Follow the feathers

One of the three manga series' that I buy regularly is Reservoir Tsubasa Chronicles.


I originally started watching the anime before the manga was released in the west, and fell in love with it. I'm a fan of other CLAMP shows, and they had an ingenious idea with this series.

The main characters are alternate version of Sakura and Syaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura. The plot involves them traveling through different dimensions to find pieces of Sakura's heart/soul which are hidden in the form of very magically powerful feathers. The ingenious part is that every world they go to is populated by different characters from CLAMP manga!

(Because of this show, I've purchased and read all of RG Veda, and rekindled my love of X)

The manga also crosses paths with xxxHolic, which encourages readers to buy both mangas (which I do...)

Tsubasa is much darker than Cardcaptor Sakura, especially towards the later volumes, which makes it more appealing to older audiences while younger readers can first enjoy the bubblegum sweetness of Cardcaptor Sakura and still come to know the characters. Like I said earlier, it also exposes readers to characters from other CLAMP titles, which in turn encourages them to read those series'.

The real heart-wrencher for me was that in order to gain the power to travel to different worlds, Syaoran had to give up his relationship with Sakura, whom he loves. When she regains a feather and her memories come flooding back, she never remembers her childhood with Syaoran. Later volumes has the tragedy shift slightly, but I won't spoil it for anyone :)

Make a Wish...

Wish (another Clamp creation) is a short 4 volume manga about a naive angel, Kohaku, who lands on Earth and is rescued by a human Shuichiro. She promises to grant him a wish in exchange for saving her, but Shuichiro says there is nothing he desires. Determined to fulfill her promise, Kohaku moves in with Shuichiro until he can think of the one wish he cannot fulfill himself.

The cast of this manga comprises of fallen angels and devils, as well as heavenly and hellish hosts. Of course, Clamp being Clamp, the whole thing is wrapped up in an adorable love story. The angels fall for the devils, the devils like to tease and bully the angels... and just to make the artwork as cutesy as the plot, whenever the sun is up the devils become chibi, and vice versa for the angels.

(see? chibi!)

Anyway, the story ends with an unexpected twist (remember, I love a good tragedy) but all works out in the end (of course)

Tokyo Babylon

Meet 16-year-old Subaru Sumeragi, the 13th head of his clan, and an onmyoji (a spiritual master). He's living in Tokyo with his twin sister Hokuto, and fulfilling his family's destiny to protect Japan from hostile spirits. Hokuto is always trying to set him up with Seishiro, a veterinarian and possibly a member of the Sakurazukamori, a clan of mystical assassins.



Those are the characters of the manga Tokyo Babylon, published in 1991 by CLAMP (one of their first manga). I'm pleasantly surprised with how much I'm enjoying reading these manga. The subplots are very monster-of-the-day, but the overall plot dealing with the relationship between Subaru and Seishiro is fascinating.



Of course, if you've seen X/1999, you probably can figure out how the relationship ends, but I'm not going to spoil it.

I'm trying hard not to race through the five volumes I have, and I'm a little sad there are only 7 volumes total, but I can hardly wait to see how it ends. If you like the occult/spiritual side of manga and are looking for a more mature series than, say, xxxHolic, definitely read this!