emotion than the stale delivery that haunted the first season.

Overall, I give Tsubasa Chronicle 2nd Season a 4/10. Some series get better if you allow them the chance to shine. Other series are almost mandatory to watch in full - to quote a friend, "you need to see the ending to understand the beginning". Tsubasa Chronicle, at least from the anime adaptation, is neither of those. It is a series that comes close to achieving strength but poor circumstances deny it from being a series that's worth any investment. I can not recommend it.

Do you like or dislike this anime? If you haven't watched it, are you encouraged to watch it or not? Leave a comment on my profile telling me what you think of the anime and/or my review.

Thanks for reading and have a blessed day!