Rating: Summary: The First Tsubasa Review Review: As one of Del Rey's premiere manga titles in the US, Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE is quite a nice start. Basically, its story involves alternate universe versions of *MANY* different charactes from previous CLAMP series, along with new characters original to this particular comic, as they hop from parallel world to parallel world on their long-ranging quest, ala Sliders. The story is well told and translated, though a bit overly quick at times. Of course, multiple universe spanning stories like Tsubasa do tend to move at a faster pace than other adventures, so it's not really too surprising, just an issue of pacing that one can easily adjust to. As for the art, it too is quite nice, but, as is traditional for CLAMP, it can get quite busy and hard to interpret at times, most notably in action scenes. If one is used to CLAMP's art style from their earlier works, it shouldn't be a big deal, but people new to them might find it confusing. Also, for some reason, the character designs seem slightly different from previous titles of theirs, such as Magic Knight Rayearth and X/1999. Whether this is due to a gradual change in their artwork, or a switch in who exactly does the penciling among the CLAMP team itself, I cannot say. Regardless, the art quality is still most acceptable, especially once one adjusts to its more hectic traits. Surprisingly, the book also comes with a number of extras, such as a preview of xxxHOLiC and the next Tsubasa GN, as well as notes about the Japanese language and the various characters in the series. I'm glad that this trend is spreading to so many graphic novels in the US now. Ultimately, the only reason I didn't give the debut of Tsubasa a perfect five stars is due to the paper stock used in its printing, which is slightly rougher than that of the usual GN. If Del Rey can upgrade the paper quality a bit in the future, it would erase my only real qualm with this release, and even that qualm is relatively small. All in all, I am happy with the final product, and look forward to more of Tsubasa in the future, among other titles from Del Rey. Pick it up if you can :)
Rating: Summary: Tsubasa: RESVoir CHRoNICLE Review: At first I thought I was dodging a bullet by avoiding this series. At first I was annoyed that it was included as a cross-over plot with XXXHolic. Obviously, at first, I didn't know what in Sam-Hill I was thinking!
While I have no background on the CCSakura series except for some brief glimpses of the Saturday Morning butchering of the Anime. I think that I have been able to grasp the connections of the characters relative to this story. At first I was worried that the only way this story could be enjoyable is if I could experience some nostalgia from older Clamp series. Considering that I have only read Chobits, I was prepared for a certain level of dissapointment when Chii appeared with furry cat ears. Now that I have actually read the story... I find I had nothing to fear.
Although the relationship between Sakura and Syaoran is introduced in a meager 12 pages, I was still able to grasp the sense of innocent love beyond social barriers type of story quite easily. Which makes some of the later events of the story (especially on Vol-2) much more painful to observe. I enjoy finding stories that don't require me to choose between drama and action. This series carries a fair balance of both.
The combination of Kurogane, Fai, and Mokona make for most of the comedy. Fai, taking on a role not unlike Yuko in XXXHolic as being the wisest and most carefree person in the group. His constant pestering approach to the more intense Kurogane cracks me up every time. I can almost hear the shrill voice that would be used on Mokona if this series was ever animated. Hopefully if Sakura awakens from her sleep her character will be fleshed-out a bit better. I'm looking forward to seeing how they all deal with taking care of someone who is basically an amnesiac. The idea that she will be able to recover every memory except one also adds a hint of bitter-sweetness to the story that makes me almost fear reaching the conclusion.
This will definately be another series that I plan to follow to the end.
Rating: Summary: Not just for Card Captor Sakura Fans Review: But it is much cooler if you have experienced some of CLAMP's work before. many of the characters are pulled out of other manga and used in this new story. For example, Chii from Chbits has cat ears and is is guarding Fai's world; and Sorata and Arashi from X/1999 are married and living in another world where the threesome travel to. Mokona is also used rather creatively, I'll admit, but that still doesn't mean i like mokona. (Especially now that it can talk...)
5 star artwork, and it did make me laugh once or twice, but lacks creativeness of story and some of the uniqueness of their other works, I guess you can understand why.
i wish, though, that someone would tell me why it is spelled in half capitals...?
Rating: Summary: Tsubasa, a winning name! Review: CLAMP is known for their many great titles -- "Cardcaptor Sakura", "Angelic Layer", "Chobits", "X", "Magic Knight Rayearth", "RG Veda", & "Miyuki-chan in Wonderland" (and I think a few more). So the four ladies that make up CLAMP came up with an idea. What if they created a new manga title in which alternate universe versions of their popular characters from other series came together in a massive crossover title? That idea became "Tsubasa". At the same time CLAMP created a 2nd new series called "xxxHolic" in which one of the main characters, the powerful 'space-time witch' Yuuko, would play a supporting cameo role from time to time.
The main characters in "Tsubasa" are Syaoran-kun and Sakura-chan from "Cardcaptor Sakura". Sakura is a teenaged princess in the land of Clow and Syaoran is a teenaged boy who is following is father's footsteps as an archaeologist. Both are attracted to each other and have known each other since childhood, but Syaoran feels uncomfortable with the idea of being involved with a princess. When Sakura's powers mysteriously awakened one evening, she sprouts wings which then disappear taking Sakura's memories and leaving her an unconsious, empty shell. Fearing the worst, the mage Yukito sends Syaoran and Sakura to "our world" where the powerful space-time witch Yuuko resides.
There they are joined by two new characters, the wizard Fai (who created Chi from "Chobits" in his universe) and the ninja-warrior Kurogane, who serves the Princess Tomoyo in his universe. Each has a reason to see Yuuko-san and the need to travel. For a very high price, Yuuko grants their wish, but one of the catches is that they are forced to travel together.
Thus Syaoran and his new companions begin their journey to a universe where two main characters from "X" reside. There, they must do battle with powerful, seemingly magical street gangs as the look for a feather containing some of Sakura's memories.
As to the story, I love the idea of such a massive crossover. Fortunately, one doesn't have to have read or seen any of CLAMP's other titles to enjoy this because it is new and doesn't base anything on what happened in their other titles. That said, you will enjoy this more if you know CLAMP's other works. The story in "Tsubasa" is interesting and Yuuko's character was so interesting, I had to check out "xxxHolic" to see more of her. She's pretty cool.
As for Del Rey, when they got into the manga business, I wasn't impressed. After all, we had enough publishers in the business, most of whom could care less about things like unflipped art (though that's all changed now), Japanese honorifics, Japanese culture, or keeping the translations undomesticated. TokyoPop had been the only company to remotely show any interest in keeping it real ("Fruits Basket") and many of their titles (like "Chobits") had problems. Further, when Del Rey said they'd be censoring "Negima!", I just knew this company would be bad and I wasn't going to buy anything from them.
However, I was interested in reading "Tsubasa" because of Syaoran and Sakura. Someone informed me that the title would be to my liking, meaning it would have all of the Japanese honorifics. So, I went to the bookstore and saw that this was not only true, but Del Rey's reasons were the ones I'd always argued for keeping them in the English text. Futher, Del Rey provided the best extras ever I have ever seen in a manga title. They included a page telling about "Cardcaptor Sakura". Then they included a section explaining various characters seen in this volume of "Tsubasa" and what previous CLAMP series they came from. Finally, they included translator notes which explained certain Japanese cultural references.
As such, Del Rey has immediately become my favorite manga publisher. Since the story in "Tsubasa" is interesting, I'll have no troubles buying this series whenever the new volumes are published.
Bottom line: CLAMP fans will certainly want to read this title. Manga fans who like their manga easy to read, yet undomesticated and contain the Japanese honorifics will really appreciate Del Rey's work here.
Rating: Summary: Couldn't put it down! Review: I was extremely happy to read this book, and see my favorite Clamp characters back in action. I have not read all of Clamp's previous works, except for Cardcaptor Sakura and Chobits. But it isn't necessary to be familiar with all of them, the story is entertaining nontheless. Sakura and Syaoran still seem to harbor feelings for each other, but they are much more grown up now. They are different Sakura and Syaoran than from CCS, but they have the same basic personalities as before. Too bad Sakura couldn't get more lines in this first volume. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on the next volume!
Rating: Summary: This starts a spectacular adventure. Review: Now if you are familiar with CLAMP, you'd know about this series Cardcaptor Sakura, xxxholic, Magic Knight Rayearth, Chobits, etc. Well, when the Cardcaptor Sakura series ended, apparently CLAMP wanted to do something new, and I'm so happy they did.
One of the main things in this book is going to different dimensions, and when you do, you go into different worlds of series that CLAMP has already created ^-^!!! Isn't that cool? For example, you could travel to a world where there are characters from X.
Anywho, about Cardcaptor Sakura, Sakura and Syoran {yes, that's them on the cover} may be in this series, but they're not the same people you know from Cardcaptor Sakura. The setting starts out in a kingdom called Clow. Sakura is the princess, the king is Toya, the high priest is Yukito, and Syoran is the leader of an archeological dig. *NOTE*- SOME ELEMENTS THAT ARE IN CARDCAPTOR SAKURA ARE IN THIS BOOK AS WELL. Anyways, when Sakura goes to see Syoran, an extraordinary thing happens!! What is it? No way I'm going to tell you, but it's the thing that will set Syoran on his journey to save Sakura. But he's going to have some company from Fai, a guy who's a magician and ruler of his country and Kurogane, a ninja who loves to fight. They each have a wish, so they have to give up the thing that is most valuable to each of them, and this is where xxxholic comes in. Yuko sends them on their journey.
I'm saying you should read this, and if you don't want to then you're stupid. You won't regret buying this series, trust me. If you're a fan of any of CLAMP's comic series, ecspecially Cardcaptor Sakura, then you should definately buy this, no questions asked.
Highly Recommended.
Rating: Summary: skookum Review: the first time i saw the book, i thought it was a cardcaptor sequel (with syaoran and sakura as the main character). the characters of the story were familiar if you knew a lot of anime from clamp (from cardcaptor,chobits and a lot more). the plot and theme of the story was great. this probably will be one of my favorite book...."kudos to clamp"
Rating: Summary: This is the kind of story I like! Review: This is the kind of story I really enjoy, heroes, other worlds, humor, love, and things where you can say, "Oh, I think I saw that in another series," and actually know what their talking about! I recomend this manga!(I also recommend, D.N.Angel, Hana Kimi, Alice 19th, FLCL, Rurouni Kenshin, and Fruits Basket.)
Rating: Summary: Kawaii desu! Review: This is very cute! Sakura and Syaoran are BACK in action! But this time, they're not the same as they were before. There idenities are TOTALLY different! Sakura is a princess and Syaoran is an arceologist! And also in this story here, Fujitaka is NOT Sakura's father but Syaoran's adoptive father (this part you'll have to wait till vol 5 or 6 I got mine in Japanese so it's faster) and in this series, Syaoran is a lot more friendlier and a lot more genki-ish like Sakura. But what I didn't like was the way too dramatic Tomoyo. But it was okay, and it's really sad how Sakura's life was turned into feathers in the snap of a finger. 1) Arts great 2) Dialoge- So, so 3) Plot interesting So if you're still pondering why you should get this, you better just give in and get it anyways. It's really good! It's a must-have in teh CLAMP shoujo manga category! AznPiez
Rating: Summary: Del Rey Could've Done it Better Review: This review specifically is for the second volume in the series. The overall series would rate a higher score.
I wish Del Rey were publishing these volumes closer together. Failing that, they should be considerate of people's fading memories and provide us with a page on "the story so far". That's not the only reason this volume isn't rated higher, though.
The first volume gave glimpses into the different cultures of the leads, and showed familiar CLAMP characters in their alternate universe guises. This second volume, by contrast, doesn't introduce anyone old in a new light. I initially thought Primela was Ruby Moon, but that doesn't seem to be the case. So, that was a bit disappointing.
Also, the shounen-ness of the story really came to the fore this time. It seemed to concentrate much more on the method of battle used to regain Sakura's memory than the actual cause for the battle itself. Still, there were nice moments, particularly at the end, and Fai is completely adorable. I'll continue to follow this series, but I'd like to see more familiar faces in the future, and more personal stuff/background about the new characters that have been introduced.
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