Tsubasa, Volume 1

I watched the entire first season of the anime before picking this manga up. I've never touched a manga before, but after reading this one, I'm entirely hooked. I've leafed through a couple of other mangas at the bookstore, and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle definitely has superior artwork compared to some other manga. That in itself is a reason to read this manga...it captivates me just to stare at some of the panels. CLAMP is truely amazing. Another plus: the translation is awesome. I like how they didn't blot out the japanese sound effects. Instead, they just added a little translations in english below the japanese. Also, they add notes before and after the manga to give some background info that helps non-japanese readers understand. So all in all, this manga is definitely worth a look. My only complaint is the 3-month time period between releases. It's painstaking to have to wait 3months for a manga that I can finish in 2 hours. -___-;

Sakura is the princess of Clow Country, which is ruled by her older brother, King Touya. Her childhood friend Syaoran is a young archeologist. Sakura is revealed to have strange powers when she has a vision of a mysterious symbol and places she has never seen. Meanwhile, Syaoran discovers the same symbol at the ruins he is excavating. When Sakura goes to the ruins to confess her love for Syaoran, she spots the symbol and recognises it. Ghostly wings appear on her back and a mysterious force begins to pull her into the walls of the ruins. Syaoran rescues her in time, but her wings are scattered across dimensions. The High Priest of Clow Country, Yukito, immediately realizes that Sakura's "wings" were the manifestation of her soul and memories; without her wings, she will die. In order to save Sakura, Syaoran must journey to retrieve Sakura's lost memories. Yukito sends Syaoran and the unconscious Sakura to the Witch of Dimensions, Yuuko, who is one of the main characters in XXXHolic. There he meets Kurogane, a rough-mannered ninja banished from his world by Princess Tomoyo, and Fai (or Faye) D. Flowright, a magician who fled his world to avoid King Ashura, a mysterious figure frozen in crystal. Each of them must pay with what he values most in order to gain the power to cross dimensions. For Kurogane, it is his sword Ginryuu, and for Fai, it is the tattoo on his back which allows him to use his magic. (Fai later reveals that he still possesses magic, but has taken an oath that prevents him from using it without the tattoo on his back.) Syaoran, on the other hand, must pay with his relationship with Sakura: even if he is able to retrieve all the rest of her memories, she will never remember anything about him or their relationship. (This sacrifice also pays Sakura's "toll" to Yuuko.) Only when the three agree to her terms does Yuko present them with the power to cross dimensions: a pocket-sized version of Magic Knight Rayearth's Mokona. While traversing through worlds to find Sakura's feathers, the four travellers and Mokona are forced to overcome many dangers and opponents, some of whom are figures from Syaoran's past who wish to collect Sakura's feathers for their own reasons. I found this series to be highly amusing in all it's respects, and initially approached it because I had loved Sakura and Syaoran from CCS. However, these aren't exactly the same, and there are amusing little facts that you find hard to apply to the original characters- such as how, after a night of drinking, only Syaoran gets a hangover while Sakura remains cheery in the morning. Tsubasa is a whirlwind of Clamp character references that come thick and fast from all of their books that will leave you flipping back and forth upon realizing that, say, Syaoran's kudan in the second book is actually Rayearth. Hence, I think these books would lose some of their appeal if you are new to the genre or just aren't a Clamer. Longtime fans of their work will find the constant cameos

Only CLAMP could continue to revive their characters time and time again and keep it fresh. This book is not only for Cardcaptor Sakura fans..if you a fan of any CLAMP series, I definatly recommend this. The best characters never die! They just get recycled, tastefully :)

wonderful story..its nice how CLAMP relates their work together somehow with other books. If you haven't read any of their previous works, I'd reccomend reading Card Captor Sakura, since Sakura is in this book, Magic Knight Rayearth may help a bit as well. It's not necessary to understand the storyline, but its a nice when you can compare how they changed some of the characters...the paper quality could be just a LITTLE better, but nevertheless its a great start off for Del Ray. The publishing price; 10.95 is a BIT expensive, since normal manga sells for 9.99 ea. But they do add on Japanese previews, and other notes at the end...so I guess that compensates in a way...

HOWEVER! Tsubasa is a GREAT story~! It is so wonderful I can't wait for it to be completed~!This is a dimensional traveling sereis. Sakura and Syaoran are from Cardcaptor Sakura (originally ^-^) and they are just as wonderful in this as they are in it.Volume Summary: (Um...I've read the Japanese version, so...Name spellings and things might be off from the release).Syaoran and Sakura live in the Clow Country where Sakura is the princess; Touya is her elder brother (as in CCS) and Yukito is the priest/mage person. Syaoran works at an excavtion of ruins. And one day, Sakura goes there to the ruins to see her childhood friend Syaoran and ends up loosing all of her memories~!So...Yukito sends Syaoran and Sakura to see a woman who allows them to find the featers of Sakura's memories (but at a cost).Fye (a character original to this story) who knows Chii (Chobits) in his dimension leaves his world before his king Asura (RG Veda) wakes up. He goes to the woman and meets Syaoran.Kurogane--an assasin--who serves Princess Tomoyo (CCS) is sent away from his world due to his actions. He meets the witch--the woman--as well and desires to go home.Each have their wishes and have to work together but only after they pay the price for their wishes. Then they recieve Mokona (Magic KNight Rayearth) and began their journey to find the feathers.First off they meet Sorata and Arashi (X), gain the uses of magical beasts/gods while in that world (Syaoran's looks remotely like Rayearth ^-~) in hopes to find the feather...So...how will it all turn out? ^-^ Looks like ya'll have to stick to this one to descover.Oh, and look for cameos of Miyuki-chan in the background. :)Hope that helped.Overall~I love it!If you like CLAMP stories and like to see your fav characters again (at least some of them) they are probably here. Emeraude (MKR) is in Volume 4. Personally, I find the series worth it to have seen Sorata and Arashi have a happy life, together at that. :) But...I'll leave your judgments to you.^-^