Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE: Tokyo Revelations – Review

Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE: Tokyo Revelations follows main characters Shaoran, Sakura, Kurogane and Fai continue with their quest to finds pieces of Sakura’s memories in different alternate worlds, they stumble upon the post-apocalyptic city of Tokyo. Unknowingly, another ‘Syaoran’ has awakened from his long slumber… who is he really? Done for only hardcore fans, this is a twist in the story that manages to be pretentious, obnoxious, boring, confusing, off-putting, inept, and far overstays its welcome. It is somewhat hard to follow the story because it jumps from one issue to another, and you’ll be shocked to see the sudden hightened level of violence and blood.

The violence could be viewed as a plus (and it usually is) but fans of the television shows may look in dismay over the new approach from the originally wholesome image. After all, this show was made for teenagers in mind. Though I personally think only people who have followed the manga will get more out of this. If you’re following the anime, bewarned this doesn’t take place directly after season 2 ended. But a little while after. Tokyo Revelations jumps straight into the heart of the storyline and some of the revelations such as who this Syaoran is who has been travelling with Fai, Sakura, Kurogane and Mokona during the anime. It isn’t all bad though and there are a few redeeming qualities.

For one, The Acid Tokyo arc is clearly one of CLAMP’s masterpeices, and this OVA adaption of it stays true to the storyline of the manga. But there is beauty here too, because the main theme is the power of love, of different shapes and forms, between the main characters. Tokyo Revelations kicks off where the Library arc should have left off. Acid Tokyo was the world they were suppose to land in when Fai had used magic to escape. In short conclusion, I don’t believe this was an animated version of Tsubasa the way CLAMP meant it to be seen. If you haven’t read it in the manga, you should. Do it now.

If you aren’t interested in reading 28+ volumes of manga, well… you probably shouldn’t torture yourself by watching this OVA. On the one hand I was delighted to see another anime adaptation, and on the other hand I wasn’t particularly looking forward to Production I.G’s new Gothic style. But still I wanted to see if Tokyo Revelations was worth the hype and for the most part it wasn’t. It may seem that I’m being inordinately harsh on CLAMP, but injecting so much violence into a series that is meant for a primarily young audience is not going to work, no matter how you slice it.  I did not care for the new animation style, I do want to say that director Shunsuke Tada was at least able to keep it balanced. He didn’t allow it to become overly saturated with blacks and shadows and dull unexpressive character designs and animation as most directors in this style do. Just watch the TV series and call it a day. It’s better to want more than to be unhappy that you got more and it was as terrible as this.