Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus Volume 1

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By CLAMP. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Nakayoshi. Released in North America by Dark Horse.

First, a brief note on the presentation. Dark Horse’s Chobits omnibus was good, and improved on Tokyopop’s, but was not, in the end, worthy of buying the same manga a second time. Cardcaptor Sakura had an even higher bar, as Tokyopop released it twice, once early in their history and again in a spiffy, more faithful box set. So Dark Horse needed to go that extra mile to justify buying everything a third time.

They’ve done so. This manga looks fantastic, one of the best I’ve seen this entire year. The volume is bigger in size, which shows off CLAMP’s gorgeous art style. The paper stock is heavy and fine, and the art reproduced on it shows that Dark Horse weren’t kidding when they said it was remastered from CLAMP’s originals. The translation seems to involve taking Tokyopop’s 2nd edition one and spiffing it up a bit, but then, there wasn’t really anything terrible about that version’s in the first place. (And yes, Kaho still makes Sakura feel all floaty inside.)

So that’s for the people who already know the story. What about those who, for some reason, have never read Cardcaptor Sakura before? Well, you’re in for a treat. This is CLAMP firing on all cylinders, giving us cute shoujo with a fantastically likeable strong heroine, great supporting cast, and a clear, magical-girl issue plot that lacks the excessive machinations of later works such as Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. This is just the story of Sakura Kinomoto, a 10-year-old girl who opens a magical book and now finds she has to retrieve a series of magical cards with only the help of her best friend and a magical talking animal.

CLAMP are clearly having fun with the magical girl archetypes, and just jump right into rescuing the cards. The premise is actually quickly given as an afterthought in a Chapter 1 flashback, basically telling the reader ‘this is why Sakura can do magic and what she’s after, now back to our cute girl’. It works well, and allows CLAMP to take the high fantasy art they had done in Magic Knight Rayearth and X and apply it to a real-world setting. Sakura is a typical 10-year-old girl, especially for shoujo heroines. Athletic yet bad at academics, generally perky, and with a huge crush on her brother’s best friend.

Speaking of crushes, one thing that does stick out here is all of the romantic and quasi-romantic pairings. In fact, the one couple that will end up together at the end are the only ones NOT interested in each other here. Sakura and Syaoran are still mostly faced off as rivals here, and Syaoran seems to have far more of an interest in Yukito, the boy Sakura also loves. Which is a shame for both of them, as Yukito is shown to be fairly devoted to Toya, Sakura’s brother.

And then there’s Tomoyo, Sakura’s best friend. She’s my favorite character in the manga, getting to be both the sensible advice-giving best friend AND the weird cosplay-loving Sakura-obsessed freak. She definitely gives CLAMP some great costumes to work with, with Sakura appearing in a variety of stunning outfits (most of which make their appearance on the added color pages throughout). She also loves Sakura – and makes it very clear in this volume how she means that, even if they’re only 10 years old. “I think we’re talking about different kinds of love, Sakura,” she says when Sakura cheerfully announces she loves her back. Tomoyo knows that Sakura’s unaware of her interest, but to her credit doesn’t back off – she knows Sakura’s crush on Yukito isn’t going to happen, so presses her love whenever she can. Of course, we also meet her mother, who seems to have paralleled this in her devotion to Sakura’s mother, so we can likely see where this is going to end.

That said, there’s also the odd couple of Rika and Terada-sensei, which mostly just makes me sigh. Like Tomoyo’s love for Sakura, this was toned down a bit for the anime, which skipped the part where Terada-sensei actually gives the 10-year-old girl an engagement ring. I suppose this falls under the heading of ‘I am not the audience for this sort of thing’, and certainly for the 6-8 year old girls that read Nakayoshi, the hot teacher you have a crush on returning your love must be a great fantasy. But it still sort of creeps me out.

Cardcaptor Sakura is one of CLAMP’s masterpieces, an exciting, cute, and direct shoujo story that uses all the old magical girl cliches but never feels tired or repetitive. If you were to ask me which CLAMP series I’d take to a desert island, this would probably be the one. And this volume is an excellent starter, with Dark Horse providing a fantastic re-introduction for those who may have first met these characters in Tsubasa. Anyone who likes shoujo should read this.

Manga the week of 10/27

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You thought the last week of the month might give you a break? HAH! Tokyopop and Del Rey team up to double team you!

Oh yes, and Dark Horse as a new volume of the Shinji Ikari spinoff manga that simply doesn’t appeal to me, mostly as I hate the ‘Episode 26’ universe and thought that it was a parody when it appeared in the anime.

As for Del Rey, all of these volumes will be ‘final volumes’ from Del Rey manga itself, but only Hell Girl, which gets its last 3 volumes put out in one giant omnibus, is actually over (bar its sequel, Hell Girl R). The others are all entering limbo land, hopefully to be rescued soon by Kodansha USA. I say hopefully as there’s some great stuff here.

A new Mahou Sensei Negima, which has the scene the yuri fans have been waiting for forever. There’s also the second volume of Code: Breaker, a shonen series I was pleasantly surprised by this summer. On the shoujo end, we get an omnibus of Vols. 22-24 of The Wallflower, which I love for its wacky humor and characters, although many hate its lack of romantic payoff. There’s the 2nd volume of potential dark magical girl series Fairy Navigator Runa. And there’s a debut, Arisa, from the creator of Kitchen Princess.

And now we come to Tokyopop, who have 3 new debuts. Summoner Girl, a cute shonen series. The Stellar Six of Gingacho, a cute shoujo series. And Saving Life, an ecchi harem series. Something for all walks of life! They have new volumes of Happy Cafe and V.B. Rose, which makes me incredibly happy. And they have new .hack, Maria Holic, and Asu no Yoichi, which I’m sure makes people other than me incredibly happy. They also wrap up their Gravitation reprint with Vols. 11 and 12.

And, most interesting of all, they have Hakusensha’s How to Draw Shojo Manga book, with contributions from many of their star artists!

What interests you this week?

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan Volume 1

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By Nagaru Tanigawa and Puyo. Released in Japan as “Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuutsu” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Shonen Ace. Released in North America by Yen Press.

The Haruhi franchise has always had one big problem, which is that the light novel and anime releases are generally (Endless Eight aside) fantastic, whereas the manga is merely a serviceable adaptation. The few places the manga has generally had time to shine is where the author is allowed to do his own occasional side-story original chapter.

That’s why I was so pleased to see Yen license this. It’s a 4-koma gag manga, based off of the original series, which runs in Shonen Ace alternately with the regular Haruhi manga. And being a gag manga, it’s not restricted in any way, either by characterization (Yuki wouldn’t do this!) or by plot. The result is pure fanservice in many ways, being essentially the artist reaching out and pushing as many fan buttons as he can, but given this is Haruhi Suzumiya, he has a lot to work with.

I won’t lie, this isn’t fantastic. The art is just as average as the regular Haruhi manga, but in a different way. And as with all 4-koma mangas, some gags simply don’t work. But it’s funny. Gleefully taking apart its source, this is a manga willing to have Haruhi accidentally roll down a flight of stairs, or have Ryoko come back as a miniature super-deformed version of herself. The essential thrust of the characterization is still there… Haruhi makes unreasonable demands, Kyon makes a sarcastic retort, Mikuru twitches and is tortured, and Koizumi smiles enigmatically.

Well, there is one glorious exception. Yuki Nagato is still her deadpan self, mostly. But then the artist does a gag comic which shows her playing an Ero Game instead of reading, and you can see the lightbulb go off over his head. Suddenly the idea of Yuki the otaku is born, and it leads to wonderful places. This is then combined with her interaction at her apartment with the tiny Asakura, where Yuki not only gets a well-deserved chance to be the boke in a tsukkomi routine, but actually has to control her laughter at some points. Mostly as seeing Asakura frustrated is just too adorable.

(Yuki, by the way, is also the star of a second spinoff manga, The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato, which runs in Kadokawa’s seinen Young Ace. This one takes her 4th movie characterization and spins it into a light romantic comedy. I suspect Yen will license it as well once it has enough volumes.)

It’s hard, as with many subjective 4-koma, to describe why I enjoyed this so much. And it’s possible that the humor may not win over others. And yes, just as with its parent manga, the anime is even better, although there isn’t the same major drop-off, just a minor one. But really, it’s Haruhi with tons and tons of gags, super-deformed madness, and fun. Pandering of the best sort, the type that doesn’t also offend the sensibilities. Heck, the light novel author in the afterward says he wishes his own series was more like this. Even if you’ve avoided the original manga, you should check this out.