Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
Publisher
Del Rey
Writer
CLAMP
Artist
CLAMP
Country of origin
Japan
Length
13 volumes
Year
2005
Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE Volumes 1-3
By Mangoman
30th Sep 05 I bought the first volume of Tsubasa on the rabid recommendation of a CLAMP obsessed friend, and did so grudgingly. You may be wondering why, if I was doing it grudgingly, I was doing it at all. But then you've never met my friend, nor do you know how... forceful his recommendations can be. At that time my only prior contact with CLAMP was Magic Knights Rayearth Volume.1 (the new TOKYOPOP edition, which I bought mainly for its sexy matt cover), a book which, despite its very (very) pretty pictures, had completely failed to engage me in the story or characters. It was for this reason that I opened Tsubasa with a heavy heart and little expectation.
Now, all of you reading this are probably expecting me to now go "But how wrong was I! I loved it from the first page, pledged my soul to CLAMP and danced round a tree singing lalalala", and in truth you would kind of be right (in a general sense, there was no soul-pledging or dancing, and only a little singing). The book did grow on me, as can be seen that I purchased the next two volumes straight after, but it took a while. The first 40-50 pages concern the two main characters, Sakura (who is a princess) and Syaoran (who is a young but gifted commoner), running around wondering how best to confess their love to each-other whilst Sakura's brother whines about Syaoran. So-far, so-bland. About 50 pages in, though, things get weird and the story starts.
Sakura’s memories turn into feathers (I told you it got weird) which fly off to different parts of time and space and Syaoran is sent to go and find them. In order to do so he is sent to the time-space witch Yuko, who will grant any wish for a sufficient price, to beg for a way to retrieve Sakura’s memorise. Meeting him there are the fleeing magician Fai and the exiled ninja Kuroane, both of whom are looking for a way to travel between worlds. Fai to escape from a dangerous man, Kurogane to find a way home.
In an interview with Yuko it transpires that that Syaoran needs the same thing as them, to travel from world-to world looking for the feathers of Sakuras memory. The price for their wish is the most precious thing to each of them. To Kurogane it is his sword, to Fai it is his magic, but Syaoran’s most precious thing if his relationship with Sakura. This introduces the books first really interesting plot-twist. The witch’s conditions are that even if all of Sakura’s memories are completely returned, she will never remember Syaoran, nor any reference to him.
Ouch
Story/Characters: 9/10
Once it got interesting I certainly liked the story. It was an interesting premise, and I especially liked the witch’s cruel conditions for Syaoran’s wish and the ensuing heartbreak (the scene where Sakura wakes up for the first time in particularly painful). Something that I didn’t think I’d like but did was the way that the world-jumping breaks the story up into distinct, fairly self-contained sections. This means that if you’re just looking for a quick way to alleviate boredom than you can simply read a single world’s story without fear of ending on a cliff-hanger.
If I liked the story then I loved the characters, every one of them. Each and every named character is distinct, and for the most part well-developed. Even the fairly minor ones like Princess Tomoyo and Shogo have their own clear personalities.
Art: 7/10
After reading the lavish Rayearth, Tsubasa wasn’t what I was expecting. There is little grey, mostly being black line and fill, and whilst this makes some of the scenes more vital and dramatic, it also makes things become confusing and cluttered, especially during fights. Overall though I quite like it, and some of the chapter title-pages are beautiful, but the lack of clarity is seriously annoying at times, so it only scores a 7. Translation: 10/10
Normally I would have this as a ‘Translation and Display’ category, but for this review I feel that the translation needs a particular mention and merit. I, for one, think it’s amazing. Obviously the quality of the translation itself is a hard thing to rate, after all, how can you know if they’ve done it wrong without owning the originals and reading Japanese yourself? Instead I rate how well they’ve handled the cultural references etc in my opinion.
In my opinion, Del-Rey has done it almost perfectly. They have left in the honorifics (halleluiah manga fans!) and included a small section at the front explaining what they all mean, indeed many of the jokes wouldn’t wok without this, nor would some of the plot of the third volume (Syaoran or Syaoran-kun? You’ll find out…). Also, in the back there are a few pages explaining any cultural references or puns that us westerners may miss, and there’s such a huge amount you wonder hoe much we miss from other mangas. Overall: 8.5/10
I so, so, so wanted to give this 9/10, but the first 50 pages and the cluttered art dragged it down just too much. Overall, this is turning out to be a great series though, and volumes 4-6 are on order from Amazon as I write.
-- Mangoman 30th Sep 05
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