Thursday, October 8, 2009

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles Epilogue and AMV: This is my Road



CLAMP's Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles manga has finally come to an end. Unlike the final chapter, the epilogue is very much in line with the kind of ending I had envisaged for TRC, along the lines of "and the journey will continue on." I have a feeling we'll be seeing Syaoran/Tsubasa and crew again in the future.

My favorite part of the epilogue was seeing Nadeshiko and Fujitaka again, happy and loving. At least in the Clow universe, they are alive and together (though pretty much everybody else seems to be suffering, except Touya and Yukito who are always the same, what ever world they're in). I also liked the idea of Syaoran and Watanuki's sacrifice, Syaoran to keep moving on, whereas Watanuki to stay in one place for ever. I like the simple equilibrium created. Unfortunately, something about the ending reminded me of Pirates of the Carribbean 3: At the World's End, where Will is bound to sail The Flying Dutchman as captain, which can surface only every ten years, hence he can see Elizabeth only every ten years. It's one of those cases where we already had a good ending, like the first movie which was the best of the bunch, and then everything just became messed up because of sequels. Lol. No, but I really appreciate the ending of TRC because while the previous chapter ended with a sense of bittersweet nostalgia, the epilogue at least gave us a forward-looking sense of anticipation. Almost to the point where I feel like there could sucessfully be a whole new series on the adventures of Syaoran finding Clone!Syaoran.

We finally learn Sakura and Syaoran's real names. Surprise, they have identical names as if we already do not have enough clones and Freudian warpedness running amock. But I like the thought that the name "Tsubasa" connects the two individuals and furthermore, brings new meaning to the title. I am curious what Sakura saw in her dream that makes her decide to stay in Clow (that could be any worse than anything that has already happened), but I hope it's something related to a means of getting Yuuko back.
Because R!Sakura and R!Syaoran's given names are something else, somehow, I have even stronger a feeling that to me, the Clones were actually the "real" Sakura and Syaoran, especially because reincarnated C!Syaoran was alternate-universe Hong Kong Li Syaoran. Yes, it is confusing. I am going to save further analysis on the series until xxxHolic unveils some lingering questions.

Meanwhile, to celebrate (mourn?) TRC coming to an end, I have made an AMV with one my favorite new songs from the ending of the anime Guin Saga. (Many thanks to Tragrendd for introducing me!) The first time I heard the song "Saga~This is My Road," I immediately thought it fit with TRC. Hence, this came about.


The AMV is made with Sony Vega 8.0 Pro and Adobe Photoshop CS3. I didn't realize how much less painful it was editing videos with a faster processor speed. It makes me cry thinking about how long everything used to take and how many times the program crashed on my old computer and how long everything took to render. Some AMVs make good use of putting random clips together to music, but for me, I like AMVs that tell a story. I put lots of effort into the "epilogue" of the video, which are actually scenes from TRC chapter 222 and 232, one of the most beautiful chapters of the series, IMO. The lyrics of this song and the ambiance, I thought, fits TRC very well. Kanon is a very talented singer/songwriter, and this song is absolutely beautiful and haunting. There are two versions of Saga~This is My Road, Japanese and English. I prefer the Japanese version because it is more fluid and Kanon's voice really soars in that version. But I had to add in a verse from the English version because the lyrics were so resonant with TRC, especially if you read to the ending. You can find Japanese lyrics at this blog. Check out this blog for English lyrics. Because I could not find raw videos, I had a hard time clipping all the subtitles out of the episodes of TRC, Tokyo Revelations and Tsubasa Shunraiki, but I really didn't want subtitles flying about this AMV. My favorite part of the video is probably the last clip after credits, just because I like how it turned out. I colored the manga picture and animated the text, and I thought it came out nicely, and I will keep hoping that the later volumes get OVAs or TRC season 3 or something.

On a side note, I saw the premier episode of Kobato. Isn't Kobato just cute or, what? It reminds me of a good, old-school shoujo anime with a CLAMP flavor.

11 comments:

  1. It's a really well made AMV Wish-chan! I just squeeeee'd at the end when I saw the colored pictures =]

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  2. hi wishchan..can i ask..are u going to make more new trials of CCS anytime soon??

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  3. @anon Yup, I've been working on the next chapter (albeit fall always gets super busy and distracting with work and people) and hope it would be out some time before the month is out. I've been having some issues these days where I've been writing segments for later chapters instead of the current one (which I guess will save me work later on).

    Sorry for the wait, and I promise I'll get back to writing. ^_^

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  4. You deserve more love for all the wonderful effort you've put into that AMV! It's truly beautiful, thank you for sharing it with all of us!

    Instead of 5 stars, I give you 5 hearts! ♥♥♥♥♥

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  5. This is a little random but it has to do with Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, so... Taken from the Kobato manga wiki page: "In episode 20, the Tsubasa gang -minus Sakura- end up in Kobato's world. This takes place after the completion of the Tsubasa Chronicle manga. Syaoran, Kurogane and Fai travel on to find the cloned Sakura and Syaoran, and the real Sakura decides to stay behind." *hopeful* Does this mean that Tsubasa will continue??? Another chronology, maybe? *o*

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  6. This song reminds me vaguely of Make A Wish, a Pokemon song. Lol! You should listen to it, its a beautiful song! But still, a wondrous AMV made by Wish-chan! I love how at the end, you colored that images from Tsubasa! So kawaii!!!!!

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  7. awesome, mind sharing last part's song?
    that piano version.

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  8. Hallo ich finde deine Video erste sahne ich hoffe das syaoran wieder nomal wird.

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  9. I really enjoyed the story you told with this AMV. It really makes you connect with the whole story on a positive note despite some of the dissapointing aspects of both the anime and the manga that I personally ran into. I can tell how much work you put into this and just curious but where did you find an english version of this??

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    ReplyDelete