Tsubasa Chronicle: Torikago no Kuni no Himegimi

I recently watched the first season of Tsubasa Chronicle, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It isn't one of my favorite shows, but it was pretty good and I look forward to the second season. However, this short film was quite terrible. Story (3/10): I rarely have ever been so lost as to what the hell was going on in an anime. This movie has absolutely nothing to offer. It isn't canon and adds nothing to the story. This "movie" (if you even want to call it that considering how short it is) doesn't even feel anything like the Tsubasa TV series does. It's justa mindless short story about... hell, I don't even know what it WAS about! Character (3/10): The Tsubasa characters have zero presence. They are just there. The entire time, they seem to be screwing around and at one point flying on some sort of thing (I don't remember what) to try and let some mute girl talk again. (If that's even what was happening. I couldn't follow the mindless story.) The "villain" in this movie is extremely clichéd and boring and could not be more forgettable. Every other character introduced also sucks. The mute girl could be an interesting character if she had development, but she's not gonna get that in 35 minutes. Art (7.5/10): The animation was pretty good. It looks better than the TV series. My only gripe is the coloring. They made Syaoran's hair much too light... Sound (7/10): The sound was fine. Nothing sounded bad, but nothing astounded me either. Enjoyment (2/10): 15 minutes in I found myself almost falling asleep. If this movie was any longer than it was, I don't think I could have finished it. I don't think I have ever been so happy to see the credits roll after an anime movie. Overall (3.3/10): Overall, this is a crap movie with nothing to offer. It adds nothing to the series and was just a way for them to get some money off of Tsubasa fans. Don't bother watching it unless you are a completionist who wants to see everything Tsubasa, no matter the quality.

Continuing their journey to collect Sakura's feathers our heroes find themselves in a new world, the "Land of the Birdcage" a world in which the people are close companions with birds. After just arriving Syaoran, Sakura and Mokona (after being seperated from Fai and Kurogane) meet young Princess Tomoyo, a girl who uses touch to communicate through the help of the ring that she possesses. Syaoran and the others soon learn of The King of Birds and his sour plans to wipe Eternal Darkness over the land. Whilst he keeps on his search for finding another of Sakura's feathers, Syaoran is determined to put astop to the scheming King! --- Before watching this movie you should already be familar with the story of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle as you will not get any background from this movie alone. So don't go straight into watching this movie if you haven't got any knowlegde of the main story. With this movie only being just over the length of an average episode, we are not given any new character development and the movie itself feels like a short arc from the series as there isn't anything inparticularly special about this world from the worlds that the group had visited in the previous Anime. Whilst saying that, there are some noticable improvements such as the art and animation. It was newly assigned to Production IG to handle it and I think they did a rather incredible job with it. With this alone it gave the movie suddenly more visual interest being more sharp and more beautiful animation than what we've seen in the main Anime adaptation. Memorable soundtracks from the Anime reappears in this movie along with some new giving it that definite same feel. Regardless of the few bad points I have made, with more wonderful scenes from the great main TRC cast; I find this a short but nice treat for huge TRC fans. It's a movie I've enjoyed watching time, and time again.

While billed as a movie, 'Birdcage Kingdom' is more of an extended episode of the TV series or a slightly longer OVA episode to compliment the XXXHolic Movie. The plot is little more than a chapter from the manga or an episode from the TV series just stripped of most of any depth either one might have. It's a very simple and basic story of our heroes landing in one of the many "world of the week" seen in an adventure and fighting "big bad of the week" and resolving the plot at the end. Ideal for a short especially for one aimedat a younger audience over the older demographic the manga was written for, or the more all-age-demographic the TV show aimed for. While not really vital to see or read the source material of the movie you might be thrown off just a bit if you jump into this blind with no information. The movie does it's best to set the background of the plot by recreating the first encounter with Yuko who explains the needed sacrifice from Syaoran to save Sakura's life so even then getting lost in this movie should not be an issue. The art and animation style is lovely, being it is a movie, with a beautiful and lively color pallet and really great and detailed art direction. With character desiigns by Yoko Kikuchi it plays a little more closely to CLAMP's signature art style but without the stiff limitations often seen. The cinematography also is pretty creative in the same right and shows a lot of high professionalism despite the short length. Proved to not be a throwaway B-Team project against the A-Team Holic project, I.G did clearly commit some resources sadly lacking from the TV series and later OVAs. Much if any music by Yuki Kajiura is unfortunately tossed into the background and doesn't offer anything new for the franchise OST being just one or two simple pieces that you will barely notice, topped with some of the more iconic pieces such as "Break the sword of Justice." Likely in an effort to differentiate themselves from the TV series and to work around Kajiura's schedule they quickly edited a few pieces together and downplayed much of the original score. There is a opening theme by singer Kinya, who also provided the opening them songs for the TV series, but the song seems placed in the movie for the sake of having an opening theme given it plays for only five seconds and doesn't get it's full rendition anywhere in the movie it self. Yui Makino on the other hand gets to show her vocal talents with a full ending song, "Amrita" which is a nice ending theme to close out as the credits roll. The acting in the Japanese version is very solid with a great cast of Miyu Irino, Yui Makino, Tetsu Inada, Daisuke Namikawa and Mika Kikuchi. The English dubbing however is less than stellar with a handful of good performances but two weak performances by Monica Rial as Sakura and Carrie Savage as Mokona. Like in the series these two are the weak links and are both a miscast for these important roles. Jason Libercht however does perfect to capture Syaoran and manages to catch what Irino brings to the role perfect. Same can be said of Chris Sabat as Kurogane and Vic Mignogna as Fai. The TRC movie is visually beautiful and well made but doesn't really offer anything much more given it's strangely undercut running time, a suitable pre-show for the Holic movie but not much to give on it's own. Fans will enjoy it enough but there's not much to entice a general audience.

Unlike its companion (xxxHolic: Midsummer's Night Dream), this film offers nothing to a household name as Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. If possible, avoid it at all costs. Story (3/10): I'm being nice here, since there is no plot. I am no against plotless movies, that is, movies in which its plot is developed through music, surrealism, and style rather than straightforward, understandable actions that lead the storyline. I'm open to avant-garde storytelling. The xxxHolic movie partially falls into this kind of cinema; however, Tsubasa's film pretends to have a traditional kind of plot but it's so filled with plot holes, nonsensical actions, characters that do things justbecause that makes this film accomplish nothing no matter how you look at it. At this point I can't tell what was the bad guy's goal. I can't tell what the birdcage was. I can't tell you a summary even if I wanted to. If you add the fact that the film contradicts Tsubasa's universe and even the film itself, things get worse: Mokona should act as their means to understand each other, a translator of the sorts, they even point it out early in the film, but no matter how far from other they all are, they can easily interact. The leader of the royal guards (I don't know the name) was easily kicked in the face by Fye but at the same time had no problem avoiding Syaoran's kick, even though the latter is a way more proficient physical combatant than Fye. To make things worse, Syaoran gets to be proficient again later on the film. Art (5/10): The designs are nice, the animation is smooth which makes the battle scenes rather enjoyable, but the backgrounds look off every now and then. It makes the characters look like they're not there. For a feature film you'd expect more. Sound (3/10): Nothing memorable. Not one single melody, sound effect or piece is worth mentioning. Character (1/10): Characters here are here just for the sake of the "plot." The villain is the worst case. At the end you won't understand why he did what he did, and especially , why he did it the way he did it. Enjoyment (3/10): Only enjoyable is you can just watch fights and give zero importance to what is going on there. Overall (3/10): It's rather sad this is what they made to be the xxxHolic film's companion. They couldn't be so different in quality. I know the xxxHolic film was written by the Clamp's leader herself, but that's no excuse no make the Tsubasa film a worse than a mediocre job. It's like they tried to develop a complex plot but chopped many scenes out due to time constraints. The movie should have been 30-40 minutes longer at least to accomplish whatever it tried to accomplish. If possible, avoid this film. It's not worth +30 minutes of your time.

Merchandise

Links may contain affiliate references

Studio

Producers

Themes