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Reviewed by Michael Aronson “Accompanied by the happy-go-lucky Fai, the intense Kurogane, and the strikingly odd creature Mokona Modoki, Sakura and Syaoran make their way into a new universe where a traveling magician has suddenly become frighteningly powerful and is terrorizing an entire town. Only a few independent-minded stragglers remain to battle for control of their own lives. Fai, the lone magician in the group, traded his magical powers to the dimension witch, xxxHOLiC’s Yûko, before the journey started. Without a weapon with which to fight, can the extraordinary group of friends defeat a master magician who can control the Earth’s elements?” Tsubasa comes with a nifty appendix of translation notes and yet manages to leave out the most glaringly obvious setting change: Syaoran and crew have traveled to ancient Korea. Well, I thought it was obvious anyway. Even if the worlds they travel to bear drastic differences from the real world, they often feature recognizable similarities, as the last volume’s explanation of Hanshin demonstrated. If the country is called “Koryo” and people refer to their mothers as “omoni” and fathers as “aboji”, they’re Korean. Why omit this pertinent information? As often tends to happen when exploring eras of the past in stories in which any real or fictitious era is accessible, things get a little less interesting. Since we know the past turns out just fine, the interesting twist would be to enter a world in which events in the past take a twist for the worst and it’s up to the heroes either to correct the deviation or forge a new future. Instead, ancient Korea is littered with evil wizards, one of whom possesses a feather of Sakura’s. Battles ensue, fists meet faces, yadda yadda yadda. Again, vibrant and dynamic art keeps the action from growing too stale, but though the art remains sharp, the characters are starting to grow dull. Syaoran’s determined, Fai’s lighthearted and Kurogane’s brutish – fine, how about a second layer of personality traits? It’s rarely a good thing when your characters can be defined with a single adjective. It’s time to plumb their emotional depths to see what they’re capable of. I’d hate to declare Tsubasa’s formula already worn thin, but at this rate . . . Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
1 September 2010
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