Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations

Having been severely disappointed in Bee Train's treatment of Tsubasa Chronicle, having another anime company take over the reigns of the franchise was welcome news. Production I.G is that company. I am not too keen on Production I.G's treatment of xxxHOLiC so I was somewhat trepid on what I would find with this 3-episode OVA. Fortunately for me, Production I.G did a good job.

For starters, the writers decided to follow the source manga story fairly closely. That's good because the "Acid Tokyo" arc in the manga is a very good one, though very bloody and violent. By not venturing off on their own, the writers kept a good story, making only minor changes here and there which were not offensive. That meant that as a viewer, we could see things brought to life in a way the same story could not be done in the manga (the fight between Syaoran's, the eating of Fai's eye, the incredible difficult journey Sakura went through, etc.). In my mind, that is what an anime adaptation should do -- follow the original manga (allowing for minor changes for TV purposes and changes to fix any continuity or retcon problems in the original manga). Very rarely do I find major changes to an anime story to be superior to the original manga story.

While Production I.G kept the changes to a minimum, one change stood out in my mind. In the original manga, when Sakura is returning from retrieving the payment for Yuuko-san, she finds there are no more footprints to retrace back, and so what appears to be the spirits of those who died in the land point the way back for her. In the anime, this is changed so that Sakura-chan from Cardcaptor Sakura is the one to lead Sakura back. I don't know why the change, but I admit that I liked it for some reason.

The Bee Train music is kept in this sequel OVA series, but unlike the TV series where the music was an excuse to do nothing but drag things out, the music here does what it should have done in the TV series -- accentuate the scene while things press forward. And things do press forward at a nice clip in this series with some nice art and animation to boot.

Bottom line: Production I.G scores a win, so much so that one wishes they'd been in charge all along. A faithful adaptation of the manga along with good art, animation, and music make this a sure-fire "Buy" for me. I just hope FUNimation is the one to license it.