Tsubasa 25: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE [Paperback]

In this volume, we get more backstory from Syaoran. This is not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not much for action sequences, and backstory can be very interesting. In fact, because I have the bad habit of spoiling things for myself via the internet, I know that some of "Tsubasa"'s most memorable story elements are in the backstory. However, you'll have to wait until vol. 26 to get to them.

In this volume, Syaoran tells how he first came to Clow country and met Sakura. He arrives there after his mother has a prophetic dream about someone waiting for him in another world. When they first meet, Sakura is undergoing rights to become a priestess and is not allowed to be touched. Despite this, the two children hit it off. Sakura's mother, though, has been having strange dreams about her daughter's seventh birthday, which is also the final day of her priesthood rights. Syaoran swears that he will protect Sakura at any cost, but what awaits these two when the day arrives?

While a couple of mysteries are unveiled here, they're not especially compelling. And most of the attention is focused on the young Syaoran and Sakura's budding romance. Their relationship is a lot like cotton candy: sugary sweet, but not much substance. But you already know that if you've read the series up to this point.

Overall, this volume is filler. It gives us a lot of fluff instead of really moving the story along. It's not completely terrible; there is some plot, and the art's still really nice. It's one of the weakest volumes in the series, but you kind of have to read it if you want to complete the series. Oh, well, just be glad it isn't Piffle World.

Although it reveals the origins of Syaoran's involvement with Fei Wang Reed, this volume continues the story's blatantly obvious rest stop before the guys face Fei Wang Reed and attempt to rescue Sakura - although even they have not quite addressed the issue of exactly which Sakura they should aim for.

Partly because three heads are better than one but mostly because Syaoran feels lousy about having learned about Kurogane and Fai's histories without their permission (although in both cases he had done nothing wrong), Syaoran offers up his own disclosure and the story of how Fei Wang Reed entered his life - although he still tantalizingly says nothing regarding his connection to Yuko's assistant Kimihiro Watanuki, which is once again hinted at in this volume.

This volume also continues one of the series' subthemes - what it means to be a parent. First and foremost, there's Kurogane and Fai themselves, who we've come to love in no small part because they've overcome their respective violent and self-destructive tendencies to become who the kids have needed them to be and find the best in themselves that was there all along. In spite of Kurogane's difficult decision in Acid Tokyo to allow Sakura to take on the part of the price to save Fai that he couldn't cover in light of the absence of another adult in the group and Fai's major screw-up in not alerting at least Kurogane that something along the lines of exactly what happened in Infinity was a possibility, that the men are as devoted to the kids as any biological parents is indisputable to anyone with a heart. We also have opposite sides of the spectrum in Kurogane's excellent parents who were tragically ripped from him and Fai's sorry excuse for a father whose monstrous superstition played no small part in the ruin of his sons. We now get a closer look at Syaoran and Sakura's parents - and another question to be answered as we find out that Fei Wang had entered their lives far earlier than we had previously known, with Syaoran, like Fai before him, put into a situation that no child his age should have to face.

As with other recent volumes not horrible and with a few good emotional moments, but CLAMP really needs to start wrapping up the exposition before goodwill begins to peter out and the readership starts to lose patience.

If you are a fan of Clamp then you must buy this series. Mysteries are reveal as well as excellent artwork and storyline.