April 09, 2005
Tsubasa Chronicle Episode 1 - The Inevitable Meeting
OP - Blaze (Kinya) - I don't know why, but I just don't like the song very much, and thus my opinion of the OP is slightly clouded. Nice animation, though.
ED - Loop (Maaya Sakamoto) - I'm a Maaya fanboy, sorry. The song is pretty good, and the animation rather sweet - floating Sakuras and Shaorans with some actual animation, a rare thing in EDs it seems recently.
Be warned, I think I'm going to waffle about this one...
Syaoran is an archaeologist in the kingdom of Clow, and best friends with the princess of the country, Sakura. He is excavating some mysterious ruins which trouble the King, Touya, and his court wizard Yukito. Elsewhere, a mysterious Evil Man decides that the "time has come" and Sakura, enticed by a mysterious voice, ends up in the ruins and activating a magical seal there, sprouting strange wings of light. Shaoran knocks her away from the seal, but in doing so the wings disintegrate, feathers from it flying away with Sakura's memories. Yukito sends Syaoran to another world to the only woman who can help him get them back - the Witch of Time, Yuuko. On his arrival there, he is joined by two others - the brash swordsman Kurogane, exiled by Queen Tomoyo for his aggressive ways, and the enigmatic Fye, on the run from the currently dormant King Ashura.
It is incredibly difficult to write anything about Tsubasa Chronicle given where most of fandom stands in relation to it. I'm sure virtually everyone knows by now that Tsubasa takes the vast majority of its characters from previous works by its creators, the manga group CLAMP (creators of such fan favourites as Tokyo Babylon, X, Chobits, Cardcaptor Sakura etc.) For those who are unaware of the extent of this, the two main characters, Syaoran and Sakura, were the leads in Cardcaptor Sakura (although about 6 years or so younger than they are in Tsubasa).
I'm a big fan of a lot of CLAMP's work, and own all 9 currently published volumes of Tsubasa (I've not really read them all...) So it's very hard for me to get outside of my vague fanboy-ism to judge Tsubasa Chronicle properly. It's also especially difficult given that the show is animated by Bee Train (Noir, Madlax, .hack//Sign etc.) and directed by Koichi Mashimo, whose directorial style is certainly an acquired taste, plus we have music from Yuki Kajiura who is recognisably stylised. I'm going to try my best, though.
Tsubasa Chronicle certainly looks right. Bee Train have captured the manga's impossibly gangly limbs and squished faces perfectly (don't get me wrong, I love the art style, but it is very, very silly) and the background art in particular is strikingly good. I'm not sure about the animation quality, though - I think it's pretty good, but there are plenty of Mashimo's traditional "sliding face" shots, although the pacing isn't quite as lethargic as something like .hack was. The little action there was in this episode was well animated, although the OP looked a little odd - I think I'm just not that keen on the song, so I didn't quite get how it meshed with the animation. EDIT: having rewatched the proper widescreen version with the full OP (the raw I had was missing the very opening) I think it looks MUCH better - watch in widescreen if you can, the show's background artwork certainly deserves it and the OP/ED in particular make very good use of the extra width)
Seiyuu-wise, as we've kept none of the old seiyuu for any of the characters from previous CLAMP series it's very, very difficult to throw off the distinctive portrayals by Motoko Kumai and Sakura Tange for Syaoran and Sakura in particular. In order to appreciate these roles properly, I had to continually remind myself that this ISN'T Cardcaptor Sakura, and these characters, while vaguely similar, are older and (slightly, anyway) more grown-up.
Miyu Irino's voice for Syaoran is okay, I guess - I can't think of anyway of doing it much better, and since he's young it actually suits the part quite well. I'm definitely more impressed with Sakura's new seiyuu, Yui Makino - she's definitely not Sakura Tange, but the hyper-cuteness doesn't really suit Sakura any more, and I think she's managed to get the characterisation in Tsubasa just right so that she won't come across totally vapid without her memories (a real worry of mine when I first began reading the manga). Haven't heard much of the other principals yet, though.
As a Kajiura fan, I can say that Tsubasa probably has her most interesting score since Petit Cossette, although whether it really suits the show is debatable. Lots and LOTS of wordless vocal stuff and some interesting "ethnic" tunes, which suits the relatively somber and serious attitude of the first episode, but there are parts of Tsubasa which are pretty light-hearted - there were definitely moments of comedy here (and I smiled! RESULT!) but it gets quite silly in places, and it remains to be seen how Mashimo can handle comedy. On another brief note, this episode feels quite rushed, although it was a similar situation in the manga so I'm not too concerned about that.
So, overall, I'm still a bit confused as to how I feel about Tsubasa. My fanboyism and the negative hype over this adaptation have somehow combined to leaving me unsure whether I enjoyed the first episode or not, because I was constantly thinking about different aspects of it rather than sitting back and just taking it in. If I can get past this, however, I think Tsubasa Chronicle should be an enjoyably solid, if not especially amazing, show - much like the original manga, in fact. I suspect, being a CLAMP whore as I am, I'll get a lot more enjoyment out of it than some others (I'm particularly thinking about the events of volume 6, for those of you who've read the manga), but as long as you don't try and overthink the show like I have, I hope other people will enjoy it too.
Posted by BluWacky at April 9, 2005 04:31 PM | TrackBackFirst off, I have to say that I've never seen or read a CLAMP product in my life. But I liked the episode even though I agree it felt rushed. I just disagree about the seiyuu performances, especially Syoran's and Sakura's. I thought hers sounded too reserved..almost to the point of being flat. There seemed to be little enthusiasm on Makino's part. But it's probably just me. That aside, I liked the art a lot(although the animation seemed a little stinted at times) and am looking forward to seeing more of the other characters as the show progresses.
Posted by: Hephador at April 9, 2005 07:39 PMFirst off, I don't think I need to specifically comment on what I think of the quality ED and the BGM - its quite probably obvious (to the blogs owner at least ^_^;). BGM I found to be reminiscent of her //SIGN work more than her other OSTs. I don't like the OP though.
I'm a moderate fan of CLAMP - I'm more familiar with the anime adaptions than a lot of the original manga runs (I'm seen all the anime CCS, but only read a couple of volumes of the manga, and I don't think I've read any substantial amount of Rayearth, for example), but I'd consider myself a fan regardless. I've only been following the US release of Tsubasa (only up to #4 IIRC), but it at least means I'm familiar with it, and honestly, whilst I enjoy it, I'm more of a fan of XXXHolic. What I mean to say is, I'm relatively well-grounded in the source material.
Anyway, in regards to the show, I thought it was a pretty well-done adaption of the source material. The voices were more jarring than I expected, though oddly not so much for Sakura and Shaoran (who have obviously matured anyway, so would obviously sound different - though I thought Yui Makino came across a little too flat for the character pre-wipe), but mainly for the other characters from CCS, Tomoyo in particular (possibly because of who the new seiyuu was ^_^). Other than that, though, I thought it was good. The pacing was about right (though I'd have actually preferred them to skip through this bit more quickly and get to the world hopping), the music worked in this episode at least and the animation was decent enough (I also like the art a lot). Its probably the show from this season I've dug the most, though Speedgrapher and *whisper*Aquarion*whisper* are close behind.
I looking forward to hopefully seeing (well, hearing) how they voiced Watanuki next week.
Posted by: DiGiKerot at April 9, 2005 08:37 PMI've never watched CCS in Japanese so I don't know what the original voice actress sound like but I'm not keen on TRC Sakura as somebody said before its forced and flat but then again this is her very first dub so things will hopefully get a little better. Syaoran voice is ok and I think the best one is Kurogane.
Posted by: sainfate at April 9, 2005 08:51 PMI think I'd better clarify my opinion on Yui Makino's performance.
I harbour a great dislike for the frequently cookie-cutter nature of Japanese voice acting (and live action acting as well), wherein you get 30 year old women putting on forced "kawaii" voices to play teenagers and blokes don't even bother with any kind of acting range (although they don't really need to, it seems), with most roles involving forced histrionics and exaggeration. I always find it very refreshing when an actor or actress brings a much more natural sounding voice to a role - much like Kokoro's seiyuu in Aishiteruze Baby, I feel Makino sounds like a real Japanese teenager - much like Miyu Irino does for Syaoran. One of the reasons I've always liked Maaya Sakamoto is that she also brings a sound of "normality" to her acting, unlike some of the more well known fan favourites such as Megumi Hayashibara.
That's not to say that some veterans of the industry aren't excellent within this field - as I said in my Air entries, Tomoko Kawakami and Aya Hisakawa gave fantastic performances, and I'm fans of their work in a lot of series. But I really do like hearing more "normal" voices in my anime.
DigiKerot - I've rewatched the last few minutes of Aquarion 1 far too many times this week. I know it's cheesy, but...I still really like it :D So many people are saying this season hasn't been very good (like usual, then) but I've found loads of series I'm interested in watching, so I'm happy - plus we've got several major shows still to air, with Eureka Seven and Trinity Blood very highly anticipated by myself in particular ^_^
Posted by: BluWacky at April 9, 2005 10:52 PMI've read all of the Tsubasa mangas so far, and I watched the ep (but, my understanding was slightly hindered without subtitles:) and, I have to say, I really like Miyu Irino's voice as Syaoran. Of course, my opinion is also slanted as I've loved him since I first saw Spirited Away...
I don't really like Yui Makino though. Maybe her voice will grow on me, I'm not sure. But, it seems too high pitched, and a little too hyper still. I'll still give her another chance though:)
I also didn't like the opening song. Gah, this is such a sterotype, but it's like a cheesy anime show--no matter the quality of the content. That, and it just bothers me when shows use popular songs for the opening that don't fit the mood of the show. (I did like the ending song--it was beautiful)
Posted by: livebanana at April 12, 2005 04:58 PMA good review! I admit that I still have mixed feelings about this one as well, though coming at it from the complete opposite direction. I'm an overgrown Mashimo fanboy with no CCS or CLAMP baggage ('cept that I haven't liked any other CLAMP-anime that I've seen thus far), and I'm a little worried that the constraints of the expectations of the existing fanbase may stifle the show a bit more than I'd prefer.
That said, Mashimo *has* done comedy before; from the original Tank Police & a Dirty Pair movie through Sorcerer Hunters, Irresponsible Captain Tylor, and (supposedly, but I don't see his name in the credits yet, but it's Bee Train) Wild Arms.
My initial reaction is that this is some weird blend of Wild Arms and .hack//SIGN :)
hi there.. tsubasa seems to be a great show... does someone know if the "background music" in the first episode is an existing song or if it was made special for tsubasa... mail me @ cyrus_saviour@hotmail.com all help is thankful!! live long and prosper animefans:D:D
Posted by: PerssoN at April 21, 2005 10:07 PMes muy buena
Posted by: charlie at July 26, 2005 04:19 PM