Tsubasa Chronicle 1
Opening: "BLAZE" by Kin'ya: Good animation, and I like the song as well.
Ending: "Loop" by Sakamoto Maaya: You can't go wrong with Maaya, and the animation was stylistic and well done. Sakura-chan was especially kawaii~ :)
See moyism for many, many, many, many more screencaps ;)
First impressions here... I liked it, plain and simple :) It'll take a few weeks to get used to the new character voices for Sakura and Shaoran, but I have no problems with them at all. I'm not very sensitive to voice acting, anyways..
Technically, Bee Train's done a wonderful job. Good character design, nice backgrounds, and we'll see how the action turns out later as there wasn't a whole lot this time. Kajiura's score is definitely the usual for her, which means pretty darn good so far. More later..
In the Clow Kingdom, situated in the middle of a vast desert, a young man returns to his house. He's Shaoran, and he's been doing archeological work at the ruins nearby the city, continuing the work of his father. There's a knock at the door, and as soon as he opens a girl comes flying in. She's Sakura.. Sakura-hime, actually, as she's the princess of the Clow Kingdom, and assaults Shaoran with a barrage of questions: "How's the dig going? Are you hurt? Have you been eating properly?". He's been fine.. But he said in keigo (honorific language), and Sakura doesn't like that at all. She's got a name ;) Shaoran's only going to be there for a bit, as he's going back to the excavation site at night...
The evening comes, and Shaorana and Sakura walk the streets of the city. Sakura a bit nervous.. she's run out of the castle without telling her brother (the king) where she went as usual. Seems the king doesn't like Shaoran... She stops at a stand selling (gold-colored) apples, and everyone around recognizes her as the princess. The people of the city really love her, it seems.. but guards from the castle have spotted her, so it's time to run! Shaoran grabs her hand and they run off, escaping to a rock outcropping outside the city.
Shaoran realizes he's been holding Sakura's hand and brings his back, but she holds on, wanting to stay like this for just a bit more. It's been 7 years since Shaoran came to the Clow Kingdom with his dad, who came to investigate those ruins. His dad died during that time, though, so Shaoran continues his work. Sakura asks if he won't come live in the castle with her.. Shaoran says that'd be odd. He can't fit in there, and he's got the work at the ruins to do anyways.. But because of that work, Sakura hasn't been able to see him much lately, and she's been lonely. She knows the excavation of the ruins is Shaoran and his father's dream, but.. she still wants to see him. When she's out on the veranda she thinks about what he's doing. And he thinks about Sakura as well.. Sakura's got something to tell Shaoran. But before she can finish what she was going to say the castle bell rings.. She's got to go home now. She'll tell him what she was going to say the next time she sees him, and walks home.. Shaoran thinks to himself.. it's not good to have feelings like this, even if Sakura's his childhood friend and all... she's a princess, after all...
Sakura tries sneaking into the castle, but she's in plain sight of the king, her older brother, Touya. She's been to that brat's place again, hasn't she? Sakura objects to him calling Shaoran a "brat". Yukito, the priest, comes in and stops the sibling bickering for a bit with news about the excavation. It looks like the ruins continue underground, so there's still work to do for that brat. Sakura calls Touya a meanie and runs off... Yukito tells him to lay off a bit, but of course he won't. Touya says to stop the keigo when it's just the two of them, they've been friends since childhood after all. That brat rather pisses Touya off, but he's the "fated person". The fated person for Sakura. Yukito's had a vision of the future of those two, and he sees difficulties for them ahead. The princess has a strange power -- Yukito doesn't know exactly what it is -- but it's a power that will change the world. And that power will bring troubles... speaking of trouble, the scene shifts to a rather evil looking guy, saying the time has come, everything starts now...
Change scenes again, to a place looking much like Japan, where a swordsman, Kurogane, has been fighting. Nothing but weaklings there to him... Tomoyo looks on as she's given a report on what happened.. she's told him to stop the killing before... Change scenes to a different country, where a guy, Fai, has just gotten up. He can't stay where he is so long as King Asura is there.... Back to the Clow Kingdom where Sakura's on the veranda, thinking about Shaoran. She's got to tell him... that she loves him.. She hears a strange, yet pretty sound from the ruins that draws her towards it. She glows, and floats up...
Shaoran's at the ruins, looking at strange mark on the floor of a room below ground. Sakura's there, but something's wrong with her... She touches the marking, and the room, and the whole ruin, fills with light.. Touya and Yukito see it from the castle... some mechanical soldiers have appeared out of nowhere at the ruins.. back below ground, some glowing wing-like things are on her back. Shaoran climbs up towards Sakura... those evil guys from earlier look on though a mirror. The power to cross time and space.. the wings which point the way.. now, that power has been resurrected.. Shaoran leaps up and grabs Sakura, and when he lands with her those wings disappear and the ruins begin to crumble... back to the evil guys again.. they've failed.. nope, it's just the beginning.. when it's all over they'll have the power to cross time and space...
Shaoran runs with Sakura out of the ruins.. she's gotten cold, and not moving or anything. Touya fights those robot soldiers.. Yukito takes a look at Sakura and reads Shaoran's memories to see what happened.. Those wings are Sakura's heart/spirit -- all of the memories she's had were in those wings.. but they're no longer in this world. And if something isn't done soon, Sakura will.. Shaoran asks what he can do.. carrying Sakura, he goes with Yukito, who sends them to a person in another world that can help, the Dimensional Witch... Fye leaves from his world.. and Tomoyo sends a very unhappy Kurogane away..
Shaoran and Sakura, then Fye and Kurogane shortly afterwords, appear in front of the Dimensional Witch, Yuuko, as the rain falls... Shaoran asks her to save Sakura...
Packed a lot of material into one episode here, didn't they, about 1 1/2 chapters of the manga or so, so things did go by rather quickly, but it was the same in the manga. A few unimportant scenes were cut to give more time to fit everything in, I suppose. No problem with that, though ;)
I should mention here that you do NOT have to have read other CLAMP works to enjoy Tsubasa, however, if you have you will get a bit more out of it. If you're one of those who has read CCS (but not Tsubasa yet), do not think of these characters as being exactly the same as they were in CCS. Shaoran and Sakura are both older and more mature (so different voices for them would make sense, wouldn't it?) And it's obvious from the get-go that they like each other, though they can't express it. Hence the kind of stiff atmosphere between the two now. We're not going to hear Sakura talk again until a certain point later, and... that's for later ;)
See Satoshi for a more thorough analysis of the kinds of themes Tsubasa will bring up, that I'll probably be discussing here as well. I'm very comfortable with Tsubasa, so I feel a bit more comfortable talking in more detail about things than I would with others. And I'm very attached to the characters as well... yes, I'm a Sakura fanboy... so take what you read here with a grain of salt, as they say ;)
This first episode has gotten me excited about what's coming up, so I'm very much looking foward to see what all from the manga is going to make it into the anime :)
I really should say "I'm disappointed" because of my inherent dislike of the slow-pace-style of Bee Train productions... but having Sakura and Syaoran again on the helm... and to think that this is CLAMP's ultimate crossover series to date...
It's a dream come true!!!
As for me, that's why I call Sakura "Lady Sakura" to distinguish her from Sakura Kinomoto of CCS.
What do all of you have against Bee Train? :)
I think the start was amazing. Animation was excellent, but what really touched me was Kajiura's score. This wonderful piece which played in the final scene beginning when Sakura got her wings - awesome. I've got to admit, I'm addicted to Kajiura, but she is one of the few composers who immediately elicit emotional reactions from me with her arrangements. And this anime seems to be just perfect for her style. Make a little experiment: Rewatch the final scenes with the sound turned off, and I think you'll understand what I mean.
Sign me up for it. The full ride :)
Slow pace is definately not a phrase I'd level against this adaptation..