What we have here, is the Tsubasa Chronicle movie. Like I said before: the characters seem to have gotten a total restyling for this. Syaoran is more confident and less hestitant. Kurogane’s become more energetic. Fye lost a bit of his sarcasm. Sakura’s more outspoken and less shy. Mokona has become less energetic and more calmly, which is totally different from his black counterpart. But the thing that’s really different from the series is the character art. It takes a bit to get used to, but once you do, it looks awesome.

The main reason you should watch this is because of the incredible graphics. Both traditional art as the CG look absolutely astonishing and the choreography is some of the best ever. Especially the flooding scene was beautiful to watch. The battles themselves shine like none other.

The story is also a masterpiece. As the movie took just half an hour, in comparison with xxxHolic, which took more than whole an hour, the scenes followed each other in a fast pace. Nevertheless, the movie didn’t really feel rushed. The setting is just perfect for a show like Tsubasa Chronicle. After all, what’s better for a story which revolves around wings and feathers to play in a bird-country? In this bird country, everything has been locked up in a gigantic bird cage. The bad guy wants to use this cage to make him uberpowerful. It may seem dull, but it were the actions surrounding this story which saved it.

For example, the character development between Syaoran and Sakura was just great (but then again, they were put together in a perfect situation *wink wink*). The royal guards performed a nice twist in the beginning, and it was just awesome that the wound from Fye’s boot was still clearly visible in the aftermath, while nobody seemed to notice.

Okay so what if the bad guy is bad because he’s bad? I had a very enjoyable time watching this. This movie never leaves a boring moment. You’re either gaping at the awesome graphics, or you’re trying not to miss any of the plot elements thrown in. Oh, and if you plan to watch both this movie and xxxHolic, then I recommend to watch xxxHolic before seeing Tsubasa Chronicle. This way, you’ll enjoy the easter egg the creators put in even more.

The people with small amounts of patience will probably find Ergo Proxy hard to endure, as it really takes its time to explain the situation, with no possible forms of rushing. On short terms, it may cause a bit of boredom, but on long terms, it makes for some great storytelling.

After seeing this second episode, it seems like there are three, maybe four main characters. First of all Lil, which is obvious, since most of the episode turned around her. Second, we have this guy who’s found Lil, and appears to be stalking her or something like that, anyway, a mysterious guy in an unusual body. Third, we have the automail of the rich lady. I have no idea whether Iggy will make a main-appearance in the show, or that he’ll be forced to spend the rest of his life as a side-role. For bad guys, we have Lil’s grandfather (either that, or he’s being manipulated), the long-haired guy, and apparently the entire police-force and investigation service. I’m still waiting to see which side the two Proxys belong to, but I’ll put them along the bad guys for the time being.

This episode, there was exactly one action scene. The way the creators brought it, was incredibly original. Partially because it’s been one of the rare fights that didn’t include a prelude. We just see a guy escaping from Proxy, totally unexpected or unintroduced. I loved it. (At least, not that I think back, there was a one-second prelude… but at that time you so don’t see it coming). It was also nice to see an actual bad guy space out like that. These kinds of things rarely happen in anime. At least, they rarely happen without characters having some strange fetish-like fantasies.

Lil herself was also very interesing this episode. She was a good actor. At least, half of the time. At other times, you could just really see that she was acting. She’s also totally different from last episode. There, she was just confident in herself. Now, it seems like a bit of despair and stress have been added. Add this to the pressure from the government, and you have a recipe for succes. The government kinda reminded me of a mild version of the book 1984 by George Orwell. Everything is being controlled, people are captured like in a prison and the freedom of speech has become an urban myth.

As expected, we have another intermezzo here before the next matches begin. The main theme of this episode is called “father”. We don’t really see much character development from Ueki’s side this time, but his family gets a healthy dose of it.

The episode starts off with the aftermath of the previous “battle”. Basically, Anon stole Robert’s body to get into heaven unnoticed, as the hellions were forbidden to enter it, which totally makes sense. Afterwards, we learn that Mori still doesn’t know the condition in order to use her power. This can prove to be great for some of the future scenes. If I had to guess, I’d bet my money on either sitting on the ground, being hurt, or speaking slowly. But then again, knowing the nature of the show, the real thing’s got to be something else.

Then we switch to the heavenly audience, and for the first time in what seems about twenty-five episodes, Ueki’s heavenly father comes into the picture again. He looked really ragged down, but that’s logical, as the plan he sacrificed everything he had for failed. But still (I have no idea if my memories are correct, by the way), when he met up with Kobasen, he was happy that Ueki still made it through. Why did he get so depressed afterwards?

Then we get a sudden twist, as Ueki’s suddenly at his earthly home, sitting in his underwear, eating dinner. We learn later that Ueki&co were able to go back home for one night, which they immediately make use of. It’s also been the first time in twenty-five episodes since we saw his earthly father and sister again. Earthly father is weird, earthly sister is cute. Anyway, like any anime-main hero with superpowers, Ueki never told his mom and dad about what was happening. Apparently, the creators thought this as well, so they decided to take “hard” measures to set this straight. The result is quite hilarious. Anyway, afterwards, we get to see the fatherly side of the earthly father, and the group sets off to heaven again.

Back in heaven, the group stumbles upon the heavenly father, who, of course gets invited to stay over in Ueki-style. He first hates Ueki, but after spending one night within his vicinity… well, let’s just say that no one can survive that without being converted. We also get another interesting fact to hear. At least, Ueki does. Everyone else has to wait a couple of episodes before it is revealed.

The next round reminds me of the second Roberto-Jyuu round. Everyone gets randomly assigned one opponent, after which one-on-one-matches will occur. And what kind of trump card will their opponents hold? Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable episode, worthy of an intermezzo. I don’t know why, but the both the heavenly as the earthly father really ‘look’ like fatherly types to me. Especially seeing the heavenly father getting ‘converted’ was just great to see.

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Okay, this was officially the best episode EVER! Mori shines like no other, she gets to fight again, and FINALLY discovers her power. There has never been an episode in which I laughed more and harder than in this one. Partially because of Mori’s very *ahem* “peculiar” power, including the way she hopelessly tried to guess what it was, and the way she finally found it out belongs to the Most-Hilarious-Moments-In-Anime-List. Kami-sama was just awesome again, just as the way the creators thought up to make the other team members not to interfere with Mori’s fight. The cliffhanger in the previous episode was just horribly misleading, but that only adds up to the awesomeness of this episode. Rihou was also just hilarious. It’s a very good thing that even the most serious guy like him can get surprised like that.

I just love the way that these kinds of fights, who begin serious, end up so creative. Each and everyone of the fivesome goes down in the most enjoyable way ever. Thanks to the incredible creativity of the authors.

The second half of the episode went back to the main plot (after all, we’re finally down to the last quarter of the series. Something had to happen). We apparently learn that Anon wants to fight Ueki at his strongest, so he decides to let them skip the weak enemies. Or it could just have been a way for the creators to keep the caption team out of the picture. Anyway, the next couple of episodes will feature the fight against the mysterious masked guys. It wasn’t really surprising when I found out for whom they worked… Anyway, that will be the last team Ueki has to face, after which the main plot will probably kick in. But still. These masked persons, they look so serious. I watched Ueki for too long to not doubt this…