![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arias_hollow**This is an old review I am cataloging and may not reflect my Current thoughts on the matter**
So I finally finished reading Tsubasa World Chronicle: Nirai Kanai Hen. It…was much shorter than I though it was going to be. I figured it would a long continuation, though I’m still hoping for a second arc (maybe one that focuses on Kurogane, Fai, or Sakura since this one was very Syaoran centric). But for now, I’ll just review Nirai Kanai as if it is its own singular thing. Also bear in mind I haven’t caught up on Holic Rei yet, so this is just about what we see in TWC.
Nirai Kanai was, no doubt, a very fun arc to read. You got dual dimensions, a mysterious underworld, a magic tree, and a violent, tragic showdown. And you get to see all our favorite characters again, see how much they’ve grown since the beginning of TRC, which was fantastic. And the art was absolutely INCREDIBLE. I liked seeing Fai actually use his magic freely, Sakura and Watanuki bonding and doing Dream Stuff together, Kurogane being protective and grumpy but increasingly affectionate (seriously he has mellowed out SO MUCH since TRC), and Mokona being Mokona again. And Syaoran was as innocent and Determined as ever.
That being said, the actual composition of the story was, in my opinion, poorly done. The pacing was too quick, the chapters far too short, and when really analyzed it becomes apparent that not much actually happened in it. In TRC, each individual world gave the feeling of leading up to something else and had a decent focus on all of the main characters. With Nirai Kanai, Sakura isn’t even travelling with and spends the majority of the arc worrying in Dreamland with Watanuki or Hana (okay she technically did do stuff with Hana, but it was convoluted and poorly explained so that felt more like a cheap, easy fix to Syaoran’s problem rather than her actually doing challenging magic and maybe having some sort of character development connected to that like it could have been), and Kurogane and Fai didn’t really do anything other than worry about and support Syaoran either, I mean yeah Kurogane got to be awesome with his sword and apparently swimming skills at the end and Fai did some magic stuff, but nothing that happened had any affect on them other than “gee, now I’m even MORE worried about Syaoran”. There wasn’t even really anything hinting at potential development in future arcs. And I know Syaoran is the main characters, but in TRC the others still had character arcs that didn’t revolve completely around Syaoran.
The ending, while it had its incredibly sweet scenes, and I give the story credit in general for making feel emotional and eager to know what was going to happen next, didn’t make a ton of sense, felt entirely forced, and largely wasn’t satisfying. Yes now we know with more certainty (sort of) that the Clones CAN be brought back, but that doesn’t really bring us much farther along plot wise than we were at the end of the TRC epilogue.
Also the Utaki’s logic didn’t make an ounce of sense and I didn’t really understand the purpose of Ghost Girl being there except to give a bit of exposition and then follow Syaoran around. Plus, they brought up a bunch of potential plot points and then didn’t do anything with them. They mention the Nirai Kanai of the Dead has a blond princess goddess but then we never meet her and she doesn’t do anything. Touya and Yukito talk about the group meeting the dead, which Syaoran technically does when he sees Clone Syaoran, but the others don’t get to do anything like that. Kujaku is supposedly the Sasu/Guide but doesn’t much other than give cryptic advice. And there are probably other instances I could think of as well.
All in all, I think I would rate the series 7/10. It had a lot of problems story-telling wise, but I really enjoyed all the character interactions, Sakura and Watanuki bonding was beautiful to see, the art was gorgeous, and was in general a pretty fun, sort of nostalgic read. Also I LOVED seeing Kujaku again even if he didn’t do much because I loved him in RG Veda and HE DESERVED BETTER (*glares teary daggers at RG VEDA). Hopefully we get more World Chronicle (I think it would be strange to call it WORLD chronicles and then only give us one world), but if not then at least this serves as a relatively entertaining tribute to the original series.
So I finally finished reading Tsubasa World Chronicle: Nirai Kanai Hen. It…was much shorter than I though it was going to be. I figured it would a long continuation, though I’m still hoping for a second arc (maybe one that focuses on Kurogane, Fai, or Sakura since this one was very Syaoran centric). But for now, I’ll just review Nirai Kanai as if it is its own singular thing. Also bear in mind I haven’t caught up on Holic Rei yet, so this is just about what we see in TWC.
Nirai Kanai was, no doubt, a very fun arc to read. You got dual dimensions, a mysterious underworld, a magic tree, and a violent, tragic showdown. And you get to see all our favorite characters again, see how much they’ve grown since the beginning of TRC, which was fantastic. And the art was absolutely INCREDIBLE. I liked seeing Fai actually use his magic freely, Sakura and Watanuki bonding and doing Dream Stuff together, Kurogane being protective and grumpy but increasingly affectionate (seriously he has mellowed out SO MUCH since TRC), and Mokona being Mokona again. And Syaoran was as innocent and Determined as ever.
That being said, the actual composition of the story was, in my opinion, poorly done. The pacing was too quick, the chapters far too short, and when really analyzed it becomes apparent that not much actually happened in it. In TRC, each individual world gave the feeling of leading up to something else and had a decent focus on all of the main characters. With Nirai Kanai, Sakura isn’t even travelling with and spends the majority of the arc worrying in Dreamland with Watanuki or Hana (okay she technically did do stuff with Hana, but it was convoluted and poorly explained so that felt more like a cheap, easy fix to Syaoran’s problem rather than her actually doing challenging magic and maybe having some sort of character development connected to that like it could have been), and Kurogane and Fai didn’t really do anything other than worry about and support Syaoran either, I mean yeah Kurogane got to be awesome with his sword and apparently swimming skills at the end and Fai did some magic stuff, but nothing that happened had any affect on them other than “gee, now I’m even MORE worried about Syaoran”. There wasn’t even really anything hinting at potential development in future arcs. And I know Syaoran is the main characters, but in TRC the others still had character arcs that didn’t revolve completely around Syaoran.
The ending, while it had its incredibly sweet scenes, and I give the story credit in general for making feel emotional and eager to know what was going to happen next, didn’t make a ton of sense, felt entirely forced, and largely wasn’t satisfying. Yes now we know with more certainty (sort of) that the Clones CAN be brought back, but that doesn’t really bring us much farther along plot wise than we were at the end of the TRC epilogue.
Also the Utaki’s logic didn’t make an ounce of sense and I didn’t really understand the purpose of Ghost Girl being there except to give a bit of exposition and then follow Syaoran around. Plus, they brought up a bunch of potential plot points and then didn’t do anything with them. They mention the Nirai Kanai of the Dead has a blond princess goddess but then we never meet her and she doesn’t do anything. Touya and Yukito talk about the group meeting the dead, which Syaoran technically does when he sees Clone Syaoran, but the others don’t get to do anything like that. Kujaku is supposedly the Sasu/Guide but doesn’t much other than give cryptic advice. And there are probably other instances I could think of as well.
All in all, I think I would rate the series 7/10. It had a lot of problems story-telling wise, but I really enjoyed all the character interactions, Sakura and Watanuki bonding was beautiful to see, the art was gorgeous, and was in general a pretty fun, sort of nostalgic read. Also I LOVED seeing Kujaku again even if he didn’t do much because I loved him in RG Veda and HE DESERVED BETTER (*glares teary daggers at RG VEDA). Hopefully we get more World Chronicle (I think it would be strange to call it WORLD chronicles and then only give us one world), but if not then at least this serves as a relatively entertaining tribute to the original series.
