Tsubasa 28: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE [Paperback]

As the final, nearly double-sized conclusion of Tsubasa begins, Yuko knits together the wishes of the two Syaorans, two Sakuras, and her apprentice/successor Watanuki in her final moments to allow them to join magical forces against Fei Wang within the parameters facing all five of them, while the two men protect their four children with all the force of avenging furies. It's a task which will prove difficult, however, especially with the Tsubasa gang's helpline now being manned not by Yuko, with her wealth of knowledge of Fei Wang, but by still inexperienced Watanuki.

Although few Tsubasa readers will be shedding tears over Kyle after what he did to the children of Spirit, last volume's false alarm was quite frustrating. Unlike Fai, who quite literally almost killed himself trying to avoid hurting anyone to achieve his goal, Fei Wang not only didn't care who he wiped out but relished the pain he inflicted in doing so - and he has alot of bad karma heading his way. We've gotten several instances of foreshadowing suggesting that Kurogane, who's been itching to get a piece of him, is the primary candidate for doing the honors; and while we obviously don't want him reverting to what he was when the series began I think I can take the rare liberty of speaking for the whole fandom when I say that we wouldn't mind seeing Ginryu do it's work just one more time. Now - for his murdered mother and the victims of the Syaoran clone; for the Fai who was driven to mental illness and the Fai who never got to grow up at all; for the five kids whose childhoods were cut short and for Yuko, who did not live to see this day - we find out if he gets the chance he's looking for.

The gang has been through too much for them to have a completely happy ending, and indeed the conclusion of Tsubasa is bittersweet. The connection between the Tsubasa kids and their clones also becomes even more convoluted as the series ends, and readers should probably add or drop a star depending on how they feel about that.

Although not as consistent as it's sister series xxxHOLiC, Tsubasa will probably be remembered for three things - the phenomenal Acid Tokyo arc, the psychological duel between Kurogane and Fai, and it's fascinating deconstruction of the traditional nuclear family.

Tsubasa vol 28 comes as a shocking ending to the epic series. Firstly the volume comes at a whopping 276 pages, virtually double sized. I think including so many pages is a pretty decent trade off for the potential of colored pages (it would have been nice to have colored manga pages at least in this final volume) because the story is so nice.

I will avoid spoilers but this volume certainly wrapped up hanging plot points and finally clarified the motives and purposes for some of the characters. The action was as amazing as it has been from recent volumes in terms of the magic usage. I also think that the translator, who has been here for all of the volumes, William Flanagan did an excellent job at making it clear and helping to sort out who was speaking, with the "images" of two characters and such. He also left a potentially heartfelt message at the end of the volume, it almost feels as if he was there with us the whole time through these many years of reading the series.

This volume had me a bit emotional and teary eyed with joy because the two characters finally admitted their feelings for one another; simply beautiful. This is a thrilling and truly amazing conclusion for the series and makes me want to reread it from start to finish.

I can't believe that this was the final volume! Anyways, I loved this ending. I was very pleasantly surprised by how long the volume was. The final battle against Fei Wang was amazing, and Kurogane was especially bad-ass. Although the whole Clone situation was a bit confusing, I was able to understand the gist of it. I also love how Syaoran proclaimed his love for Sakura before she could say she loved him. That was pretty cute :). Overall, the ending was satisfying and left no unanswered questions. It was a great ending to a great series!