Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Volume 11

I have a love-hate relationship with Tsubasa Chronicle. I'm not familiar with the English releases of it (I read it in Japanese) so I can't comment on the translation and such, but when I reached this volume, quite a while ago, I almost quit reading Tsubasa Chronicle for good. Basically, I was sick of the very episodic and rather light-hearted nature of the adventures and I wanted a better sense of the main plot/intentions of the villain, instead of so many mysterious segways to the villain chuckling about things going according to his plan while the heroes went through yet another (and another and another and another...) feather-adventure. That said--Tsubasa Chronicle is an AMAZING series and if you're getting a little restless the way I was, don't give up! Some incredible stuff is just around the corner in the next few volumes (almost there now). The main plot (opposed to the mini-plot of some current feather-adventure) starts rolling very soon. I read huge amounts of manga, but the upcoming Tsubasa Chronicle volumes have some of the most intense, gorgeous scenes I've ever encountered. They are well worth the wait.

If you've been waiting for Sakura to prove that she's got courage and dedication in her own right, this is the proof you'll need, and I don't mind telling you that I was thrilled to see it happen. This continues the story of Piffle World (yes, it's a weird name), in which Sakura, Syaoran, Fai, and Kurogane are entered in the Dragonfly Race to win the "world's most powerful battery," a.k.a. Sakura's feather. Dragonflies are small single-pilot aircraft that run on batteries but are extremely vulnerable to changes in the wind and weather. The preliminary race involves qualifying for the final by finishing in one of the first 20 slots. Fai and Kurogane qualify easily, with Syaoran pulling in about halfway through (as he'd been hanging back to help Sakura). Sakura herself ends up in a photo finish with another contestant (you'll recognize her! ^_^) for the last slot in the final, and she does it on her own (hence the title of this review)! I won't give away what actually happens with Sakura's bid for the twentieth slot. Instead I'll skip to President Tomoyo's role in all of this. She is, of course, the Tomoyo we all know and love from CCS, polite and sweet to the extreme, starry-eyed with excitement over Sakura's presence, and very mature and responsible. She makes the discovery that many of the disqualifications were due to a cheater among the twenty finalists. The volume ends with the beginning of the final race. Whether or not Sakura is part of the actual race, I won't say. But I will say that by the end, of Fai, Kurogane, and Syaoran, one of those three has already crashed... Can't wait for the next volume (though I'll have to wait til February, apparently). If you've read this far, you probably like the series - and so this won't disappoint.