Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations

At first glance Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations is exactly what the anime needed: a manga canon follow-up on the Tokyo arc, which was replaced by a rather confusing ending to the main series, to avoid spoilers there. Overall, the three episodes present are little more than a manga adaptation to the letter, but the series quite frankly needed this; these explorations of character are necessary to understand the characters' backgrounds, particularly Fai and Kurogane's, but Syaoran and Sakura's as well. In the manga, these events thoroughly changed the character's journeys completely and spun the plot around, and I expect if there was more here, it would ... do much the same. The animation here was much better than in either the anime or the Birdcage movie, truly living up to the manga's artistic style and adding its own almost CGI-inspired flare. In my opinion, it was rather puzzling the fact that Sakura Kinomoto's cameo was put here; if I recall, it had a placement closer to the end of the manga and had larger implications for the series as a whole, but in my opinion, new questions are raised by using the method they executed. Particularly, it raises the questions of Sakura Kinomoto's connections to Clow Reed in the Cardcaptor Sakura anime, or if this was meant to be non-canon to the CCS anime, or even real whatsoever; unfortunately, this question goes unanswered even as Sakura Li herself asks. The season also has a rather unfortunate situation similar to Clear Card; while the season is very watchable in of itself, it lies as a victim of a rather unfortunate issue: the series is locked behind content that would only be truly understood by watching the entire anime. Of course, one could simply read the manga or fill in the implied blanks, but this only goes so far and as a result, the series is at least somewhat hampered by this setback. However, as a whole I find it very engaging as this was one of my favorite arcs. If you have the dedication, give it a watch. 8/10.

"Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of".
— Kurt Vonnegut, "Eight Rules for Writing Fiction"

Many might have wondered why Bee Train and NHK failed to adapt the glorious game-changing story arc that is Tokyo in the Tsubasa TV series. But even if you didn't look it up on TVTropes the reason behind this, it's not difficult to tell why NHK (producer of the fluffy and romantic Cardcaptor Sakura) refused to adapt the arc... after you have watched this OVA series. Disclaimer for ... the faint of heart: Tokyo Revelations is brutal, visually and emotionally.

"The Tokyo Arc" features probably the most important character development in the entire story thus far, and it also surpasses all prior arcs in quality. Most impressive of all is its deconstruction of itself and the cliche of "band of adventurers conveniently tagged along by companions with the proper skills and resources" found in countless adventure stories. It also answers the question of what would happen if Sakura deprives a country of a feather that's an important power source to its citizens, a question that some viewers like myself have probably pondered prior to the Tokyo arc, I'm sure.

Understandably, NHK refused to adapt such a radical story arc that literally changes certain characters entirely - some of whom literally becoming unrecognizable from their prior self. After their refusal to compromise, CLAMP proceeded to disown the anime and terminate their business partnership with NHK and Bee Train as the artists felt the anime had trod down a path that's vastly different from what they had in mind following the Recort arc. And what CLAMP had in mind was not to continue on some merry journey having light laughs while teaching platitudes for the kiddies and offering gratuitous fanservice. Instead, what we have here are some very cruel character development that's true to Vonnegut's advice: Sakura is no longer a naive Mary-Sue, Fai ironically falls into deeper despair than right before Tokyo (when he had become more cheerful), Kurogane finally learns important information regarding his mother, and Syaoran... oh, poor Syaoran. If you thought Syaoran had it bad before in regards to Sakura's memory of him... his character is literally destroyed in this OVA. In short, the Tokyo arc is darker, edgier, and far more depressing than anything Tsubasa has dished out before.

The animation team of Production I.G. behind the Tsubasa movie has returned, and with it the more detailed and crisper expressions. Aesthetically, everything has also become more graphic - and this is in spite of the censorship still present within some scenes. Blood is present now, as it should be since several scenes in the arc just don't carry the same emotional impact when you don't witness the grave injuries certain characters suffer. Even the OP theme is darker in tone with its melancholic lyrics and melody, signalling to the audience that from this point on, nothing will be the same ever again.

While far more faithful to the manga than Bee Train has ever been, some content was yet again cut out for either censorship or time-constraint reasons. Being a standalone OVA, it's understandable that they had to cut down certain scenes and exposition that are unnecessary to understand the plot contained in this OVA, specifically Yuko's explanations regarding Fei Wang Reed. That said, along with the censorship still existent in an OVA, it's quite a disappointment they didn't manage to incorporate certain important plot elements in here, including the aforementioned explanation.

But that's a nitpick at best, for Production I.G. has truly stood out with this amazing OVA that carried the same emotional resonance as the manga. The pain and suffering of the characters here (and boy, is there pain...) are beautifully animated in details. Along with its amazing voice work, I believe this is the best way to experience the Tokyo arc first hand as you'll undoubtedly grab for tissues crying along with our struggling heroes.

Tsubasa: Tokyo Revelations was pretty special at times, it had the kind of CLAMP magic that you see in various other media by them, such as Magic Knight Rayearth, Cardcaptor Sakura, or even Code Geass.

The kind of annoying thing is it has this spark of imagination that is so often underpowered because it ends up being poured into a conventional kind of gooey cheesy romance.

Moreover, there is a grating sense of disconnectedness fueled by the anime's bizzare relationship to the previous anime, the manga itself, and events in the future, as well as current events, which all do not ever really feel that ... they are all heading totally in the same direction.

It's a mixed experience for me, and this sounds like it almost wasn't worth watching, so I wouldn't be surprised if other people felt the same. In other words, but anytime CLAMP does anything I think it is something unique and interesting, but all the possibilities drown beneath so many other wild and erratic things it becomes difficult to stand firmly by it.

CLAMP will always have this weird special thing with magic or honesty or something that tends to raise an interest or catch your attention, but outside of maybe Cardcaptor Sakura it never really felt like it coalesced into a formidable current (and maybe not even Cardcaptor)

A 6 seems appropriate.