Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles

Summary: Syaoran is a young adopted son of an archeologist. Although his father is now dead, Syaoran continues his archeological work to uncover the Clow World’s ancient ruins as it was his father’s important dream. Sakura is the princess of Clow World, and has known Syaoran since they were young. She often goes and visits him when he comes home from the archeological digs, even though her brother, the king of Clow, doesn’t approve. Syaoran and Sakura have a very close friendship but are unable to express their feelings for one another. One day, when Sakura is visiting Syaoran at the site of the ancient ruins, she gets drawn to an unusual symbol carved onto the ruin’s floor. On touching it, the ground begins to shake and the stone floor opens up, revealing another set of ancient ruins that the archeologists have never seen before. Syaoran is unable to stop Sakura as she floats unconsciously below the floor, surrounded by an eerie light. By the time Syaoran gets to her, she is floating on a high wall, against the same symbol that she touched. Wings have sprung out of her body, and she begins to melt into the wall behind her. At that moment Syaoran, who has been climbing the wall to get to her, grabs Sakura and they both fall to the floor. Sakura’s wings burst and the glowing feathers fly off in different directions, leaving the Clow World. Sakura suddenly becomes very cold, and stiff. What must Syaoran do to save Sakura’s life?

In the Celes World, Fai D. Flowright has just put a mysterious king to sleep in the bottom of a lake. If the king wakes, he will definitely hunt down Fai. Fai must leave the Celes World, and find a means to escape.

In Old Japan, Kurogane, a ninja, has gone against Princess Tomoyo’s orders and killed again. Tomoyo doesn’t approve of Kurogane’s blood thirstiness and sends him on a journey out of their world to find the true meaning of strength.

The three journeys that start, each will have a different motive, but they all have the same solution. Because in this world, there is no such thing as coincidence, just destiny...

My recommendation: This is a good all rounder, it has romance, action, humour, fantasy, mystery and a very good plot and a range of characters. It is a shounenn manga, but there aren’t too many fight scenes, and many girls read this series. It’s not that well known, but it’s a good read and I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy and mystery. The sister of this manga is xxxHolic which overlays some of the scenes. They say that if you read xxxHolic and Tsubasa together, you get twice the fun out if it, but I have never read xxxHolic and still enjoyed Tsubasa. xxxHolic is more of a mysterious manga with magic and spirits (I think).

My comments: This is good manga, the style is very nice, but personally I prefer Bleach’s style because Tsubasa’s people are a bit more idealised. The humour is very funny, and the plot is very deep as manga goes, with a lot of mysteries (actually I get quite fed up of not knowing so much). However, I’ve got to warn you, the manga does start off quite jolly and looks harmful, but as it gets near volume 15/16 the blood suddenly increases, and it actually gets quite scary and confusing (I’ve read through it about 5 times and I still don’t get some bits). And then it gets quite sad and depressing. So only read it if you’re ready for that stuff.

If you have anything to add to this page, e-mail me at symptoms-of-conspiracy@hotmail.com I’ll try to put your comment on here as soon as possible. Also, put your name, or alias, so that I can say who’s comment it is.