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As I’ve mentioned in my Midori no Hibi Review and Weekly Review #10, here’s my Midori no Hibi review for each and every episode of the series. I’m doing this in the same format as a regular weekly review.

Originally I had intended to squeeze all 13 episodes review into a single post, but I wasn’t happy with how it turned out when I was about halfway done. So I’ve re-done them to be more in-depth, but because of that the length also increased a lot. Therefore, the reviews will be split into 4 separate posts; it will become a series article instead.

So here’s part 1.

Midori no Hibi

Episode 1: Right-Hand Girlfriend

Rating: 8/10

The episode starts off showing a girl, Midori, looking across the train station platform, or more particularly, at Seiji. The next scene shows Seiji in his delinquent mode, taking out an entire gang all by himself with his “Devil’s Right Hand”. It was then revealed that Seiji never has any luck with girls, having been dumped at least 20 times. As he was being frustrated in his room for not having a girlfriend, a girl suddenly appeared on his right hand.

Midori then introduces herself as someone who has had a crush on Seiji for the last 3 years. But neither could come up with how Midori ended up as Seiji’s right hand. Seiji brought Midori to her place and was shocked at her huge mansion. Seiji rang the bell, pretending to be a friend of Midori but was quickly turned away by the maid, saying that the young mistress had left on urgent business.

Two girls approached Miyahara claiming to be Seiji’s fans. Miyahara called and told Seiji about the two girls, and Seiji immediately rushed home. Excited, he quickly wrapped Midori in bandage and told her to keep quiet.

Seiji thought he had it made and invited the two girls in when they arrived, without Miyahara. One of the girls asked to be excused to go to the washroom, and while the other girl distracted Seiji, the first girl tried to attack him from behind. Midori saw this and jumped out to block the attack, smashing the wooden sword in the process. Reality hit Seiji as he frantically tries to remove the bandage to see if Midori was ok, totally ignoring the two girls, who were actually the girlfriends of the gang that Seiji beat up earlier.

Seiji picked up a knife, looking all scary, and scared the girls away. Seiji used the knife to remove the bandage and was glad that Midori was alright, telling her to speak up the next time something happens instead of keeping quiet.

Episode 2: Our Memory

Rating: 8/10

Midori wakes up early next morning and decided to make breakfast for Seiji while he’s still sleeping, completely forgetting that she’s attached to Seiji and drags him around the house. Midori seems to be pretty accustomed to being Seiji’s right hand as she helps him put on his right shoe.

As Seiji makes his way to school, Midori pops out with a brand new dress that reads “I love Seiji” out of thin air. Seriously, where does she have the space to hide all these.

At school, a rumor had spread that Seiji injured his Devil’s Right Hand when he punched through an incoming Yakuza car. Seiji screamed at Miyahara for spreading such rumors which led to a minor confrontation between a Seiji and Ayase.

During recess, a group of delinquents from another school came trying to pick a fight with Seiji. Since he is unable to use his right hand, Seiji decides to avoid the delinquents. Ayase stepped up against the delinquents thinking she could handle them like how she handled Seiji earlier, but was dragged away by the delinquents instead. They were just about to reach the school gates when Seiji came to Ayase’s rescue.

After school, Seiji had planned to try going to Midori’s house again, but instead found himself heading off to save Miyahara who was kidnapped by a bunch of delinquents. Ayase saw what Seiji was up and decided to chase up to give him a piece of her mind about fighting. Seiji arrived at the designated place, but did not fight back as the gang bashed him up, eventually boring them away. When Miyahara asked why he didn’t fight back, Seiji replied that its so that the delinquents would no longer go to their school and bother anyone. Ayase overheard this and was touched.

Seiji and Midori ended going to Midori’s mansion after school the next day. The maid was about to turn Seiji away again but Midori’s mother recognized Seiji from the many pictures Midori kept in her music box and invited him in. Turns out Midori’s real body was in a coma.

Seiji suggested that Midori try and make contact with her real body and see if she would return to normal, but when he pulled back the blanket they both realized that Midori’s real body wasn’t wearing any clothes. Embarrassed, Seiji closed his eyes and stretch his right arm out so Midori is range of her body. As Midori bumps into her boobs, her mother and maid returned and saw what appears to be Seiji taking advantage of a comatose Midori. It was really funny watching an army of maids chasing after Seiji.

Episode 3: The Day of Discoveries

Rating: 9/10

Seiji received his allowance and was counting his money very happily when Midori realized something was burning in the kitchen and pulled Seiji away. And guess who appeared while Seiji was having breakfast… his older sister, Rin. She’s a true horror alright, she managed to sniff out a woman.

Seiji asked what she was doing there and she quickly responded by grabbing the envelope full of Seiji’s allowance. Seiji tried to get it back but was easily pinned down by Rin. She pulled back Seiji’s right hand to mock him about his Devil’s Right Hand, but turned all white when Midori greeted her. Seiji quickly grabbed the envelope which slipped from Rin’s hand and declared his first win against his sister.

Despite saying that it’s unbelievable, she quickly accepted the fact that Midori had become Seiji’s right hand. If Rin could easily take on Seiji who can take out an entire gang, I’m seriously afraid to think of her true strength… Rin locked Seiji in another wrestling move and Seiji would have probably died if they didn’t get interrupted by Rin’s old gang.

Rin then declared that Seiji would be treating everyone to the hot springs and before Seiji could object, she landed a kick flat on his face, which effectively KO’ed him. Seiji woke up sitting behind one of Rin’s gang member’s bike on their way to the hot springs. After seeing how happy Midori was with the trip, Seiji decided that it wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

During dinner at the hot springs, Rin and her gang went crazy on the alcohol while Seiji struggles to eat using chopsticks with his left hand, all the while hoping that the night would end without any incidents. Unfortunately for him, the gang members started performing, but it wasn’t satisfactory enough for a drunken Rin. That’s when all hell broke loose as she revealed Midori to everyone.

Everyone thought Midori was a doll and began poking and touching her. Midori tried her best to endure the situation, but Seiji snapped and the entire gang started fighting amongst themselves as Rin snores away.

Early next morning while Seiji was washing himself in the bath, Midori volunteered to help him wash his back. As she did so, the sponge fell from her hands and she used the towel wrapped around her body as the sponge instead (the lucky bastard!).

Rin showed up much to Seiji’s surprised. They happened to be at a mixed bath so both males and females share the use of the hot springs. Midori asked Rin about Seiji when he was a child, and she revealed that he used to be a pacifist, always avoiding fights and conflicts. It was then that Rin trained Seiji to be a fighter even to the point of hypnotizing him to make him believe that he was the man with the Devil’s Right Hand. She seemed rather good at what she does, it only took a week to completely transform Seiji. Although he lost his first fight, he was never bullied ever again.

Midori was extremely happy that she had learned more about her beloved Seiji, although the same can’t be said for Seiji himself.

Episode 4: Secrets Exposure!?

Rating: 7/10

Seiji and Midori was eating banana-chocolate ice cream when the ice-cream fell on Midori and dirtied her clothes. Seiji brought Midori to find new clothes at a dolls shop. It was like heaven for Midori, with all the cute dolls clothes but it was hell for Seiji with all the guys in the shop. Afraid that he might meet someone he knows, he ushered Midori to be quick, but Midori was more interested in playing around and trying out the many different costumes in the shop.

A voice called out Seiji’s name from behind and when he turned around he saw someone who was a complete stranger to him. His nightmare came true when the stranger introduces himself as Takamizawa, who is actually Seiji’s classmate.

Midori continued enjoying herself behind Seiji. When Seiji told Midori to stop it and keep quiet, a curious Takamizawa crept closer and closer, urging Seiji to show him what it is he was hiding. Seiji panicked when he recalled the many bad scenarios he thought up just a few moments earlier and knocked Takamizawa out cold.

The next day in school, Takamizawa slipped a note to Seiji, telling him to meet at the roof during lunch to talk about his right hand. Seiji was certain that he knew about Midori’s secret and was ready to take Takamizawa out on the roof, but it turns out that he just wanted to see the “doll” on his right hand.

Midori agreed and they tried to fool Takamizawa by having Midori pretending to be a doll. And Midori sneezed, sending Takamizawa into a frenzy. Luckily for the duo, Takamizawa believes that it is part of the gimmicks of a foreign made doll and immediately asked for its maker. Seiji refused to answer and took off, leaving Takamizawa on the roof.

That didn’t hamper Takamizawa’s spirit though, and he came up with different tricks to find out and stalked Seiji wherever he went. When Seiji realized they were being followed, he quickly took a corner. Midori insisted on taking a peek beside the corner and came face to face with Takamizawa. It wasn’t long before Takamizawa realized there wasn’t any seams on the Midori puppet and blackmailed Seiji to do as he says.

Takamizawa got Seiji to meet up with him after school the following day. He brought custom made outfits for Midori and has her wear them as he took pictures of her among some flowers. Takamizawa tried to convince Midori to become his right hand instead, but she said that it was impossible, and that she already loves Seiji. However, she still considers Takamizawa as her friend.

Then Takamizawa took out some embarrassing and revealing costumes for Midori to wear, scaring her away. Takamizawa continued to approach Midori and Seiji, who could no longer take it, gave Takamizawa a backdrop, which apparently gave him amnesia and he no longer remembered anything about Midori.

Click here to get Midori no Hibi

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I watched this series from start to finish in a single sitting (with breaks for “refueling” my snacks and for toilet of course) yesterday as I’ve mentioned in my previous post, Midori no Hibi Marathon.

There are only 13 episodes in Midori no Hibi, so it was rather short but sweet. I might go for the manga next. But anyway, on with the review for the anime.

What is it about?

Sawamura Seiji is a well known delinquent with his famous “Devil’s Right Hand”. At 17 years old, he has never had a girlfriend before in his life and had been rejected at least 20 times. Most people feared him for his reputation as “Mad Dog Suwamura”. While he was being frustrated about not having a girlfriend in his room, he shouted out that anyone would do as long as he can get one. That was when a girl’s voice was suddenly heard, happy to hear Seiji’s words.

Seiji was panicking badly when he heard the voices and was almost shocked silly when he discovered a girl had replaced his right hand. The girl was none other than Kasugano Midori, a 16 year old girl from another school who has had a crush on Seiji for 3 years.

Although she was very shy and had no self confidence in her real body, she became quite open and upbeat while being Seiji’s right hand. She sometimes pulls of crazy stunts for Seiji’s sake, such as helping him fight other delinquents who were after Seiji.

Midori’s real body suddenly fell into a coma and when she woke up she found herself as Seiji’s right hand. However, she seemed less surprised as Seiji as she quickly adapted and happily accepted the fact that she was now a part of Seiji.

The plot…

Midori no Hibi is a romance comedy as Seiji goes through his daily life with Midori as his new right hand. Because he could no longer fight with his “Devil’s Right Hand”, he tried to avoid unnecessary fights not just because he couldn’t use his right hand anymore but also to keep Midori safe.

Even though Seiji often acts as if he doesn’t care about Midori, deep inside he actually does care and often look out for her especially when she’s sick or when she’s troubled. However, much to Midori’s dismay, he can be quite oblivious to the fact that Midori is really a girl who likes him even though she had become Seiji’s right hand.

Midori likes Seiji because she says that Seiji is really a kind person who has a big heart. While the other students sees Seiji as just a delinquent, she understood that Seiji doesn’t pick his fights just because he wants to, but rather because he has to in order to protect others. Midori also personally witnessed some of these events as she was together with him.

Throughout the series, Midori also discovered that Seiji wasn’t as unpopular with the girls as he thought. There were a few others who liked Seiji but he just never took notice. Midori often gets uptight and frustrated as she watches the other girls trying to make a move on Seiji although he continues to be clueless.

The characters…

The anime put a lot of emphasis on Seiji and Midori with other characters making very little appearances except for maybe Ayase, who has a crush on Seiji as well after he saved her from a bunch of delinquents. Another memorable character was Seiji’s older sister, Rin, although she only appeared in 2 episodes. From what I’ve gathered, the manga gave a lot more emphasis on side characters compared to the anime. But it’s not really a bad thing as it allows the relationship between Seiji and Midori to grow at its own pace and drawing in the other characters only when they need to be there to further move their relationship.

Conclusion

I really should have watched Midori no Hibi sooner. Maybe it’s because no one has really recommended the series to me before so I never really bothered, but it would have been such a waste if I hadn’t decided to pick it up suddenly.

The ending was awesome as well. There are really only a few anime where I feel that the ending is good, and Midori no Hibi is one of them. It leaves the viewer satisfied and content. I wouldn’t spoil it here but I would rate the final episode 9/10.

It’s not as crazy as Ranma 1/2 or Love Hina, even though the idea of having a girl becoming a part of your body is crazy in itself, but it’s still full of entertainment and laughter. If you’re into sweet, romance-comedy, Midori no Hibi is definitely for you.

I would probably be doing a single post review of every episode of the series instead of putting them into a Weekly Review. It might take a bit longer to do since I’m way behind on my reviews after my week long vacation and I wouldn’t want to pack too much into a single weekly review as well. Not to mention it would be much more fun this way since I did finish the series in a single marathon. Watch out for it!

If you’re interested, you can grab Midori no Hibi here.

** Update - You can now read up on my Midori no Hibi episodes review here.

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Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekiso was held on the 18th of March 2007 in Japan and the DVD recording of the live event was recently released on the 27th of July. Until last week, I didn’t even realize such event had taken place and I kicked myself for it. It didn’t take long to search for it and after watching it last night I immediately made a post about it here.

The Host and Co-Host of Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekiso

The MC for the event was none other than Shiraishi Minoru aka Taniguchi. Yes, he’s also the same Shiraishi Minoru from Lucky Star. The co-host is Megumi Matsumoto aka Kunikida.

The show is divided into 2 parts. In the first part of the show, the entire cast of Suzumiya Haruhi was brought on stage and introduced. Sugita Tomokazu (Kyon) appeared on-stage cosplaying as Char Aznable.

Kyon is… Char Aznable!

The best entrance belongs to Matsuoka Yuki aka Tsuruya, who started to laugh in her trademark (note: evil) laughter from all the way behind the stage until she appears.

“HA HA HA HA! Nyoron! Tsuruyan des~u!”

Even if you don’t know what the seiyuu looked like, it is very possible to guess who is who simply by looking at their actions. The hyper-active Aya (Haruhi), the calm and collected Minori (Yuki) and the bubbly Yuuko (Mikuru). Sugita, on the other hand, did the unexpected and came out as Char Aznable.

It’s Yuki, Kyon, Haruhi, Mikuru and Koizumi on stage!

The director, Tatsuya Ishihara and character designer Shoko Ikeda was also called on stage. Some of the most memorable scenes for each character is then shown and discussed. You would need to be able to understand Japanese to fully understand what’s going on here, but even with my limited knowledge, I was still able to pick up the gist of things.

After that the cast did a skit.

Is it just me, or does Sugita seems to be hiding something under the Char wig and the hat he’s wearing now? Hmm…

And there’s even Mikuru Beam…

The Actual Concert…

Is where the real fun begins. The concert portion of Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekiso started off with Mikuru with Koi no Mikuru Densetsu. I’m not sure if she’s doing it on purpose, but she can’t really sing. But if she’s doing that deliberately, then she’s a real good actor. Otherwise, it’s still good, because we’re talking about Mikuru after all

Mikuru complete with a maid uniform…

I’ve seen many of Hirano Aya’s pictures and videos, but she has never been so hot before.

Hirano Aya as Suzumiya Haruhi doing the Bouken Desho Desho

“DID YOU CUM TWICE?”

Yes, you probably read that right… It said “Did you cum twice too? Feel so dirty!!! I need a tongue bath!”

And just look at the back of her shirt…

While I can’t make out the exact sentence, the final word is definitely “F*CK!!!” Seriously, what was she thinking!?

Minori’s performance was one of my favourite in the entire concert portion of Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekiso, especially with her Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite.

Minori has an awesome voice and she’s gorgeous to boot!

Then Hirano Aya returned on stage… in what at first appeared to be lingerie…

Actually… it might really be lingerie…

Yuki surprised me with a great performance. Natsuko, on the other hand, was great with her voice as Ryoko but her singing was only so-so. But the song was kinda catchy, though. Still, no complains here it was still fun

ENOZ - God Knows

You know what would have made this scene perfect? A pair of bunny ears…

Like so…

A comparison between the performance of God Knows in Suzumiya Haruhi, and the Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekiso that was portrayed in Lucky Star -

After performing God Knows, Aya goes on to introduce the band members, just as Haruhi did in the anime, before performing their next song, Lost My Music.

The Guys…

Ono Daisuke wowed the crowd with his flashy moves. Granted, he’s not a great singer, but he has great moves!

And we finally get to see why Sugita has been hiding his head under wigs and hats…

OMG! It’s… KYON!

The fans went nuts when he first appeared, chanting his character name in unison. I’m not sure if he’s playing some part of his character, but Sugita seems pretty stiff and uncomfortable during this performance. Aya, on the other hand, was a natural.

And IT happened… The Hentai Trio

Minoru cosplayed Haruhi…

I think I may be traumatized…

Self-declared, the Hentai Trio…

Introducing the Hentai Trio:

• Hentai #1 - Sugita
• Hentai #2 - Minoru
• Hentai #3 - Daisuke

I have no idea what they were trying to do, nor do I think I would want to know…

Hare Hare Yukai

The girls came out for another song before the finale.

The finale, the epitome of Haruhiism, the moment all devout Haruhiist present had been waiting for… The Hare Hare Yukai…

The Hare Hare Yukai

Watching the dance performed in real life by the cast… priceless…

And the final part of the dance…

Pure satisfaction.

Encore! Encore! Encore!

The fans screamed for an encore, and an encore they get. The encore was the TV version of the Hare Hare Yukai, with Sugita and Daisuke joining the girls. The giant screen also showed the full animated dance as well.

Everyone was now in more casual clothing as well.

Everyone getting comfy in casual clothes

You can see the animated version of the dance on the giant screen

… and FINISH!

End of Show

It actually got quite emotional towards the end of the show.

A job well done!

Minori asked for silence as she delivered a special message from Yuki… “Daisuki…”

Hirano Aya got over emotional and broke out in tears.

Aya was so moved, she broke into tears…

When it’s her turn to speak, she once again gets emotional and sobbed through her thank you speech. I think she tried to put the blame on Kyon for teasing her too

Aya’s speech is easily the most touching moment in the entire event. I felt moved as well even though I only understood about 70% of her speech. A truly great end to a truly great event. I seriously hope the event would repeat in the future and maybe to attend it in person if possible as well.

Backstage…

Tears are still flowing… Sobs could still be heard… Aya was really in an emotional fit.

… and Sugita/Kyon continues to tease…

I’ve said before, I would rate this 12 out of 10. A must have for any Suzumiya Haruhi or Hirano Aya fan. Wait, let me rephrase that. You cannot call yourself a fan unless you have this! This receives my highest recommendations!

If for some reason you have not gotten your hands on this, do it now! Grab Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekiso!

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First Impression

I expected Lucky Star to be a load of pure randomness, somewhat like Azumanga Daioh, and was pleased to find out I was right. Azumanga was ranked in my top 10 list of funniest anime, and of course I hoped that Lucky Star would be just as good, if not better.

First thing I noticed was how I find the opening song and sequence to be rather annoying. Not as much as Azumanga’s, but still annoying. However, that annoying op would soon be very catchy and I find myself listening to it over and over by the 3rd episode. Damn…

There’s plenty of food talk in the first episode. Plenty of it. It’s so random, yet unlike Azumanga, isn’t exactly pure nonsense. In fact, I begin to realize that that’s how we would usually end up talking about when a few friends get together for fun - random talks about anything and everything.

Going a little further, Konata is revealed to be an anime fan and a gamer, playing both consoles and MMORPGs. I’m not sure how true is this, but based on my own observation, majority of anime fans are also gamers, and many people I know are both fans of anime and MMOs (me included). If you’ve checked out my weekly review #6 here, you would have realized that I find many scenes, behaviors and responses in Lucky Star to be very familiar. It was at this point that I told myself, “Yes, I know I’m going to like Lucky Star…”

Thoughts

Lucky Star is definitely for fans of both anime and games, with many references and parodies, whether direct or indirect, to other popular titles such as Suzumiya Haruhi (both Suzumiya Haruhi and Konata are voiced by Hirano Aya), Full Metal Panic, Newtype magazine and games such as Street Fighter and MMOs. And how often do you have a teacher who plays the same MMO as you do and is even part of your party?

The episode is usually only about 20 minutes long, with the last 3-5 minutes showing the Lucky Channel show, some sort of an after-show for Lucky Star. The first time you watch this you would be greeted by a typical “I’m so cute” character who later on shows her true personality, which is anything but cute.

You will also never hear the same ending theme twice. For the first 12 episodes, the ending theme would be a random anime song being sung in Karaoke mode by one or more of the 4 main characters. Some of the more notable songs are Dragonball’s opening, Doraemon’s theme and Monkey Magic.

The Characters

The four main cast are Konata, Kagami, Tsukasa and Miyuki. Konata is the main character of Lucky Star and the crazed anime/game fan who apparently picked up her habits from her father… who actually plays age-restricted dating sim games in front of his young daughter. Konata is portrayed as very “under-developed”, being short and … flat… and stuff…

Next we have the fraternal twins, Kagami and Tsukasa. Despite being twins, their personalities could not be any more different then they are right now.

Kagami is your typical tsundere (check here if you don’t know what tsundere means) who also acts as the tsukkomi (a serious character). Kagami, also sometimes referred to as Kagamin, is very hardworking and usually excels in her academics. Even though she constantly complains about Konata, she does try to look out for her and even offered to help Konata with homework. She also likes to play games but is often frustrated because she could never win Konata. Kagami is my favourite character in Lucky Star so far

Then we have her younger twin, Tsukasa, which is the complete opposite. Friendly, clumsy and lazy, she probably fits in better as Konata’s sister. Tsukasa is also very gullible and ends up as the joke on many occasions.

The last of the main 4 character is Miyuki. Miyuki is pretty, smart, good natured, friendly, thoughtful and very polite. She’s also clumsy, has terrible vision, bad at cooking, and many other weaknesses which Konata considers as “moe points”.

Parodies

So far I have seen 2 major parodies of other anime being played out in Lucky Star. There are actually plenty of parodies, but these 2 are the ones that stood out the most for me:

• Suzumiya Haruhi
• Initial D

While there are plenty of Suzumiya Haruhi references throughout Lucky Star, there is one particular episode where Konata cosplays as Haruhi at work. This was especially interesting to watch since both Konata and Haruhi are voiced by the same seiyuu, Hirano Aya, and during that episode she kept switching her voice between Konata mode and Haruhi mode. They also got the same seiyuus for the entire Suzumiya Haruhi cosplay cast for that one episode.

During one of the earlier episodes, there is a short scene that is a parody of Initial D. The cup of water, the track, the script and the character design of the spectators were similar to Initial D. The group that did some of the opening songs for Initial D, Noisy Tribe, also performed the background song that was being played during the scene.

Recommendations

Watch this if you like -

• Anime
• Games
• MMORPGs
• Suzumiya Haruhi
• Full Metal Panic Fumoffu!
• Hirano Aya
• Laughing
• Azumanga Daioh

I can only think of good things for Lucky Star and don’t see how anyone could not like it. You might not get addicted to it like I did, but I’m quite sure everyone would enjoy the style of randomness that somehow can relate to all of us.

Grab Lucky Star

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Note: A list of links for the entire CLAMP Chronicle series can be found at the end of this post.

Recap -

1. Magic Knight Rayearth (Released 1994)
2. CLAMP School Detectives (Released 1995)
3. Cardcaptor Sakura (Released 1998)
4. Angelic Layer (Released 2001)
5. X (2001)
6. Chobits (2002)

In this final part of the CLAMP Chronicle series, let’s look into the 2 most current and presumably still on-going since the manga is far from over.

Tsubasa Chronicle (Released 2005)

This is one of my favourite, mostly because it features every character that CLAMP had introduced in their previous works before along with new ones such as Kurogane and Fye. The 2 main characters are of course, Syaoran and Sakura.

The story begins with Syaoran and Sakura from an alternate dimension. Sakura is the Clow Country’s princess while Syaoran is the adopted son of an archaeologist. A mysterious power lured Sakura into the ruins just right outside the Clow Country one night and through some events, Sakura’s memories were turned into feathers that scattered across the dimensions. In order to restore Sakura to her old self, King Touya had High Priest Yukito sent Syaoran, with Sakura’s unconscious body in his arms, to meet with Yuuko, the dimensional witch.

At the same time, Kurogane of an alternate Japan was sent by Princess Tomoyo to meet with Yuuko as well, in hopes that Kurogane will learn the true meaning of strength, at the same time placing a curse on him, making him lose a bit of his power whenever he takes a life. In the country of Celes, Fye had just imprisoned King Ashura and decides to flee his world. He transformed Chii into a device that covered King Ashura’s prison and asked that she alert Fye if King Ashura were to escape. He then uses his magical powers to send himself to meet the dimensional witch.

Yuuko runs a shop in Japan (of the Cardcaptor Sakura world) that grants wishes in exchange of something in equal value. Nothing less, and nothing more. The group of 4 who appeared at the same time in front of Yuuko; Syaoran with Sakura, Kurogane and Fye, all had wishes which requires the same thing - to be able to traverse to different worlds and dimensions.

The dimensional witch presented the group with Mokona, a fluffy white bunny like creature, which would aid them in their quests. But in exchange, each of them must give up something of value for the trade.

With that, the party of 4 began traveling across different worlds and meeting different people, sometimes stumbling across familiar faces. Each world they land in presents a different problem which they need to overcome as they go in search of Sakura’s missing feathers. Kurogane, who was reluctant to help at first, began to soften up and even taught Syaoran how to use a weapon.

There are also many cross-references with xxxHolic, with Yuuko playing a key role in the group’s travel. And what’s even more interesting is how the Clow Reed from Cardcaptor Sakura has a hand in all this, and the fact that another Reed is the mastermind behind all Syaoran and Sakura’s struggle. The mystery here gets pretty deep as the story goes on.

It’s really fun to watch the different CLAMP characters making appearances in the series and I’ve actually went back to find and read many of CLAMP’s other works because of Tsubasa Chronicle. It is like the Kingdom Hearts of CLAMP.

I actually prefer the manga over the anime, but the first episode and some of the fillers in the anime were quite nicely done. The Kero-chan episode was really fun to watch. They even got the original seiyuu for Kero-chan which is a major plus.

Grab Tsubasa Chronicle

xxxHolic (Released 2006)

xxxHolic, simply means something-holic. The xxx is meant as a variable, and the -holic represents the addiction or attachment. For example, alco-holic and worka-holic. That is the basis of the story for most of the episodes in this series.

The story kicks off with Watanuki Kimihiro, a high school boy who can see spirits. While being chased by the spirits one day, he comes across a strange looking house in between city sky scrappers which he had never noticed before and for some reason, his feet start moving on their own and drags him inside the house.

Inside he meets with Yuuko, the wish granter, and discovers that the house is really a wish-granting shop. After being manipulated by Yuuko, Watanuki founds himself a new part-time job as the shop’s assistant.

Each episode presents someone who visits the shop in order to have their wish granted, and more often than not, the problem they face has something to do with something-holic, such as the tendency to lie. More often than not, Watanuki tries to aid the victims but would usually end up putting himself in danger and not being able to do anything to save the victim. As Yuuko would put it, there’s no such thing as coincidence, only the inevitable. The law of “hitsuzen“, which was first described by Clow Reed in Cardcaptor, is now often repeated by Yuuko as well.

The anime version isn’t as dark and heavy as its manga counterpart. Some deaths in the manga did not occur in the anime and the victims often escaped with minor consequences. However, death is still an important part of XXXHolic’s theme and shows up every so often, sometimes obvious and other times subtle.

While Tsubasa Chronicle had plenty of cross-reference back to xxxHolic, the link isn’t as obvious from this side. However, there are many subtle hints such as the various times when we see items that Syaoran and co. collected appeared at the most unexpected places at the corners of Yuuko’s shop. The only real direct reference from xxxHolic to Tsubasa Chronicle is during the movie, where Yuuko is shown to exchange the key with Tomoyo’s bell at the end of xxxHolic the Movie - A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

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Linking them all…

The mangas directly linked both Tsubasa Chronicle and xxxHolic together. Every other CLAMP story also became instantly linked with one another through xxxHolic. We also know that the xxxHolic world is the same as the Cardcaptor world, where Clow Reed was originally introduced. And it seems that it all began when Clow Reed and Yuuko met with the Creator Mokona from the Magic Knight series. Based on that, both Clow and Yuuko created the 2 Mokona Modoki, specifically for Syaoran, Sakura, Kurogane and Fye. The link between Clow Reed, Yuuko and Fei Wong Reed is still a mystery, as well as the true identity the Syaoran we know in Tsubasa Chronicle.

Both Tsubasa Chronicle and xxxHolic are still on-going series in its manga version, and hopefully more new seasons will released for the anime. There hasn’t been any news about a new season for either one yet, but it shouldn’t be too long now

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