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This week's Tsubasa: Chapter 206
Oh, my.
I don't care that absolutely nothing happened to advance the plot, or that Sakura (the sole "main" female character) is still completely absent from this week's installment. I really don't care about any of that this week, because everything else about this chapter was awesome.
Okay, before I launch into this week's chapter, there's probably something I should clarify about chapter 205, which I forgot to synopsify last time, because I was too busy getting pissed off at CLAMP. Anyway, during his twenty-page Taunting of the Heroes in our previous installment, FWR actually did reveal one fairly important plot twist: Yuuko was the one who displaced Clow Country from time, not him. This was the only way for her to "freeze" time at the moment when Sakura was attacked, and thus to prevent the multi-universe butterfly effect that Syaoran's wish had from touching Clow Country itself. See, Syaoran's wish altered reality in many worlds, and, well, if said wish had somehow managed to alter reality in the one world where it was important for Syaoran to return to an exact, specific moment in time, then... Well, then, there would have been no point to his wish in the first place. Can you imagine if Syaoran had made his wish, and then traveled back in time only to find out that, oops, since he altered the face of reality in every world, it turns out that Sakura had never actually been born?! That would have beenutterly hilarious devastatingly tragic.
So. Now. Let's think about that for a moment, that whole "Yuuko was the one who displaced Clow Country from time" thing.
Two implications immediately come to mind:
1. Remember that time when Syaoran vowed to avenge the deaths of all of the time-melted Clow Country peoples? Because he was pissed at FWR for creating the time loop and essentially killing everyone in that entire universe? Yeah. Yyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhh....
2. HOLY SHIT WHAT THE HELL CLAMP THAT STILL MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE!!!! If Clow Country was frozen all this time, then how did Cloney have a second childhood in a reality-altered Clow Country? Was it a different Clow Country? Are there three Sakura after all? Was I actually right about the whole "two Clow Countries, three Sakura" theory?
If I turn out to be right about that, then I reserve the right to point at fandom at large, laugh, and say I Told You So.
Anyway. Back to this week's chapter.
So last week, we ended with Kurogane giving a good slash at FWR and telling him to STFU. This week we open with Kurogane telling FWR, "Blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. Why not come out here and get a taste of this?"
(He actually says Gocha gocha urusenda, which is about as close as Japanese can get to "yadda yadda yadda," which I personally think is somewhat beautiful.)
Then Fay takes his Stance of Badassness at Kurogane's side, but says, "It's no use. It's just like when I first met him... He can't step out beyond that rift."
"I thought so. What a coward."
"Well then," Fay says. Oh my god he's totally doing an I-know-kung-fu! pose. "This is going to make it tricky for us to strike a blow against him, too. Syaoran-kun," Fay continues, turning his head to address Syaoran. (Syaoran is standing slightly behind Fay and Kurogane, who have positioned themselves between him and FWR in a downright protective move.) Anyway, Fay says, "Do you remember what the other Syaoran said to us once?" Background artwork shows a flashback to Fay and Cloney in Piffle Country. "He asked me, 'Can I really change the future that I saw?' Well, right now, we still don't know what will happen in the future. So all you can do is what you can do. What you want to do. And that's totally not the same thing as 'running away', in case anybody asks. So what is it that you want to do?"
Syaoran looks over Fay's shoulder, toward Cloney. "I won't let Sakura die," he says.
(She's already died three times, dumbass. But whatever. You just keep trying, you cute widdle doomed woobie, you!)
Cloney stares down Syaoran all menacing-like. But then, Syaoran is surprised to see Cloney suddenly drop his gaze, turn around, and start to walk away from the fight.
Kurogane looks at Syaoran and says, "You'd better go kick your own ass." (Yes, he actually says that.)
"Right." Syaoran turns away from them, and runs off to pursue Cloney. That leaves Kurogane and Fay alone to pick a fight with FWR.
"Now then," Fay says, a cheerful (but very, very dangerous) smile on his face. "I'd been hoping that this filthy cockroach would show up in front of me."
"Hey, don't forget," Kurogane says. "He's mine."
"Oh my, oh dear. Whatever shall we do?"
FWR glares at them both like he's getting really, really sick of their cutesy (but AWESOME) buddy-movie banter.
Then FWR smirks.
Uh-oh.
Suddenly a million gajillion rifts open up all around Fay and Kurogane, and FWR's visored soldiers (hey, remember those guys from way back in the very first chapter of this manga?!) come pouring out in droves.
Fay looks exasperated. "I knew he was going to do that."
Kurogane's impatient. "You take care of these guys."
"Nuh-uh, nope. You're pretty good at taking out these big crowds of enemies with that sword, aren't you? That was your father's specialty, after all."
Then Kurogane does so, wiping out a dozen soldiers with one super-awesome swing of his father's super-special-awesome sword. But more soldiers keep coming. Fay tells Kurogane, "You know, you could at least bother to shout the name of your totally awesome attack like usual."
Kurogane looks downright pouty when he snaps, "God, what a bother."
Then a bunch of soldiers spontaneously rush Fay. He proceeds to unleash a flurry of totally awesome kung-fu moves at them, and then completely wipes the floor with them. Several pages later, when the dust has cleared, we see Fay grinning, revealing that he's extended all of his claws. My God. Fay is so completely badass right now, there are no words. No words.
Without any more dialogue, Fay and Kurogane then proceed to tag-team FWR's army into a bloody pile of corpses. Like, just pure awesome fight scene in every panel. One of the soldiers swings at Fay with this sword-that-extends-into-a-barbed-chain... thing. It's pretty badass. But then Fay gets pissed, grabs the sword-thing out of the (doomed) soldier's hand, and proceeds to wield that mofo against the rest of the soldiers like an expert.
Eventually, and predictably, Fay and Kurogane end up posing back-to-back as the (still growing) army closes in around them. Fay tells Kurogane, "You've noticed it too, haven't you? All of them that we've struck down..."
"Yeah. These ain't no illusions."
FWR, watching over the battle from within his rift, proceeds to don his Captain Exposition hat again. "I've created these soldiers from the souls that I gathered." (References to events in xxxHolic, siiiiiiiiigh.) "You can play with them as much as you'd like."
Kurogane's got that dangerous grin on his face again. "You're still talking?! I told you to shut. up. I'm going to slice that damn mouth of yours from ear to ear."
"Yeah, pretty much," Fay agrees.
Meanwhile, Somewhere Else...
Syaoran pulls his flaming sword from his hand. He stares down Cloney, who has also drawn his sword and assumed a fighting stance. "It's time for me to end this," Syaoran says.
Aaaaaaaaaaand....
Scene.
New chapter next week. For once, I'm actually looking forward to it!
I don't care that absolutely nothing happened to advance the plot, or that Sakura (the sole "main" female character) is still completely absent from this week's installment. I really don't care about any of that this week, because everything else about this chapter was awesome.
Okay, before I launch into this week's chapter, there's probably something I should clarify about chapter 205, which I forgot to synopsify last time, because I was too busy getting pissed off at CLAMP. Anyway, during his twenty-page Taunting of the Heroes in our previous installment, FWR actually did reveal one fairly important plot twist: Yuuko was the one who displaced Clow Country from time, not him. This was the only way for her to "freeze" time at the moment when Sakura was attacked, and thus to prevent the multi-universe butterfly effect that Syaoran's wish had from touching Clow Country itself. See, Syaoran's wish altered reality in many worlds, and, well, if said wish had somehow managed to alter reality in the one world where it was important for Syaoran to return to an exact, specific moment in time, then... Well, then, there would have been no point to his wish in the first place. Can you imagine if Syaoran had made his wish, and then traveled back in time only to find out that, oops, since he altered the face of reality in every world, it turns out that Sakura had never actually been born?! That would have been
So. Now. Let's think about that for a moment, that whole "Yuuko was the one who displaced Clow Country from time" thing.
Two implications immediately come to mind:
1. Remember that time when Syaoran vowed to avenge the deaths of all of the time-melted Clow Country peoples? Because he was pissed at FWR for creating the time loop and essentially killing everyone in that entire universe? Yeah. Yyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhh....
2. HOLY SHIT WHAT THE HELL CLAMP THAT STILL MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE!!!! If Clow Country was frozen all this time, then how did Cloney have a second childhood in a reality-altered Clow Country? Was it a different Clow Country? Are there three Sakura after all? Was I actually right about the whole "two Clow Countries, three Sakura" theory?
If I turn out to be right about that, then I reserve the right to point at fandom at large, laugh, and say I Told You So.
Anyway. Back to this week's chapter.
So last week, we ended with Kurogane giving a good slash at FWR and telling him to STFU. This week we open with Kurogane telling FWR, "Blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. Why not come out here and get a taste of this?"
(He actually says Gocha gocha urusenda, which is about as close as Japanese can get to "yadda yadda yadda," which I personally think is somewhat beautiful.)
Then Fay takes his Stance of Badassness at Kurogane's side, but says, "It's no use. It's just like when I first met him... He can't step out beyond that rift."
"I thought so. What a coward."
"Well then," Fay says. Oh my god he's totally doing an I-know-kung-fu! pose. "This is going to make it tricky for us to strike a blow against him, too. Syaoran-kun," Fay continues, turning his head to address Syaoran. (Syaoran is standing slightly behind Fay and Kurogane, who have positioned themselves between him and FWR in a downright protective move.) Anyway, Fay says, "Do you remember what the other Syaoran said to us once?" Background artwork shows a flashback to Fay and Cloney in Piffle Country. "He asked me, 'Can I really change the future that I saw?' Well, right now, we still don't know what will happen in the future. So all you can do is what you can do. What you want to do. And that's totally not the same thing as 'running away', in case anybody asks. So what is it that you want to do?"
Syaoran looks over Fay's shoulder, toward Cloney. "I won't let Sakura die," he says.
(She's already died three times, dumbass. But whatever. You just keep trying, you cute widdle doomed woobie, you!)
Cloney stares down Syaoran all menacing-like. But then, Syaoran is surprised to see Cloney suddenly drop his gaze, turn around, and start to walk away from the fight.
Kurogane looks at Syaoran and says, "You'd better go kick your own ass." (Yes, he actually says that.)
"Right." Syaoran turns away from them, and runs off to pursue Cloney. That leaves Kurogane and Fay alone to pick a fight with FWR.
"Now then," Fay says, a cheerful (but very, very dangerous) smile on his face. "I'd been hoping that this filthy cockroach would show up in front of me."
"Hey, don't forget," Kurogane says. "He's mine."
"Oh my, oh dear. Whatever shall we do?"
FWR glares at them both like he's getting really, really sick of their cutesy (but AWESOME) buddy-movie banter.
Then FWR smirks.
Uh-oh.
Suddenly a million gajillion rifts open up all around Fay and Kurogane, and FWR's visored soldiers (hey, remember those guys from way back in the very first chapter of this manga?!) come pouring out in droves.
Fay looks exasperated. "I knew he was going to do that."
Kurogane's impatient. "You take care of these guys."
"Nuh-uh, nope. You're pretty good at taking out these big crowds of enemies with that sword, aren't you? That was your father's specialty, after all."
Then Kurogane does so, wiping out a dozen soldiers with one super-awesome swing of his father's super-special-awesome sword. But more soldiers keep coming. Fay tells Kurogane, "You know, you could at least bother to shout the name of your totally awesome attack like usual."
Kurogane looks downright pouty when he snaps, "God, what a bother."
Then a bunch of soldiers spontaneously rush Fay. He proceeds to unleash a flurry of totally awesome kung-fu moves at them, and then completely wipes the floor with them. Several pages later, when the dust has cleared, we see Fay grinning, revealing that he's extended all of his claws. My God. Fay is so completely badass right now, there are no words. No words.
Without any more dialogue, Fay and Kurogane then proceed to tag-team FWR's army into a bloody pile of corpses. Like, just pure awesome fight scene in every panel. One of the soldiers swings at Fay with this sword-that-extends-into-a-barbed-chain... thing. It's pretty badass. But then Fay gets pissed, grabs the sword-thing out of the (doomed) soldier's hand, and proceeds to wield that mofo against the rest of the soldiers like an expert.
Eventually, and predictably, Fay and Kurogane end up posing back-to-back as the (still growing) army closes in around them. Fay tells Kurogane, "You've noticed it too, haven't you? All of them that we've struck down..."
"Yeah. These ain't no illusions."
FWR, watching over the battle from within his rift, proceeds to don his Captain Exposition hat again. "I've created these soldiers from the souls that I gathered." (References to events in xxxHolic, siiiiiiiiigh.) "You can play with them as much as you'd like."
Kurogane's got that dangerous grin on his face again. "You're still talking?! I told you to shut. up. I'm going to slice that damn mouth of yours from ear to ear."
"Yeah, pretty much," Fay agrees.
Meanwhile, Somewhere Else...
Syaoran pulls his flaming sword from his hand. He stares down Cloney, who has also drawn his sword and assumed a fighting stance. "It's time for me to end this," Syaoran says.
Aaaaaaaaaaand....
Scene.
New chapter next week. For once, I'm actually looking forward to it!