Clamp Double Feature: xxxHolic and Tsubasa OVAs

[meganbmoore]

So, Fullmetal Alchemist trailers? Even having watched the anime and knowing that it’s actually, you know, good, the trailer still makes me long to hurt something. (My first exposure to FMA was incredibly obnoxious trailers on my Spiral DVDs that could not be FF-ed through.) Also, the plot as described in the Black Cat trailer doesn’t look remotely like the manga’s story(and was that seriously Train?) and I disliked Rinslet’s design.

Anyway, the OVAs on the Clamp Double Feature that came out a couple months back. Cut more for length than spoilers.

xxxHolic: A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

On the same day a young woman comes to Yuuko’s shop saying that she can no longer enter her house because her key doesn’t work anymore, Yuuko receives a mysterious invitation to the same house. Dragging Watanuki and Doumeki along with her, the three learn that several collectors received similar notes, telling them that their collections were not yet complete. Absolutely unacceptable for true collectors! The house, of course is a huge mansion with all sorts of secret rooms and passageways, and the guests keep disappearing!

The story was a very fun mystery/caper supernatural tale, and fit well with xxxHolic, but I’m not sure xxxHolic’s style transfers well to anime for me. That’s not to saythat the animation is bad, just that xxxHolic is one of those things that are really tailored to their original format. On the other hand, there’s actually hearing Yuuko deliver a pwning, which was very, very worthwhile. But the random Tsubasa “We have an OVA too! Watch it!” at the end was even more awkward and out of place than the early “Look! We have another manga!” Tsubasa moments in early volumes of xxxHolic. AND WHAT WAS WITH THOSE BUNNIES?????? 

Tsubasa: Reservior Chronicle: The Princess in the Birdcage Kingdom:

Tsubasa, IMO, translates much better into anime form. Then again, until you get to the stuff that’s only just starting in the US manga releases, it’s usually just straight, world hopping shounen action, which is easier to translate. Here, the gang gets transported to a kingdom that’s inside a giant birdcage, and the princess (Tomoyo, of course) has been supplanted by her Evil Uncle, who stole her voice. And has a feather, of course. Very fun, normal early Tsubasa. Had a brief raging of Kurogane’s princess complex, which I always enjoy, but Kurogane and Fai spent most of it separated from Syaoran and Sakura. Neither Kurogane nor I approve of that. We know what kind of trouble they can get into without adult supervision. It also had the Very Very Cute “Sakura and Syaoran blushing in a barrel” scene I’ve heard so much about. Also, I think this Tomoyo was in love with Sakura, too. Apparently only Kurogane’s Tomoyo doesn’t fall for her. And we don’t even really know if she would, there!

I feel I should point out that the black Mokona, which normally doesn’t annoy me much, annoyed me here, while the white Mokona, who annoyed me for the longest time in the manga, doesn’t. 

 

Comments

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

Black Cat's anime was a little weird - in some ways it followed the plot very closely and in some deviated a lot. The ending, like so many series, deviated from the ending of the manga entirely (although I think the manga hadn't quite ended at that point?) and was - well, really, really weird.

The anime was very stylish, though. I liked it quite a bit, until it went completely bizarre there at the end and I gave up.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I've heard that, in the anime, Train wallows in angst, Rinslet doesn't have an independent life of her own, and Jenos is mean to Roinslet and/or Eve. Any one of those is enough to kill my interest. Also, Rinslet's design is...I don't know. My girl wears some scanty clothes in the manga, but she wears them with class. The brief bit I saw did not have class.

I thought the mangs was completely finished when the anime came out. Isn't it only 20 vols?

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

It has been so long I seriously can't remember any of those things one way or the other. XD; All I really remember is that I enjoyed it and really liked the animation style, and that until the anime went off the deep end, I thought some aspects of the manga storyline were told better and some aspects of the anime storyline were told better. (And also that Miki Shinichiro totally OWNED Creed's character. I think you should watch the first episode at least, just to hear that man's insane laugh. XD)

I seem to remember that half-way through the anime, the manga was almost finished but there were a few chapters left to go. I could be wrong here.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Speaking of animes that drail at the end: Claymore's ending. I wish to hurt it.

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

IT MADE NO SENSE

NO SENSE AT ALL

I JUST CAN'T FATHOM WHAT THEY WERE THINKING

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

YES!

I DO NOT KNOW!

THEY KEPT CONTRADICTING THEMSELVES WITH ORIGINAL STORY AND NEW STORY REWRITES THAT DID NOT WORK!

I mean, if they had wanted to put a concrete ending on it, I could understand the changes as far as survival and Priscilla go. But they deliberately left things hanging, and it doesn't really conclude things any more than the original Pieta arc did.

AND NOW THERE IS NO WAY THEY CAN WRITE THE ERA OF BADASS LEATHER AWESOMENESS!!!

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

I KNOW, I KNOW, WHY, why, madhouse, if you weren't going to give it a concrete ending anyway, DID YOU GO AND CHANGE IT??? I cannot make any logical sense out of this.

And I can make sense out of Hamlet = hamster toilet

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

yes, so, that was me...

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

I figured XD