Ask John: Where is Tsubasa Chronicle Season Three?

Question:
Will season 3 of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle ever be licensed for a US release? I’ve read mixed news outlining that season 3 can’t be aired in Japan because of it’s increasingly violent nature and the station that owns the license for Sakura is a child-friendly station. Does that mean the remainder of the series will hang in the balance, or is it possible that a 3rd season any beyond could be in the future? I know there are a couple of OAVs, but is that the last we’ll see of Tsubasa in anime form?

Answer:
It’s first necessary to clarify that no third season of Tsubasa Chronicle anime exists. Animation studio Bee Train produced two television series. Production I.G produced a short feature film that premiered during the broadcast of the first TV series. Production I.G also produced the three episode “Tokyo Revelations” OAD series and the 2 episode “Shunraiki” OAD series after the conclusion of the second TV series. There’s a lot of speculation online among English speaking viewers about the fate of a theoretical third Tsubasa Chronicle television series. I’ve seen claims that CLAMP was unhappy with the development of the TV anime and therefore didn’t want a third season produced. I’ve seen reports that a third season was greenlit then canceled when broadcaster NHK Educational chose not support the broadcast of a violent anime series. But there’s no concrete evidence backing up either of these claims.

Tsubasa Chronicle was not broadcast on the NHK network’s educational channel. Furthermore, the NHK network has previously broadcast anime series including Seirei no Moribito and Guin Saga that contain realistic violence. If violent content in a proposed third series was a concern, the third series could have been shifted to broadcast on a different network. Anime television series including Cowboy Bebop and Gantz have been split between two different television networks. The May 5, 2007 update on the official Tsubasa Chronicle anime series homepage stated, in Japanese, “Broadcast finished. Thank you for your support.” All evident signs suggest that the Tsubasa Chronicle anime series had a successful 52 episode run – which is already longer than many TV anime series – and Production I.G, which exclusively animates Tsubasa movies and OVAs, produced an additional 5 straight-to-home-video episodes that were supported by consumer pre-orders.

There’s certainly no reason to presume that we’ll never see future Tsubasa Chronicle anime. Trigun is getting revived after its television anime ended 12 years ago. Suzumiya Haruhi got revived three years after its original broadcast. The most recent Tsubasa Chronicle anime installment was released less than a year ago. The current Kobato television series demonstrates that anime adaptations of CLAMP work are still very viable. And Bee Train, the studio that produced the two Tsubasa Chronicle television series, is still active and productive. If we’ve seen the last of the Tsubasa Chronicle anime, I think that fans should be grateful to have gotten as much of it as they did. Many other anime series don’t have as much animation as Tsubasa Chronicle has gotten. And numerous anime adaptations of manga have concluded ahead of their manga progenitors. At the same time, I don’t think it can be safely predicted yet that we’ve seen the last of the Tsubasa Chronicle anime.