Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle
Episode #33
Ashura's Legend
Similar to the season two premiere, this episode starts with Syaoran dreaming. This time it appears to be a dream of his first memory. It shows him wondering the streets, maybe in the Kingdom of Clow with a bandage over his right eye. He stumbles down and when he looks up he finds himself looking at an infinite number of Syaorans staring back at him.
He wakes up with a start to see Sakura and Mokon looking over him. It appears they've arrived in a new world and Kurogane and Fay have landed elsewhere! Suddenly a group of women enter the room and start begging the head girl, who they call "Owner", to let them stay with them even though there's a rule against children and males. The "Owner" agrees, having been persuaded by the lead performer in their group, Karen and they welcome them to this city.
Elsewhere, Kurogane and Fay appear to have landed on some temple grounds and are attacked by several guards. The guards are stopped however by a man who appears to be their leader, Souseki, and he welcomes them to the city and offers them a place to sleep and food to eat.
Over dinner Fay notices that, while having trouble with chopsticks, that there seems to be a powerful ward on the other end of the temple as if something is being protected. Souseki decides to show them what is being hidden, a beautiful statue of a guardian god called Yasha. The statue is crying blood out of it's right eye.
Ironically, at that same moment, Sakyra, Mokona and Syaoran are also being shown a statue, though this one is of a guardian god called Ashura. They are all told of the story, by Suzuran ("Owner"), that Ashura is the god of battle and misfortune while Yasha is the god of night and the underworld. It's believed that Yasha's crying is a warning of the misfortune that Ashura will bring with her.
The next day Syaoran is embarrassed to find that to stay with the performers, he has to dress up as a girl! Sakura is also a bit embarrassed but all the performers think he looks adorable.
Suddenly they're told that there are men outside looking to cause trouble. Thet go out to look and find that Karen is being attacked by a group of men from the temple who want the performers (and their Ashura statue) to leave the city right away. Suzuran stops one of the men with a kick and tells the to get lost. When they don't listen, Syaoran still in his girl costume flies into action and breaks up the fight with a spinning kick.
At the temple, Fay asks Kurogane if he's feeling nostalgic as Shara Country looks similar to his Japan Country. Kurogane responds by asking why Fay's expression changed when Souseki mentioned Ashura's name.
Meanwhile Sakura and Syaoran are looking for Kurogane and Fay. Suddenly they see Suzuran running somewhere. They assume the men from before are back and follow her. Funnily enough she ends up running to the temple to meet Souseki. Syaoran and Sakura watch from the bushes as they both profess their love for each other.
On the way back to the house, Sakura suggests that they should pray for Souseki and Suzuran's happiness at the Ashura statue. Syaoran thinks that's a good idea.
At that moment the Yasha statue starts to shake and surround itself in a blue flame. The the whole city begins to shake!
As if linked, the Ashura statue starts to surround itself in an orange flame as just outside, Sakura starts to glow pink as her powers start to maximise. She enters a trance and opens the Ashura shrine's doors with the power of her mind and then passes out into Syaoran's lap.
Up above them, the sky rips open and reveals a swirling pink and purple vortex! Syaoran cries out Sakura's name while Mokona wakes from his sleep back at the house and senses a feather.
My Original Impression
Saturday, June 10, 2006
This was a rather interesting episode. It was very faithful to the manga arc but featured enough creative changes to keep those who know the manga interested and honestly suprised by the cliffhanger ending which ends with the earthquake like in the manga, but also includes a shocking situation with Sakura and a hidden love that I found unusual at first but very fitting.
I've noticed a lot of people on certain Tsubasa and CLAMP forums and journals bitching about every tiny little thing that isn't the same as the manga. All I can say to these people is, "Get over it". Seriously, look at all the changes in Card Captor Sakura and that series still rocked. Hell, they even created Meilin entirely for the anime and the show actually got better because of this. Bee Train is probably making one of the most accurate manga to anime adaptions I've seen, however part of the reason the first season dragged so much was because of how close they were sticking to the original storyline.
Almost everyone will agree that the second season is leaps and bounds better than the first and while the improved animation is part of the reason, the script is another main reason. Piffle was done in three episodes and it was a lot more enjoyable because of this. Look at some of the arcs in the first season, they were in some worlds for 5+ episodes sometimes which got boring very fast. This Ashura arc seems to be going for about 4 episodes which seems about right. Frankly I want the show to be enjoyable first before accuracy. This is why I love the fillers and creative changes in existing arcs. I'm reading the manga, I don't want to see the exact same thing on screen. I want to be suprised! Honestly, when I see a next week preview that features and original world, I'm so much more excited than I would be with a manga world adaption. Afterall, I know what's going to happen in the manga world.
I didn't get this feeling with this episode though. I've read Tsubasa #8 where this episode happened and I was still suprised and entertained when watching this episode and I can't wait for next week!
Today's Crossovers
 Ashura: Straight from CLAMP's first manga series, RG Vega, Ashura (not to be confused with Ahura Ou) makes her Tsubasa Chronicle debut right here!
 Yasha: Also from RG Vega comes Yasha. Great to see some more characters from CLAMP's first series.
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 Karen: A prostitute in CLAMP's famous X/1999, Karen has moved up in the world an is now the star attraction in Suzuran's performers group.
Interesting that she has the power of fire in Tsubasa too.
Shopping Guide
 
Vol 8 "A Tragic Illusion"
Buy from Amazon.com
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