nenena | This week's Tsubasa

Our Heroes are walking through the desert. It's getting late. Mokona worries that in the middle of the night they will suddenly fall asleep and get sent back in time again. But Syaoran assures them that that won't happen once they reach the ruins. How does he know this? "Because," Syaoran says, "if my thinking is correct, then time in the ruins should be completely frozen, everything preserved exactly as it was on That Day."

Count the logic leaps in that sentence. Go ahead, count them.

Okay, so, the ruins. Totally deserted. Syaoran says that during the purification ceremony, only two people were allowed to enter the ruins – the priest, and the royal being purified.

Our Heroes enter the ruins and walk down to a cavern filled with gorgeous waterfalls. But the waterfalls aren't moving. None of the water is moving. Time has indeed completely frozen inside the ruins.

Fay concludes that because there's a ton of water inside the ruins, the ruins are not only the source of water for the desert country, but the storage facility of the water as well. (Because the waterfalls are coming down so there must be water stored above them… Fay is much better at this whole logical deduction thing than Syaoran, even though Syaoran is supposed to a super-academic who moonlights as Detective Conan. Ah, well.) "That is the result of excellent architectural planning," Fay says, "but also means that this place is sustained by incredibly strong magic." (Oh really? The Romans and the Chinese did it just fine without magic…)

Syaoran says that maintaining the water supply is one of the most important duties of the Clow Country priest. Because Sakura was the royal with the strongest magical powers, she was the most likely candidate to become the next priest(ess).

Mokona asks, "Syaoran, how long were you and Sakura together?"

Syaoran answers, "Always. Since the day I met her, seven days before her seventh birthday, until I reached my current age. Always."

Mokona interjects, "Bu-But you were captured when you were still a kid!"

Syaoran replies, "I had my time rewound. I paid the price." To Yuuko, as he clarifies a moment later.

Fay says, "May I ask your reason why?"

Syaoran answers, "So that I could get back the Sakura of That Day."

The chapter ends. And I'm left scratching my head thinking, WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT MEAN?! Syaoran had his "time rewound" WHAAAAAAH-?! In Japanese, he said jikan wo makimodoshita, which could mean "turned back time" or "rewound time" or whatever, but either way it's bizarre to put that statement in the past tense, and AAAAH WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON?!?!

Twelve chapters left.

ETA: This week's Shounen Magazine is a double issue, which means that next week there will be no new issue, and hence no new Tsubasa.

ETA TWO: A scan of the big WTF moment is now posted in the comments.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Time rewound...

This is simply conjecture, but perhaps Syaoran was perhaps older (perhaps Watanuki's age? Syaoran seems younger than him) and Yuko's magic is the one responsible for rewinding the time in Clow Country and causing it to go in an infinite loop until Syaoran and friends can prevent whatever happened to Sakura?

That and/or the other Clow Country where time flows freely was a side effect or fail-safe of some sort.

Aargh, weird word play. Hopefully this will show that CLAMP can actually write things together in a coherent and interesting manner rather than pulling a Deus ex Machina out of the butts.

It's just so weird. When Syaoran said that his time was "rewound," the artwork showed a picture of an obviously seven-year-old Syaoran surrounded with swirling magic, and Yuuko. (Here's a scan. (http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t236/nena_0999/tsubasa_wtf.jpg)) Plus we can assume that Syaoran was also seven years old, or thereabouts, when he was kidnapped by FWR... Since flashbacks showed him being that age when the clone was created. And also since he was always in his child form when he was imprisoned, until the moment when Xing Huo set him free, whereupon he magically turned into a teenager all of a sudden.

I also kind of hope that Syaoran wasn't supposed to have been a teenager when Sakura was seven years old, because it's kind of creepy for a sixteen-year-old to fall in love with a seven-year-old.

But wait, what am I talking about? This is CLAMP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rika_Sasaki), after all.

Hopefully this will show that CLAMP can actually write things together in a coherent and interesting manner rather than pulling a Deus ex Machina out of the butts.

Aye aye. It feels as though they're purposefully trying to confuse us at this point. Similar to what they did during the Infinity Arc, perhaps?

This week's Tsubasa - Chapter 188

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