This might just have been the most dramatic volume of Tubas since the early stories where the group was just settling in with each other on their quest. The ending was a cliffhanger that I don't think anyone saw coming (I mean, how on earth could the innocent Sakura betray her comrades in such a way), but throughout the entire story arc Clamp did a great job of building tension between the characters and providing ample opportunity for action through the "chess" competition. The game was introduced in the previous collection (along with the slightly sadistic and manipulative group behind it), but the action doesn't reach its peak until the finale battle where Sayoran and a battle mech go head to head. The game is clearly rigged against human combatants, but Sakura's determination (matched only by Sayoran's equally strong desire to protect her) to win the competition and earn her special prize allows Sayoran's magic to win the day against the expected superiority of technology. Our band of heroes is left without Princess Sakura when the dust clears, so the question becomes whether they continue on the quest for her memory feathers (and hope to meet up with her eventually), or will they fall apart and go their separate ways without her guiding influence? ( )

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.com by express permission of this reviewer Synopsis Volume 17 concludes the adventure on the Acid Rain world, where Sakura comes into her own, Fai becomes a semi-vampire dependent on Kuragane, the Clone Lee rampages across the multi-verse in search of feathers and the original Lee must come to grips that Sakura doesn't view him as "Lee" at all. Volume 18 and 19 deal with the crew on yet another world, where they are playing human fight chess and Sakura must be the Master. They think they are playing ot repay a village that the clone Lee destroyed, but Sakura is playing for deeper, darker and more important stakes. My Thoughts Where I've been complaining about Sakura being a non-character, in these volumes she almost becomes another person. She goes on adventures, becomes a wiser, but sadder, young woman. Things get complex at the end as Sakura plays things so that she can travel on her own to prevent 2 futures, both of which are repugnant to her. Thus a 3rd universe is born and Wei-Fang's plans to control everything is put in jeopardy. I added a 1/2 star because Sakura really takes charge and becomes a lot more like the Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura. This series needed this, because Lee was quickly becoming the main character and Sakura just a side-character. Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Artist & Author: CLAMP " ( )

Welcome back, Angelic Layer. Your absence in Tsubasa has been sorely missed.
As for the ending to this volume, I must have missed a volume or two, since it leaves me scratching my head with a WTF exclamation. ( )

Like it's sister manga, xxxHolic, Tsubasa is getting progressively harder and harder to understand. In this case, though, I still managed to tease out what was going on and I ended up enjoying it. ( )