About Heroes

Creators: CLAMP
Translation & Adaptation: William Flanagan
Letterer: Dana Hayward
Publisher: Del Rey

When Tsubasa first started back in 2004, I picked up volume 1. Del Rey was a fairly new company and I wanted to see what they had to offer from one of their first manga titles. I really thought that the concept was an interesting one. Taking all the characters from the CLAMP universe and putting them together in one book was a great idea that had worked on such titles like Exiles in the Marvel Universe. If you didn’t know CLAMP is a four member group of manga creators that have been around for almost 20 years. Being a big fan of all their manga, I figure I would love the idea of all their characters coming together, but for some reason the first volume didn’t hook me and I lost interest. Fast forward three years later and Del Rey released a Tsubasa Omnibus edition that contained the first three volumes. I gave it another shot and I couldn’t put it down, but it wasn’t just that volume, it was all 15 volumes that are released in America that I couldn’t put down. That is why last week there was no Monday Manga Review. So what’s the story about? Who are the characters? Why should you buy this? Well here is a recap as best as I could put together with everything that has happened so far.

First of all let’s start with the cast of main characters in Tsubasa. Syaoran and Sakura are from Cardcaptor Sakura manga, but in this version they seem to be older. Sakura is a teenage princess in the land of Clow, which is ruled by her older brother Touya. Syaoran is her friend who is following in his father's footsteps to become an archaeologist. Both are attracted to each other and have known each other since childhood, but Syaoran feels uncomfortable with the idea of being involved with a princess. When Sakura's powers mysteriously awaken one evening, she sprouts wings which then disappear taking Sakura's memories and leaving her unconscious (but only for a couple of volumes). 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 eventually die.

Yukito sends Syaoran and Sakura to another world to meet with the witch Yuuko. There they are joined by two new characters, the wizard Fai D. Flowright (who created Chi from Chobits in his universe) and the ninja-warrior Kurogane, who serves the Princess Tomoyo. Each has a reason to see Yuuko and the need to travel to other worlds. Each of them must pay with what he values most in order to gain the power to cross worlds. For Kurogane, it is his sword Ginryuu, and for Fai, it is the tattoo on his back which allows him to use his magic. Syaoran has to give up the greatest gift of all. He 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. Of course they will need a guide for their adventure and no one is better than Mokona Modoki for that job. Thus Syaoran and his new companions begin their journey to other universes.

The first universe they run into is where we find two main characters from X/1999. There, they must do battle with powerful, seemingly magical street gangs as the look for a feather containing some of Sakura's memories. It seems that’s what they must do in order to get all of Sakura’s memories back and save her life, is gather one feather per world. Without going in too much detail, because it would literally take five pages to explain every world in detail, I can just sum up what kind of world’s they’ve been to; Anywhere from a world full of summons to a racing world. From a world of an enchanted princess and kingdom to a world full of endless wars. My personal favorites were the worlds where everyone was in a virtual reality machine and the world where they have to travel back in time to get the feather; which shows us that they can also bend space and time. Recently the gang has arrived in an apocalyptic world where they must face the Dragons of the Earth and the Dragons of the Heavens from X/1999.

You kind of get an idea of what the story is about. But now let’s talk about the artwork for the series. It seems that CLAMP’s artwork has changed dramatically over the last few years. Looking back at their earlier series such as Magic Knight Rayearth or RG Veda the characters were gorgeous, but always seemed like they were statuesque when put in action sequences. It seems with this title that has changed and every piece of artwork is gorgeous and fluid, especially the panel and page layouts. It varies from a shoujo, action packed, pop, dark, and violent manga; now if an artist can pull off all these genres without anyone noticing the slight change in art, that is a true testament to their capabilities and range. I blame the art for the hours that I spend looking at each volume. Sure the stories are great and catch you off guard sometimes, but to spend hours paging through it again and marveling at the individual panels, I can only name a handful of artist that I can say I do that with. Tsubasa, is a manga that demonstrates powerfully both the dexterity of CLAMP as artists, and their unique ability to weave a complex, self-referential story that rewards the fan for sticking with the series in the long run. The fights are one highlight of this series, but ultimately, what really carries it is the simple fact that Sakura, Syaoran, Kurogane and Fai (...and, of course, Mokona) are one of the most appealing teams of characters manga or even American comics have seen in years.

Speaking of characters, well they 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, like she was in earlier volumes. If you've been waiting for Sakura to prove that she's got courage and dedication in her own right, just wait around until the 7th or 8th volume and you’ll see her shine. All the characters have some secret they are hiding from one another. Is Syaoran the original Syaoran? Who is Fai running away from? Why is Kuragane following orders from Tomoyo? Is Mokona ever going to double cross our characters because of its loyalty to Yuuko? So many questions and 15 volumes in and we’ve been hinted at a few answers. My only complain about this series is sometimes it takes more time to move on from one world than it really should. I can think of three volumes that were dedicated just to one world. But, complaints like these are relatively minor when you are talking about this phenomenal series.

Fortunately, one doesn't have to have read or seen any of CLAMP's other titles to enjoy this because it is new and doesn't base anything on what happened in their other titles. However saying that, you will enjoy this more if you know CLAMP's other works. The story in "Tsubasa" is interesting and Yuuko's character was so interesting, I have to check out xxxHolic to see how the two stories intertwine with each other. If you are curious about the other worlds, there are a couple of websites full of information or you could purchase the Character Guide to Tsubasa also published by Del Rey. It's a wonderful story filled with love, humor, other worlds, sorrow, adventure, action, and mystery. You don’t have to read manga to understand those types of emotions and to be hooked on a fantastic journey with a great cast and beautifully designed worlds. Don’t be an idiot like me and pass up on a great series because of the first volume. Go get the omnibus or buy volumes 1 through 3 and I will guarantee you will be hooked. This is definitely a series I will follow to the end. A