If I’m honest, this episode actually made me feel quite ill. True the animation was beautiful but the story itself was so far off-cannon it destroyed whatever enjoyment I might have had from watching it.
This episode makes me wonder if CLAMP are even consulted at all about the numourous changes that the writers of the anime have made to the Tsubasa story. Most likely, they aren’t and that bothers me a lot.
As much as I dislike the filler episodes at least they have all been cute and non-plot inpacting before this one.
I’m a huge fan of the adorable Hideki x Chii relationship from Chobits and I also enjoy the different relationship that CLAMP wrote for Fai and Chii in Tsubasa, which seemed very much one of Creator/Creation, Master/Assistant (Servent/Pet?). Fai certainly didn’t seem that corcerned with leaving Chii behind in his world, he seemed more in pain over what had happened with Ashra (whatever that might turn out to be). Fai left Chii behind with nothing more than a quick, cutesy cuddle, a pat on the head and a few “Good Chii, good Chii”s, as if she was some kind of pet.
As CLAMP have regularly stated in the manga, alternate versions of characters all share the same soul. So, of course, if Chii were to be with anyone, it would be Hideki, her soulmate, her “Special someone just for her.”, no matter what dimention she’s in (as with Arashi and Sorata, Yuki and Toya, Syaoran and Sakura etc). I’m pretty certain CLAMP wouldn’t throw their entire Chobits series out the window just to pair Fai with Chii. Don’t get me wrong, there certainly seems to be affection there, but in no way did the manga make it seem like romantic affection.
So, to me, it just feels like a step too far by the writers of the anime. It feels like they’re trying to take the reigns from CLAMP and write the relationships and stories the way they want them.
