I was wondering if anyone else has considered the possibility that Kobato and Princess Sakura are the same person.
I realize that calling a character the "same person" in the interacting CLAMP universes might be the wrong expression. It might be more accurate to ask if Kobato and Princess Sakura are the same "soul" in slightly different people.
Anyhow, I came up with this idea when I realized that the beginning of Kobato's story (as revealed in later episodes oif that series) could easily be a continuation of the end of the Tsubasa series.
Of course, the way CLAMP ended Tsubasa series, adapting any story as a continuation might not be so difficult. With all the loose ends of Tsubasa left unresolved, a writer could say almost anything about what happened to some of the characters at the end of Tsubasa Shunraiki.
As with CLAMP's other series, Kobato and Tsubasa have some interactions betweem their respective characters. In one episode of Kobato, Syaoran, Kurogane, and Fei appear briefly as they travel between realities. Sakura is not with them when this happens. Syaoran tells Kobato that someone is waiting for him and he doesn't know when he'll see her again. They leave after a few days to continue their searching.
In fact it turns out that Kobato will eventually have someone waiting for her too - Fujimoto, the young man who works at the kindergarten. They have a mutual friend named Kohaku (some kind of angel) who says that some lovers repeat the process of meeting, falling in love, and parting for eternity. Talk about a loaded gun in the CLAMP interacting universes!
Well, that's the gist of my theory. Anyone else feel this way about Kobato and Princess Sakura?
(I know I didn't mention anything about the presence of "Chi" from Chobits in all three universes - as a human in two of them, and a Persacomm robot in Chobits. Granted that she's everywhere, I still couldn't think of any way she might be related to the possible common "soul" of Kobato and Princess Sakura).
Have a good one,
if you read the last chapters of the interlacing xxxholic and tsubasa chronicles, all of the characters (Watanuki, Sakura, Syaoran, Fei-wang) are reincarnations of clow reeds soul. its been a while but if my memory is correct, i think the conclusion was Sakura from tusbasa was a cloned soul of kabato, or visa-versa. simalar too syaoran's clone from the main tv series created by fei-wang.
We Can't Stop Here! This is BAT COUNTRY!!!
Hi,
Thanks for the info.
Forgive my ignorance here (I don't know as much about xxxHolic as I do the other two series), but when you say "reincarnations of clow reeds soul", what do you mean? What's a "clow reeds soul"?
Also, would this mean that Fujimoto, Kobato's "true love", is connected to Syaoran (the "real" one)?
I was hoping that a connection between Kobato and Sakura would help to simplify things, i.e. establish who was real and who was cloned, but I guess I was being naive.
Well, at least CLAMP gave Kobato a decent ending. Not so any of the others.
Thanks again,
Alan Mintaka
"I believe a leaf of grass
is no less than the journey-work of the stars"
--Walt Whitman
i dont want too spoil it, so dont read if you wanna read the mangas.
the story is kinda deep but clow reed was yukos lover who was the most powerful magician too exist (the ability too move through dimensions and time). i think kabato actually meets him at some point in the series.
when Clow died he made 1 wish, for yuko too never dissapear (her soul being bound too her shop). the problem was that when his soul split each of his magical abilities/personality spread too his reincarnations Syaoran, Sakura, Fei-Wang, and Watankui. that is why each one of them has a particular magical trait.
Fei-Wang (bad guy from Tsubasa) inherited Clow Reeds love for Yuko, and the actions he set into motion in Tsubasa chronicle was for 1 objective; the Resurrection of yuko. but in the clamp universe there is 1 absolute rule; you cannot bring someone back from the dead. after Fei-wang collect sakura and all of the reincarnations he goes through with the plan. all of the characters including yuko have too goto clow country (sakuras homeland)to the ruins syaoran was investigation in episode 1.
at the temple Fei-Wang makes his wish, too bring Yuko back from the dead. thus she disappears in front of Watanuki. so Watanuki binds himself too the shop and takes Yukos place as the dimensional witch. in the mangas it shows Watanuki 100 years later still in the shop. Watanuki is probably the main character in clamp, he even appears in Blood-C as a cat/fox thing.
on episode 1 of XXXHolic, yuko tells Watanuki that this wasnt his first time seeing her. Watanuki (which means April 1st, the same birth days of all the incarnations) actually made a wish too her for the price of all of his memories so that he could assist syaoran and sakura when their time came. all of the characters are older than they appear, because magic users live 10x longer than normal. kabato i believe was the real one but fei-wang couldnt get her, so he kidnapped syaron and cloned both so he could use their power to resurrect Yuko.
Clamp got extremely dark in the end of both series and it didnt go well with the reviews, so thats why my conclusion of them possibly never animating the ending of either series. XXXHolic did get OVA's of the aftermath called XXXHolic Ro.
i honestly love clamps utilization of combining all the shows into 1 universe it makes it feel more like 1 giant series. i suggest giving XXXholic a shot though it will make the OVA's make more sense.
We Can't Stop Here! This is BAT COUNTRY!!!
kabato i believe was the real one but fei-wang couldnt get her, so he kidnapped syaron and cloned both so he could use their power to resurrect Yuko...
RE Kobato: reincarnation gets a little tricky with her. The way she's described by Kohaku in that series, Kobato in another world "was a young woman who lost her life in a war." Some god or other took pity on her, and agreed to "bring her back to life" in this world if she collected that jarful of mended hearts.
SPOILER ALERT: as we now know, Kobato was successful and was reborn. She re-united with Fujimoto, recovered her lost memories, and lived again. And don't forget, her angel friend Kohaku said that she and her own lover were constantly dying, being reborn, and re-uniting through eternity. Ever notice how similar their names were? Kobato-Kohaku. Jeez, not another one....!!!
Anyway, if CLAMP didn't break their own reincarnation rule with Kobato, they at least bent it a little.
Now when you say "Kobato I believe was the real one", what real one do you mean? Yuko, or Sakura? Or was Kobato a separate real person who never got mixed up in the Yuko-cloning business? Kobato and Yuko certainly didn't have any personality traits in common that I could see.
Don't worry about ruining xxHolic for me with spoilers. Mostly because of Watanuki's character, I couldn't stand watching the series and put it down for good. Too bad... I liked the premise and I liked Yuko. I just couldn't force myself to watch Watanuki beyond 4 or 5 episodes.
Yes, it's too bad CLAMP went down that dark path. Obviously the fans don't like it. Kobato shows that CLAMP has the potential to deliver happiness too.
We haven't mentioned Chi in most of our conversation. Did she play a part in Fei-Wang's cloning agenda too? She seems to be the only one who had a soul in one world that was a robot (Chobits), i.e. a completely artificial machine, not just a clone. Yet she and her twin sister were living girls in Kobato, and Chi was a living woman in Tsubasa ((I think. It was kind of hard to tell what she was in Tsubasa. She had Persacomm ears, just like in Chobits).
Ah, what a mess. CLAMP would be doing themselves and everyone else a favor if they tied it all up in one Anime series that didn't piss everyone off (and didn't lay a finger on Kobato or Chi !!!).
So what "real one" was Kobato? Yuko, Sakura, or just plain Kobato, a separate person entirely?
Sorry to keep rambling with these questions. You have to admit, it's a complicated, inconsistent storyline.
Thanks and have a good one,
Alan Mintaka
"I believe a leaf of grass
is no less than the journey-work of the stars"
--Walt Whitman
i did make a mistake, the 4 characters are not reincarnations of, but simply descendants of clow reed. each possessing different traits of his magic/personality like fei-wangs infatuation with yuko.
yuko wasn't a descendant of clow reeds like sakura and syaoran. she was simply just a powerful magician from the same dimension as clow reed. clow reed loved her and didnt want too see her die so he made a way (using the real mokana) for her soul too live on in a dimension that would allow it (being watanukis dimension that aloud the existence of spirits).
i never watched or read kabato, but i think Sakura(tsubasa) was either a clone of Kabato or sakura kinimoto(cardcaptor sakura). but there is also rumors that Kabato may be the child of syaoran and sakura. im going too watch Kabato now so i can try to tie them in. but then again clamp has the habit of leaving viewers hanging.
now for Chi, i only watched the anime of chobits so im not sure if the manga actually connects the series or not. but Chi in tsubasa, which i think is just another branch of her soul. similar to the vampire Kamwei from Tokyo revelations, which was also Kamwei from X.
We Can't Stop Here! This is BAT COUNTRY!!!
Hi MickeyTK421,
Thanks once again for all the great info.
RE Chobits: I did read the manga but don't remember any extra clues about connections between the series. As far as I know the anime stayed close to the manga on that point, i.e. the surprise visit by the 3 travelers from Tsubasa was the only tie-in.
The manga ruined the Chobits anime for me, but for reasons that have nothing to do with connections to other CLAMP series. You're better off just watching the anime in that case. It's not that the ending of the manga was bad or sad - it was just STUPID. It was so stupid, in fact, it made the whole manga series seem like stupid story that wasn't worth the waste of time or money.
Well, enough about the Chobits manga. Obviously I have a gripe with it.
On a brighter note, I think you'll like Kobato a lot. Also, with your background knowledge of the other series, you'll probably learn a lot more than I did about any connections to the CLAMP universe(s).
The clues will probably come in the scenes with Ioryogi, Kobato's guide in this world. You may also learn something from Kohaku, the "angel" who seems to have lived for a long time in many different worlds (she's the wife of the doctor who takes care of the various human characters in the series).
It's not a spoiler to say that you'll learn early in the series that Ioryogi is acting as Kobato's guide as a form of punishment for something he did in the other world. His actions caused problems for Kobato in that world. She has no real memory of any of it.
Things get intense when Ioryogi takes a break from his guide duties to visit friends in the other world where he committed his crime. They too are being punished for the same crime but in very different ways. One of them is a large bear working in fairy-tale type bakery. That's his sentence all right but he takes pride in what he does.
Anyway, Ioryogi's conversations with the "baker" bear and other friends will no doubt reveal a lot to you. There are references to a war, for example. The details of that and other events in that world are added as the series goes on and Ioryogi pays additional visits to the bakery.
I got what little I was able to understand from those scenes and from some things that Kohaku says about Kobato later in the series. From all that you may even be able to tie Kobato in with a specific character in Tsubasa or xxHolic. Who knows.
But whether you see any connections or not, you'll enjoy Kobato. It's a great breather from the unresolved angst in the other series.
PS: as a personal preference, I watch all of these series in Japanese with the English subtitles turned on. I know I'm biased over that, but I suggest that you watch Kobato the same way. Ioryogi's superior tone and self-appointed mastery sound a lot better in Japanese. He talks a lot like Toshirô Mifune in the old samurai movies.
PS(2): The landlady Mrs. Chitose and her daughters the Chi twins also appear !!! They have some great scenes too. And watch for this: early in the series, Mrs. Chitose rents Kobato a small apartment in her building (you'll recognize the room and hallway from Chobits).
At this point Mrs. Chitose supposedly has just met Kobato. But when Kobato offers to help someone else with something, Mrs. Chitose says "There you go again, always going out of your way to help people."
Even I picked up on that one. "There you go AGAIN?" "ALWAYS helping people?" If Mrs. Chitose just met Kobato, how does she know that about her? Hmm....
Well anyway, happy viewing!!!
Alan Mintaka
"I believe a leaf of grass
is no less than the journey-work of the stars"
--Walt Whitman
ya im the same way, i prefer watching anime in japanese with english subs. dont get me wrong, i love funimations dub cast. but some anime it seems the japanese voice acting has more spirit in it. like the voices match the characters very well.
i would say im 50/50, some anime i prefer in japanese, some in english. some anime i enjoy both versions. like XXXHolic and Tsubasa, i watched both in both languages and still enjoyed it, minus Sakuras english voice, not because of the acting but because its too squeaky.
We Can't Stop Here! This is BAT COUNTRY!!!