Production
Kodansha, the company that publishes both Tsubasa and xxxHolic manga, came up with the idea of developing both films and ended up contacting Production I.G to develop them. They decided to put Toru Kawaguchi and Tetsuya Nakatake as producers from the two films. Considering Tsubasa's popularity in Japan and the fame from Production I.G. Natakate wanted it to be enjoyable to viewers. The film was directed by Itsuro Kawasaki and written by both Midori Goto and Junichi Fujisaku with character designs provided by Yoko Kikuchi and music provided by Yuki Kajiura. Iwasake first met producer Nakatake who told him about how they were working in The Princess of the Birdcage Kingdom, but still did not choose a director. Iwasake comments that people from Production I.G. had already requested to work in such film but he declines, to which he adds he thinks it was a misunderstanding as he was busy working in an anime TV series. It was Iwasake's first work in an animated film as he was not very familiar with them, but thanks to this, he came to understand the importance of films. He initially had doubts about making a film based on Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle as he noted that nowadays people tended to do it to every popular manga, and he originally wished to focus on less popular series. As he was told by many people that Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle was an entertaining manga, Iwasake decided to read it once the film finished development. As he read it, he was satisfied because it was what he had in mind when making the film and particularly praised Clamp's illustrations and designs. When Yoko Kikuchi was assigned as the character designer, Iwasake stated " we were very lucky" as he was already related with the works of Kikuchi, who liked working the film due to her attachment with the character of Sakura.
As the film is aimed at younger audiences that the xxxHolic one, Natakate wanted to emphasize its action scenes in order to make it fun. Therefore, he hired young animators with the idea of giving "a brand new look to anime ." Yasunori Miyazawa was in charge of making the storyboards, something which Natakate appreciated as he pointed that he came up with various storyboards. Following a discussion with director Kawasaki, it was decided the world shown in the film would have a tropical or Okinawa feel. Yuki Kajiura was asked to create a score different from the one used in TV series in order to convey characters' states of mind. He was satisfied with the result, as Kajiura's music ended being what he hoped. Clamp artist Ageha Ohkawa liked how both films were connected, despite both having different themes.
The film features two pieces of theme music. "Aerial" is the opening theme performed by Kinya Kotani and "Amrita" is the ending theme performed by Yui Makino. Before the film's premier, a special event was held in Shibuya Tower Records in which Kotani performed "Amrita" and Japanese casting gave a discussion about the film. Both songs were released in singles in Japan on August 17, 2005. When first creating "Aerial", Kotani described always having the word "aerial" in his mind. He wrote the lyrics by comparing the universe of Tsubasa Chronicle with the everything that he had written so far. Since the film started development, it was already meant to be a 30-minute long title, which made Kawasaki focus in the animation's quality to make it notably better than the one from TV episodes. It also featured more backgrounds expanding the film's world, but such parts to be removed due to the film's length.
Shochiku released the DVD for the film on February 25, 2006 in Japan in both regular and premium editions. Funimation Entertainment announced they licensed the film alongside Tsubasa's first anime season and the xxxHolic film in the February 2006 issue of the magazine Anime Insider. They released the film on a single DVD in English on February 19, 2009 in North America as a double feature with the xxxHolic film. On May 4, 2010, Funimation rereleased the double feature but in blu-ray format featuring all the extras shown in the original DVD release. In Australia, the double feature DVD release was published on July 23, 2008 by Madman Entertainment. Additionally, it was released alongside a DVD box titled "Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle: Collected Memories Box Set" of the anime's first season on January 19, 2010. It was rereleased in Blu-ray format on May 4, 2010, including also the anime's second season.
Read more about this topic: The Princess In The Birdcage Kingdom
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