Reviews for Tsubasa Chronicle (6.48)
ThatAnimeSnob
Mashimo Kouichi
Tsubasa Chronicles (TC) is using on of the cheapest tricks in the book in order to sell: Crossovers! It appeals to your fondness of characters from past series in order to lure you in. And t...
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21.06.2011 21:15 - direct link
(rs8078)
Tsubasa Chronicles (TC) is using on of the cheapest tricks in the book in order to sell: Crossovers! It appeals to your fondness of characters from past series in order to lure you in. And then it appeals to the fame those shows have because of their fandom in order to lure in newcomers who didn’t get to watch them yet are piqued by fame. As such, this is a title that was going to sell well no matter how bad its overall quality is; and since the producers and/or makers know that, they weren’t exactly motivated to try too hard to make something great in overall. Hey, if it sells why try harder?
Anyways, I am not fond of crossovers in general, since they are almost always terrible in conception and directing, with very poor excuses for bringing together characters from various different universes to fight some cardboard supervillain. The very heroes are treated as nothing but caricatures, used only as display of their special powers without ever revealing new sides of themselves or developing further. At the same time I do not reject the idea since over the years I have actually seen some good examples of this sort. The Kingdom Hearts games is one famous example, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie where they join forces from different series is another. Unfortunately, TC is not the exception but the rule of what makes crossovers damn tasteless.
The premise of the show is very catchy as you get to watch most CLAMP anime characters in various roles, trying to collect the lost memories of a princess and preventing a villain from taking over the multiverse. The initial episodes are actually very captivating as you not only get to see Sakura in the role of the princess of a magical kingdom next to the valiant Shaoran prince, having their romance about to bloom, you also see how an evil witch steals her memories in the shape of feathers (thus the name of the show) and various other characters from other realities need to join hands or antagonize them in order to progressively manage to collect it. That is all something very good to build a good story from.
Sadly, the execution of the idea is far from good, as the plot is basically the heroes going to some reality where they meet friends and foes in different roles each time. They have these almost simplistic adventures until they manage to find a portion of lost memories and move to the next world where the process repeats.
-Basically, the plot is separated into stand-alone arcs which despite the feeling of progress in making Sakura gradually returning to her normal self, are still disjoined from one another entirely. There are also some hints of the evil plan the villains set in motion in each arc but it is all too basic and hardly counts as an interesting mystery to follow.
- The plot is not the only thing that is done simply. The actual action is not good either as it is almost bloodless and without excitement, consisting of some boring choreography of characters standing still and exchanging special attacks.
- The pacing is also slow to the most part, as you need to tolerate several episodes where nothing much is going on, only to be rewarded with lukewarm showdowns with caricature villains.
- The very heroes are not really maturing or developing beyond their initial introduction, with the exception of Sakura because she turns to a mindless doll and gradually returns to her normal self. Although basically not even her is developing; just returning to her initial stage. All the rest are just shallow posers most of the time.
To be honest with you, CLAMP characters were never interesting for their development. It was always their attitude and the spicy premises that made all CLAMP related anime so interesting; something to do with a taboo romance, or the end of the world, or some really bloody showdown. Script-wise all these stories were very simple and even fillerish to the most part, yet the bold interactions and the dramatic or cute characters were enough to be likable to thousands. Well TC is nothing like that; it is boring, shallow, and uneventful most of the time. The famous characters we all liked are used here as noting but cameos with almost no personality, the story moves very slow and unexciting, and the action is juvenile. In fact, it was so boring that the third season was cancelled after the producers realised that the fans weren’t falling for it anymore (how I wish the same would happen for some perpetual on-going fighting shonens).
The artwork and animation are ok but are really bogged down by the slow plot and the bloodless violence which makes everything look boring to stare for long. Outside the fondness of watching your favourite characters’ appearance, they are mostly walking around slowly, talking a lot about things with little importance, and fight in really simple ways. Heck, even their facial expressions are dull, like they don’t even care for what is going on.
Music and voice acting are by far the best things in this show; the soundtrack is good enough in terms of romantic sadness to go buy it without a second thought, while the characters don’t sound irritating in their roles. Too bad most of what they were talking about was so boring.
Overall, this show has no value at all; it is shamelessly betting all its cards on our fondness of the other shows while doing very little to stand on its own feet and try to tell a good romance, show a spicy romance, an exciting battle, a captivating mystery, a uniformed setting, or something worth of our attention in general. Heck, it even resets the plot by taking away the memory again at one point, in order to further milk us with its dullness. This is just beyond lame. I do not recommend this anime as nothing else but a good example of how exploiting the mangaka can turn after they get rich and famous.
Anyways, I am not fond of crossovers in general, since they are almost always terrible in conception and directing, with very poor excuses for bringing together characters from various different universes to fight some cardboard supervillain. The very heroes are treated as nothing but caricatures, used only as display of their special powers without ever revealing new sides of themselves or developing further. At the same time I do not reject the idea since over the years I have actually seen some good examples of this sort. The Kingdom Hearts games is one famous example, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie where they join forces from different series is another. Unfortunately, TC is not the exception but the rule of what makes crossovers damn tasteless.
The premise of the show is very catchy as you get to watch most CLAMP anime characters in various roles, trying to collect the lost memories of a princess and preventing a villain from taking over the multiverse. The initial episodes are actually very captivating as you not only get to see Sakura in the role of the princess of a magical kingdom next to the valiant Shaoran prince, having their romance about to bloom, you also see how an evil witch steals her memories in the shape of feathers (thus the name of the show) and various other characters from other realities need to join hands or antagonize them in order to progressively manage to collect it. That is all something very good to build a good story from.
Sadly, the execution of the idea is far from good, as the plot is basically the heroes going to some reality where they meet friends and foes in different roles each time. They have these almost simplistic adventures until they manage to find a portion of lost memories and move to the next world where the process repeats.
-Basically, the plot is separated into stand-alone arcs which despite the feeling of progress in making Sakura gradually returning to her normal self, are still disjoined from one another entirely. There are also some hints of the evil plan the villains set in motion in each arc but it is all too basic and hardly counts as an interesting mystery to follow.
- The plot is not the only thing that is done simply. The actual action is not good either as it is almost bloodless and without excitement, consisting of some boring choreography of characters standing still and exchanging special attacks.
- The pacing is also slow to the most part, as you need to tolerate several episodes where nothing much is going on, only to be rewarded with lukewarm showdowns with caricature villains.
- The very heroes are not really maturing or developing beyond their initial introduction, with the exception of Sakura because she turns to a mindless doll and gradually returns to her normal self. Although basically not even her is developing; just returning to her initial stage. All the rest are just shallow posers most of the time.
To be honest with you, CLAMP characters were never interesting for their development. It was always their attitude and the spicy premises that made all CLAMP related anime so interesting; something to do with a taboo romance, or the end of the world, or some really bloody showdown. Script-wise all these stories were very simple and even fillerish to the most part, yet the bold interactions and the dramatic or cute characters were enough to be likable to thousands. Well TC is nothing like that; it is boring, shallow, and uneventful most of the time. The famous characters we all liked are used here as noting but cameos with almost no personality, the story moves very slow and unexciting, and the action is juvenile. In fact, it was so boring that the third season was cancelled after the producers realised that the fans weren’t falling for it anymore (how I wish the same would happen for some perpetual on-going fighting shonens).
The artwork and animation are ok but are really bogged down by the slow plot and the bloodless violence which makes everything look boring to stare for long. Outside the fondness of watching your favourite characters’ appearance, they are mostly walking around slowly, talking a lot about things with little importance, and fight in really simple ways. Heck, even their facial expressions are dull, like they don’t even care for what is going on.
Music and voice acting are by far the best things in this show; the soundtrack is good enough in terms of romantic sadness to go buy it without a second thought, while the characters don’t sound irritating in their roles. Too bad most of what they were talking about was so boring.
Overall, this show has no value at all; it is shamelessly betting all its cards on our fondness of the other shows while doing very little to stand on its own feet and try to tell a good romance, show a spicy romance, an exciting battle, a captivating mystery, a uniformed setting, or something worth of our attention in general. Heck, it even resets the plot by taking away the memory again at one point, in order to further milk us with its dullness. This is just beyond lame. I do not recommend this anime as nothing else but a good example of how exploiting the mangaka can turn after they get rich and famous.
