5/5 not disappointed
  by Michael A. Johnson (San Jose, California)
I loved Sakura, Cardcaptor. I had gotten it expecting rather similar, so at first was slightly put off by what seemed to be lesser artwork and badly rewittern characters halfway through the first episode. However by the end of the sencond episode I was hooked. I love this series and cannot wait for the second season to come out. As soon as I got over it not being Sakura part 2, it really took off. And I really enjoy spotting the other characters from other Clamp series that make cameo appearences.

5/5 Another Amazing Winner from CLAMP =)
  by Always Samsung (New York, NY)
This is another winner from the CLAMP team - who brought the anime nation wonderful titles such as Magic Knight Rayearth, XXXholic, Cardcaptors, Chobits, X, and many more. As soon as i found out Tsubasa was from CLAMP i knew it was another addicting series that was about to unfold.
Many anime fans will know Sakura from Cardcaptors and this is another series that deals with this character.
During a ritual of some kind Sakura accidentally loses the shards to her heart that are now scattered through time. So her semi-boyfriend Syaoran must travel through time & space to recover them.
This sends the duo on many battles through time, which kinda reminds me of Dragon Ball Z in that they are trying to retrieve something. This is a really great series and unfortunately only lasted about two seasons. I think this box set is heavily over-priced but definitely worth picking up when it's on sale.

3/5 Let the space-time jumps begin
  by Kellyannl (Bronx, NY USA)
As fans of the manga know, Tsubasa goes through several different stages. This set of it's animated version corresponds to the getting-to-know-the-characters stage which often played out as a shounen tournament series.

A quick briefer for those unfamiliar with the story: The memories of a teenage, alternate universe version of Cardcaptor Sakura's title character are scattered into different dimensions in the form of feathers, and she will die if enough of them are not retrieved. Under the auspices of xxxHOLiC's Yuko, her true love Syaoran is joined by two adult guardians - a ninja named Kurogane and a magician named Fai, who are also traveling for different reasons - as they jump across dimensions to complete the task, meeting other alternate universe versions of CLAMP characters along the way. But as Holic fans know, Yuko must always extract a price whether she would or no - and unbeknownst to Sakura, the price Syaoran has paid is the permanent loss of her memory of their relationship.

Tsubasa's main strength is the relationships which eventually develop between the four leads rather than the feather quest of the week or CLAMP cameos, which of course means that the inital arcs in which the characters haven't yet become close will probably never be considered among it's best. It also doesn't help that the majority of the padding material common to long running manga-based anime is focused here on the quest and guest stars rather than the extremely engaging four leads. Still, this set includes hints of the character development to come as Syaoran slowly earns Kurogane's respect and both kids - but Sakura in particular - start to bring out Fai's protective instincts. Indeed, a critical scene much beloved by fans between Kurogane and Fai during the Oto arc which cemented their relationship and gave the story unexpected teeth as Kurogane first realized there was something very wrong with Fai might actually have come out even better here. Two one-episode filler arcs are also respectable and fit into these early stages quite well, which isn't always the case with fillers. Also of note is a beautiful score which is one of the series' strongest assets.

Some viewers might not have the patience for Tsubasa to reach it's full potential - that won't come until the material covered by the OVA following Season 2 - and these arcs are somewhat inconsistent with some being better than others. It's best to take this set for what it is: a basically fun romp you might enjoy as long as you don't get your expectations up too high yet.





5/5 Final Fantasy Meets Sliders
  by Rich (CA)
Here's another sci-fi/fantasy anime that is both greatly intriguing and entertaining. The series short story-plot is that a young princess by the name of Sakura is magically attacked by a mysterious villain who wants her unique powers and as a cause of the attack her memories which or physically feather like are scattered across different dimensions, and so her lifelong friend and romantic interest a young man named Syaoran vows to retrieve her memories and with that save her life since if she doesn't regain all her memories. So Syaoran meets with a witch who agrees to help him reclaim the princesses memories but the cost of her help is that the bond between Syaoran and Sakura will be broken meaning after Sakura regains all her memories she will have no memory of Syaoran and her feelings she had for him before. Along the quest through different dimensions you have two other characters both with their own reasons and agendas of why they are on this quest, one is Kurogane a great but arrogant warrior who is banished by the very princess he protected because of his pride and than you have Fay D. Flourite another mysterious wizard who's running from some problem or other. The animation is very clear and sharp and if you've seen the animes Noir or Hack/Sign you'll notice the animation is for the most part similar, also the audio voice cast both Japanese/English did great for this series and the music track was incredible since it was the same person who did the music for Noir, Madlax, and Hack/Sign. The only problem I have again is with the box set, The set is a two thinpack dvd cases which hold two dvds each and put into a paper sleeve I wish that Funimation would at least make the dvd case sleeve out of cardboard or make it a little tougher so it won't tear so easily. The extras are pretty decent you get the usual trailers, commentaries, cast auditions, and the textless intro/ending songs. So if you like your sci-fi animes or magical action animes here's a great selection for your library...