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Monday, 19 February 2007 |
 | | ▪ | PUBLISHED BY: | | DEL REY | | | ▪ | ART/AUTHOR: | | CLAMP | | | | ▪ | FORMAT/COLOR: | | JAPANESE FORMAT / BW | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 184 | | | ▪ | RATED: | | T13+ | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 02/07/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 02/20/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | CHRISTOPHER SEAMAN |
Readers of adventures love quests. Whether it is a quest for lost treasure, a secret to long life, or for pieces to a puzzle, the journey towards the goal makes the attainment of it worthwhile. Building on the love for this ancient storytelling device, both TSUBASA and its predecessor, CARDCAPTOR SAKURA, have thrilled audiences the world over with the use of the quest to follow the adventures and personal growth of some of the most beloved characters created in manga in the last ten years. Whether the search is for magical cards or memory feathers, the stories, with their episodic structure built into the main frame of the quest narrative have proved easily accessible to audiences on both sides of the Pacific.
TSUBASA is created by Clamp, which, in addition to this tale and CARDCAPTOR SAKURA, has given us other titles like X1999, MAGIC KNIGHTS RAYEARTH, and CHOBITS. It spans worlds of mystery and wonder, featuring returning characters like CARDCAPTOR SAKURA’s Syaoran and Sakura, and cameos from personalities in other Clamp titles. While standing alone as a great work, it also crosses over with another current Clamp title, XXX HOLIC, making between the two THE RESERVOIR CHRONICLES. Two characters from XXX HOLIC, Yuko the space time witch, and one of her Mokonas, (cute rotund creatures that can navigate space and time, find valuable objects, and eat huge amounts of food), lend help to the heroes in TSUBASA as they journey on a quest to recover feathers that contain Sakura’s lost memories.
TSUBASA VOLUME 12 finishes up the plot developed over the last two volumes, where the group of travelers, composed of Sakura and Syaoran, Fei and Kurogane, and of course, Mokona, have journeyed to the land of Piffle, where they have to win an aerial race involving fanciful machines called Dragonflies to gain back one of Sakura’s powerful memory feathers. Overseeing the event is Miss Tomoyo, a duplicate of the Tomoyos found in other worlds visited by our heroes. As in any incarnation, Tomoyo is attracted to Sakura and is one of her greatest advocates in this dangerous competition. For fans of CARDCAPTOR SAKURA, the videotaping and costume fittings that our heroine must ‘endure’ at the loving hands of Tomoyo in Piffleworld is no different to the attention lavished on Sakura by her anywhere else. But can Tomoyo stand by and watch helplessly as Sakura runs a race that has been sabotaged by unknown persons? The action in this volume of the story is pretty tense as new dangers lurk around every corner. There appears to be no guarantee that even if Sakura wins, she will ever get her hands on the feather so needed to restore her fractured memory. If that happens, things might not end well for her or her champions.
The art is bold and flows in such a way from frame to frame and page to page that readers who have followed this story from the beginning will find this one of the fastest reads in the series to date. Yet, it has taken a while to get to the point where the Piffleworld plot has been resolved in the narrative. This race alone has spanned as much a two volumes in the story. There is an explanation for this, though. It was revealed in the TSUBASA CHARACTER GUIDE, (also published by Del Rey and reviewed on Active Anime.com), this story has been previously published in an episodic format in a popular manga magazine, and in being structured for that, has stretched out the action sequences for the audience more than it might have done had it been published another way. As a result, if readers think the race takes a long time page-wise to read in the bound editions we get here imagine how readers getting it chopped up in monthly installments must have felt in Japan! Despite that, however, this volume of TSUBASA, like the others before it, is exciting and witty, and stands up as another great accomplishment for the artists of Clamp. Where Sakura goes next is not revealed at the end of Volume 12, but if the previous destinations have been anything to go by, it will certainly be interesting.
IN SUMMARY:
TSUBASA VOLUME 12 continues the exciting odyssey of Sakura and Syaoran as they journey across worlds of adventure and mystery in search of feathers that can restore Sakura’s memory to health. It is a must have manga for fans of Clamp and the wonderful stories they have created. |
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