Tsubasa, Volume 4

This is a great series. I wasn't quite sure but optimistic before but now I'm getting quite involved in the story. The alternate world has a princess and castle in it. The princess comes on stormy winter nights to lure children to the castle. Sakura ends up being lured too. What will happen?

What more needs to be said for this series? Clamp is an excellent group of four female manga artists. The books are each a work of art in their own right.The story is compelling.You can't help but root for the four travelers.

Clamp's cross-over chaos manga takes off in this fourth installment, and reaches new heights of excellence. After bogging down in the Hanshin Republic and an alternate Korea, our heroes reach a world strangely reminiscent of late 18th-century Europe. They find a village where a dead princess is said to be stealing children, and things get a lot more interesting. The fourth volume of Tsubasa really seems to "click": the story, art (especially the panel and page layouts), and dialogue all seemed to come together suddenly, and I tore through this volume at a teriffic rate, only to spend hours paging through it again and marvelling at the individual panels; they're gorgeous. Moreover, the characters are finally starting to come into their own, and the interactions between our five heroes are often hilarious and sometimes poignant. It's a big plus that Sakura has regained enough memories so that she's no longer a space case; in this volume she officially "joins the group" by formally introducing herself etc (the effect is almost irreproducible in English, but the translation notes make a gallant effort). On a side note, I was a little reminded of the recent "Brothers Grimm" movie, but that's not Clamp's fault, but rather a tribute to their ability to create an atmosphere. In sum, fans of Clamp, Cardcaptor Sakura, and manga in general should not hesitate to get out their wallets for this one. The story is picking up speed, and it retains its interest by being both episodic (world after world), and a saga as well (who are those mysterious villians who pop up every now and again?). Clamp fans will find hours of entertainment by playing "spot the cameo" or "what Clamp series is this character orignally from?" I don't have enough words to praise Del Rey's efforts at translation; not only do they retain the honorifics, without which it's virtually impossible to understand the relationships between the characters, but their translation notes are well-informed and very useful. Manga doesn't get better than this.

These Books are so kewl! theres mild language but nothing i woulden't suggest nessacarialy(spelling?) I loved these books and hopefully you will too (cheesey line)

I always hoped that the Clamp writers would put out the continuing story of Syaoran and Sakura, and here it is, in a way. The manga is fun, intreging and romantic in an innocent way. Syaoran and the others are still looking for feathers of Sakura's memory, and she begins to notice that someone is missing from them, but she still feels close to Syaoran. It's a sad young romance, which makes you hope for a real happy ending. ButI will say this, the ending is a cliff-hanger (meaning: to be continued) which drives me nuts! But you'll have to read to find out the rest.