Is DUNE taught in Japanese in schools or something? This is the third anime (at least!) I’ve seen that features giant sandworms, yet no mention of the spice mélange nor the Muad’Dib. Somehow, these monsters wiggled their way deep into the zeitgeist there…
I really had no idea what the hell this was when I put it in my DVD player and, now, I have only a slightly better idea of what it is. I figured that, as an OVA, it’d be self-contained, but it seems like this is actually an arc of a long-in-progress series. Dropping into this felt like dropping into ONE PIECE did, only with the added complications of a metaphysical, pan-dimensional mythos that probably would’ve still been confusing even if I’d watched TSUBASA from the beginning.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but is this supposed to be like SLIDERS with a dash of emo and a whole ladle of magic? I might not have known how the hell it all tied together, but my senses could plainly perceive spells being cast, poses being struck and deep discussions of feelings, motivations and painful, hidden pasts being had.
On a more... pedestrian note (har! har!) this finally had the high-speed, high-tech segue chase I’ve been wishing and hoping so long for.
I noticed that CLAMP handled the animation for this, too, but is there any other connection to XXXHOLIC? It’s got the same sort of Ed Gorey-esque overlong limbs. Although,it was rendered a lot more three-dimensionally and the experience is maybe a lot weirder for it. It’s almost like everybody’s got some kind of birth defect.
Can any of handy lunatics give me the skinny on this show? Is it worth investigating? Should I take this journey across worlds with these posh dudes?
I don’t think this episode, “The Magician’s Message,” is streaming anywhere online. It’s on a disc I received from Funimation that includes the OVAs, TOKYO REVELATIONS and SPRING THUNDER CHRONICLES. You can find out more about it, here.
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon here & here . Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
xxxHolic and Tsubasa are both CLAMP works. That's the main similarity. But also, both Tsubasa and xxxHolic take characters from other CLAMP work, most notably "Card Captor Sakura", and modify them for use in the Alternate Universe they have created for this new story.
So, basically: they are completely new stories that have developed some characters heavily inspired from old works. (Syaoran, Sakura, Tomoyo...and related.)
Often times, OVA are added content to a series. It sort of depends on the situation. Some OVAs serve as pilots for a series before it becomes regular. Other OVAs are more like bonus episodes to something preexisting.
CLAMP is more a design team of four women. They aren't an animation producer. The have designed characters for numerous series and created manga of their own.
I never watched the show, so, I really can't add ore than that.
The best way to think of Tsubasa is to think of it as being similar Marvel's eXiles series. The main characters of Tsubasa are, basically, alternate universe versions of various characters from other CLAMP series (Sayoran and Sakura are AU versions of characters from Card Captor Sakura, Fai is from Chobits, Kurogane is, IIRC, from Clamp's first series, RG Veda).
I haven't seen the TV series, just read the manga, so I don't know how heavily other CLAMP works are brought up there (one universe has characters from X/1999-Tokyo Babylon making appearances for example).
That reminds me - xxxHolic/Tsubasa wasn't CLAMP's first multi-series joint universe project. X/1999 included plot elements of Tokyo Babylon and CLAMP School Detectives.
Tom is going through the first episode of a bunch of series that Funimation sent him. On occasion, this means that Tom ends up popping smack dab into the beginning of the end of a franchise.