Tsubasa First Ep review.
Apr. 11th, 2005 11:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katharosA lot of moaning and a few grudging positives. With screen caps!
General animation first… the character designs weren’t as bad as I was dreading – they look better animated than they did in the stills we’ve seen. The music… sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Except when it REALLY didn’t, such as in Ceres. Have the production team managed to completely miss what every fan out there has picked up on? Fai=Western. So what with the oriental music at our first sight of Ceres? And what’s with the jaunty, happy Oriental music at the first sight of Ceres?
Which brings me to my next complaint:
NO DEAD BODIES!
Really, where are the dead bodies? Where’s the blood stained corpses throughout Ceres castle, lending an even darker edge to Fai’s actions and lots of interesting implications? And where the HELL are the dead bodies in Japan? We have Kurogane’s laugh, and it’s a very good laugh I admit. BUT. NO. DEAD. BODIES. Which Kurogane is supposed to have just slain, leading Tomoyo-hime to make her decision to exile him. Instead, Tomoyo appears to be exiling him for leaping about on the rooftops and having a really creepy laugh.
And there is no Tomoyo being Tomoyo! Clasping her hands to her cheek, ohohohhoing, sighing over why Kurogane can’t be a NICE Ninja – I want my Tomoyo back!
There is no REAL interaction between them, no sense of their relationship. We don’t see that Kurogane feels betrayed to be exiled in this manner by the Princess her serves. We don’t get to see Suoh yelling at Kurogane to be more respectful to the Princess.
And for that matter, they’ve missed two very, very significant little details. We don’t see Fai transform Chii into an extra ward on Ashura-ou, which is sure to be a very important little detail when CLAMP gets around to Fai’s story. And we don’t see Tomoyo lay the curse on Kurogane, just the glowing sigil.
I can only hope these very, very important plot elements will be included in flash backs – though I really don’t see HOW they are going to work them. Especially Fai’s. Fai doesn’t talk about his past. Fai doesn’t THINK about his past, unless circumstances or Kurogane forces him to. So I can see the lead in to THAT flashback being a LITTLE difficult to pull off without completely butchering the chararacter.
All in all, slicing up Kuro-pon’s and Fai’s scenes really didn’t work. We didn’t have time to appreciate that atmosphere of each for one thing. But you know what REALLY disappoints me? Their arrival at Yuuko’s. They take it in TURN to speak!
And there is no LOOK!
Their first meeting! The LOOK they exchange! They didn’t have the LOOK!
Argh!
The very first KuroFai movement and they didn’t see fit to include it! No connection, no shocked into glancing at each other stripped of masks – just two strangers arriving either side of Syaroan.
Sigh.
OK, complaints about the Clow country side of things. There were lots of little details that grated, but they didn’t get my back up as much as the butchering of Kurogane’s and Fai’s introductions where so much has to be squeezed in and so much left implied – their emotions, relationships, worlds – that the details are ESSENTIAL.
My first WTF moment occurs in the market place, when what I assume to be Royal Guards appear,
and Syaroan grabs Sakura and runs away with her.
There are a few things wrong here.
First, Syaroan. Mega, Ultra respectful Syaroan RUNS AWAY from the Royal Guards, deliberately disobeying the implied orders of the King.
Second, in doing so, he grabs Sakura’s hand and lifts her off her feet so she goes FLYING THROUGH THE AIR after him.
I could have excused this shot of them through the market as just a bit of anime taking liberties with the laws of physics for comedic emphasis. Which is a good thing when done well.
However, THEN the camera focused in on Sakura’s pointy slippered feet, STILL flying through the air.
Sigh.
One of my major problems with this episode is that it seems to have given Tsubasa an emotion amputation. Everything is so… bland and uninspired. The characters don’t convey there depths of emotion, either in the animation or the voice acting. Taking the Kinomoto siblings scene.
Anyone who knows them from CCS knows that theirs is a tempetuos, stormy relationship filled with lots of name calling, metaphorical hair pulling, and literal foot stomping. Along with a deep, genuine love and an overprotective older brother.
It’s my favourite sibling relationship in all of animanga.
Now then, Brother and sister get into a screaming, knock-down-drag-out fight over Syaroan. Stubborn opinionated little sister meets stubborn over protective older brother.
The manga:
Sigh. Aren’t they sweet?
The anime, and this is the most extreme it gets:
Touya hasn’t even gotten off his throne.
Snarlgrowlsnarlcontemplatemurder.
Ahem. Yes.
May I just say wtf and where’s the logic for the ‘archaeology by night?’
It also means we lose the cute scene of Sakura bringing Syaroan a bento. Of all the characters, Sakura is the one most butchered. She’s acting like the Sakura of a few chapters on, who has only recovered two of her feathers but is missing most of her will and personality - Not the wonderful, complete, whole, wilful, strong, Sakura-chan!
Grumblegrumblegrumble.
Skipping ahead a bit to the big send off…
Touya apparently knows what Yukito is going to do. Which removes a nice source of Yukito angst. And Touya, apparently, is NOT wounded and poisoned which really leaves me wondering what they are going to do with that pair’s only other scene later on. They had better not leave it out, that’s all I’m saying. I want more King Touya and Priest Yukito!
And Touya being absolutely perfetootly fine also neatly exorcises such lovely scenes as this.
Or this.
What? Are they so enamoured of the Sakura/Syaroan angst that they’ll deny us the lovely lovely YukiTouya angst? GrowlsnarlGrowl.
On to the voices. Mostly, they’re fine I think. Yukito sounds wrong to me, but I expected that. Anyone other than Megumi Ogata as Yukito was going to sound wrong. But still, I think a softer spoken seiyuu would have been better – his voice sounds too deep.
I liked Kurogane’s voice when I first heard it as he shouted over the rooftops, but later I started to wonder if it was too deep. I’m not sure if it will be capable of all the spazzing Kuro-pon does…
I think that’s a problem with all of the cast actually. The acting seems awfully… bland is the best word. As if they’ve been drained of all extremes of emotion. This is a fault of the animation too – as in Sakura and Touya’s fight. And Kurogane… argh. He sounds like he’s reading off lines as he gets sucked down to hell.
Of them all, I think Fai’s voice actor handled that best. They did a fairly good job conveying Fai’s complex emotions during the Ceres scenes. The only thing was, his voice seemed awfully… ‘catchy’ is the best word I can think of. As in ‘a catch in his voice.’ It worked for this first scene, but if it will show the ‘steel under velvet’ side of Fai…
Ah well, I’m just going to remind myself of something. When I re-watched the first Prince of Tennis episodes, the voices of the Regulars sounded just plain wrong. Especially Eiji’s. It’s amazing who much they’ve changed and improved and settled into the characters since then – just have to hope for the same thing here.
Mokona’s voice I’ll wait for the next episode to pass judgement on, but going from the ‘next episode’ voice over, the voice actor is trying a little too hard to be ‘cutesy.’
Yuuko’s voice is the one I’m gutted over. I suppose it’s not quite as bad as it might have been, but it’s still too light. Yuuko NEEDS a deep, sultry voice to make your toes curl. I really hope she has a different seiyuu in the xxxHolic movie.
The nitpicking.
Yuuko’s expression here. This is not the ‘ruthless and mysterious Witch of Dimensions persona’ expression. This is the ‘Watanuki, you just farted didn’t you?’ expression.
Young!Sakura smiles. Young!Syaroan smiles. Surely she had to work harder for this?
What have they done to Sakura’s wingspan?! I’m dreading seeing Mokona’s…
It’s the amazing spiderman! Doing whatever a spider can! Howl.
Kurogane looks mildly annoyed while being sucked into the depths of hell!
And now the amazing magician Fai will disappear in a puff of smoke! No. Just, no.
Alright time to be positive. What DID I like?
First, of course, has to be Fai’s tattoo shot.
Practically identical to the panel in the Manga – yes yes yes and yes. Followed immediately by a shot of the sleeping Ashura-ou?
Yes. Perfect. Closeup of Ashura also nice. 
The touches between Fai and Chii conveyed the same sense of caring, creator/creation relationship I got from the manga. So yes to that as well. 
I liked Kurogane’s laugh. It worked. Otherwise I saw little to be pleased about with the Japan scenes.
Clow! Anytime Clow appears is a very good thing. Nodnod.
Touya! And Yukito! Smiling! Calling each other by name! Lovely intimate Yuki To-ya against the backdrop of the night sky. This moment worked.
(except Touya called Yukito ‘Yukito,’ not ‘Yuki.’ *Fizzesandspits.*)
Speaking of Touya… King Touya. Rawrr. Hot hot hot, sexier than thou King Touya! Love the pose, the clothes…
gotta love the smirk!
(To bad it wasn’t followed up on… ok, positive positive!)
Touya fighting the bad guy’s goons… yes yes yes. Loves it.
Also loves any and all shots of Priest Yukito.
Priest Yukito fighting alongside King Touya? Double whammy.
There were some individual shots that managed to be really pretty, like this head shot of Fye. Love his hair here!
Body types, however, seem to be all one type. The stringy cheese type.
This positive thing is difficult, isn’t it?
Ok, one thing I can be unapologetically positive over is the landscape shots. The production team knows what its doing there. Clow,
Japan,
Ceres…
all looking very nice.
Liked our first shot of the four of them together.
Also liked the way they had Fye writing sigils.
And both magic circles:
(Very much like the reappearance of Clow’s magic circle.)
And! Beacon of hope! Screenshot from the next episode – we have spazzing Kuro-pon!
Yay! Now I just hope the voice actor can reflect it…
Manga images taken from Be With You Scans.
General animation first… the character designs weren’t as bad as I was dreading – they look better animated than they did in the stills we’ve seen. The music… sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Except when it REALLY didn’t, such as in Ceres. Have the production team managed to completely miss what every fan out there has picked up on? Fai=Western. So what with the oriental music at our first sight of Ceres? And what’s with the jaunty, happy Oriental music at the first sight of Ceres?
Which brings me to my next complaint:
NO DEAD BODIES!
Really, where are the dead bodies? Where’s the blood stained corpses throughout Ceres castle, lending an even darker edge to Fai’s actions and lots of interesting implications? And where the HELL are the dead bodies in Japan? We have Kurogane’s laugh, and it’s a very good laugh I admit. BUT. NO. DEAD. BODIES. Which Kurogane is supposed to have just slain, leading Tomoyo-hime to make her decision to exile him. Instead, Tomoyo appears to be exiling him for leaping about on the rooftops and having a really creepy laugh.
And there is no Tomoyo being Tomoyo! Clasping her hands to her cheek, ohohohhoing, sighing over why Kurogane can’t be a NICE Ninja – I want my Tomoyo back!
There is no REAL interaction between them, no sense of their relationship. We don’t see that Kurogane feels betrayed to be exiled in this manner by the Princess her serves. We don’t get to see Suoh yelling at Kurogane to be more respectful to the Princess.
And for that matter, they’ve missed two very, very significant little details. We don’t see Fai transform Chii into an extra ward on Ashura-ou, which is sure to be a very important little detail when CLAMP gets around to Fai’s story. And we don’t see Tomoyo lay the curse on Kurogane, just the glowing sigil.
I can only hope these very, very important plot elements will be included in flash backs – though I really don’t see HOW they are going to work them. Especially Fai’s. Fai doesn’t talk about his past. Fai doesn’t THINK about his past, unless circumstances or Kurogane forces him to. So I can see the lead in to THAT flashback being a LITTLE difficult to pull off without completely butchering the chararacter.
All in all, slicing up Kuro-pon’s and Fai’s scenes really didn’t work. We didn’t have time to appreciate that atmosphere of each for one thing. But you know what REALLY disappoints me? Their arrival at Yuuko’s. They take it in TURN to speak!
And there is no LOOK!
Their first meeting! The LOOK they exchange! They didn’t have the LOOK!
Argh!
The very first KuroFai movement and they didn’t see fit to include it! No connection, no shocked into glancing at each other stripped of masks – just two strangers arriving either side of Syaroan.
Sigh.
OK, complaints about the Clow country side of things. There were lots of little details that grated, but they didn’t get my back up as much as the butchering of Kurogane’s and Fai’s introductions where so much has to be squeezed in and so much left implied – their emotions, relationships, worlds – that the details are ESSENTIAL.
My first WTF moment occurs in the market place, when what I assume to be Royal Guards appear,
and Syaroan grabs Sakura and runs away with her. There are a few things wrong here.
First, Syaroan. Mega, Ultra respectful Syaroan RUNS AWAY from the Royal Guards, deliberately disobeying the implied orders of the King.
Second, in doing so, he grabs Sakura’s hand and lifts her off her feet so she goes FLYING THROUGH THE AIR after him.
I could have excused this shot of them through the market as just a bit of anime taking liberties with the laws of physics for comedic emphasis. Which is a good thing when done well.However, THEN the camera focused in on Sakura’s pointy slippered feet, STILL flying through the air.
Sigh.
One of my major problems with this episode is that it seems to have given Tsubasa an emotion amputation. Everything is so… bland and uninspired. The characters don’t convey there depths of emotion, either in the animation or the voice acting. Taking the Kinomoto siblings scene.
Anyone who knows them from CCS knows that theirs is a tempetuos, stormy relationship filled with lots of name calling, metaphorical hair pulling, and literal foot stomping. Along with a deep, genuine love and an overprotective older brother.
It’s my favourite sibling relationship in all of animanga.
Now then, Brother and sister get into a screaming, knock-down-drag-out fight over Syaroan. Stubborn opinionated little sister meets stubborn over protective older brother.
The manga:
Sigh. Aren’t they sweet?
The anime, and this is the most extreme it gets:
Touya hasn’t even gotten off his throne.
Snarlgrowlsnarlcontemplatemurder.
Ahem. Yes.
May I just say wtf and where’s the logic for the ‘archaeology by night?’
It also means we lose the cute scene of Sakura bringing Syaroan a bento. Of all the characters, Sakura is the one most butchered. She’s acting like the Sakura of a few chapters on, who has only recovered two of her feathers but is missing most of her will and personality - Not the wonderful, complete, whole, wilful, strong, Sakura-chan!
Grumblegrumblegrumble.
Skipping ahead a bit to the big send off…
Touya apparently knows what Yukito is going to do. Which removes a nice source of Yukito angst. And Touya, apparently, is NOT wounded and poisoned which really leaves me wondering what they are going to do with that pair’s only other scene later on. They had better not leave it out, that’s all I’m saying. I want more King Touya and Priest Yukito!
And Touya being absolutely perfetootly fine also neatly exorcises such lovely scenes as this.
Or this.
What? Are they so enamoured of the Sakura/Syaroan angst that they’ll deny us the lovely lovely YukiTouya angst? GrowlsnarlGrowl.
On to the voices. Mostly, they’re fine I think. Yukito sounds wrong to me, but I expected that. Anyone other than Megumi Ogata as Yukito was going to sound wrong. But still, I think a softer spoken seiyuu would have been better – his voice sounds too deep.
I liked Kurogane’s voice when I first heard it as he shouted over the rooftops, but later I started to wonder if it was too deep. I’m not sure if it will be capable of all the spazzing Kuro-pon does…
I think that’s a problem with all of the cast actually. The acting seems awfully… bland is the best word. As if they’ve been drained of all extremes of emotion. This is a fault of the animation too – as in Sakura and Touya’s fight. And Kurogane… argh. He sounds like he’s reading off lines as he gets sucked down to hell.
Of them all, I think Fai’s voice actor handled that best. They did a fairly good job conveying Fai’s complex emotions during the Ceres scenes. The only thing was, his voice seemed awfully… ‘catchy’ is the best word I can think of. As in ‘a catch in his voice.’ It worked for this first scene, but if it will show the ‘steel under velvet’ side of Fai…
Ah well, I’m just going to remind myself of something. When I re-watched the first Prince of Tennis episodes, the voices of the Regulars sounded just plain wrong. Especially Eiji’s. It’s amazing who much they’ve changed and improved and settled into the characters since then – just have to hope for the same thing here.
Mokona’s voice I’ll wait for the next episode to pass judgement on, but going from the ‘next episode’ voice over, the voice actor is trying a little too hard to be ‘cutesy.’
Yuuko’s voice is the one I’m gutted over. I suppose it’s not quite as bad as it might have been, but it’s still too light. Yuuko NEEDS a deep, sultry voice to make your toes curl. I really hope she has a different seiyuu in the xxxHolic movie.
The nitpicking.
Yuuko’s expression here. This is not the ‘ruthless and mysterious Witch of Dimensions persona’ expression. This is the ‘Watanuki, you just farted didn’t you?’ expression.
Young!Sakura smiles. Young!Syaroan smiles. Surely she had to work harder for this?What have they done to Sakura’s wingspan?! I’m dreading seeing Mokona’s…It’s the amazing spiderman! Doing whatever a spider can! Howl. Kurogane looks mildly annoyed while being sucked into the depths of hell!And now the amazing magician Fai will disappear in a puff of smoke! No. Just, no.
Alright time to be positive. What DID I like?
First, of course, has to be Fai’s tattoo shot.
Practically identical to the panel in the Manga – yes yes yes and yes. Followed immediately by a shot of the sleeping Ashura-ou?
Yes. Perfect. Closeup of Ashura also nice. The touches between Fai and Chii conveyed the same sense of caring, creator/creation relationship I got from the manga. So yes to that as well. I liked Kurogane’s laugh. It worked. Otherwise I saw little to be pleased about with the Japan scenes.
Clow! Anytime Clow appears is a very good thing. Nodnod.
Touya! And Yukito! Smiling! Calling each other by name! Lovely intimate Yuki To-ya against the backdrop of the night sky. This moment worked.
(except Touya called Yukito ‘Yukito,’ not ‘Yuki.’ *Fizzesandspits.*)Speaking of Touya… King Touya. Rawrr. Hot hot hot, sexier than thou King Touya! Love the pose, the clothes…
gotta love the smirk!
(To bad it wasn’t followed up on… ok, positive positive!)Touya fighting the bad guy’s goons… yes yes yes. Loves it.
Also loves any and all shots of Priest Yukito.
Priest Yukito fighting alongside King Touya? Double whammy.
There were some individual shots that managed to be really pretty, like this head shot of Fye. Love his hair here!
Body types, however, seem to be all one type. The stringy cheese type. This positive thing is difficult, isn’t it?
Ok, one thing I can be unapologetically positive over is the landscape shots. The production team knows what its doing there. Clow,
Japan,
Ceres…
all looking very nice. Liked our first shot of the four of them together.
Also liked the way they had Fye writing sigils.
And both magic circles:
(Very much like the reappearance of Clow’s magic circle.)
And! Beacon of hope! Screenshot from the next episode – we have spazzing Kuro-pon!
Yay! Now I just hope the voice actor can reflect it…
Manga images taken from Be With You Scans.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 11:48 am (UTC)I just hope they leave in the squabbling between Kurogane and Mokona. Still, it's set up like it's going to be more dramatic, so there won't be as much comical fighting. If it was more comedic, like Sailormoon, then they'd do it.
But I do agree about Yuuko. She looks like Arashi was given Umbridge's froggy face.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 11:56 am (UTC)I really hope they have their squabbling too - it just wouldn't be Tsubasa without it.
She looks like Arashi was given Umbridge's froggy face.
(Reply to this)
Lol. Very true, unfortunatly.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 12:41 pm (UTC)Ashura-ou literally means King Ashura, and he's the father of Ashura (who has no real gender and thus is made to look delibretely feminine). Both of them show up Tsubasa, Ashura in the latest chapters, and Ashura-ou in Celes.
I believe that RG Veda is coming out in English really soon, so you might be able to pick up a volume or two (not that I know what volume Ashura-ou shows up in).
I do love Yuuko's eyes though. They just look really pretty.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 03:40 pm (UTC)In the latest tankoban, Ashura is referred to as Ashura-ou, and I haven't read all of RG Veda (no furigana. Bleh), so that explains it.
I really need to re-read these. Apologies for the confusion! ^_^
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 03:41 pm (UTC)I think he's also referred to as a God in the tankouban as well, though, so... >_>;;;
I think Clamp just needs to get characters straight. Have you seen the latest chapters? It's like the crossover from Hell!
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 12:02 pm (UTC)Trust me, as a fan of Namikawa Daisuke (Fai's seiyuu) who knows what sorts of performances he is capable of... he can more than handle this role. In fact, I'd venture to say that he's PERFECT for it. He was freaking AMAZING as Kami-sama in Saiyuki Reload, a character who is quite similar to Fai in that he has two very distinct sides to his personality-- sweet and tough-as-nails (okay, so in Kami-sama's case it was more psychotic than anything else, but still.).
If anyone can portray complex emotions, Namikawa Daisuke can. I'd never heard of him before his performance in Saiyuki Reload, but once I heard his work I was immediately impressed. This guy's got serious talent.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 12:04 pm (UTC)I'll look forward to it.
(makes me want to get my hands on Saiyuki Reload now to hear him for myself.)
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 12:42 pm (UTC)(If you want to hear him in Reload, you'll want to get episodes 17-25. That's the arc he's in.)
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 12:39 pm (UTC)Yeah, I wondered about the fucking bodies. If he's not killing anyone, apparently, why is Kuro being send off the world? Stupid. I think Tomoyo was even more butchered than Sakura, or maybe it's the fact I never take Sakura into a lot of consideration. Where's the funny, clever Tomoyo-hime!? I want my money back. Oh wait, it was free, thanks God. Also, Kurogane is too thin.
Yeah, the lack of Fye and Kuro's backstory and interaction is disappointing. Dude, if they were short of time, then cut the S+S stupid filling at the market, it's not necessary! And it's nauseous. And you're making Sakura an apple-addicted zombie, for crying out loud! Wah, KuroFye, what are they doing to you!
Yes, Arabic/Asian .hack music in Seles was too WTF. Aren't they like Norse-like or something?
The problem is, they're not adapting the SD/chibis or blushes or funny faces. Then the comedy dies. No matter how hard the seiyuus try to pull emotion to their acting, if the characters mantain a serious face, it's not going to be funny! I didn't laugh through the whole episode, except for Kurogane's "bwahahaha" and it was more because it was catchy and I wanted to imitate it. That's the main reason Sakura and Touya's scenes sucked, because what is their sibling love without SDs, bickering and gratuitous kicks? The sad part is, if the animation was funny, it would've been better done.
Archaelogy at night. No TouYuki angst. No FyeKuro anything. S+S overdone. The ruins glowing pink, like almost everything else (because pink glow = impending doom in the anime, remember kids.) It makes me want to cry. A lot.
I doubt Mokona is going to sound either cute or funny. Woe is me.
Yuuko's seiyuu: hated with a passion. Because I'm a bigger XXXHOLiC fangirl than TRC. And she's NOT my Yuuko, voice and animation wise. She must sound deep and sexy and wise, not like a bitter, underpaid seventeen year-old supermarket clerk in the night shift. And that face! You made me laugh with the fart joke, it's fitting. Their butchering Yuuko! And cry with me: that woman voices her in the movie, too T_T *stabs a passerby*
It’s the amazing spiderman! Doing whatever a spider can!
LOL, I thought the same! And after that he pulls a Superman, flying with waving cape.
Anytime Clow appears is a very good thing.
Can't agree more <3
Touya! And Yukito! Smiling! Calling each other by name! Lovely intimate Yuki To-ya against the backdrop of the night sky. This moment worked.
Anything TouYuki is gooood ♥ I swear, more than half of my screencaps are Touya and/or Yukito. So OTP-licious. Yum. Touya is The King of Sex, Yuki is so so cute.
The only thing I didn't like about Fye's magic, apart from the *poof* thing, was the fact the runes were ALSO glowing in pink ;_; Same with Kurogane's spell in his forehead. I swear, I'm sick of the Pink Glow of Doom on everything.
Wonderful review! And I'll shut up now because this comment looks more like an entry than a comment O_o
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 01:40 pm (UTC)Arabic/Asian .hack music in Seles was too WTF. Aren't they like Norse-like or something?
Norse! Yes, exactly. With their doom laden, god slaying ways... And Fye must be Loki! Morally ambigious, light hearted trickster or cruel tormentor, annoying ally or deadly enemy... and I think I've just given myself a plot-bunny.
You're right about the SD thing... I think their trying to go for Serious and Dramatic (emphasis on the big big capitals) which fills me with dread as to the rest of the series.
And cry with me: that woman voices her in the movie, too T_T *stabs a passerby*
No. Nooooooooooooooooooooooo. *weeps oceans.* I was refusing to let myself get worked up about it, telling myself she's only got a cameo part here, just wait for the movie, sujrely she'll have a deserving seiyuu there...
This is going to be bad.
And after that he pulls a Superman, flying with waving cape.
If we wanted bad american cartoons, we would watch bad american cartoons.
Touya/Yukito moments one of the few redeeming features.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 01:56 pm (UTC)Same with FyeKuro dynamics, they'd better not screw it off. Urge to kill rising.
And Fye must be Loki!
Ahahaha, good analogy, great plotbunny! :D
This is going to be bad.
Understatement of the year... and I'm so looking forward to the movie, dammit. Thank
FyeLokiGod Bee Train is NOT animating it, so maybe her face won't be screwed up and Watanuki won't look so cardboard-ish. At least the rest of the XXXHOLiC announced seiyuus are good for their roles (the list is at animenewsnetwork.com). They'd better not recycle the character design, too!Touya/Yukito moments one of the few redeeming features.
How much do you want to bet they're not coming back ever, or at least until the very last episode? *groans* It's not like Hanshin!T/Y has a lot of camera moments... if they do keep it, maybe they'll prefer ten minutes more of Sakura fangirling over Hanshin's apples. ¬___¬
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 02:27 pm (UTC)Yuuko: Clow! What the hell have you done to my magic?!
Clow: *adjusts glasses.* Why, I have no idea what you mean Yuuko. *smile smile*
Yuuko: *Howls like the furies and summons the (pink) Death Star of Doom (TM.)*
Palapatine made a bad deal.
FyeKuro dynamics are my preciousses and if you need someone to hold your coat I'll be glad to accompany you to the bloodbath.
maybe they'll prefer ten minutes more of Sakura fangirling over Hanshin's apples.
*winces.* worryingly plausilbe. Girl, just eat the damn thing, don't grope it!
no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 02:53 pm (UTC)Let's prepare the bloodbath, then. I'll get a second bat and a magic marker. Yeah, I have my hopes too low after, um, the anime previews. I like to be fatalistic. I even thought it was going to be worse, but I digress.
Girl, just eat the damn thing, don't grope it!
She probably sleeps hugging an apple instead of a Teddy bear. Their country is so primitive they didn't have plushies or dolls.
One day, Yukito and
Roy MustangTouya will intervene her for her apple issue.no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 10:18 pm (UTC)I wouldn't necessarily write off Ohara Sayaka just yet... I'm a bit surprised by the airiness of her voice, yeah, but all she said was "Here they come" and "I have been called that." I'd wait until episode 2 to properly judge her performance and see whether or not she's fit to be Yuuko.
If anything, we can only hope that she'll magically do a more mature performance of Yuuko in the movie?
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Date: 2005-04-11 01:09 pm (UTC)NO DEAD BODIES!
I was also a bit O_O at Kuro-chan's entry because, well, no deaths, no nothing... makes Tomoyo look real petty. -_-;
the butchering of Kurogane’s and Fai’s introductions where so much has to be squeezed in and so much left implied – their emotions, relationships, worlds
I thought I had missed something. >_< The producers wasted so much time with the marketplace scene! They killed off Kuro-chan and Fai. *hopes that they will be developed* Because since they haven't been introduced properly, the rest of the series might turn out to be S/S, S/S, S/S and nothing else. Ow.
Of them all, I think Fai’s voice actor handled that best.
He sounded right. *thumbs up* Well, maybe the rest will get better in the next few episodes. I hope Mokona doesn't become irritating though.
A critical but good review! *nods* The screencaps help. ^_^
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Date: 2005-04-11 01:44 pm (UTC)Mokona we'll have to wait and see I think - even the best voice actors can sound stilted when doing a voice over so... Honestly, though, I'm not holding out much hope, :-(
I tried optimism. It didn't agree with my stomach. (like the gratuitous apple scenes)
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Date: 2005-04-11 03:07 pm (UTC)I was thinking maybe Fai's music is supposed to be Russian?
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Date: 2005-04-11 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-11 05:54 pm (UTC)Agh, your review makes me see some changes I hadn't noticed (Sakura and Touya being snarky... those are Clow's children, they HAVE to be snarky!!!! ...at least we get to keep hot!Touya)
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Date: 2005-04-14 04:42 pm (UTC)I'm not going to start complaining too much about what I liked and what I didn't like based on where the episode went because it was just the FIRST episode. I think there's going to be a lot more explaining done on everyone's behalf in later episodes. So before people go into the rest of the series with bad expectations, I think we should give it a chance first and then complain.. *chuckles*
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Date: 2005-04-18 11:52 pm (UTC)I hated how my respectful Syaoran ran off with a flying Sakura.. =\ that was so fucked up. I also HATE how neither of them blushed even once. NOT EVEN ONCE! Wouldn't you blush when you're about to tell somebody "I love you"? like wtf, seriously.
Yes and Syaoran suddenly smiling right away, um no. and Touya and Sakura didn't fight! gr.. ~_~
I'm in love and obsessed with the manga, I hope the anime gets better. If they ruin it anymore I swear I'll die. ;_; But, I do still love it.. even though quite alot of things annoyed the hell out of me... =\ but I can't help but love it.. MY SYAORAN STARES IN IT.
Mind if I friend you? Is this your real personal journal, you only have one post.. :O
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Date: 2005-04-19 06:28 pm (UTC)I've had this journal for ages, but all it had in it was memes, basically, so I decided to clear it out and make a fresh start.
If they ruin it anymore I swear I'll die. ;_;
If they ruin it, THEY'LL die.
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Date: 2005-04-19 07:20 pm (UTC)Really? You should write in it. o-o Like.. what you did during the day,wishlists, and stuff. xD; I dunno. ^^'
YES THEY WILL DIE, we will have to destroy them.
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Date: 2005-04-19 09:37 pm (UTC)I've become extremely disappointed with every CLAMP anime I've seen thus far, no matter how much I loved the manga (CCS, Chobits, Angelic Layer, MKR...)
High point? I loved your review. It made me laugh so much. :D Especially the "It’s the amazing spiderman! Doing whatever a spider can! Howl." and "Kurogane looks mildly annoyed while being sucked into the depths of hell!"
I laughed for a couple minutes over those. ^^
Due to the fact I don't have the sanity to download any anime episodes (dial-up smites my existance), I look forward to future reviews from you! <3