Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- Tokyo Revelations Ep. 01
ツバサ TOKYO REVELATIONS Episode 01

SPOILER Summary:

Syaoran and company have just fled the library on the Record World and arrived at a ruined large city. As Sakura sleeps (caught in a dream), it starts to rain, and the rain is acidic in content, forcing the group to seek shelter. Only a large skyscraper remains relatively untouched by the damaging rain, so they head there. However, they soon discover a bunch of dead bodies of people that have been killed. As Syaoran goes to explore, he’s ambushed and manages to dodge a rain of bolts from crossbows. One manages to hit him in the leg. Before they can finish him off, Kurogane comes in and defends Syaoran.

Mokona brings forth Kurogane’s katana, so the leader of the group ambushing them, Kamui, decides to fight Kurogane. Kamui’s fighting style is completely foreign to Kurogane, which makes the fight a challenge for Kurogane. After sending Kurogane into a pile of rubble, Kamui launches an attack. However, Kurogane manages to counter and show that he could have killed Kamui. Instead of doing so, he uses his Shouryuusen attack to send Kamui to the ceiling. His follows start to move in to assist, but he tells them not to. He drops to the ground, apparently uninjured, and tells his people he’ll leave Syaoran’s group, including the hidden Fai and Sakura, to them as he walks away.

Syaoran’s group learns of the current situation. Kamui’s people are fighting forces from the Tokyo Tower over fresh water. The water below the former government building they are now in is wanted by the people from Tokyo Tower. Kakkyo, the co-leader of Kamui’s forces, agrees to allow Syaoran’s group to stay and to treat his wounds in exchange for working. That evening, Kurogane confronts Fai on his use of magic to allow them to escape Record World. Fai is elusive in the conversation and when they are summoned by some others, Kurogane tells Fai he hasn’t escaped giving him the answers he wants.

The following day, Syaoran and Fai join a hunting party through the ruins of Tokyo while Kurogane sits with the sleeping Sakura (who’s being talked to by someone, urging her to wake up). The hunting parting targets a mutated giant earth worm and slay it for food. A second worm attacks, which Syaoran easily dispatches. The people from Tokyo Tower arrive and soon, Kamui is fighting with their leader, Fuuma. Fuuma notices that Kamui’s attacks are slower than normal though he still gets thrown. Before it can continue, one of Fuuma’s people gets a report that Tokyo Tower is under attack, so they leave to help their people.

It is here that Kamui’s people tell Syaoran and Fai that Kamui is like Syaoran’s group. He only just arrived at Tokyo World two years before. Initially he was thought to be a water thief, but he ends up joining them to protect the water.

Elsewhere, another Syaoran has been magically sealed in a giant, fluid-filled container. The so-called Time-Space Witch Yuuko-san notes this Syaoran’s awakening as he uses magic to undo the seals holding him. Xing Huo, Fei Wong Reed’s female assistant, is there waiting and decides to use her power to send this Syaoran to Yuuko-san since he can’t cross dimensions himself. Her reasons for doing this is to end the dream. Meanwhile Sakura is caught in her own dream where she speaks with someone apparently in a giant body of water. That someone is trying to get her to wake up as her actual body stops breathing.

Thoughts/Review: Well, I still haven’t finished the TV series, but then I had already read that Production I.G weren’t going to be bothered really trying to link this with the Bee Train TV series, but were going to pickup the manga story again. Technically, this OVA would start after episode 42 (most people say episode 43, but while it takes place on the world of the great library, its all made up stuff that wasn’t in the manga). So the final 10 episodes of the TV series would be flushed (and good riddance to bad rubbish).

The Bee Train method of slowing everything down is gone from this OVA. The episode moved along at a pretty quick pace, which is how the TV series should have gone. It closely followed the manga story, which I really liked. Production I.G did keep the Bee Train style music though, which I found interesting (actually, I like the music in Bee Train titles, but not their story telling methods). Basically, while I thought Production I.G failed at their xxxHOLiC adaptation (mainly because it was de-linked from Tsubasa Chronicle), they passed on the first episode of the OVA.