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kurogabae · 6 years

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Tsubasa: Trainwreck Chronicles

And Why Bee Train Personally Owes Me At Least a Grand; an Essay by Popular Demand

part 1 part 2

For those of you who might not know, I love Tsubasa Chronicle. So much. But for the love of Kurogane’s beautiful biceps is the anime awful. Now, I’m not one of those “manga purists” who always insists the manga is better than the anime, I tend to find them equal pretty often. This is not one of those cases.

Once upon a time CLAMP made a deal with Bee Train for a Tsubasa anime. Cardcaptor Sakura had done so well! CLAMP was a solid name to back! Bee Train had nothing to lose - except the trust of every CLAMP fan ever. I don’t know how hands on CLAMP (or rather Ohkawa) were in the production but I feel like “not at all” is a fairly solid guess. It was a mess folks. Production was rushed, story was disregarded, plot was cut up and Frankensteined back together, I’m not even going to talk about the English casting.

In fairness, it wasn’t without it’s good points. The soundtrack was flawless, the Japanese cast was amazing, and when Bee Train tried they really did manage to make the series look nice, which imo makes the rest of the subpar animation even more of a slap to the face. They even had some genuinely enjoyable filler episodes - the chibi episode and the Kero and Mokona episode are always the first to come to my mind - but overall? Not even a hot mess, just a mess.

Under the cut we’ll go arc by arc. I’m not going to rewatch the series just to write this so forgive me if I’m missing facts or if something I say is slightly inaccurate. Also, beware of spoilers for the manga if you haven’t finished reading it. That means you Nick. I’ll write you up a spoiler free copy of this later. Anyway, let’s go.

Opening and introductions:

You’d think, as the start of your series, you’d want the first episode or two to look really nice right? Catch the eye, impress the new viewer. Not Bee Train! [x x] The whole thing is subpar at best. Syaoran and Sakura’s introduction isn’t so bad for the most part, they’re cute and Bee Train tried to add a little more interaction between them before Sakura loses her feathers, which I am all kinds of behind, but... there’s a point where they run from castle guards. And Syaoran sort of just... grabs her and runs and Sakura is left literally flapping in the wind? [x] Also Sakura looks stoned out of her mind in like 90% of the shots she’s in. Touya probably thinks Syaoran is giving her drugs. But honestly, I don’t have too many problems with how the intro happens, mostly just the way it looks.

Fai’s intro can go by with almost no comment aside from the fact that his face looks like it’s melting. Sadly, this is not the worse his face will ever look. Pretty meh.

Personally I think Kurogane’s intro got the short end of the stick visually and I’m not just saying that because he and Tomoyo are my favorites. They both look pretty awful and, as always, where’s the beef???

Also Yuuko deserved better.

Hanshin:

If possible, the animation gets even lazier. We’ve added Mokona to the party and they cannot decide how big she is. I’m not being nitpicky either. Her size fluctuates wildly. Here are just a few examples set only in Hanshin. This problem persists throughout the series. Also I don’t know how to exactly put this into words but... everyone’s eyes are just extra jacked up.

Plot wise we mostly follow canon. Until they decide Sakura should get more screen time. “Great idea!” I can hear you say. “We love Sakura!” Well so do I. Problem: she has one (1) feather to her name and is comatose. Sakura is not really going to do anything. Yet the camera keeps going back to her- oh wait she’s awake. Sort of. Oh she’s getting dressed now, we even get a very weird little montage of her trying on clothes. Now she’s wandering the town, meets up with the leader of the Mohawk Gang whose kudan Kurogane beat the crap out of. Luckily she’s a super cute girl (who is barely conscious and doesn’t even talk? She’s so far from Mokona she probably can’t even understand these guys anyway but...) so they take her out to lunch instead of doing something Terrible. To the restaurant Touya works at. He serves her and doesn’t recognize her, meaning there is no Sakura in this world, at least not one related to him. This happens a lot.

In the anime Sakura is sometimes, for reasons unexplained and inconsistent, “drawn” to her feathers. She’s looking for her feather. There is an absurd Looney Tunes moment where she climbs some sort of tall thing (oil rig? construction site? world’s weirdest flag pole?) and jumps off of it before Syaoran and Co. (who have located her after Arashi, who would never have lost track of her in the first place let’s be real, tells them she’s gone AWOL) can stop her.

And then she flies. Literally and truly fucking flies. Through the sky. Thanks I hate it.

Syaoran catches her, brings her back home, and the story pretty much continues. One fun change was that the whole family had to share a room, they didn’t get separated like in the manga, so we get treated to this Gay Fucking Scene(tm) of Kurogane waking up and the first thing he sees if Fai sleeping while angelic music plays in the background. So that was nice.

Oh god hang on, I had to come back and add this because I literally always forget: Kurogane sees a version of Tomoyo in this world and goes running after her, leaving Fai and Syaoran to meet Touya and Yukito on their own. This results in both of them missing Kurogane’s kudan fight and Kurogane missing the “same face, different person” talk/reminder. They still can’t draw Tomoyo.

Also this.

Koryo:

Where’s the beef?

Much in the spirit of Hanshin, Koryo keeps mostly to the plot and has overall meh animation with a few choice moments of dear god why. Surprisingly, they made a few changes that I didn’t hate - the village had gotten a group of rebels together against the Ryanban. He also stole Chu’nyan’s mother’s body, making it so that her spirit could never find peace, making him even more of a dick.

This is where we see the first instance of the anime really being geared towards younger audiences than CLAMP had planned for. In the manga Sakura wins everyone new clothes via dice gambling, but in the anime she wins a lottery. Not a big deal, but we see more of this. Another thing change is that there’s a whole secondary plot added to everything when they try to, again, give Sakura a more active role. There are better ways to do this, but Bee Train sort of just tosses her into action and then tosses Syaoran in after her. It’s always bad and pointless and never amounts to anything.

Anyway, she ends up inside the castle, somehow Syaoran manages to follow after her. Goodness knows what the dads are up to. (Probably this.) Some Really Weird Stuff happens and from what I remember the spirit of Chu-nyan’s mother hops a ride out of the castle with Sakura. Who, uhh, teleports her and Syaoran out. Yeah.

The rest of the arc goes pretty much how the manga does with a handful of minor changes - like the fact that Kurogane never bought a manga in Hanshin, so in order to block Kiishim’s killing blow he’s tucked the hammer he was using to fix the roof in his shirt, which is a much smaller shield than a whole ass book and I think that’s dumb. Still can’t get Mokona’s size right, to awkward and hilarious results.

And remember kids, we won’t show you dice but we will show you this.

Big Lake and Shipper Fish:

The animation in this part is actually pretty nice. Considering. The things they changed were needless and weird.

Sakura and the fish talk. How? Why? We don’t know, it’s never explained or examined. We are meant to accept it Because Sakura, which only works most of the time. The fish tries to tell Sakura that she knows Syaoran - we all know this will not and cannot work. Why does this happen? What was the point of adding this? It is so weird and awkward. It messes up the flow and is so extra. I understand your desires Shipper Fish, but please, let things take their course.

Jade:

Fuck you and fuck your animation. It looks The Worst, which is a bummer because this world changes the fewest amount of things. Anything I could point out are really minor:

somehow Fai can read

they never show how the family gets their clothes, and 99% of the scene in the tavern is skipped

breaking and entering!

Mokona bites Kurogane in the ass

they don’t have horses

no Kuro-dork looking at the snow like an excited child

they nerf Kurogane’s BAMF

the feather isn’t hidden behind a wall, they need the pure hearts of children?

Kyle was a way lazier villain

Filler #1 - Lightning Jazz Hands:

Alright, that looked neat as hell, I’ll admit. My compliments end here.

Story: nosy little shits got themselves cursed. Gonna fight in a competition to win a Big Magic. Is the Big Magic a feather? Stay tuned! (It’s not, because then the girl would die and that would be Too Sad.)

So the people in this country can shoot lightning out of their hands, that would be awesome and possibly scary, but I guess Kurogane is water/ground type because he gets it and only says, and I quote, “it tingles”. So your lightning powers mean nothing, add no stakes, and the Fam can’t do it so what is the point?

This filler is also famous for its KuroFai baiting, which is impressive, seeing as the anime tried very hard to make them Not Gay. I mean it failed but yeah.

Syaoran is the only fighter they have left because Kurogane and Fai are children and Sakura is making friends with the cursed girl. Keefer... Keepha... fights Syaoran, and obviously Syaoran wins because we’re supposed to think this is a feather. They really play it up to, even after we learn the Big Magic isn’t a feather Syaoran still hesitates before handing it over. For dramatics I guess? I don’t know, there’s literally no reason for him to not give it to the needy couple.

Boring filler. Only fun was watching Kurogane get excited over fighting people.

tbc... with Outo

[part 1] [part 2]

#Tsubasa Trainwreck Chronicles #my meta #sort of?????#TRC #spoilersTRC

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serpentinred · 7 years

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blackmantagirl mentioned you in a post “@serpentinred LOL! Same here. Most of the time, I follow new people...”

@ serpentinred LOL! Same here. Most…

@blackmantagirl Well, then, that’s good. At least we can gang up on anyone who dares to call us anything but young and beautiful. ;)

No, it wasn’t Jump! *goes to search on the Internet for the comic book name* It MIGHT have been Nakayoshi. I don’t quite remember it, to be honest, although I’m certain that it was translated version of it (I think they imported it from Hong Kong at that time, since I got it in Chinatown, Manhattan). I'm checking it up, and it still might be Nakayoshi, since I think I saw Cardcaptor Sakura being published in the same book. I didn’t read it but remember my second older sister liking one of the other mangas being published in there, and I THINK it was Cardcaptor. I think there was also a manga of a female Robin Hood-ish in there as well. Anyhow ... too many years ago. LOL!

I haven’t rewatched Super/Stars as much as Classics/R/S, so I’m not really certain about Chibs’ birthday.

Also, after Luna-P went over to the dark side and turned into that drill-umbrella. Like, sure, some people might argue that it’s because of the black crystal, but I really don’t think so. Chibs was exposed to that crystal, not Luna-P. Luna-P just changed itself to be with Chibs. Knowing kids, when they are bullied to the extent that the franchise wanted us to believe Chibs was, they’re going to retaliate pretty harshly without thinking of the consequences unless it was in retrospect. Heck, I know of a child who drew blood (by scratching) who only knew remorse after they were confronted by someone they liked, not when they’d first done it. Well, actually, it was only that case - the kid scratched more than one person already, so ...

Kids (well, humans in general, to be honest) can be very cruel in the right (or is it wrong?) situations.

Anyhow, Chibs in the 90′s anime gave me no indication that she would hold back in dishing out pain towards the people that bullied her that much, tbh.

ROTFLMAO! Exactly! I recall thinking “How the hell didn’t they know she was the Queen’s child when she has the freaking moon symbol on her forehead whenever she had the temper tantrum?” But I tend to ignore plot holes when the rest of the story is entertaining, so I was willing to let it slide. Didn’t stop me from disliking Chibs though. XDDD

Now you’re making me imagine the Senshi running all over CT trying to pacify the worried citizens - “No, we’re not under attack ... No, it’s just the Princess getting hungry ... NO, SHE HADN’T BEEN POSSESSED BY A YOUMA."

In retrospect, no wonder nobody knew that the Black Moon clan was going to attack CT in the 30th century. Any signs were brushed under “another Princess anomaly” until it was too late. XDDD

Well, ignoring SenShi (or in general, Shitennou) fan theories of the Shitennou being brought back to life to have extra guards for Mamoru, they had at least 4 Sailor Senshi protecting the Queen and the King. So ... um ... shouldn’t at least one of them be, like, protecting the Princess, too? I mean, she is the next in line to the throne. Sure, CT is supposed to be a utopia, but, erm ... did you forget that you happened to banish people to Nemesis? And besides, if it WERE a complete utopia, there shouldn’t be any needs of guards for the Queen and King. So, why weren’t the Senshi helping Chibiusa control her powers anyway?

Maybe they were going for “Chibs had the power because she absorbed the Silver Crystal”, yeah, no, not buying it because how did the Black Moon clan knew that it was Chibs shining the beacon?

Yeah, Manga!Chibs had more basis for being insecure, and it made sense for her to question if she were the Queen’s kid because if Sailor Moon was so powerful, and Neo-queen Serenity could wield the Silver Crystal, what was she, Chibs, doing? Why didn’t she have any powers?

Agreed with what you said about the difference between two different Black Lady.

Well, I think 90′s Usagi also gets distracted rather easily. She’ll set herself for a goal to do better and then the next second she’s like “Oh, video games! Manga!” whereas Manga!Usagi doesn’t bother setting a goal for schoolwork. At least, I don’t remember her doing this in the manga.

Like I’ve said, binge watching Crystal these couple of days, I can say with confidence that you can see that Usagi pretty much matured from Season 1 to Season 3.

Anyhow, I agree that there’s a way to keep immaturity and maturity at a balance, which wasn’t accomplished in Classics, unfortunately.

Agreed about the running around bit in Season 3. Well, to be honest, it’s a bit jarring to go from the elegant and graceful artwork of S1 and S2 and then to S3. Not that S3 isn’t pretty, but imho, it lacks the elegance of S1 and S2. So when the running around bit came around, I guess I was already a bit ... numb? Anyhow ...

Yeah, I know a lot of people didn’t like it because it felt too convenient with everyone pairing off. I didn’t mind it much because it gave me plenty of things to play with. LOL! I’m that strange kid in the back of the room that has to make pairs with everything (not humans of course, but with things, yeah ...).

No, I get what you mean about some of the personality. I think Jadeite’s boyish laid-back attitude came from PGSM where they had a scene in which Jadeite was jumping around in the back. But I never really got that feel from Jadeite. To me, he was serious, rash at some points. He was probably a bit more relaxed when he was with his Shitennou brothers and Endymion (and with Rei, if we’re going with SenShi fanfics). Sure, he might troll people every once in a while because being with the rest of the Shitennou has to rub off on him after a while. So basically, I see him more as an even more serious, more rash, and more sarcastic version of Ami.

Oh, Nephrite is definitely the Casanova type with a love for being over-dramatic in everything he does. Seriously, you’re from the Dark Kingdom and the leader of youma, what are you doing riding around town in a freaking red sports car and having a mansion in the middle of some spooky forest? Are you seriously trying to tell me that you can’t look at stars elsewhere? LOL!

Zoisite is a whole other can of worms, imho. I don’t get when people make him introverted. To me, he’s the refined version of Nephrite? Like ... he’s dramatic but more in the peacock way while Nephrite is more the Lion King way, I guess. LOL!

No, I get what you mean. Though I admit that I’m a fangirl of the traditional pairings, I do see why mixing things up will be fun. :)

I still think that it’s because they were trying to stuff everything into 13 Acts. I agree with what you said about the reveal. Like perhaps let the Senshi somewhat feel something after they’d defeated the Shitennou? Like even if they’d wanted something stupid dramatic like having Metallia blast the Shitennou, they could’ve done something along the lines of:

[Mercury freezes Zoisite, harming him significantly. However, before she could proceed to permanently dust him, a voice resounded in her ears, that sounded suspiciously like Zoisite, but with a lot less malice and with more friendliness, and even endearment, if the production team wanted it to go that way.

That pause proved to enough time for Zoisite to break free of his confines and escape back to the Dark Kingdom.]

Something similar for the rest of the girls and then the girls discuss this with Venus, who then reveal that yes, they had relationships before, but she didn’t want to tell them in case it got in the way. So the girls know that the Shitennou were good people before getting brainwashed. Then the Metallia scene and they mourn that good people were killed, rather than for relationships that could never be.

Well, it broke my running record of shipping pairings that are never canon, so there’s that. My friend joked to me that it must be some kind of phenomenon that I actually liked a pairing that became canon. LOL!

(Oh, the musicals are great. I still need to go through all of them, but nearly every one I’d watched was immensely entertaining.)

ROTFLMAO! Oh no. Now you’re going to create a monster. As if this reply isn’t already long enough without me complaining about the break-up arc. ;)

Anyhow, let’s see ...

For one thing, Mamoru was stupid in there.

There is absolutely no other way around it or to say it kindly. Like yeah, a voice that you don’t know (or is vaguely familiar with) tells you that if you don’t break up with Usagi, she’s going to die.

Let’s look at the statistics here, shall we? Starting from the Silver Millennium, it was YOU, Mamoru Chiba, who’d died first. Okay, fine, 90′s anime, you died together, but still only evens the score to Mamoru: 1, Usagi: 1. Then we go to the Dark Kingdom era where you got yourself fatally injured which then got you brainwashed. Mamoru: 2, Usagi: 1. During Alan and Ann’s period, you forget about Usagi, while she had a full set of powers, and you had to become schizophrenic to save her. Remind me if I’m wrong, but you could’ve easily died near the Doom Tree if Ann wasn’t fond of you. So, I’ll be nice Mamoru: 2 1/2, Usagi: 1.

Hell, with those statistics, I don’t know, maybe YOU’RE the one who should be worried about dying, instead of worrying about Usagi dying? It’s pretty much established that though she’s klutzy at times, she’s not the damsel in distress here. More often than not, it’s YOU, Mamoru Chiba, who’s the damsel in distress.

Let’s move on the the scenes - not the artwork, of course. Some of the angsty parts were well-drawn. Seriously, I love a regency romance as much Ami-chan, and I’m guilty of shipping crack pairing that are very controversial and in which there’s nothing redeemable about one of the parties in said pairing.

However with Sailor Moon, you want me to believe that she’s the strongest warrior alive and then you made her become Twilight!Bella. Sure, Bella came after her, but still. What’s up with Usagi nearly wanting her life to end because Mamoru dumped her?

Seriously, I don’t need my female heroines to super heroes. I belong to the HP fandom, and while I do believe Hermione is strong, I click on the X button out of the fic whenever someone makes her stronger than Voldemort, shit rainbows, and barges into Death Eater meetings in order to ruin their plans. However, with Usagi in the break-up arc ...

Seriously, I know that she’s heartbroken, so of course, she’s under depression. My problem is that she doesn’t walk OUT of it before she knows she has a chance with Mamoru again. Without even knowing why he was breaking up with her in the first place.

I know that there are women out there who becomes completely AWOL when they go through heartbreak, but imho, this is not a good message to send out to young girls. It’s the same old trope of “If you hang on long enough, you’ll have him back again” and “If he broke up with you, there must be something wrong, not because he’s out of love with you. Just wait for him to come around and he’ll love you again because it’s TRUUUU WUV!!!”

While it’s not explicitly said like that, the subliminal messages being sent out with that arc makes me frown.

As a disclaimer, I have to say that I adore the Usagi/Mamoru relationship in manga (and of course, now, in Crystal as well), but in Classics, I really, really wanted Usagi to just dump him. Seriously. I wanted her to go out with someone else because he was such a douche to her. Sure, we knew he did it for a reason, but Usagi doesn’t know this. Without the context, I really wanted to be Makoto so I can beat the crap out of Mamoru.

Tanya already made wonderful posts as to why the Senshi were horrible friends in other posts, so I won’t repeat it here. I’ll just say I completely agree with her points.

During that break-up arc, it made me wonder why the Senshi were friends with Usagi anyway. Actually, it would probably be more accurate to say: Why was Usagi friends with them anyway? I would’ve stayed away from them if they kept telling me “It’s because of ______, that’s why Mamoru doesn’t want you anymore.” Hell, if I were one of the Senshi, I would’ve either told her to get over it, gave her a makeover, go party, and hook up with some new guys or grab a bunch of ice cream, find some movies, and cry over those tubs of ice cream with her, whichever way she wanted. It’s shitty of them to put her down when she’s going through break-up.

Hell, it would’ve made more sense for BERYL to be doing that to Usagi, but not the girls. Or maybe they’d gotten possessed by Beryl after that final showdown between Metallia!Beryl and Usagi. After all, we only knew that Beryl got enveloped by the pink light. Maybe some residue of Beryl got incorporated into the girls. :P

And I mentioned it before, but I’ll mention it again, I really, really hated when Usagi was all Twilight: New Moon!Bella-ish in the break-up arc. I mean, sure, I know they’d wanted it as a way for Usagi and Mamoru to make up, but ugh. UGGGGGGH. I’m pretty certain the break-up arc was also responsible for me rearranging my list of fave Senshi, but anyhow ...

Okay, don’t know if I’d missed anything, but if I did, I’ll probably come back and mention it, but ... yeah ... those are some of the reasons why I hated the break up arc.

Oh, I’ve been interested in villains ever since who-knows-when, although the interest itself didn’t make itself clear until I was a bit older. But yeah, I don’t really like the cardboard cutouts of villains and antagonists either. Also, I prefer them to be intelligent. Give me villains with the minds of Albert Einstein and the elegance of royalty. XDD Of course, I wouldn’t say no if they were also pretty boys, but that’s just the additional plus points at the bottom at the resume that might or might not be reviewed.

It’s really no wonder why Zoisite is my favorite Shitennou, really, regardless of whether he’s paired with Kunzite, Mercury, or whatever. He’s just so evilly delightful. (Yeah, I also see him as being a major troll with a vengeful attitude even if he returns to Mamoru’s side.)

PGSM did well with the character development, much better than most, if not all, of the different versions. This reminds me that I should go back and rewatch PGSM one of these days.

ROTFLMAO! I don’t know why, but I giggled when I read this part: “Anime wise, I didn’t get why they just didn’t take their ships and go to a different star system that has habitable planets using time travel. Or going to a distant future. Like..guys.. for real.”

Yes, I totally agree with your assessment of the Black Moon clan, but yeah, I liked the Dead Moon Circus more than the Black Moon clan. I recall Nehellenia having different backgrounds in the anime and the manga, but nonetheless, both of them were interesting and intriguing.

LOL! Yeah, I’m not a huge fan of redemption either. I mean, if you do it every once in a while, it’s fine. But except for the Big Bads, you get nearly every mini-boss having some sob story about why they’d turned bad and that just gets annoying.

ROTFLMAO! Same here. Well, it’s not just the Sailor Moon fandom having that problem, unfortunately. So I find myself disconnecting from a lot of general fandom and just hanging around with people with similar tastes. Though I suppose that might get me attacked as well. LOL!

#blackmantagirl

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