(I'm starting to sound jaded in my posts I think.
)
Posted on my site:
Something I've realised while watching the anime is that I get the same feeling watching it that I do within the last 5 minutes of an episode of 24. The "You've only got a few minutes left! Hurry up!" kind of feeling. However, I get this feeling about halfway through an episode of Tsubasa.
After about 15 minutes of just dialogue, the viewer starts to realise that there won't be enough time for them to get Sakura's feather, defeat the bad guys and travel to another world. Hell, when the second half of the episode is MORE talking even in the "action scenes" there's not enough time for them to even meet the bad guys! It's strange because the still images in the manga of Kurogane and Fay's fight scene felt faster than the moving, animated version.
The anime seems to being going for over-the-top dramatic poses and cliched plots (ala a certain girls dead mother coming back to talk to her daughter next week) rather than just telling the damn story.
I don't mind that it strays from the manga really. It's just that in this case, every time they stray seems to slow down the pace for little cliched character moments that seem to do nothing to advance the plot or character development.
The music was great however and the animation A+. Plus it was a little faster paced than last weeks but still, again, not much happened besides them entering the castle and a trade sequence with Yuko (great to see her again and made me realise that they never gave Yuko an apple in the anime Hanshin arc!)
Still no sign of Miyuki.
Next ep looks to be good. I'd say it feels like the last ep of this arc but who knows? They may drag it out further.
I'm really think this series would rock on a marathon. Episode by episode, it just DRAGS!!!