How CLAMP Killed My Childhood Memories

I'm going to admit that I liked watching Card Captor Sakura when I was little. No, I loved it. Compared to the other stuff in the weekday cartoon lineup back then, it wasn't mindless like Pokemon, nor was it hopelessly weird like Ultraman. For a magical girl show, it was surprisingly addicting for a 14 year old. It is one of CLAMP's well-beloved classics.

Now that I have effectively emasculated any pretensions to having an average childhood, let's get down to this; Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles has destroyed my fond childhood memories of CCS. Let this be a lesson for all media across all cultures. Don't toy with beloved old franchises. The latest Star Trek movie was superb because it didn't deface or change what made the original Star Trek stuff so popular. It simply admitted; Hey, I'm a movie. Let's pretend this all happens in a parallel universe! And nobody was the wiser.

Here comes one of my famed analogies. Buckle up. No spoilers about the ending, promise.

The ending of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles (the manga, though I'm sure the anime will have a similar ending) can best be described as the product of a thousand CCS fanfics melted together with Issac Asmiov's wildest dreams about time travel. Does that analogy make any sense? That's the point. CLAMP took several chapters to end the story, and in the end nobody knows what exactly went on, other than Sakura and Syaoran we loved in CCS have led rather...er...interesting lives after the end of CCS storyline.

And by 'interesting', I mean that in the most negative way possible. 'Disturbing' might describe it, but even that fails to describe how much logic was thrown out the window in the ending of the manga (literally). Unfortunately, CLAMP wasn't happy with a simple cameo of the CCS characters, they wanted to essentially ruin the happy, carefree, and inspiring theme of CCS. And they succeeded.

That said, the manga itself isn't bad, but you will need decent knowledge of CLAMP's other works (like CCS and xXXholic) to appreciate it. If you don't particularly care for CCS, then this is still a very good manga, especially towards the end. The art style is gorgeous, attention to detail is superb, and the plot is definitely unique and gripping. Just don't expect a clear-cut ending.

But if you loved CCS like I did, stay far away. Ignorance is bliss in this case.