Overview:
Due to the fact that I never watched or read "Cardcaptor Sakura" (apart from a few episodes I watched when I was a kid), "Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle", also called "Tsubasa Chronicles", is the only real impression I have of Sakura and Syaoran, and for the most part, it's a pretty damn good one. Simply put, "Tsubasa Chronicles" is a massive crossovers of many works from the manga writing team CLAMP, including "xxxHolic" and "Chobits" (both of which I have watched and will be reviewing in the future). While there are plenty of flaws, I still think it will appeal to anyone who's a fan of dimensional travel stories.
Story (7.5/10):
The story revolves around two childhood friends, an archaeologist named Syaoran and a princess named Sakura. While visiting Syaoran at a ruin, Sakura falls prey to a mysterious symbol, which scatters her memories across dimensions in the form of feathers. Falling into a catatonic state, Sakura will die if her feathers aren't recovered, so Syaoran seeks out the mysterious witch Yuuko, who has the ability to grant wishes in exchange for a price. Simultaneously, the mage Fai and swordsman Kurogane, both of whom come from different worlds from Syaoran, also seek out the witch. However, while all three men have different motivations, their fundamental goal is the same i.e. they all want to travel to different worlds, and so Yuuko sends all of them on a quest together through dimensions to find Sakura's feathers and save her life.
It quickly becomes clear that this isn't your average shonen. In order to go on their quest, Syaoran, Fai and Kurogane all have to give up something dear to them, with Syaoran giving up Sakura herself, or more specifically her memories of him. Therefore, you always have in the back of your mind that no matter how many of her memories Sakura regains, she will never remember Syaoran or the time they spent together, so they're pretty much forced to rebuild their relationship from scratch. Additionally, while the series starts off fairly light-hearted, it gets noticeably darker with every major arc. This applies not only to the tone of the show, but also the characters, with several of their personalities being to be highly abnormal or even twisted. The OVAs take the cake, however, as they gather just about everything that defined the series up until then, and completely blow it up in the viewers' faces. The worlds the group visit are also very interesting and varied, with some of them even resulting in a temporary genre shift.
Unfortunately, the pacing will definitely put off some people. The first two arcs alone cover 11 episodes including the first, which is more of a prologue than anything else, meaning that in nearly half a season, the group have only acquired two feathers, of which there are many. Granted, most of the subsequent arcs are shorter, but even that's marred by all of the fillers, where the group will travel to a certain world and end up finding nothing. The OVAs have a faster pace, but sadly there are gaps between both them and the anime. The story as a whole just feels very disjointed, and ends up leaving much unresolved.
Art and Animation (8/10):
The anime's art definitely leaves something to be desired. The characters are all unnaturally thin, even the inhumanly strong Kurogane, to the point that they sometimes look more like stick figures than people. The animations can be pretty stiff as well, particularly during fight scenes. There are some nice effects here and there, but not enough to rise it above any more than average. Thankfully, the OVAs look a lot better, which likely has something to do with the animation studio being changed from Bee Train to Production I.G.
Sound & Dialogue (9/10):
If there is one reason to watch the series, the soundtrack is a big contender. The music has this hauntingly beautiful feel to it that really fits the series for reasons I can't even describe. Songs of particular note include the first season opening "Blaze", the Tokyo Revelations opening "Synchronicity" and the recurring song "A Song of Storm and Fire". The voice acting is great as well; Jason Liebrecht, Monica Rial, Vic Mignogna and Christopher Sabat deliver great performances as Syaoran, Sakura, Fai and Kurogane, respectively and the dub features a strong supporting cast as well, including Colleen Clinkenbeard in a major recurring role, namely Yuuko.
Characters (7.5/10):
As usual, I will start with the protagonist of the series, in this case Syaoran. The fact that he is willing to give up the time he spent with Sakura to save her shows right away what a kind and selfless person he is, since it shows her life is what's most important to him, and he will do whatever it takes to save it. However, for all his kindness and eternal determination, he can also be innocently insensitive- he has a bad habit of keeping things to himself out of fear that this will worry his companions, especially Sakura, not realizing that this only makes them worry even more. Flashbacks shows that he was like this even as a kid, to the point that he was more concerned about the bills his adopted father had to pay for treatment than his own injury, and he sometimes wonders if he really is the right person to save Sakura. This inferiority complex helps flesh out his personality, and also makes for some decent character development. On a lighter note, since he's an archaeologist, Syaoran has a great passion for artwork and ancient artifacts, to the point that whenever he finds such an object, he can't resist examining it, which made me smile more than once.
Next up is the girl herself, Sakura. Although she starts the journey unconscious as a result of having no memories, she wakes up after her first feather is recovered and she becomes an official member of the group. She is generally very reserved and quiet as a result of having little strength, but also incredibly kind-hearted, more so than anyone else in the group. To elaborate, even as an empty shell with none of her memories, merely meeting her was enough to convince a violent gang leader to give up his violent ways and hand over his territory to the opposing side, though that's when the series is at its most light-hearted. There are also a couple of times when she sacrifices a way to make her quest easier to help others, though much like Syaoran, there are times when her selflessness can end up backfiring. Additionally, on occasion she almost begins to remember Syaoran only to end up forgetting again as a result of Syaoran's payment, which can be quite heartbreaking as the two slowly start to bond again. Ultimately, despite not being much of a fighter, she manages to not be annoying in the slightest, and the kind of girl you would actually want to save and risk your life for, making her my favourite character.
There's also the other pair in the group, Fai and Kurogane, who are in many ways complete opposites of each other. Despite being a mage, Fai doesn't use magic very often, due to giving up a crest that keeps his magic from going out of control as payment for travel, though thankfully he compensates by being a very skilled hand-to-hand combatant. Kurogane, on the other hand, gives up his sword, which forces him to rely on whatever swords he finds during the group's journey. Despite always smiling, it's clear to Kurogane that Fai is hiding something and is nowhere as cheerful as he seems, which is hinted early on and throughout to be the result of something horrible happening in his past. Notably, while Kurogane seems more visibly affected by his past, being very jaded and sarcastic and never smiling, he doesn't allow it to drag him down and is focused on the present and future, and accuses Fai of being stuck in his past, which is ironic considering Kurogane's goal is to return to his own world while Fai's is to never return to his. While both are great characters in their own right, I found Fai to be the more fleshed-out and developed of the two, though ultimately I didn't like either of them as much as Sakura and Syaoran.
Rounding up the main group is Mokona, a mysterious creature given to the group by Yuuko who serves as their source of transport through dimensions. She provides much of the comic relief along with Fai, and the two often team up in teasing Kurogane. She can be a bit annoying at times, but I still found her likable. However, apart from the main five, Yuuko and Tomoyo (a princess that Kurogane is devoted to and the group meet copies of in other dimensions), there really isn't that many characters of note. Notably, while the group frequently meet different versions of people that they've met in previous worlds they visited, they tend to act the exact same regardless of what world they're from, which I find to be a bit of a waste as I've seen plenty of interdimensional stories where clones of people from different worlds act slightly differently depending on their upbringing or other circumstances.
Enjoyment (7.5/10):
As interesting and enjoyable as it is, "Tsubasa Chronicles"'s slow pace definitely works against it more often than not, as there were quite a few times where I found myself very bored, with a couple of arcs going on for a fair bit longer than I felt was necessary. The fight scenes are also far from the most exciting, which certainly isn't helped by the average animation. The OVAs do fix this problem to an extent, but they come at the cost of being a lot more depressing, and the sudden shift in tone may put off some people altogether.
Overall:
Despite its slow pace and disjointed, incomplete story, "Tsubasa Chronicles" is a likable, unique shonen anime, with deep, layered main characters, interesting and varied worlds and a beautiful musical score. I have however heard many times that the manga is better in nearly every way, which is a pity for me as a non-manga reader. That being said, I've always been someone who takes what he can get, and ultimately this is an anime I do not regret spending my time on.
Score:
7.5+8+9+7.5+7.5=39.5/50=7.9/10
