Hanshin Republic

Hanshin Republic

Previous World: Yūko's Shop

Next World: Koryo Country

The Republic of Hanshin (阪神共和国) in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles is the first world the group is sent to. It is a tiger-shaped island located in the Pacific Ocean off the eastern coast of Asia.

Geography and traditions

Physically, it is considered a pleasant place to live, with few hurricanes and no earthquakes. They have four seasons a year, and it is said that the rice is best in the autumn. The government is constitutional and making war on other countries banned by law. Because of the shape of the island, the symbol of the country is the tiger, which appears on everything, from their currency (koko) to a baseball team that employs the best players in the world. When the team wins, citizens are known to throw themselves in the river. The main staple is wheat flour, though the Hanshin Republic is also known for its sauce. The country exports numerous goods to various trading partners across the seas.

Characters

Sorata and Arashi

In the Hanshin Republic, this world's Sorata and Arashi meet the travelers soon after they arrive. They are a married couple. They are also friends with the Dimensional Witch and have a debt with her, which they partially pay by accommodating them and informing them about the traits of this country. Sorata seems to be upbeat and cheerful a lot, while Arashi is serious most of the time. They are crossover characters from X.

Asagi Shougo

Shougo is a crossover character from X and is shown to be the leader of the goggle gang. Primera also appears with him as her lover.

Masayoshi

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Primera

A crossover character from CLAMP's Magic Knight Rayearth, she appears as Asagi's lover. Also, instead of appearing as a tiny fairy, she has a size of a normal human.

Kanio

The leader of the Mohawk gang. Battles Shougo for land.~

Rayearth

Rayearth is Syaoran's Kudan. It's a Fire Kudan of a very high level. It appears as a flaming wolf with a golden horn on its forehead.

Rayearth, Celes, and Windam are crossover characters from Magic Knight Rayearth.

Celes

Celes is Kurogane's Kudan. It's a high-leveled Water Kudan. It first appears as a Dragon but takes the shape of a sword, so that Kurogane can fight.

Windam

Windam is Fai's Kudan. It's a high-leveled Air Kudan. Its appearance is a giant bird, that looks a bit like the Fly Card from Cardcaptor Sakura. It shows the capability to let its 'owner' fly without wings.

Story

In Hanshin, there are wars going on because of the different clans fighting with their Kudan. The group will become involved in one of such wars, but they will have the help of Sorata and Arashi.

At the beginning of their journey, the travelers will crash on the hotel being run by Sorata and Arashi, they will show them their hospitality since they are in debt with Yuuko. They also tell them about the country they have arrived to, Hanshin Republic. In the anime the group will get into a fight immediately, Syaoran ends up showing his Kudan much sooner than in the manga.

The "Kudan" concept is hard to understand because it's something from this world only. Each person possesses some kind of protector spirit or deity that protects them and its used to fight others. The Kudan power will depend on the inside will and strength of each person. Their elemental properties representative of the personality of their possessor.

In their dreams they saw their respective kudan: Syaoran saw Rayearth (Kudan of the Flame), Kurogane saw Celes (Kudan of the Water) and Fai D. Fluorite saw Windam (Kudan of the Wind).

Since they can't leave before they get all of Sakura's feathers in the world, Fai and Kurogane decide to help Syaoran. While in town a battle occurs and civilians get injured because of Shougo's Kudan, one leader of the bands. But Syaoran tries to help them with his Flame Kudan. Then Shougo becomes interested in Syaoran because he opposed to him, but they have to leave because of the police.

Syaoran's Kudan, Rayearth originally from Magic Knight Rayearth

Masayoshi, the saved boy, invites them to eat okonomiyaki in a restaurant where they find Yukito and Touya while he tells them about the Kudan levels and about the fighting groups. After eating they go to a mall where the other band (led by Kanio) shows up looking for Syaoran to join them. After rejecting their proposal they attack him, and Kurogane, bored, decides to fight them as well. (In the anime the order is very different, Kurogane ends up fighting after getting lost behind a girl who was the Tomoyo of this world.)

Kurogane fights against Kanio's kudan but he's not able to do much without his sword and his kudan comes out (Celes) which became his sword and so he beat him.

Kurogane's Kudan Celes.

At this point in the anime, there's a filler episode 4 in Hanshin where Sakura wakes up and leaves alone, is found by Kanio and his friend and they decide to kidnap her as to have Syaoran and Kurogane in their band, though she shows them sympathy for having lost their band. Shougo picks her up, she goes flying until Syaoran picks her up and they all go back to the hotel.

Next morning, Masayoshi finds them thanks to his kudan (he can find people with it) even though he is kidnapped along with Mokona by a flying bird(pterodactyl), which leaves a note: "I'll wait for you in Hanshin Castle". Since they lost Mokona the group can't communicate with each other.

Once they enter the castle, Primera says she won't give up Masayoshi (she confused him with Syaoran) until Syaoran fights her. Nevertheless, Fai decides to fight this time, with his kudan he is able to fly.

Fai fight with your Kudan.

They fight, Fai blocks all of Primera's attacks (she can use his words and turn them into blocks that attack the enemy) and then she screams. Everything crumbles down now. They are saved by Shougo's kudan. After Primera explains herself (she wanted Shougo to spend more time with her and thought that if she had Syaoran in her fanclub, he would care more for her.), the battle between Syaoran and Shougo begins since Mokona detects the feather very close and says they have to fight until the kudan that might have it will really show itself.

Syaoran accepts Shougo's challenge to find the feather in case it's inside Shougo's kudan, and the real battle begins, making the castle go down and Masayoshi has to protect Primera. For this, he must become strong and as a reaction to his wish, his Kudan grows greatly and gets out of control, then Mokona was able to detect Sakura's feather inside his Kudan. Syaoran will then have to retrieve the feather inside Sanyun (Masayoshi's Kudan), fighting to get inside him, even burning himself to get it, and feeling the same intense heat of Masayoshi inside himself.

Finally, thanks to the effort of both, Syaoran will get the feather, the second one. As he got it, he'll give it to the Princess, who finally wakes up... even though she doesn't recognize Syaoran at all, whose first words are: "Who... are you?", something that hurts Syaoran deeply, who will have to face his suffering under the rain, crying to become stronger.

Next day, everyone will have another feast in the okonomiyaki restaurant with Masayoshi, Shougo and all his band, where Shougo will offer Masayoshi to join them and obviously he does. After this, the group parts to a new world.

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Trivia

• Syaoran, Fai and Kurogane's Kudan are the Rune Gods from CLAMP's other work: Magic Knight Rayearth.