Animation: This is what I shall always be critical about, I have never liked BeeTrain's style which tends to drag the story and make everything slower paced than they are supposed to be. Noir and Madlax have been a snore fest for me, Tsubasa Chronicles although having a manga to backup, had almost the same pacing with characters wearing static expressions throughout the episodes with the exceptions of a few gasps and shouts... I mean... they are even lazy to make livelier expressions! And due to NHK restrictions, everything has been toned down. A little more blood and gore like the anime X or as projected in the manga would have propelled this anime to a higher rating, how they tried to make everything bloodless just seemed awkward. Don't misunderstand, CLAMPs art is still really good, its just the animation that did not live up to standards
Sound: No one has complaints here, Yuki Kajiura's music continues to excel with some great tracks like Crying Alone, Aikoi and Broken Sword of Justice, in fact, almost everyone would agree that the music is the main factor that still keeps viewers interested. For this season I preferred the ending to the opening, an uplifting, lively song full of hope and happiness, perfectly suited for Syaoran and Sakura's feelings. The seiyuus gave the same pleasing performances as before.
Story: there were some arcs that were very good, like the Ashura arc, Kurogane's past and the Piffle arc. Some fillers were quite interesting too while some others like back to ChunHyang's world were just too repetitive. It was very apparant that they were trying to save the 2nd Syaoran bit as a climax for the next season by dragging out the plot to the extent of turning it into 'finding one feather an episode'. Therefore as an intermediate bit for the Tsubasa series, this season didn't leave too strong of an impression, yet it did succeed in leaving some questions and desire for the next season, thanks to the excellent Kurogane arc and the mysterious 'Syaoran in the tube' which gave hints to the other side of Tsubasa, a darker and unpredictable plot which was to be unfolded in the future.
Character: The good point of Tsubasa is that the group of main characters are basically lovable, with different personalities and from different backgrounds, yet giving off a feel like they are one big happy family who care for each other very much. Mainly 2 obvious character developments were done in this season, including the background story of Kurogane and most importantly, Sakura does have a bit more development compared to the walking shell in the 1st season. Syaoran, Mokona and Fai were still their usual selves but I never minded that because seeing this group interacting is basically one of the fun moments of Tsubasa. Although thanks to the rigid animation, the characters still gave off a rather stony, lifeless feel. It may just be me but yes, compared to the other animated Clamp works, this seemed too obvious.
I did still enjoy this series, thanks to the excellent music and my love for the Sakura+Syaoran pairing but still I can't help thinking this could have been handled a lot better with such a strong manga to back it up. In other words, it had potential, but it just didn't live up to most expectations.
If you are fond of the first season though you might like the second season. However it would be advisable not to read the manga first or you'd get very disappointed with how this anime turned out to be
