Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle 23

CLAMP – Del Rey – 2009 – 28 volumes

Oh, flagrant abuse of past CLAMP scenes continues!  I believe there’s a double-page spread that mimics one of the last pages of Cardcaptor Sakura, save for the… you know, the circumstances.  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that particular spread though, so I could be wrong.  There’s also a confession along the same lines that mimics a similar unspoken one in X, again, the scene at Rainbow Bridge.  Again, I am a big geek, and these things are amusing to me.

I knew this business with Sakura was coming, but I was hoping it would be handled in a more… tasteful way.  Somehow, I thought it would be less confusing this time.  It was far, far more confusing, but thankfully, there was actually stuff going on while the explanation was running this time.

This is getting a bit too metaphysical for my taste.  If it gets too much further out there, even reading the volumes back to back like this, I really will lose my firm grasp of what’s going on.  Now the group is going to start time-traveling, I guess, which is going to add whole new layers of confusing, but at least it sounds like they’re finally going to confront Fei Wang, and the series will be cycling down and moving into its final story arc.  I don’t even want to think about the nightmare of time travel in the future, but it honestly can’t get much more confusing than it already is.

One thing I do like is CLAMP’s use of the non-evil villain, something they’ve done in the past, too.  Fei Wang’s wish was revealed last volume (sort of), and while he is viewed as evil by all the people he’s been using all this time, and he probably is, his wish isn’t the usual world domination pitch.  It’s got a softer reason behind it.  Of course, in order to do this thing, he needs to obtain a great deal of power, hence the journey.  So I guess he’s still evil.  But still.  I guess he can be likened to Mr. Freeze, or something.

At the very least, the fight between Syaorans and the subsequent collapse or whatever dimension-hopping happened was pretty exciting.  I was a little bummed the fight didn’t last longer, but I can’t help but like that awesome scene that happened to end it.  That’s been the highlight of the series so far for me, that and Sakura hoisting the trophy at the end of the Pifffle Princess races.  Totally sweet CLAMP moment right there, and one of the reasons I keep coming back to their series, but it would have been a little better if there weren’t… you know, four people involved or whatever, instead of two.

So let me talk through this again…

spoilers…

spoilers…

spoilers…

spoilers…

Okay, so technically, “Syaoran” wins the fight between Syaorans.  Sakura protects Syaoran to prevent him from being killed though, and “Syaoran’s” body refuses its orders to kill her.  Fei Wang offers commentary that it doesn’t really matter if Sakura’s soul is killed or not since all he needs is the body.  Yuko’s comments are that “Syaoran’s” body remembers where his heart does not.  The fight continues a little more, and Sakura winds up throwing herself in the path of the swords and getting skewered and killed by both.  Cue the Cardcaptor Sakura scene with the X dialogue, which is definitely the best thing about this volume.

While dying, she reveals that she also is a “Sakura” that Fei Wang made as an insurance policy, in case anything happened to the real Sakura.  Unlike “Syaoran,” who was a clone with Syaoran’s real soul, both Sakura’s body and soul are cloned from the real one, so she is not Syaoran’s Sakura, but “Syaoran’s.”  Later, the characters explain that her attitude towards Syaoran and her standoffishness, along with her affection for “Syaoran,” were because she finally got her memories back about this and knew that she was a copy like “Syaoran,” and also knew not to let Syaoran fall in love with her since his Sakura was still out there.

Anyway, her soul dies in the arms of “Syaoran” in the world of dreams.  The two Syaorans had also been fighting over a feather, which is suddenly snapped up, along with “Syaoran” and “Sakura’s” body, by the little-boy-looking Kazuhiko servant of Fei Wang and spirited away to the evil wizard.

Bizzarrely, Fei Wang reveals that the real Sakura, body and soul, does not exist anymore.  I’m almost positive this isn’t true.  If it is, I’m willing to bet that it’s Sakura that he wants to bring back from the dead with his powers over space and time.

Interestingly, the characters begin discussing the merits of wishes in this volume.  It is revealed that Fei Wang’s wish is the same as Fai’s, that he wants to bring someone back from the dead, and he needs to be able to manipulate time and space to do this.  Yuko’s greatest wish is also to join her great love in the afterlife, as revealed in xXxHolic, but as the “Time Space Witch,” I suppose she knows that the only way to do this is if she dies herself, and I suppose with her powers, she was the most suited to counter-acting Fei Wang’s elaborate plot to gather power to resurrect.  Interesting that she foresaw all his insane moves far in advance, but whatever.  We also find out, unsurprisingly, that Seishirou also has some wish concerning both Subaru and Kami, but I wonder how that will play out with only so many more volumes left.  Also, one of the characters also notes that all happiness and unhappiness stems from desire, and that’s why mankind will continue to make their wishes.  So there you go.

Anyway, after all this business with Sakura goes down, the party is down to just Kurogane, Fai, Mokona, and Syaoran.  All want to go after Sakura and get her back.  They make a wish to Yuko to be sent where Sakura is, and the scene reflects the one from the beginning of the series.  Yuko reveals that the price of the wish will be similar, that is, the toll will be memories.  Except, then she says that Watanuki has paid the price for their wish long ago, when he offered all his memories to the Time Space Witch.  I am extremely, EXTREMELY curious how this works, and I hope the story will get back to it sooner rather than later.  Even knowing that Watanuki is a replacement for Syaoran in his timeline/dimension, I would desperately like to know how he got caught up in all this anyway.  Also, why he always seems to get stuck paying for other people’s wishes and doesn’t seem to get anything in return.  How is he not king of the universe with all that good karma he’s saved up?

Also, I’m curious about something else.  The theme of XxXholic is that “There is no coincidence, only hitsuzen,” which implies that everything happens for a reason to serve the greater good.  But the themes of Tsubasa all seem to be about changing one’s destiny (which, to be fair, has been forged by Fei Wang for almost all the characters in that series).  Even Yuko mentions that there are branching paths in the journey now, and that she hopes the travelers find the right one.  Pulling a theme from another series, “Their destiny is foreordained.”  Is hitsuzen this kind of foreordained destiny?  Or is fate in that sense, not determined, but hitsuzen is the force that drives people in the direction “it” wishes?  Or maybe hitsuzen is merely the cosmic force that determines wishes and makes paths for their payments in advance?  Perhaps I am over-thinking these themes?

So the three boys and Mokona get to travel back to Clow, but to the specific point in time where Fei Wang is hiding.  And that’s where we’ll pick up next volume.