Tsubasa: Shunraiki

Tsubasa Chronicle: Shunraiki is the newest OVA adapted from the famous CLAMP manga Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles. After the spectacular work done by production I.G on Tokyo Revelations I can say I was more than excited to watch this, since I am a big fan of the manga. The plot is also connected to the xxxHOLiC Shunmuki OVAs.

Story:
+ Very close adaptation of the original material
+ The actual plot is very interesting and complex
+ Plot twists are sure to surprise some viewers
+ Finally we get xxxHOLiC/Tsubasa connections

- If you've only watched the anime versions of Tsubasa (including Tokyo Revelations) you WILL NOT understand the plot fully.
- ... Manga knowledge is absolutely necessary to understand what is happening.
- Celes and Infinity arcs were never animated (the ones who continue after Tokyo), further emphasizing my previous point.

Art:
+ CLAMP style art (if you like it)
+ Production I.G delivers fantastic and fluid animation even during fight scenes

- CLAMP style art (if you hate it)

Sound:
+ Kajiura Yuki delivers once again
+ a blend of new and old songs makes this very pleasing to listen
+ Great job to all the seiyuus specially Irino Miyo for his Syaoran

- I can't think of anything (sorry)

Character:
+ Great level of character development
+ All the characters are very likeable

- Fai and Kurogane fans might be let down by the lack of involvement of the two during this OVA as they spend most of their time as observers.

Enjoyment: I can say this easily, this 2 episode OVA was absolutely fantastic and I really hoped this would last longer. This was one of my favourite parts of the manga and im glad at how well production I.G has handled it once again. This OVA makes my current top 5 for now. How I wish we could just get a third anime season by I.G ;_;

Overall Tsubasa Shunraiki can be fantastic or annoying depending on how you look at it. As a stand alone OVA adaptation of the manga, it is absolutely perfect. If you try to look at it as a continuation of the series, then unfortunately it is almost a prerequisite to have read the manga to enjoy this fully. If you are a fan of the manga then I guarantee you will not be let down by this, if you have only experience Tsubasa as an anime then I would STRONGLY suggest you read it before trying to watch this, it would greatly decrease the enjoyment factor.

:::I was wondering if Tsubasa Chronicle: Shunraiki would be good, after I have waited for it since Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations and my opinion is...it's just amazing!^^

:::The artwork is precise and even if there are only two episodes, you can see the difference in it between the two seasons of Tsubasa Chronicle and the OVAs.

:::The soundtrack is awesome as always and the op and the ending are very nice.

:::The characters are the same for all of you who have watched Tsubasa, but /especially if you are reading the manga/ you can see them more serious and everyone of them with his personal story in ... the shadows.

:::So I think that this OVAs are one of the best CLAMPs works and you will enjoy them even if you aren't reading the manga and can't understand the plot very well [=

Tsubasa Spring thunder is CLAMP's latest installment of their ever ongoing Tsubasa/HOLIC project. Following the exceptional work that was "Tokyo Revelations" even I was beginning to think I.G was the better choice for handling future Tsubasa projects.

With the announcement of Spring Thunder it was no surprise the various CLAMP fanatics began jumping for joy and same with some of the fans such as me. Now after watching both episodes, I have to say, this was a real let down.

Tsubasa Spring Thunder is the bad example of what happens when the original creator of the source ... material comes to write in the adaption. Nanase Ohkawa (aka Ageha Ohkawa) the principal writer of CLAMP, whom I've found to have exceptional screenwriting talent handled this script for this as well as "Tokyo", having taken over from the TV series writer Hiroyuki Kawasaki. Ohkawa crafted Tokyo so well, I would have handed her the Academy Award for Best Screenwriting of the year. In the case of Spring Thunder I would easily hand her a Razzie award for the Worst.

Ohkawa proves that she and her fellow CLAMP mates are too married to their story that all they can do is tell an animated version of their manga, basically wasting everyone elses time. Spring Thunder proves to be nothing more than a carrot for the loyal fans who have kept reading through the years while basically saying "piss off" to those who have only followed the anime installments. Having only partially read the manga I was beyond confused. As Spring Thunder doesn't immediately pick up where Tokyo left off.

Production I.G's motto is, " to make anime that stands on its own ground without being an extension of manga." And to me I.G completely threw that motto out the window. The film is cluttered with to many flashbacks to events we haven't seen and likely never will, and it only leaves the viewer with a real sense of emptiness and endless plotholes that they won't be able to fill unless they claw their way through god knows how many books there are now. At the very least Ohkawa was still able to make a somewhat-coherent screen story that I could follow at the very least. Still most of the time I was hopelessly lost with no hope of ever returning. It seems the plot of Tsubasa has dissolved to a very epic and thoroughly thought out quest to just mind-bending improv from CLAMP.

Equally disappointing was Shunsuke Tada's direction. Tada used way to many cuts and hardly got creative, except with the action scenes. Too often than not we are cut into long and pointless exposition scenes that some of us really just don't care about. I found my self fast forwarding through this more than on the edge of my seat with anticipation of what the next scene holds. And of course Tada follow the old animation creed of "animation first, music second." Yuki Kajiura's score is ridiculously forced into the background to the point you even wonder if there is any. Rather than use music to heighten the scene and emotion, Tada makes it feel like it's just playing on a radio, as basic white noise. I said this in my review for Tokyo, that the use of music is the thing I find much more appealing about Koichi Mashimo at Bee Train compared to anyone else, and this only proves my point. On the one plus side was he finally decided to use more variety of pieces from the Tsubasa OST archives than he did in Tokyo and we were able to get a few new pieces from Yuki, who is understandably busy with a variety of projects.

Yoko Kikuchi character designs while not dreadful aren't exactly appealing. That being said I do prefer Bee Train's designer Minako Shiba. The art style is a slab of strangely clashing color pallets dull pastel colors mixed in with dark blacks. It's almost as though Tada can't settle on any style. Tomoyo is equally unappealing in her design as she looks like she's wearing football gear under her robes. There is no continuity to the visual style of this. It's bright and flowery yet strangely dark, almost filmed like a dark comedy.

The opening animation is just beyond obscure and doesn't set the mood appropriately for this short OAD series. While Maaya Sakamoto is probably one of the best singers from Japan I've ever heard, her themes never seem to ever to match appropriately to anything Tsubasa. Kajiura however has always mastered the theme songs as her ending has fitted a lot more. It's great to hear FictionJunction YUUKA perform yet again.

The overall animation quality is still very well done for this short production and I didn't notice any real problems with the animation. The fight scenes were well crafted and well animated which made for some great footage.

If anything else saved this from being the worst video production I've seen of all time it was the animation as well as the all star acting from the cast. Miyu Irino has come a long way as an actor, and gives the performance of a life-time for this. The other cast-members also have given it an all star performance and continue to improve as actors.

Spring Thunder isn't bad or terrible. It's simply average, boiler plate, run of the mill. It was CLAMP's little present to their die-hard fans, and leaves anime fans in the dark. It's now very clear as to why this little production is only being sold with the manga instead of a wide release on DVD as opposed to CLAMP's other productions.

It makes me think they should give it back to Mashimo and just make another season, or at least maybe go to the movie director Itsuro Kawasaki.

First off, know that I'm writing this review without reading the manga. But I've watched the two Tsubasa Chronicle series as well as the Tokyo Revelations.

As others have mentioned, This OVA is far off from what the anime series has been leading to so far. But if you watched Tokyo Revelations, things make sense.

Story (10/10)The story evolved from the simple 'travel from world to world' into complex connections and emotions between the characters. The very beginning might be a little confusing because of its connection to the manga plot but other than that, everything makes sense. Also we finally get some xxxHolic connections here (after ... all, it's a 4 part OVA injoint with xxxHolic Shunmuki)

Art (10/10)The art is awesome. You can expect CLAMP at its best, always. There's no more of those 15 second focus shots. Also the dimensional/magical effects are superb.

Sound (10/10) The sound has ALWAYS been awesome. If you watched the Tsubasa Chronicle series, you know how awesome it is already. There are no insert songs, and I find that well put, because they would only slow down the epicness.

Charcater(8/10) like i said already, there are many more connections between the characters than there has ever been. Sakura's character develops about 100 fold in my opinion. I only gave this an 8 because there are some manga background of Fai that I'm missing, which made feel like I was missing something. But with some wiki, that soon disappeared. Like I said even without the manga, things will make sense for the most part.

Enjoyment (10/10) I'm usually a lurker within MANY MANY anime communities, but this OVA was SO EPIC that I just HAD to write a review. It's that awesome to me.

Overall (10/10)....... in the words of Jay-Z: "What more can I say?"

This is ONLY for the most hardcore Tsubasa fans and those who have either read the manga or done significant looking into outside of just the anime. Otherwise this is going to make zero sense to you and it's going to have a completely different tone than what you're used to.

It's faithful to the source material, which is very dark at this point in the story, and I appreciate that they at least tried to give the story some resolution since there was an intended season three that never came to be. There is no substitute for a proper season three, and I still hold ... out hope that we'll see it one day, but in the meantime this is the best we're going to get. This or reading the manga.

Absolutely do not bother watching this unless you're fully caught up with Tsubasa up to this point.

Own, Online Viewing, or Evade
I’d say a show worth watching and Owning.

Overall Rating 3.5/5
A strong group of characters travel between many dimensions to gather the feathers of Sakura’s memories. This OVA has two parts that have time gaps between each other and season 2 of the TV series.

Rumiko Takahashi kind of did this with InuYasha and Ranma ½. This OVA picks up later in the manga than season 2 ended and kind of links into the TV shows with a couple flashbacks. It’s odd but I found it to work well enough to be a recommended buy and continuation.

Theme Songs 4/5
This ... series continues to have solid music, good opening and ending. Mostly fast paced, I didn’t skip them.

Ending 3.5/5
NO spoilers, the ending is imperfect but better than the 2nd season of the TV series.

Tsubasa Shunraiki . . . . Aaahhhh very dark, mysterious, fucking amazing series once again by CLAMP the good thing here is they start at the final events of celes arc, which makes me said "FUCK YOU CLAMP why you bring back my memories to the celes arc? I am going to cry again at first"

*I'm trying to not place any spoilers but ALAS ALAS ALAS i can't

Story : based on nihon arc, good story, flawless writing, still good jokes done by the KuroFai tandem, unexpected events, ahem. . . Hands down

animation : OH GEEE great animation. . . . The quite annoying ... thing here is Fai's priceless emotion when he was saying "come on said it to them" with a somewhat jolly attitude, the animation at that part was quite. . . WTF? o__O

Fighting scenes are awesome, not perfect but still awesome, and i was quite confuse at the first little fight between Fai and seishiro and when Fai do a spin to kick i was like. HOW THE HELL DID HE DID IT?

Characters

Sakura : here we go again, she is still sleeping for a whole time. . .she was useless at this OVA

Syaoran : this time syaoran bring us to an epic fighting scene and no Sakura will interrupted it, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, you'll witness the most epic fight of Two syaoran in CLAMP history in animation (aside to the final battle at manga)

Fai : he bring us to a sacrificial thing, sacrificing another important thing that he has and he was quite nothing except for obtaining a vampire blood (mr bean look)
The furisode thing that he wears, i was Fucking shock ABOUT IT, IT WAS A SIGN THAT KUROFAI IS OFFICIALLY CANON, FUCK CLAMP I REALLY LOVE YOU

kurogane : our Kuro-tan is developing, for being immune to feelings to the series until to being concern to others to the ova.

SOUNDTRACK : TS cracks the anime logic that "all anime OP Must be in a happy mood" (aside to Jigoku Shoujo), Sonic boom sang by Maaya Sakamoto is a song of Feels, i was touched and i felt a great feeling to the song itself, hhnnnngg. . . At the ending theme song, Fictionjunction brings us to a quite Dark ending theme song, kioku no mori is quite intriguing for my ears. . .

SOUNDTRACK : (to the story itself) HANDS DOWN KAJIURA YUKI, that's all. . .

OVERALL : if you want a dark story after the changing events of the manga between Infinity and Celes arc, pleas watch this, this one is a masterpiece, even thou Kurogane and Fai acts as the observers only (school thing duh) you'll definitely love it because they are delivering a quite funny scenes

HANDS DOWN CLAMP

After the amazing Tokyo Revelations, everyone expected Production I.G. to be the savior of this dying anime series. Unfortunately, those expecting a full-fletched adaptation would be disappointed. Shunraiki merely adapts the Nihon arc and a brief recap of the conclusion to Celes arc.

While the Tokyo arc was undeniably amazing for what it accomplished, not just among anime but storytelling in general, the Nihon arc is nothing as groundbreaking and merely offers a lot more exposition. Convoluted exposition in fact. If the Tokyo arc was renowned for its deconstruction, then the Nihon arc would be known for its confusing plot twists. There is yet another plot ... twist in this arc, but rather than cry to a particular scene relating to the twist at the end of episode 2 like most people did, I was merely left with mixed feelings. I guess that, amidst all these confusing turnabouts, all these sudden revelations that weren't explained much (most of it would probably be explained much later, in parts of the manga this OVA doesn't cover, and there probably won't be future OVAs that explain it either), I just felt like it's all too much to absorb at the same time, and I ended up with more confusion than enjoyment.

Those following the anime are out of luck if you haven't read the manga. Your confusion will be even bigger than those who did, because there's a time gap between Tokyo Revelations and Shunraiki, a gap that involves the Infinity arc and the Celes arc. Having no prior context (important context at that), you won't be able to understand certain elements of the plot, and why the main characters ended up where they are now in this OVA. Sakura is probably the one anime viewers would be most confused about, as her situation in Shunraiki largely involves events from prior arcs.

Being a stricter adaptation of the manga than Tokyo Revelations, I feel like there's only one reason you should check this out instead of just reading the book: the animation, or rather, the fight scenes, which flow better and are more engaging here in animated form than in the manga. There's also a beautifully animated scene involving Sakura at the end of episode 2 (the aforementioned scene that people cried to). That's about it. The music is decent as always, but ironically, I didn't hear anything more memorable than the soundtrack of the TV series.

I think my biggest problem with this OVA and why it seems like I'm not putting much effort into the review is that, as beautifully animated as it is, it feels very awkward as a standalone anime. On one hand, you need prior context to appreciate the plot in this OVA, meaning you can't just watch the anime and have to go out of your way to read the manga. As someone with great appreciation for all forms of film (and not much appreciation for books), it just feels disappointing that Production I.G. and CLAMP would pull something lazy like this, telling the audience, "Go read materials not part of this film to understand what the film is about."

And on the other hand, there might not be a continuation of the story. This OVA was only released with the limited editions of the Tsubasa and xxxHOLiC manga. Does that mean we won't get to see future continuation of the story in anime form till there's another limited limited edition of something? What? How does it work? It feels like you are buying a half-finished product if you haven't read the manga - and even if you did, it's still a story half-told and a story that might never be finished in anime form.

Also, there's a lot of exposition scenes in the OVA. This is an example of how not to adapt a comic book. That's why you don't see superheroes having internal monologues the way they do in the comics. You don't adapt the expositions verbatim. Film is a visual medium, not a text-based medium; show, don't tell. Show the exposition in the characters' actions, regardless if whether it's faithful to the material or not.

For this OVA, I would suggest just sticking to the manga. I don't think the OVA is worth much value outside of the animated fight scenes. I can't recommend the purchase.

First and foremost, let me just say that you wouldn’t understand this OVAs if you haven’t been following or have read the original manga story.

There’s a long review coming…….

About the STORY
These OVAs tackled one of the most important and most exciting chapters of the original story. And I am more than thrilled that they chose this part of the story. This chapter has lots of revelations which were very important to the plot and storyline. Most of the important revelations were already revealed, most of the questions were answered, and most of the mysteries were unfolded. Perhaps, 75-80% of the main plots were already revealed. ... And in every revelation, I would always end up being so puzzled and dumbfounded but most of the time amazed on how brilliant the story was made. Until now, after so many years of following the original story, I am still having a hard time comprehending how the Mangakas were able to create such creation. There were lots of mysteries, tons of adventure and action, puzzling storyline, other characters from almost all CLAMP works were used, and it even literally intertwined with the two most famous and most amazing CLAMP works. In fact, the other one wouldn’t be created without the story of Tsubasa. And to add, these OVAs and the other series that was created because of Tsubasa, intertwined together. That’s why they were both made and released together. This is beyond being amazing, being brilliant, being magnificent. This is the epitome of a genuine master piece. A celebration, not only for all CLAMP works but for a genuine anime and manga experience.

About the CHARACTERS
Because almost all of the revelations about the characters were already unfolded, they understood one another even more. They were closer and trust one another better. Even Fai called Kurogane with weird names again. But I am most thrilled that one of my favorite characters crosses over in these OVAs. Well, he literally had to because it was part of the original story.

About the ANIMATION
Seriously, whenever I am watching Tsubasa particularly Tokyo Revelations and these OVAs, it always feels like watching a motion picture which can compete head on with a Hollywood animation film. The animation just keeps on getting better and better. The illustrations, artworks, and graphics just keep on getting better. Heart-pounding visual effects, breath-taking landscapes, and beautiful characters were absolutely one of the best in the entire animation industry not only in Japan but in the whole world.

You might think that I am exaggerating too much with so much praises for this particular series but if you can genuinely grasp how amazing this series is then you might even think all my adjectives are not even enough to express how genius this series is. The plot is just twisted, complicated, and too much exciting that before you know it, you are already bewildered on the story in a good way. And when you are puzzled about the story you end up thinking about it over and over again. I’ve already finished reading this very amazing series but as much as I am in love with the manga version, I am a very visual person so I am definitely wishing that they would continue to adapt the original story into an anime version. I want to see the magnificent ending in the big screen with all the visual effects, colors, flowing movements, and beautiful sounds. PLEASE! PLEASE! MAKE IT!

I thought this anime was rather enjoyable and I'm going to go straight to the point unlike those long and terrible reviews that take ages to read and write. I found this anime to be quite enjoyable but it was missing something but you should definitely watch it. Tsubasa Chronicles is a wonderful anime but I really hated the part where Shaoran ate Fye's eye. Absolutely disgusting, oh and before I forget to mention it, YOU HAVE TO WATCH THE WHOLE ANIME BEFOR YOU WATCH THIS OTHERWISE THE BEING IN THE DARK WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO BEAR!!!!!!!!!!

To sum up the position that Tsubasa: Spring Thunder Chronicle finds itself in is...extremely difficult to explain. While I'd like to believe that Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations did the best that it could with what the anime gave it, I can't help but feel that the return to "canon" material didn't exactly work wonders in the way the show hoped it would. This is only my guess, but I believe that given the low quality of the TV series, it may have been unexpected for future seasons to prove successful, and only a few episodes aired, or it may be another reason. That said, while two ... episodes is nowhere near enough time to fill in all the plot remnants (which would have been much better off with at LEAST a season of 12 episodes to wrap up the remaining plot), something needs to be said for the efforts to try to fix what the TV show and other unfortunate circumstances did the show wrong by. I'd like to applaud what was actually shown in Tokyo Revelations and the successful impact it had; unfortunately, Spring Thunder is a victim of circumstance. Two episodes would be barely enough time to cover directly after the Tokyo arc, and as a result, a lot of content was squeezed out of the show, limiting important plot-relevant moments to be...flashbacks. Many important moments in the manga are only referenced in passing (as though they'd planned a full season) or are shown in flashbacks. This is fine for manga readers, but anime-only viewers are likely to be lost in the whirlwind of plot flashing before their eyes. An example of this is the revelation of Fai's backstory, which is almost glossed over completely but leaves just enough details to confuse an unwary viewer. Add onto this the fact that the "season" ENDS directly BEFORE the most important part of the entire series even begins, and you have a conundrum that puts Tsubasa in...let's call them "unfair circumstances." I'm at a loss; the only thing I can really judge is the quality itself.
Speaking of which, how did Spring Thunder actually do with their quality? Well, content problems aside (which mind you, are still a very major part of the problem), the actual content of the series is...mixed. Some moments are very well-executed, such as the entire dream sequence. However, others feel lazily implemented, expecting viewers to "connect the dots" and realize what happened in xxxHolic. The most jarring of these is a flashback to xxxHolic's introductory episode, which wasn't ever referenced before this point. Furthermore, it's not even in the same show, so anyone who hasn't watched xxxHolic either won't understand or won't care for this reference. Which is sadly, manga only on xxxHolic's part as well. Sigh. The problem isn't necessarily that the series is poor quality; as I said before, it suffers from numerous problems that bring it down before it can even get a chance to truly get into the heart of what it wants to show. 4/10.

OK LET ME SAY THIS I LOVED THE ORIGINAL ANIME BOTH SEASONS ONE AND TWO. THIS IS GOING TO BE FULL OF SPOILERS DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO READ SPOILERS. THIS IS ALSO GOING TO HAVE MORE OF A RANT TELLING YOU NOT TO WATCH THE OVAs IF YOU LIKED THE ORIGINAL A LOT. THESE OVA SERIES WOULD BE BETTER OFF AS CREEPYPASTAS. I DO LIKE HORROR ANIMES BUT THESE OVAS JUST RUINED TSUBASA FOR ME.


I really liked the original anime but when season 2 came they stopped the whole series and give you the OVAs. oh god did these OVAs suck. i ... am going to talk about both OVA series. Honestly i do not understand how people think this wrapped up well. I t seemed like it would be easier to say EVERYONE DIES THE END but that is not actually what happened.

So basically in tokyo revalations syaorans evil clone comes out and stuff. syaoran and his clone start fighting. the clone wins. then syaoran's evil clone eats fai's eye WHAT THE F*** IS THIS S***.

Then the second OVA series oh god this was even worse. it started off as if they were fighting they tryed to get to the next world but they couldnt get through, SO GUESS WHAT THE HELL HAPPENS? KUROGANE HAS TO CUT HIS ARM OFF! so then more stupid sh** happens and then it turns out sakura and syaoran are ARTIFICIAL LIFE AND NOT REAL PEOPLE!!!! MINDF*** TO THE MAX.

F*** these ovas tsubasa should have at least turned in to a long running shounen instead because that would have done the world a good favor but instead this shit happens i try to pay as less attention to the ovas possible so then the original can remain as one of my favorite animes even if it did have a bad ending and a bad set of ovas but if you love the original tsubasa i DO NOT RECCOMEND THIS TO YOU it would possibly ruin it this ova series is a piece of crap