Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Encyclopedia
is a shōnen manga
series written and illustrated by the manga artist
group Clamp
. It takes place in the same fictional universe
as many of Clamp's other manga series, most notably xxxHolic. The plot follows how Sakura
, the princess of the Kingdom of Clow, loses her soul and how Syaoran
, a young archaeologist who is her childhood friend, goes on a quest to save her. Dimensional Witch Yūko Ichihara instructs him to go with two people, Kurogane and Fai D. Flowright. They search for Sakura's memories, which were scattered in various worlds, as gathering them will help save her soul. Tsubasa was conceived when four Clamp artists wanted to create a manga series that connected all their previous works. They took the designs for the main protagonists from their earlier manga called Cardcaptor Sakura
.
It was serialized in the Kodansha
publication Weekly Shōnen Magazine
from May 2003 until October 2009, and was collected in twenty-eight tankōbon
volumes. The manga was adapted into an anime
series, , animated by Bee Train
, which aired 52 episodes over two seasons during 2005 and 2006. Production I.G released an interlude film between the first two seasons titled The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom
, as well as five original video animation
s (OVAs) between November 2007 and May 2009, which acted as a sequel to the second season. Various video games and drama CDs based on the series have been released. The manga was licensed for English language release by Del Rey Manga
, who has released all of its volumes since April 27, 2004. Funimation Entertainment
licensed the anime for English release. They published all the TV episodes in DVD volumes as well as the film. The OVAs of Tsubasa were released in North America in January 2011.
The series has been well-received by Japanese and English readers, and it reached high positions on various best-seller lists; the series has sold over twenty million manga volumes in Japan as of September 2009. Both the manga and anime have had positive response from critics, who praised its connections to previous works and its artwork. The plot twists in later parts of the story have been generally praised for how they affect the overall plot as well as for being surprising. However, they have been criticized for being confusing.
, a young archaeologist who is investigating a ruin within the Kingdom of Clow, and Sakura
, princess of the Kingdom of Clow and daughter of the late king Clow Reed. When Sakura visits Syaoran in the ruins, her soul takes the form of a pair of ghostly wings that disintegrate to other dimensions
. As she descends into a catatonic
near death state, Syaoran meets the Dimensional Witch, Yūko Ichihara, to whom he begs for help to save Sakura. Yūko is also visited by two others who each have their own wish: Kurogane, a ninja who wishes to return to his home world after being banished from his world by Princess Tomoyo to allow him to learn what true strength is; and Fai D. Flowright, a magician who wishes to never return to his home world to avoid his king, Ashura-ō. In exchange for the power to travel across dimensions, Yūko demands that each pay with that they value most: Kurogane offers his sword Ginryū; Fai offers the tattoo that suppresses his magical power; and Syaoran offers all of Sakura's memories that involve him. Yūko then presents them with a creature named Mokona Modoki that sends the group on a journey across dimensions in search of Sakura's feathers. After obtaining the first feathers, Sakura awakens from her catatonic state and starts recovering her memories. During their adventures, the group gradually grows closer to the point that Fai jokingly labels them as relatives. As they travel, they learn that the feathers have special powers and can bestow supernatural abilities to those who possess them.
During their journey, the group discovers that Syaoran is in reality a clone imbued with half the heart
of the original Syaoran. Several years ago, Fei-Wang Reed, the wizard who caused Sakura to lose her memories, took the original Syaoran prisoner and created the clone to collect Sakura's feathers. Shortly after the original Syaoran breaks free of Fei-Wang's hold, the clone loses his heart and becomes an emotionless puppet that follows Fei-Wang's will, betraying the group. The original Syaoran joins in the group's journey with Sakura wishing to save the clone. Foreseeing a future in which Fai kills the original Syaoran forced by Fei-Wang's curse, Sakura gets stabbed in his place, but at the same time splits her body and soul, sending each to different worlds, Seresu and the Dream World, respectively. In the Dream World, the Syaoran clone destroys Sakura's soul when trying to get the feathers. Before her soul perishes, Sakura reveals that she too is a clone of the original Sakura who was also taken prisoner by Fei-Wang. Fei-Wang then takes Sakura's body to use its stored power. The group departs to rescue the two Sakuras learning from Yūko that Fei-Wang is in an alternate dimension from the Kingdom of Clow. Such parallel dimension is the result of Syaoran's wish to save the original Sakura from Fei-Wang's curse years ago. In order to grant his wish, Syaoran became Fei-Wang's prisoner and Yūko's assistant, Kimihiro Watanuki, was used to replace Syaoran within his original world's history.
The group battles Fei-Wang who destroys the Syaoran clone when he betrays him. He then uses the power of the two Sakuras to revive Yūko, accidentally frozen in time by Clow to halt her death, therein proving himself Clow's superior. Yūko uses her life and Clow's magic as payment to make the clones reborn in the past to live together. As two know all of the series' events would repeat, the clones seal themselves in Yūko's shop until the battle against him. The group manages to kill Fei-Wang, who traps Syaoran in a void between time and space, dragging both his clone and Watanuki along as a consequence of their connection. With their creator's death, both clones of Sakura and Syaoran fade away leaving behind two feathers. Syaoran and Watanuki escape from the void for a price: Syaoran must continue traveling through the dimensions forever, while Watanuki must stay in Yūko's shop. The group rests in the Kingdom of Clow where Fai, Kurogane, and Mokona decide to join Syaoran once again in hope of finding a way to bring back the clones who still exist as the two feathers. Before departing on their separate ways, Syaoran and Sakura confess their love for each other as they hope to meet again.
, to link their works set in a realistic world with their works set in different fantasy worlds. Prior to beginning work on Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Clamp had created the manga Cardcaptor Sakura
, from which the two main characters are taken. Clamp decided to draw Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle by using a style first conceived by Osamu Tezuka
, named the "father of manga" and often credited as the "father of anime", known as Osamu Tezuka's Star System
. In this system, characters with the same name and design are used in different settings, drawing mostly from the vast character pool of its own works and occasionally from others' works. Unlike characters under the Star System, three months prior to the release of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, the Young Magazine
began serializing Clamp's xxxHolic, a manga whose two main characters, Kimihiro Watanuki and Yūko Ichihara, are two of the same characters used in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle; both series run in parallel. Like many of their other works, each member of Clamp had a role different from their other projects instead of retaining set roles. For Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Mokona
drew the main characters, whereas Tsubaki Nekoi
and Satsuki Igarashi
drew the side characters and backgrounds; Nanase Ohkawa
was the sole person in charge of the storyline; the other members of Clamp were not told in advance how the plot would unfold.
A special interview with Ohkawa and Kiichiro Sugawara, Clamp's editor from the Weekly Shōnen Magazine
s Editorial Department, took place after the story of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle had progressed past the arc from Ōto Country. Ohkawa has stated that the group is very conscious of the fact that Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle is the title in Shōnen Magazine with the youngest readership and that it is their very first foray into the shōnen demographic. Thus, the members of Clamp ensure that they employ a drawing style and dialogue appropriate for young male audiences; the manga incorporates furigana
that makes reading Japanese easier. To aid in this effort, the group holds conferences with Sugawara where they discuss the plot. Ohkawa stated during the interview that the only time the story significantly changed was during Country of Jade arc; It went from a "horror story with vampires" to a "detective mystery".
The members of Clamp had some difficulty adjusting from their typical style after deciding to publish with Weekly Shōnen Magazine. Because their typical thinner lines did not give the desired impact, Ohkawa expressed the group's desire to make their lines thicker, and to use simpler layouts similar to the other stories already present in Shōnen Magazine. She stated that they used their original artistic style to attract initial readers and then slowly transitioned to a new style. Sometime around when the story arc focused on the Country of Ōto took place, their art style had gradually been changing again; at this point they were thinking of returning to their original style. They were still adjusting to a weekly schedule; many of their previous works were on a monthly schedule. Sugawara expressed concerns about the strain on the artists of concurrently doing a weekly issue of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle linked with xxxHolic, but in the end he whole-heartedly approved. In accordance with Ohkawa's desire for each to have a well organized story, Clamp avoids putting references between the two stories too frequently. The main idea was connecting these two series was to have protagonists from two different manga with different personalities and designs. However, during the ending they would be stated to share the same existence, and had to go on different paths. As Tsubasa is connected with xxxHolic, the characters' designs are also meant to be similar; Like xxxHolic, the artwork is sometimes influenced by Ukiyo-e
art style which leads to the characters have longer limbs. When asked if another series influenced Tsubasa in the concept of parallel worlds, Ohkawa replied that she was not a fan of sci-fi series and pointed that all worlds shown in the series were other works from Tsubasa. At the same time, she wanted to segregate Tsubasa from previous works. She also explained that while some characters are the same, their traits and personalities were modified due to different backstories.
When thinking about including character goods with the volume releases, Sugawara came up with the atypical idea of releasing a deluxe and normal edition of the manga after contemplating the inconsistency of novels getting both a soft-cover and hard-cover release, but manga only received one version. Because it was a new concept, the group experienced several mishaps such as accidentally placing a vertically flipped illustration on the first deluxe edition. The group also decided to use another atypical practice of keeping catchphrases that appeared in the magazine identical to the ones that appear on the frontispieces of the deluxe editions.
, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was serialized in Japan in Kodansha
's Weekly Shōnen Magazine
between May 2003 and October 2009. Its 233 chapters, which are called , French for "Chapter", have been compiled into twenty-eight tankōbon
volumes by Kodansha, with the first volume released on August 12, 2003, and the last one on November 17, 2009. All the volumes were also released in deluxe editions containing color pages and new illustrations at the same time as the original release.
Tsubasa was one of the first four manga series licensed for English release in North America by Del Rey Manga
and was acquired together with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
, Negima! Magister Negi Magi
, and xxxHolic in January 2004. Del Rey released the first volume of the series on April 27, 2004, and the last one on November 23, 2010. Tanoshimi
, the United Kingdom branch of Random House
, published the first 14 volumes as published by Del Rey in the United Kingdom, between August 3, 2006, and June 5, 2008.
adapted the manga series into a two-season anime
television series spanning fifty-two episodes in total. Both seasons were written by Hiroyuki Kawasaki and directed by Kōichi Mashimo
, with Hiroshi Morioka
joining on as co-director for the second season. The music for the series was composed by Yuki Kajiura
. The first season aired Saturday nights at 18:30 on NHK
from April 9, 2005, to October 15, 2005, and spanned 26 episodes. The second season began on April 29, 2006, at 18:30 and concluded on November 4, 2006; it spanned twenty-six episodes. In Japan, Bandai Visual
released the series across fourteen Region 2 DVD
compilation volumes between August 26, 2005, and February 23, 2007.
Funimation Entertainment
licensed both seasons under the title Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle for English-language release January 2006. They released the TV series in North America across twelve Region 1 DVD compilation volumes. Funimation released the DVDs in two collections, where each contains six of the DVDs together in a box set, on November 11, 2008, and December 29, 2009. A DVD box with the first season and the film was released on January 19, 2010. It was re-released in Blu-ray format on May 4, 2010, in a package that also included the anime's second season. Funimation also released the first season of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle in the United Kingdom through Revelation Films
beginning on September 17, 2007, across six Region 2 DVD compilation volumes. , the English dub of the first season was being broadcast on the Funimation Channel
in the United States. Revelation Films had previously confirmed the release of the second season of Tsubasa Chronicle in the U.K., although no release dates were ever set.
, was adapted by the animation studio Production I.G and premiered in Japanese theaters on August 20, 2005, in conjunction with xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream
, between the two seasons of the anime series. Its plot continues the journey from Syaoran's group for Sakura's feathers. They locate one at the Country of Birdcages, where they have to confront the world's king in order to obtain it. It was directed by Itsuro Kawasaki
and written by Midori Goto and Junichi Fujisaku
. Character designs were provided by Yoko Kikuchi, and music was by Yuki Kajiura. Clamp artist Ageha Ohkawa liked how both films were connected, despite that both have different themes. Shochiku
released the DVD for the film on February 25, 2006, in Japan in both regular and premium editions. Funimation released the film on a single DVD in English on February 19, 2009, in North America as a double feature
with the xxxHolic film. It was released alongside a DVD box of the anime's first season on January 19, 2010. It was re-released in Blu-ray format on May 4, 2010, in a package that included the anime's second season.
(OVA) series were animated by Production I.G. They were directed by Shunsuke Tada and written by Nanase Ohkawa, with music provided by Yuki Kajiura. A three-episode OVA series titled was released between November 16, 2007, and March 17, 2008, across three DVDs bundled with limited versions of volumes 21, 22, and 23 of the manga. Their plot is set after the anime's ending, and follows the arrival of Syaoran's group in an postapocalyptic Tokyo, where the connection between Syaoran and a teenager identical to him is revealed. A two-episode OVA series titled was released across two DVDs. The first was packaged with volume 26 of the manga, which was released on March 17, 2009; and the second was packaged with volume 27, released on May 15, 2009. They are set after the characters' journey to Seresu as they search for a way to make Sakura's soul return to her body. In May 2010, Funimation announced they licensed both series of OVAs. They were released together under the title of "Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE - OVA Collection" in both DVD and Blu-ray formats on January 4, 2011. In June 2011, Funimation started streaming the five episodes in their official website.
s titled Future Soundscape I~IV. They were released by Victor Entertainment
for the anime from July 6, 2005, to September 21, 2006, each in a normal and a limited edition that featured additional merchandise. Additionally, a compilation album
titled Best Vocal Collection was released on December 20, 2006, that collected fourteen vocal tracks from the anime. Each release charted on the Oricon
charts, and the highest ranking album, Future Soundscape I, peaked at 39th and remained on the charts for three weeks.
Ten music albums have been released, and each contains a single piece of theme music
for the various adaptations. For the anime adaptation Tsubasa Chronicle, four maxi single
s titled Loop, Blaze, It's, and Kazemachi Jet / Spica were released between May 10, 2005, and July 14, 2006. For the anime film Tsubasa Chronicle the Movie: The Princess of the Country of Birdcages, two maxi singles titled Aerial and Amrita were released on August 17, 2005, and on August 18, 2005. For the OVA adaptations, two maxi singles and two studio albums titled Synchronicity, Saigo no Kajitsu / Mitsubashi to Kagakusha, Kazeyomi, and Everlasting Songs were released between November 21, 2007, and February 25, 2009. All of the releases charted on the Oricon charts, with the highest ranking single being Loop, which peaked at 7th and remained on the chart for nine weeks.
Victor Entertainment
released a series of three drama CDs titled "The Matinée of the Palace", based on the anime adaptation featuring the same voice actors
. The first, subtitled Chapter.1 ~Coral, the City on the Water~, was released on December 16, 2005. Chapter.2 ~Impossible Goal~ followed on February 1, 2006. The final CD, subtitled Chapter.3 ~Unspeakable Lines~, was released on March 24, 2006. All of the releases charted on the Oricon charts, with the highest ranking album being Chapter.2 ~Impossible Goal~, peaking at 161st and remaining on the chart for a week. A spin-off
series of four drama CDs titled "Private High School Holitsuba" have been released between 2006 and 2009, and has also had a one-chapter manga adaptation. Set in an alternate universe, the series features characters from Tsubasa and xxxHolic as students and teachers from the fictional school "Holitsuba".
on October 27, 2005, by Akira. Tsubasa Chronicle is a role-playing game
whose gameplay
requires the player to navigate the world as Sakura and Syaoran in search of Sakura's memory fragments. Players can compete with each other wireless
ly. A sequel titled was released on April 20, 2006, again for the Nintendo DS and shares various gameplay traits with Tsubasa Chronicle.
released two in Japan by between 2005 and 2006 that contain character illustrations and information, a collection of the theme song videos, and interviews with the voice actors. The first book published was on May 17, 2005. The second book published was on June 16, 2006. DH Publishing released one in English on May 25, 2008, titled Tsubasa Chronicle Factbook: Mystery, Magic and Mischief, the eighteenth of the Mysteries and Secrets Revealed! series of books.
Three different artbooks which contain illustrations have been released in Japan by Kodansha between 2006 and 2009. The first book published was on April 17, 2006, bearing an ISBN 978-4063721386. The second book published was on April 17, 2007, and containing art from the first 14 volumes. An English version of ALBuM De REProDUCTioNS was released on December 8, 2009. This contained one of the short stories
titled Tsubasa: World of the Untold Story that also featured as omake
to the manga volumes. Another artbook, , was released on November 17, 2009, containing art from the final 14 volumes.
Two character guides were released by Kodansha in Japan and then translated and released in North American by Del Rey Manga
. They contain overviews of the worlds, overviews of characters, fan reports, illustrations, and interviews. The was released on April 15, 2005, covering events from volume 1 to volume 7. It was released in English on December 26, 2006. The was released on October 17, 2006. It was released in English on October 13, 2009. Another related book is which was released by Kodansha on July 17, 2004. It is set prior to the events of xxxHolic and Tsubasa and tells the lives from the two Mokona Modoki ever since their creation by Clow Reed and Yūko Ichihara.
There are two guidebooks focused in the soundtrack used in the anime adaptation of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle that were published in Japan by Kodansha. The first one, , was released on August 30, 2005, and focused on piano sheet music for tracks from the series' soundtrack album. The second one, , was published on July 24, 2006, and it had piano sheet music for several soundtracks.
's 2004 list, obtaining the highest place ever by a manga volume. It was consistently ranked in the top 10 of the list of Manga Top 50 for every quarterly release of the "ICv2 Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga", based on sales from both mainstream bookstores and comic book shops, since its release in May 2004, except for the fourth quarter of 2007, reaching a top rank of number 3. By November 2006, over a million manga volumes from the series had been sold in North America by Del Rey Manga. The series was also listed as the nineteenth best-selling manga from North America in 2010 by ICv2. In the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation Award from 2009, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was the winner in the category "Best Manga - Action". About.com
placed it twenty-ninth in their article "36 Great Manga Missed by the Eisner Awards", while the artbook Tsubasa ALBuM De REProDUCTioNS was third in their 2009 poll "Best Manga Book". In Mania Entertainment's "Best Manga Awards For 2005", Tsubasa was third in the category "Best Shounen". It was a nominee for the American Anime Awards
in 2007, but was one of the last series announced due to an error made by the people in charge.
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was fairly well received by reviewers, who described it as a treat for Clamp fans due to the large number of crossover characters in the series. Initial fan response to Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was that it was "Cardcaptor Sakura
for guys". Fans speculated that the series would conclude one of Clamp's unfinished series, X
, or that it would be a sequel to Cardcarptor Sakura that focused on the character Syaoran Li. Critics described the series as being marked by several plot twists, with About.com
writer Katherine Luther labelling it as "perhaps the "twistiest" of twists that we have seen in anime and manga in quite some time". For the earlier half of the series, Mikhail Koulikov from Anime News Network
described the series as settling into a "predictable pattern" that Melissa Harper, also from Anime News Network, described as somewhat slow, and "frankly a bit boring". However, Michael Aronson from Manga Life found the series appealing and accessible to readers who have not read other Clamp series, and he hoped it would remain this accessible for following volumes. He found that the relation between Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and xxxHolic would persuade readers to also read the latter series. Mania Entertainment's Megan Lavey found the introduction to be a "pretty simple love story", while liking the characters' personalities. She liked how the series was connected with xxxHolic and hoped that both series would continue crossing over. In a general overview of the manga, Julie Gray from Comic Book Bin gave positive remarks to the characters' complex personalities and how the plot has been developed throughout its first ten volumes. She recommended that people should buy the series. Active Anime's Blake Waymire found that the change of settings was well done, and he noted how some story arcs could go from dramatic to charming.
From volume 15 onwards, Clamp unleashed a series of "mind-blowing" plot twists that had been foreshadowed frequently throughout the series. These twists have been described by Anime News Network as "stunning" but confusingly executed due to the sheer number of storylines coming together. Other critics praised the pacing as letting "the story progress at its own natural momentum", keeping the reader "from being bored by any one literary genre". The plot twists and the ever-changing relationships between the manga's main characters were praised; "few manga creators could pull off this sort of outrageous storytelling stunt". Active Anime writer Holly Ellingwood called the plot twists as "the most shocking set of events in the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles to date!", finding that despite such twists, more secrets were brought to readers to persuade them to read the following volumes. Ellingwood also reviewed following volumes and found the last plot revelations intriguing; she enjoyed that a strong connection is revealed between characters from Tsubasa and xxxHolic. Critics have described the artwork as "keeping up the standards expected of Clamp" with its high level of detail, though perhaps too much detail, especially during action sequences. The artstyle is "stylish" and "dynamic", characterized by a large number of "sweeping lines curlicues that look unlike anything else in the genre" that help bring the action scenes to life for exciting experiences. Ed Sizemore from Comics Worth Reading highlighted the fact that each dimension that the protagonists visit is characterized by its very own look and feel so that "no two worlds are even remotely similar". However, the amount of detail and lack of contrast, while beautiful, often render scenes incomprehensible to the point where the reader is left guessing who is attacking. Critics have praised Del Rey
's inclusion of English translation notes that aid in understanding the plot, especially due to its crossover nature. Lavey found the translation a "good read", liking how some Japanese words were not translated and instead explained in notes.
faulted the director, Koichi Mashimo
, for "downshifting the plot's energy" and as having "too many flashbacks, too many slow pans over inexpressive eyes", that create an end-product that is "tediously formulaic". Active Anime's Christopher Seaman had mixed feelings, finding the romantic themes mature and the magical themes appealing to younger audiences; he concluded that "teens would get the most out of the series." He recommended the series in general, praising its plot and its themes. DVDTalk's Todd Douglass Jr. ranked the anime DVD box as "Highly Recommended"; he liked how, despite borrowing elements from other series, it was "entirely self-contained". Douglas pointed out that following its second season, the anime kept entertaining viewers, and felt they would not find a reason to dislike it. Douglas enjoyed the anime's storytelling. He liked its characters, but found it sometimes dragging due to its episodic nature. Kimlinger praised the musical score as being beautiful, as Yuki Kajiura
's work has always been. Chris Beveridge from Mania Entertainment made similar comments, praising the series' score and animation, while commenting on the series' accessibility. He said that people unrelated with Clamp's works would like Tsubasa, in contrast to other people who would "get out of the series". Its episodic nature was praised by Luther, who commented how the main plot was connected to each of the story arcs. The English cast for the anime has been labelled as "done and very solid". IGN's Jeffrey Harris felt Christopher Sabat
was its best actor. Harris called the anime "a nice looking and at times elegant looking show", pointing to the traits of the main characters. He criticized the lack of extras in the DVDs releases. Reviewing the anime's and xxxHolics films, IGN writer N.S. Davidson said the Tsubasa film would be appealing to viewers of the series, despite its short length. He liked how both films' storylines interacted, allowing parts of the plot of Tsubasa to be explained in the xxxHolic film, and he found artistic similarities between the two films. Carlo Santos was more critical of the film but still called it "good art". In a TV Asahi
poll, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was ranked as the fifty-ninth most popular anime in Japan. It ranked ninth in Animage
s Anime Grand Prix anime popularity poll from 2005, while it was also listed as a "Honorable Mention" in IGN's "Top Ten Anime of 2007" feature.
Although the Tsubasa OVAs were not the first original animation DVDs (OADs), OVAs published with manga volumes, its release helped to popularize the term. Chris Beveridge from Mania Entertainment considered the OVAs to have better quality than the TV series, mainly because they were developed by Production I.G instead of Bee Train and because they have a darker storyline. In a further review, Beveridge found fascinating the events occurring in the OVAs due to its the number of revelations changed the way people viewed the series. The character designs were felt to be more similar to the manga's ones than the TV series, while the animation has been considered "a notch above that of standard Television". The themes were noted to be more mature both brutally and mentally; although the number of changes presented throughout them has been praised, another series of OVAs that would conclude the storyline built in the last episode from Spring Thunder Chronicles has been requested by reviewers.
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series written and illustrated by the manga artist
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
group Clamp
Clamp (manga artists)
, is an all-female Japanese manga artist group that formed in the mid 1980s. Many of the group's manga series are often adapted into anime after release. It consists of their leader , who provides much of the storyline and screenplay for all their works and adaptations of those works respectively ,...
. It takes place in the same fictional universe
Fictional universe
A fictional universe is a self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm ....
as many of Clamp's other manga series, most notably xxxHolic. The plot follows how Sakura
Sakura (Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle)
, also known as , is a fictional character and one of the protagonists from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, a manga series written and illustrated by Clamp. In the series, Sakura is a princess from the Kingdom of Clow who has her memories separated from her body to parallel dimensions...
, the princess of the Kingdom of Clow, loses her soul and how Syaoran
Syaoran (Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle)
is a fictional character appearing as one of the protagonists from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, a manga series written and illustrated by Clamp. In Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Syaoran is introduced as young archeologist who is in love with Sakura, his childhood friend and the princess from the...
, a young archaeologist who is her childhood friend, goes on a quest to save her. Dimensional Witch Yūko Ichihara instructs him to go with two people, Kurogane and Fai D. Flowright. They search for Sakura's memories, which were scattered in various worlds, as gathering them will help save her soul. Tsubasa was conceived when four Clamp artists wanted to create a manga series that connected all their previous works. They took the designs for the main protagonists from their earlier manga called Cardcaptor Sakura
Cardcaptor Sakura
, abbreviated as CCS and also known as Cardcaptors, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. The manga was originally serialized monthly in Nakayoshi from the May 1996 until the June 2000 issue, and later published in 12 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha...
.
It was serialized in the Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
publication Weekly Shōnen Magazine
Weekly Shonen Magazine
, also known as Shōnen Magazine, is a shōnen manga magazine published by Kodansha, first published on 17 March 1959. Despite some unusual censorship policies , it's mainly read by an older audience, with a large portion of its readership falling under the male high school or college...
from May 2003 until October 2009, and was collected in twenty-eight tankōbon
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...
volumes. The manga was adapted into an anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series, , animated by Bee Train
Bee Train
, commonly referred simply as Bee Train, is a Japanese animation studio founded by Kōichi Mashimo in 1997. Since their involvement with Noir, .hack//Sign, and Madlax they have a strong following in the yuri fandom for being involved in series portraying strong female leads with speculatively...
, which aired 52 episodes over two seasons during 2005 and 2006. Production I.G released an interlude film between the first two seasons titled The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom
The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom
#, known officially as Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom, is an animated short film based on the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle manga by the group Clamp...
, as well as five original video animation
Original video animation
, abbreviated as media , are animated films and series made specially for release in home-video formats. The term originated in relation to Japanese animation...
s (OVAs) between November 2007 and May 2009, which acted as a sequel to the second season. Various video games and drama CDs based on the series have been released. The manga was licensed for English language release by Del Rey Manga
Del Rey Manga
was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. It was formed as part of a cross-publishing relationship with Japanese publisher Kodansha. Some of the Del Rey titles, such as Tsubasa...
, who has released all of its volumes since April 27, 2004. Funimation Entertainment
Funimation Entertainment
Funimation is an American entertainment company. Originally founded in 1994 by Gen Fukunaga, the company became a subsidiary of Navarre Corporation on May 11, 2005...
licensed the anime for English release. They published all the TV episodes in DVD volumes as well as the film. The OVAs of Tsubasa were released in North America in January 2011.
The series has been well-received by Japanese and English readers, and it reached high positions on various best-seller lists; the series has sold over twenty million manga volumes in Japan as of September 2009. Both the manga and anime have had positive response from critics, who praised its connections to previous works and its artwork. The plot twists in later parts of the story have been generally praised for how they affect the overall plot as well as for being surprising. However, they have been criticized for being confusing.
Plot
The series begins by introducing childhood friends SyaoranSyaoran (Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle)
is a fictional character appearing as one of the protagonists from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, a manga series written and illustrated by Clamp. In Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Syaoran is introduced as young archeologist who is in love with Sakura, his childhood friend and the princess from the...
, a young archaeologist who is investigating a ruin within the Kingdom of Clow, and Sakura
Sakura (Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle)
, also known as , is a fictional character and one of the protagonists from Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, a manga series written and illustrated by Clamp. In the series, Sakura is a princess from the Kingdom of Clow who has her memories separated from her body to parallel dimensions...
, princess of the Kingdom of Clow and daughter of the late king Clow Reed. When Sakura visits Syaoran in the ruins, her soul takes the form of a pair of ghostly wings that disintegrate to other dimensions
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
. As she descends into a catatonic
Catatonia
Catatonia is a state of neurogenic motor immobility, and behavioral abnormality manifested by stupor. It was first described in 1874: Die Katatonie oder das Spannungsirresein ....
near death state, Syaoran meets the Dimensional Witch, Yūko Ichihara, to whom he begs for help to save Sakura. Yūko is also visited by two others who each have their own wish: Kurogane, a ninja who wishes to return to his home world after being banished from his world by Princess Tomoyo to allow him to learn what true strength is; and Fai D. Flowright, a magician who wishes to never return to his home world to avoid his king, Ashura-ō. In exchange for the power to travel across dimensions, Yūko demands that each pay with that they value most: Kurogane offers his sword Ginryū; Fai offers the tattoo that suppresses his magical power; and Syaoran offers all of Sakura's memories that involve him. Yūko then presents them with a creature named Mokona Modoki that sends the group on a journey across dimensions in search of Sakura's feathers. After obtaining the first feathers, Sakura awakens from her catatonic state and starts recovering her memories. During their adventures, the group gradually grows closer to the point that Fai jokingly labels them as relatives. As they travel, they learn that the feathers have special powers and can bestow supernatural abilities to those who possess them.
During their journey, the group discovers that Syaoran is in reality a clone imbued with half the heart
Heart (symbol)
The heart has long been used as a symbol to refer to the spiritual, emotional, moral, and in the past, also intellectual core of a human being...
of the original Syaoran. Several years ago, Fei-Wang Reed, the wizard who caused Sakura to lose her memories, took the original Syaoran prisoner and created the clone to collect Sakura's feathers. Shortly after the original Syaoran breaks free of Fei-Wang's hold, the clone loses his heart and becomes an emotionless puppet that follows Fei-Wang's will, betraying the group. The original Syaoran joins in the group's journey with Sakura wishing to save the clone. Foreseeing a future in which Fai kills the original Syaoran forced by Fei-Wang's curse, Sakura gets stabbed in his place, but at the same time splits her body and soul, sending each to different worlds, Seresu and the Dream World, respectively. In the Dream World, the Syaoran clone destroys Sakura's soul when trying to get the feathers. Before her soul perishes, Sakura reveals that she too is a clone of the original Sakura who was also taken prisoner by Fei-Wang. Fei-Wang then takes Sakura's body to use its stored power. The group departs to rescue the two Sakuras learning from Yūko that Fei-Wang is in an alternate dimension from the Kingdom of Clow. Such parallel dimension is the result of Syaoran's wish to save the original Sakura from Fei-Wang's curse years ago. In order to grant his wish, Syaoran became Fei-Wang's prisoner and Yūko's assistant, Kimihiro Watanuki, was used to replace Syaoran within his original world's history.
The group battles Fei-Wang who destroys the Syaoran clone when he betrays him. He then uses the power of the two Sakuras to revive Yūko, accidentally frozen in time by Clow to halt her death, therein proving himself Clow's superior. Yūko uses her life and Clow's magic as payment to make the clones reborn in the past to live together. As two know all of the series' events would repeat, the clones seal themselves in Yūko's shop until the battle against him. The group manages to kill Fei-Wang, who traps Syaoran in a void between time and space, dragging both his clone and Watanuki along as a consequence of their connection. With their creator's death, both clones of Sakura and Syaoran fade away leaving behind two feathers. Syaoran and Watanuki escape from the void for a price: Syaoran must continue traveling through the dimensions forever, while Watanuki must stay in Yūko's shop. The group rests in the Kingdom of Clow where Fai, Kurogane, and Mokona decide to join Syaoran once again in hope of finding a way to bring back the clones who still exist as the two feathers. Before departing on their separate ways, Syaoran and Sakura confess their love for each other as they hope to meet again.
Production
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle began with an inspiration of the four-member team, ClampClamp (manga artists)
, is an all-female Japanese manga artist group that formed in the mid 1980s. Many of the group's manga series are often adapted into anime after release. It consists of their leader , who provides much of the storyline and screenplay for all their works and adaptations of those works respectively ,...
, to link their works set in a realistic world with their works set in different fantasy worlds. Prior to beginning work on Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Clamp had created the manga Cardcaptor Sakura
Cardcaptor Sakura
, abbreviated as CCS and also known as Cardcaptors, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. The manga was originally serialized monthly in Nakayoshi from the May 1996 until the June 2000 issue, and later published in 12 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha...
, from which the two main characters are taken. Clamp decided to draw Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle by using a style first conceived by Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka
was a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack...
, named the "father of manga" and often credited as the "father of anime", known as Osamu Tezuka's Star System
Osamu Tezuka's Star System
Over the course of his career, Osamu Tezuka reused the same characters in different roles in different stories. The way that Tezuka used the characters in his "star system" can be seen as somewhat analoguous to a film director frequently casting members of a regular "stable" of actors in different...
. In this system, characters with the same name and design are used in different settings, drawing mostly from the vast character pool of its own works and occasionally from others' works. Unlike characters under the Star System, three months prior to the release of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, the Young Magazine
Young Magazine
is a Japanese manga magazine published weekly by Kodansha. The magazine was started on June 23, 1980 and is targeted at adult males . It is also known as Young or YM. It goes on sale Monday every week...
began serializing Clamp's xxxHolic, a manga whose two main characters, Kimihiro Watanuki and Yūko Ichihara, are two of the same characters used in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle; both series run in parallel. Like many of their other works, each member of Clamp had a role different from their other projects instead of retaining set roles. For Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Mokona
Mokona
is the pen name of the lead artist, colorist, and composition designer of the all-female manga-creating team Clamp. She was formerly known as . Clamp has had a huge impact on the "manga explosion" according to an account in the New York Times in 2006. Their artwork has been characterized as "fluid"...
drew the main characters, whereas Tsubaki Nekoi
Tsubaki Nekoi
is a member of the all-female manga-creating team Clamp. She is the co-director and her duties in the team include applying screentones and correcting manga illustrations. She was also the lead artist on Legal Drug, The One I Love, Wish, Suki and xxxHolic...
and Satsuki Igarashi
Satsuki Igarashi
is a member of the all-female manga-creating team Clamp. Her duties in the team are Nanase Ohkawa's sounding board, and the character designer of Chobits and line artist for Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle....
drew the side characters and backgrounds; Nanase Ohkawa
Nanase Ohkawa
is a member of the all-female manga-creating team Clamp. She is the director of the team and is primarily responsible for writing the stories and scripts for Clamp's various works....
was the sole person in charge of the storyline; the other members of Clamp were not told in advance how the plot would unfold.
A special interview with Ohkawa and Kiichiro Sugawara, Clamp's editor from the Weekly Shōnen Magazine
Weekly Shonen Magazine
, also known as Shōnen Magazine, is a shōnen manga magazine published by Kodansha, first published on 17 March 1959. Despite some unusual censorship policies , it's mainly read by an older audience, with a large portion of its readership falling under the male high school or college...
s Editorial Department, took place after the story of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle had progressed past the arc from Ōto Country. Ohkawa has stated that the group is very conscious of the fact that Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle is the title in Shōnen Magazine with the youngest readership and that it is their very first foray into the shōnen demographic. Thus, the members of Clamp ensure that they employ a drawing style and dialogue appropriate for young male audiences; the manga incorporates furigana
Furigana
is a Japanese reading aid, consisting of smaller kana, or syllabic characters, printed next to a kanji or other character to indicate its pronunciation. In horizontal text, yokogaki, they are placed above the line of text, while in vertical text, tategaki, they are placed to the right of the line...
that makes reading Japanese easier. To aid in this effort, the group holds conferences with Sugawara where they discuss the plot. Ohkawa stated during the interview that the only time the story significantly changed was during Country of Jade arc; It went from a "horror story with vampires" to a "detective mystery".
The members of Clamp had some difficulty adjusting from their typical style after deciding to publish with Weekly Shōnen Magazine. Because their typical thinner lines did not give the desired impact, Ohkawa expressed the group's desire to make their lines thicker, and to use simpler layouts similar to the other stories already present in Shōnen Magazine. She stated that they used their original artistic style to attract initial readers and then slowly transitioned to a new style. Sometime around when the story arc focused on the Country of Ōto took place, their art style had gradually been changing again; at this point they were thinking of returning to their original style. They were still adjusting to a weekly schedule; many of their previous works were on a monthly schedule. Sugawara expressed concerns about the strain on the artists of concurrently doing a weekly issue of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle linked with xxxHolic, but in the end he whole-heartedly approved. In accordance with Ohkawa's desire for each to have a well organized story, Clamp avoids putting references between the two stories too frequently. The main idea was connecting these two series was to have protagonists from two different manga with different personalities and designs. However, during the ending they would be stated to share the same existence, and had to go on different paths. As Tsubasa is connected with xxxHolic, the characters' designs are also meant to be similar; Like xxxHolic, the artwork is sometimes influenced by Ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e
' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
art style which leads to the characters have longer limbs. When asked if another series influenced Tsubasa in the concept of parallel worlds, Ohkawa replied that she was not a fan of sci-fi series and pointed that all worlds shown in the series were other works from Tsubasa. At the same time, she wanted to segregate Tsubasa from previous works. She also explained that while some characters are the same, their traits and personalities were modified due to different backstories.
When thinking about including character goods with the volume releases, Sugawara came up with the atypical idea of releasing a deluxe and normal edition of the manga after contemplating the inconsistency of novels getting both a soft-cover and hard-cover release, but manga only received one version. Because it was a new concept, the group experienced several mishaps such as accidentally placing a vertically flipped illustration on the first deluxe edition. The group also decided to use another atypical practice of keeping catchphrases that appeared in the magazine identical to the ones that appear on the frontispieces of the deluxe editions.
Manga
Written and illustrated by ClampClamp (manga artists)
, is an all-female Japanese manga artist group that formed in the mid 1980s. Many of the group's manga series are often adapted into anime after release. It consists of their leader , who provides much of the storyline and screenplay for all their works and adaptations of those works respectively ,...
, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was serialized in Japan in Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
's Weekly Shōnen Magazine
Weekly Shonen Magazine
, also known as Shōnen Magazine, is a shōnen manga magazine published by Kodansha, first published on 17 March 1959. Despite some unusual censorship policies , it's mainly read by an older audience, with a large portion of its readership falling under the male high school or college...
between May 2003 and October 2009. Its 233 chapters, which are called , French for "Chapter", have been compiled into twenty-eight tankōbon
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...
volumes by Kodansha, with the first volume released on August 12, 2003, and the last one on November 17, 2009. All the volumes were also released in deluxe editions containing color pages and new illustrations at the same time as the original release.
Tsubasa was one of the first four manga series licensed for English release in North America by Del Rey Manga
Del Rey Manga
was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. It was formed as part of a cross-publishing relationship with Japanese publisher Kodansha. Some of the Del Rey titles, such as Tsubasa...
and was acquired together with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
is an anime series developed by Sunrise and directed by Mitsuo Fukuda. As with other series from the Gundam franchise, Gundam SEED takes place in a parallel timeline, in this case the Cosmic Era, the first to do so...
, Negima! Magister Negi Magi
Negima! Magister Negi Magi
Negima! Magister Negi Magi, known in Japan as is a manga and anime series by Ken Akamatsu . The manga is currently being published by Kodansha and serialized in Shōnen Magazine in Japan. Del Rey Manga published the English translated version in the United States and Canada prior to Kodansha...
, and xxxHolic in January 2004. Del Rey released the first volume of the series on April 27, 2004, and the last one on November 23, 2010. Tanoshimi
Tanoshimi
Tanoshimi is a part of Random House a US based publisher. Tanoshimi is an arm of the United Kingdom branch of the company and is used for the publication of new English Language Manga titles...
, the United Kingdom branch of Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, published the first 14 volumes as published by Del Rey in the United Kingdom, between August 3, 2006, and June 5, 2008.
TV anime
The animation studio Bee TrainBee Train
, commonly referred simply as Bee Train, is a Japanese animation studio founded by Kōichi Mashimo in 1997. Since their involvement with Noir, .hack//Sign, and Madlax they have a strong following in the yuri fandom for being involved in series portraying strong female leads with speculatively...
adapted the manga series into a two-season anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
television series spanning fifty-two episodes in total. Both seasons were written by Hiroyuki Kawasaki and directed by Kōichi Mashimo
Koichi Mashimo
is a well-known Japanese anime director and the founder of the animation studio Bee Train. Since the creation of the studio, Mashimo directed or otherwise participated in all its works, for example, as a member of art or sound department...
, with Hiroshi Morioka
Hiroshi Morioka
is a Japanese anime director and artist. Primarily working alongside director Koichi Mashimo at Bee Train animation studio, he's come on scene in his work with some notable productions by Bee Train including the anime adaption of Clamp's Tsubasa Chronicle and the third segment Field Test in Batman:...
joining on as co-director for the second season. The music for the series was composed by Yuki Kajiura
Yuki Kajiura
, born August 6, 1965 in Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese composer and music producer. She has provided the music for several popular anime series, such as one of the Kimagure Orange Road movies, Noir, .hack//SIGN, Aquarian Age, Madlax, My-HiME, My-Otome, .hack//Roots, Pandora Hearts, Puella Magi...
. The first season aired Saturday nights at 18:30 on NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
from April 9, 2005, to October 15, 2005, and spanned 26 episodes. The second season began on April 29, 2006, at 18:30 and concluded on November 4, 2006; it spanned twenty-six episodes. In Japan, Bandai Visual
Bandai Visual
, is a Japanese anime, film production and distribution enterprise, established by Bandai Co., Ltd. and a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings, Inc., which is based in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Since the reorganisation of Namco Bandai Holdings in 2006, Bandai Visual now heads the group's Visual and...
released the series across fourteen Region 2 DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
compilation volumes between August 26, 2005, and February 23, 2007.
Funimation Entertainment
Funimation Entertainment
Funimation is an American entertainment company. Originally founded in 1994 by Gen Fukunaga, the company became a subsidiary of Navarre Corporation on May 11, 2005...
licensed both seasons under the title Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle for English-language release January 2006. They released the TV series in North America across twelve Region 1 DVD compilation volumes. Funimation released the DVDs in two collections, where each contains six of the DVDs together in a box set, on November 11, 2008, and December 29, 2009. A DVD box with the first season and the film was released on January 19, 2010. It was re-released in Blu-ray format on May 4, 2010, in a package that also included the anime's second season. Funimation also released the first season of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle in the United Kingdom through Revelation Films
Revelation Films
Revelation Films is a British distributor of entertainment programmes on DVD.It was perhaps most well known as the company through which as of November 2006, the American anime company FUNimation Entertainment has launched its titles in the United Kingdom on region 2 DVD...
beginning on September 17, 2007, across six Region 2 DVD compilation volumes. , the English dub of the first season was being broadcast on the Funimation Channel
FUNimation Channel
The FUNimation Channel is a 24-hour cable network which broadcasts anime series in the United States. OlympuSAT was chosen as the exclusive distributor of the network....
in the United States. Revelation Films had previously confirmed the release of the second season of Tsubasa Chronicle in the U.K., although no release dates were ever set.
Film
A film interlude, The Princess in the Birdcage KingdomThe Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom
#, known officially as Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle the Movie: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom, is an animated short film based on the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle manga by the group Clamp...
, was adapted by the animation studio Production I.G and premiered in Japanese theaters on August 20, 2005, in conjunction with xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream
XxxHolic: A Midsummer Night's Dream
is an hour-long traditional animation film by Production I.G based on the Young Magazine comic xxxHolic by Clamp, though it is an original story set within that of the comic rather than an adaptation of any part of it...
, between the two seasons of the anime series. Its plot continues the journey from Syaoran's group for Sakura's feathers. They locate one at the Country of Birdcages, where they have to confront the world's king in order to obtain it. It was directed by Itsuro Kawasaki
Itsuro Kawasaki
is a Japanese director of anime.-TV anime:*Popolocrois Monogatari - Assistant Director, Episode Director*Arc the Lad - Director*Wild Arms: Twilight Venom - Series Director, Storyboard*Love Hina - Storyboard...
and written by Midori Goto and Junichi Fujisaku
Junichi Fujisaku
is the chief game director and game writer for Production I.G's Game Production Department. He is a graduate of Production I.G's think-tank "Oshii Academy", used to train the next generation of staff for the company.-Works:...
. Character designs were provided by Yoko Kikuchi, and music was by Yuki Kajiura. Clamp artist Ageha Ohkawa liked how both films were connected, despite that both have different themes. Shochiku
Shochiku
is a Japanese movie studio and production company for kabuki. It also produces and distributes anime films. Its best remembered directors include Yasujirō Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio Naruse, Keisuke Kinoshita and Yōji Yamada...
released the DVD for the film on February 25, 2006, in Japan in both regular and premium editions. Funimation released the film on a single DVD in English on February 19, 2009, in North America as a double feature
Double feature
The double feature, also known as a double bill, was a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatre managers would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown.The double feature, also known as...
with the xxxHolic film. It was released alongside a DVD box of the anime's first season on January 19, 2010. It was re-released in Blu-ray format on May 4, 2010, in a package that included the anime's second season.
Original video animations
Two original video animationOriginal video animation
, abbreviated as media , are animated films and series made specially for release in home-video formats. The term originated in relation to Japanese animation...
(OVA) series were animated by Production I.G. They were directed by Shunsuke Tada and written by Nanase Ohkawa, with music provided by Yuki Kajiura. A three-episode OVA series titled was released between November 16, 2007, and March 17, 2008, across three DVDs bundled with limited versions of volumes 21, 22, and 23 of the manga. Their plot is set after the anime's ending, and follows the arrival of Syaoran's group in an postapocalyptic Tokyo, where the connection between Syaoran and a teenager identical to him is revealed. A two-episode OVA series titled was released across two DVDs. The first was packaged with volume 26 of the manga, which was released on March 17, 2009; and the second was packaged with volume 27, released on May 15, 2009. They are set after the characters' journey to Seresu as they search for a way to make Sakura's soul return to her body. In May 2010, Funimation announced they licensed both series of OVAs. They were released together under the title of "Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE - OVA Collection" in both DVD and Blu-ray formats on January 4, 2011. In June 2011, Funimation started streaming the five episodes in their official website.
Audio CDs
The original soundtrack for the anime was released in four soundtrack albumSoundtrack album
A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television program. In some cases, not all the tracks from the movie are included in the album; however there are rare cases of songs in the trailers that do not appear in...
s titled Future Soundscape I~IV. They were released by Victor Entertainment
Victor Entertainment
is a subsidiary of Japan Victor Company that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It was formerly known as...
for the anime from July 6, 2005, to September 21, 2006, each in a normal and a limited edition that featured additional merchandise. Additionally, a compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
titled Best Vocal Collection was released on December 20, 2006, that collected fourteen vocal tracks from the anime. Each release charted on the Oricon
Oricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...
charts, and the highest ranking album, Future Soundscape I, peaked at 39th and remained on the charts for three weeks.
Ten music albums have been released, and each contains a single piece of theme music
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
for the various adaptations. For the anime adaptation Tsubasa Chronicle, four maxi single
Maxi single
A maxi single or maxi-single is a music single release with more than the usual two tracks of an a-side song and a b-side song.-The first maxi singles:...
s titled Loop, Blaze, It's, and Kazemachi Jet / Spica were released between May 10, 2005, and July 14, 2006. For the anime film Tsubasa Chronicle the Movie: The Princess of the Country of Birdcages, two maxi singles titled Aerial and Amrita were released on August 17, 2005, and on August 18, 2005. For the OVA adaptations, two maxi singles and two studio albums titled Synchronicity, Saigo no Kajitsu / Mitsubashi to Kagakusha, Kazeyomi, and Everlasting Songs were released between November 21, 2007, and February 25, 2009. All of the releases charted on the Oricon charts, with the highest ranking single being Loop, which peaked at 7th and remained on the chart for nine weeks.
Victor Entertainment
Victor Entertainment
is a subsidiary of Japan Victor Company that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It was formerly known as...
released a series of three drama CDs titled "The Matinée of the Palace", based on the anime adaptation featuring the same voice actors
Seiyu
Voice acting in Japan has far greater prominence than in most other countries. Japan's large animation industry produces 60% of the animated series in the world; as a result, Japanese voice actors, or , are able to achieve fame on a national and international level.Besides acting as narrators and...
. The first, subtitled Chapter.1 ~Coral, the City on the Water~, was released on December 16, 2005. Chapter.2 ~Impossible Goal~ followed on February 1, 2006. The final CD, subtitled Chapter.3 ~Unspeakable Lines~, was released on March 24, 2006. All of the releases charted on the Oricon charts, with the highest ranking album being Chapter.2 ~Impossible Goal~, peaking at 161st and remaining on the chart for a week. A spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
series of four drama CDs titled "Private High School Holitsuba" have been released between 2006 and 2009, and has also had a one-chapter manga adaptation. Set in an alternate universe, the series features characters from Tsubasa and xxxHolic as students and teachers from the fictional school "Holitsuba".
Video games
A video game titled developed by Cavia, based on the anime adaptation of the same name, was released in Japan for the Nintendo DSNintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
on October 27, 2005, by Akira. Tsubasa Chronicle is a role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
whose gameplay
Gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and player's connection with it...
requires the player to navigate the world as Sakura and Syaoran in search of Sakura's memory fragments. Players can compete with each other wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
ly. A sequel titled was released on April 20, 2006, again for the Nintendo DS and shares various gameplay traits with Tsubasa Chronicle.
Art and fanbooks
Two different fanbooks have been released for the anime of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. KodanshaKodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
released two in Japan by between 2005 and 2006 that contain character illustrations and information, a collection of the theme song videos, and interviews with the voice actors. The first book published was on May 17, 2005. The second book published was on June 16, 2006. DH Publishing released one in English on May 25, 2008, titled Tsubasa Chronicle Factbook: Mystery, Magic and Mischief, the eighteenth of the Mysteries and Secrets Revealed! series of books.
Three different artbooks which contain illustrations have been released in Japan by Kodansha between 2006 and 2009. The first book published was on April 17, 2006, bearing an ISBN 978-4063721386. The second book published was on April 17, 2007, and containing art from the first 14 volumes. An English version of ALBuM De REProDUCTioNS was released on December 8, 2009. This contained one of the short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
titled Tsubasa: World of the Untold Story that also featured as omake
Omake
means extra in Japanese. Its primary meaning is general and widespread. It is used as an anime and manga fandom term to mean "extra or bonus". In USA, the term is most often used in a narrow sense by anime fans to describe special features on DVD releases: deleted scenes, interviews with the...
to the manga volumes. Another artbook, , was released on November 17, 2009, containing art from the final 14 volumes.
Two character guides were released by Kodansha in Japan and then translated and released in North American by Del Rey Manga
Del Rey Manga
was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. It was formed as part of a cross-publishing relationship with Japanese publisher Kodansha. Some of the Del Rey titles, such as Tsubasa...
. They contain overviews of the worlds, overviews of characters, fan reports, illustrations, and interviews. The was released on April 15, 2005, covering events from volume 1 to volume 7. It was released in English on December 26, 2006. The was released on October 17, 2006. It was released in English on October 13, 2009. Another related book is which was released by Kodansha on July 17, 2004. It is set prior to the events of xxxHolic and Tsubasa and tells the lives from the two Mokona Modoki ever since their creation by Clow Reed and Yūko Ichihara.
There are two guidebooks focused in the soundtrack used in the anime adaptation of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle that were published in Japan by Kodansha. The first one, , was released on August 30, 2005, and focused on piano sheet music for tracks from the series' soundtrack album. The second one, , was published on July 24, 2006, and it had piano sheet music for several soundtracks.
Manga reception
The Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle manga series was well received by Japanese readers, and appeared at various times on lists of best-selling volumes. In September 2009, it was announced that the first 27 volumes had sold over 20 million copies in Japan, becoming one of Clamp's best selling titles. After the first volume's English release on April 27, 2004, it sold 2,330 copies in May 2004, placing it at the top end of the top 100 sales of that month. It was fifth on WaldenbooksWaldenbooks
Waldenbooks , operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain and a subsidiary of Borders Group. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware as well as a children's edutainment chain under Walden Kids...
's 2004 list, obtaining the highest place ever by a manga volume. It was consistently ranked in the top 10 of the list of Manga Top 50 for every quarterly release of the "ICv2 Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga", based on sales from both mainstream bookstores and comic book shops, since its release in May 2004, except for the fourth quarter of 2007, reaching a top rank of number 3. By November 2006, over a million manga volumes from the series had been sold in North America by Del Rey Manga. The series was also listed as the nineteenth best-selling manga from North America in 2010 by ICv2. In the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation Award from 2009, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was the winner in the category "Best Manga - Action". About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
placed it twenty-ninth in their article "36 Great Manga Missed by the Eisner Awards", while the artbook Tsubasa ALBuM De REProDUCTioNS was third in their 2009 poll "Best Manga Book". In Mania Entertainment's "Best Manga Awards For 2005", Tsubasa was third in the category "Best Shounen". It was a nominee for the American Anime Awards
American Anime Awards
The American Anime Awards are a series of awards designed to recognize excellence in the release of anime and manga in North America.The first annual American Anime Awards balloting was supervised by Milton Griepp of industry website ICv2. The first gala awards presentation was hosted in New York...
in 2007, but was one of the last series announced due to an error made by the people in charge.
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was fairly well received by reviewers, who described it as a treat for Clamp fans due to the large number of crossover characters in the series. Initial fan response to Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was that it was "Cardcaptor Sakura
Cardcaptor Sakura
, abbreviated as CCS and also known as Cardcaptors, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. The manga was originally serialized monthly in Nakayoshi from the May 1996 until the June 2000 issue, and later published in 12 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha...
for guys". Fans speculated that the series would conclude one of Clamp's unfinished series, X
X (manga)
, also known as X/1999, is a Japanese shōjo manga series created by Clamp, a creative team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Nanase Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Mokona. It premiered in Monthly Asukas May 1992 issue and ran there until the magazine's editors showed concern with the increasingly violent...
, or that it would be a sequel to Cardcarptor Sakura that focused on the character Syaoran Li. Critics described the series as being marked by several plot twists, with About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
writer Katherine Luther labelling it as "perhaps the "twistiest" of twists that we have seen in anime and manga in quite some time". For the earlier half of the series, Mikhail Koulikov from Anime News Network
Anime News Network
Anime News Network is an anime industry news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, Japanese popular music and other otaku-related culture within North America, Australia and Japan. Additionally, it sometimes features similar happenings throughout the Anglosphere and elsewhere in the...
described the series as settling into a "predictable pattern" that Melissa Harper, also from Anime News Network, described as somewhat slow, and "frankly a bit boring". However, Michael Aronson from Manga Life found the series appealing and accessible to readers who have not read other Clamp series, and he hoped it would remain this accessible for following volumes. He found that the relation between Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and xxxHolic would persuade readers to also read the latter series. Mania Entertainment's Megan Lavey found the introduction to be a "pretty simple love story", while liking the characters' personalities. She liked how the series was connected with xxxHolic and hoped that both series would continue crossing over. In a general overview of the manga, Julie Gray from Comic Book Bin gave positive remarks to the characters' complex personalities and how the plot has been developed throughout its first ten volumes. She recommended that people should buy the series. Active Anime's Blake Waymire found that the change of settings was well done, and he noted how some story arcs could go from dramatic to charming.
From volume 15 onwards, Clamp unleashed a series of "mind-blowing" plot twists that had been foreshadowed frequently throughout the series. These twists have been described by Anime News Network as "stunning" but confusingly executed due to the sheer number of storylines coming together. Other critics praised the pacing as letting "the story progress at its own natural momentum", keeping the reader "from being bored by any one literary genre". The plot twists and the ever-changing relationships between the manga's main characters were praised; "few manga creators could pull off this sort of outrageous storytelling stunt". Active Anime writer Holly Ellingwood called the plot twists as "the most shocking set of events in the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles to date!", finding that despite such twists, more secrets were brought to readers to persuade them to read the following volumes. Ellingwood also reviewed following volumes and found the last plot revelations intriguing; she enjoyed that a strong connection is revealed between characters from Tsubasa and xxxHolic. Critics have described the artwork as "keeping up the standards expected of Clamp" with its high level of detail, though perhaps too much detail, especially during action sequences. The artstyle is "stylish" and "dynamic", characterized by a large number of "sweeping lines curlicues that look unlike anything else in the genre" that help bring the action scenes to life for exciting experiences. Ed Sizemore from Comics Worth Reading highlighted the fact that each dimension that the protagonists visit is characterized by its very own look and feel so that "no two worlds are even remotely similar". However, the amount of detail and lack of contrast, while beautiful, often render scenes incomprehensible to the point where the reader is left guessing who is attacking. Critics have praised Del Rey
Del Rey Manga
was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. It was formed as part of a cross-publishing relationship with Japanese publisher Kodansha. Some of the Del Rey titles, such as Tsubasa...
's inclusion of English translation notes that aid in understanding the plot, especially due to its crossover nature. Lavey found the translation a "good read", liking how some Japanese words were not translated and instead explained in notes.
Anime reception
Critics have described the anime adaptation as having a very slow pace but having a beautiful musical score. Carl Kimlinger from Anime News NetworkAnime News Network
Anime News Network is an anime industry news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, Japanese popular music and other otaku-related culture within North America, Australia and Japan. Additionally, it sometimes features similar happenings throughout the Anglosphere and elsewhere in the...
faulted the director, Koichi Mashimo
Koichi Mashimo
is a well-known Japanese anime director and the founder of the animation studio Bee Train. Since the creation of the studio, Mashimo directed or otherwise participated in all its works, for example, as a member of art or sound department...
, for "downshifting the plot's energy" and as having "too many flashbacks, too many slow pans over inexpressive eyes", that create an end-product that is "tediously formulaic". Active Anime's Christopher Seaman had mixed feelings, finding the romantic themes mature and the magical themes appealing to younger audiences; he concluded that "teens would get the most out of the series." He recommended the series in general, praising its plot and its themes. DVDTalk's Todd Douglass Jr. ranked the anime DVD box as "Highly Recommended"; he liked how, despite borrowing elements from other series, it was "entirely self-contained". Douglas pointed out that following its second season, the anime kept entertaining viewers, and felt they would not find a reason to dislike it. Douglas enjoyed the anime's storytelling. He liked its characters, but found it sometimes dragging due to its episodic nature. Kimlinger praised the musical score as being beautiful, as Yuki Kajiura
Yuki Kajiura
, born August 6, 1965 in Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese composer and music producer. She has provided the music for several popular anime series, such as one of the Kimagure Orange Road movies, Noir, .hack//SIGN, Aquarian Age, Madlax, My-HiME, My-Otome, .hack//Roots, Pandora Hearts, Puella Magi...
's work has always been. Chris Beveridge from Mania Entertainment made similar comments, praising the series' score and animation, while commenting on the series' accessibility. He said that people unrelated with Clamp's works would like Tsubasa, in contrast to other people who would "get out of the series". Its episodic nature was praised by Luther, who commented how the main plot was connected to each of the story arcs. The English cast for the anime has been labelled as "done and very solid". IGN's Jeffrey Harris felt Christopher Sabat
Christopher Sabat
Christopher Robin Sabat is an American voice actor, ADR Director, and Line Producer. He has provided voices for a number of English language versions of Japanese anime films and television series, as well as video games...
was its best actor. Harris called the anime "a nice looking and at times elegant looking show", pointing to the traits of the main characters. He criticized the lack of extras in the DVDs releases. Reviewing the anime's and xxxHolics films, IGN writer N.S. Davidson said the Tsubasa film would be appealing to viewers of the series, despite its short length. He liked how both films' storylines interacted, allowing parts of the plot of Tsubasa to be explained in the xxxHolic film, and he found artistic similarities between the two films. Carlo Santos was more critical of the film but still called it "good art". In a TV Asahi
TV Asahi
, also known as EX and , is a Japanese television network headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company writes its name in lower-case letters, tv asahi, in its logo and public-image materials. The company also owns All-Nippon News Network....
poll, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was ranked as the fifty-ninth most popular anime in Japan. It ranked ninth in Animage
Animage
is a Japanese anime and entertainment magazine which Tokuma Shoten began publishing in July 1978. Hayao Miyazaki's internationally renowned manga, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, was serialized in Animage from 1982 through 1994...
s Anime Grand Prix anime popularity poll from 2005, while it was also listed as a "Honorable Mention" in IGN's "Top Ten Anime of 2007" feature.
Although the Tsubasa OVAs were not the first original animation DVDs (OADs), OVAs published with manga volumes, its release helped to popularize the term. Chris Beveridge from Mania Entertainment considered the OVAs to have better quality than the TV series, mainly because they were developed by Production I.G instead of Bee Train and because they have a darker storyline. In a further review, Beveridge found fascinating the events occurring in the OVAs due to its the number of revelations changed the way people viewed the series. The character designs were felt to be more similar to the manga's ones than the TV series, while the animation has been considered "a notch above that of standard Television". The themes were noted to be more mature both brutally and mentally; although the number of changes presented throughout them has been praised, another series of OVAs that would conclude the storyline built in the last episode from Spring Thunder Chronicles has been requested by reviewers.
External links
- NHK's official anime website
- Funimation's official anime website
- Tsubasa Chronicle the Movie at Production I.G
- Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations at KodanshaKodansha, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
- Official site for the Tsubasa Shunraiki and the OVAs of xxxHolic at Kodansha