Random Curiosity

OP Sequence

OP: 「IT’S」 by キンヤ (Kinya)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1 Mirror 2 (XviD, 12.3 MB)

Summary:
Syaoran is having a dream where he sees a dark figure that looks like him. He wakes up to Mokona calling his name. The group recently arrived in Piffle World, which is a futuristic place with flying vehicles everywhere. He gets dressed and goes outside, where Sakura, Fye, and Kurogane are working on their set of dragonflies. Yuuko contacts them through Mokona and checks to see how they’re doing. She called to remind them of White Day. As it turns out, the feather in this world is being offered as a prize in the Dragonfly Race. Syaoran allows Sakura to take the controls of a dragonfly, but she accidentally crashes it into Fye and Kurogane’s vehicles. Fye tries to convince her to sit the race out and let them handle it, but Sakura really wants to try her hardest and participate. Kurogane almost crashes their car into a limousine that appears out of nowhere. He swerves out of the way and starts to yell at the other driver, but then notices that the passenger looks like Princess Tomoyo. The girl steps out of her car, surrounded by guards, and makes a beeline for Sakura. She proclaims that Sakura will be her heroine.
This girl is none other than Tomoyo Daidouji, president of the Piffle Princess Company, the company that’s putting on the Dragonfly Race. This Tomoyo wants to record the entire race on video, and wishes Sakura to be the heroine. However, Sakura’s piloting skills are still a bit lacking. That night, Syaoran gives Sakura some pointers on flying. In trying to tell her to go slower, he accidentally puts his hand on hers. The two get embarrassed and Mokona senses love in the air. Watching from nearby, Fye raises the subject of Tomoyo and how she’s similar to the Princess Tomoyo from Kurogane’s world. Kurogane mentions that Fye still hasn’t met the one he’s running away from. With a serious expression on his face, Fye says that he’d know if it’s the same face or the same person.
The day of the qualifying race arrives. All of the racers are competing for 12 spots, and there are a lot of familiar faces around, including Ryuuoh and Chun Hyang. Of course, these are different versions of those people since this is a different world. The race starts, and Syaoran sticks close to Sakura in the rear. He only goes ahead after she urges him to do so. Kurogane and Fye are with the front group of racers, piloting the “Kuro-tan” and the “Tsubame,” respectively. Kurogane zooms ahead of everyone else and places first in the qualifier. Fye is a close second, and eight more familiar faces finish soon after. However, all the ships start to experience problems, including Syaoran’s. The diagnostic tells him that there’s a foreign substance inside the engine. This time, it’s Syaoran who urges Sakura ahead. Before she goes, she makes him promise that he’ll qualify too. Sakura finishes eleventh and Syaoran ends up making a fiery crash into the final slot. He emerges unhurt, but both he and Tomoyo suspect that the person responsible for sabotaging the engines is inside the group of qualifiers.

ED Sequence

ED: 「風待ちジェット」 (Kazemachi Jet) by 坂本真綾 (Sakamoto Maaya)
Watch the ED! Mirror 1 Mirror 2 (XviD, 6.2 MB)
Kinya and Sakamoto Maaya return to do the OP and ED. They’re both good songs, but I like the ending a lot more. The opening and ending animations are rather interesting though, with the opening one showing several shots of the characters fighting shadows of themselves and the ending one showing young versions of all of them.

Tsubasa Chronicle is back!
I’m a bit surprised that we fast forwarded straight to Piffle World. There’s too much good material in Shara country for them to not show it, so I assume Syaoran and company will be going there sometime in a future episode. But Piffle World is as good a place to start as any. They more or less just throw you right into the plot, though Yuuko kind of reintroduces the characters. Actually, I’m glad that they included Yuuko and hope that there’s more crossover stuff in the future, since xxxHOLiC is cutting out all of the references.
The animation quality was about equal to that of Outo country, except without all the cherry blossom trees in full bloom to make things prettier. The cast is still the same, so no complaints there. Music is also pretty much the same as last time; I recognized most of the songs. As much as I like it, I do hope they add a set of new music for the show.
Overall, I really enjoyed watching the first episode, though I admit that part of the excitement may be from having waited so long to see more. Next week continues Syaoran and Sakura’s adventures with Tomoyo in Piffle!
Note: I thought about it and decided to number the episodes as a continuation of the previous series. That and calling every entry Tsubasa Chronicle 2nd Series doesn’t sound that great.