Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, by CLAMP

It's a month full of CLAMP titles! But when the mangaka (the Japanese term for a manga artist/writer) group has been creating series for over fifteen years, maybe it's surprising that it's only a month.

I mentioned Tsubasa, or TRC (not to be confused with Tsubasa: Those Who Have Wings, a series produced by Natsuki Takaya, the mangaka of Fruits Basket) before when talking about xxxHolic; as I said there, the two series occur within the same universe and often reference each other. TRC differs slightly from xxxHolic in terms of story-telling--it was published in the Japanese Shonen Jump, and is a part of the shounen (boy's stories) subgroup of manga, meaning it is similar to other shounen titles like Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece.

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles is a fantasy series set in no particular world; in fact, its plot involves four people traveling together to different worlds for their own reasons. Sakura is a princess whose memories were changed into feathers ('tsubasa' is Japanese for wing or feather) and scattered among many worlds as the result of an evil spell; she and Syaoran, a young man from her world, are traveling in order to find and return these memories to her. Kurogane is a ninja who was sent away from his world by the princess he served for being too bloodthirsty; he's traveling in order to return home. And the fourth person, Fai, is a wizard who refuses to use magic and who is traveling because he is running away from something--or someone.

Many of the worlds and supporting characters of TRC are similar to those of previous CLAMP titles. In fact, Sakura and Syaoran are both characters from the series Cardcaptor Sakura, and many of the events in that series have an impact later on in the story of TRC. No world is ever quite like its original story's; but because so much of Tsubasa Reservior Chronicles either relies upon or is improved by a knowledge of CLAMP's previous works, it can make the story a little harder to dive into for those unfamiliar with them. And like xxxHolic, the translation of TRC maintains honorifics (those name-endings in Japanese that are similar to English "Mr." and "Mrs.") and some Japanese words. But also like xxxHolic, each volume has notes on terms and references to Japanese customs.

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles is heavily dependent on a prior knowledge of CLAMP's works to understand a lot of its background; but the foreground--the plot and the growth of the characters as they travel, work together, change and sometimes even betray each other--does not require it, so you can read and enjoy the story for what it is: the tale of a group of people from vastly different worlds thrown together for a common goal and learning how to work together and to accept the personal changes that come as a consequence of growing close to other human beings.

Publishers: Del Rey Manga

I mentioned last week that Del Rey is the English publisher for xxxHolic, along with many other titles (including Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, Gundam Seed Destiny, the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney comics, and some of my favorites like Air Gear and Ghost Hunt), and I thought I should give a little more background on them.

Del Rey Manga (which is a subset of Del Rey Books, a scifi and fantasy publisher) is a relative newcomer to the manga translation world. They began publishing manga series in 2004, and are probably most famous for being the first to consistently include honorifics in their translations, to maintain Japanese references within works instead of converting them to equivalent English ones, and to have notes at the beginning and end of each volume of their manga to explain both of these to new readers and readers unfamiliar with Japanese culture. Del Rey also began a practice of including a few pages, still in the original Japanese, of the next volume of a series in the back of the manga; but unlike the notes on honorifics and references, this is not consistent for each series.

Del Rey took the foundation that its main predecessors, TokyoPop and Viz, had built in bringing over manga titles, and added to it by assuming that manga had settled enough into the American landscape that more of its original, Japanese aspects could be preserved without causing too much confusion (or risking a rejection of the titles!). And since the manga they've brought over has been enjoyed for six years now, they may have gambled right. Del Rey's manga titles might not be the right place to start if you're just beginning to explore this whole 'manga thing,' but if you see one you want to read among their series, the notes will make sure you don't lose the story among the translation.

xxxHolic, by CLAMP

I learned about xxxHolic the same way a lot of people probably learn about a series they like: a friend told me I should read it.

xxxHolic is a supernatural series set in Tokyo (and occasionally other locales of Japan) and produced by CLAMP, a four-woman writing/drawing group. It's the story of Watanuki, a teenage boy who can see spirits and who is constantly chased by them. To get rid of his power (and to save his life), he makes a deal with Yûko, also known as the Time-Space Witch and who has the ability to grant wishes, to work for her in exchange for taking his ability away. However, Yûko's powers are based on equivalent exchange: because removing Watanuki's ability to see spirits and also his unconscious, unwanted ability to draw them to him is such a difficult task, he has to work for her for a very, very long time before it's paid off. (If it sounds a little bit like the philosophy of alchemy in Fullmetal Alchemist, that's because it is. If you don't know what Fullmetal Alchemist is, don't worry, I'll get to it.) So the two of them get off to a rocky start.

At first the series focuses only on Watanuki and Yûko and the fates of various customers who come into Yûko's shop looking to have their wishes granted, but as it goes on more characters appear: Himiwari, a girl at Watanuki's school who he has a crush on, and who always has strange things happen around her; and Doumeki, another classmate and the son of a Buddhist temple priest, who also has unusual powers and who Watanuki takes an instinctive dislike to. (Actually, it's more like irrational hatred.) Slowly these two become more and more involved in the wishes being granted in Yûko's shop, and in the lives of Watanuki and Yûko themselves.

Compared to other manga series, xxxHolic is heavily based on Japanese customs and superstitions. The translator maintains honorifics (ending words in Japanese that are attached to names, which serve the same purpose as English "Mr." and "Mrs.") throughout the dialog, and some words that would be hard to translate into English are left in their original Japanese. The most common one of these is "hitsuzen," a difficult word and an even more difficult concept (not even Watanuki knows what it means when Yûko first says it!): boiled down, it's the opposite of coincidence, the belief that something happens for a reason and there was no other possible way that things could have occurred--a theme throughout the series that some characters accept, and some fight tooth and nail. Fortunately, each volume of the series has notes on honorifics and jokes or puns that didn't quite translate right from the Japanese, so you won't get lost reading.

xxxHolic is a change from CLAMP's previous work in two ways: the art style is different, because the previous artist took a background role due to wrist problems; and the series is intertwined with another manga that CLAMP was producing at the same time, called Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles. The early volumes of the manga rely heavily on reading Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles at the same time to get a full idea of what is going on; but over time the series settles into its own world and the characters' friendships -- and antagonisms -- change and grow.