#vol 212

[9]

MOM HOLY FUCK THEY REALLY ARE SAYING IT

EXCUSE ME

EXCUSE ME

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT IS THIS THE GREATEST THING 

LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS

Clamp absolutely set the precedent for this with our visit to Shura/Shara all those years ago. We’ve SEEN the possibility of being in the past and future of the same world and teleporting between the two. We knew the feathers could appear pretty much anywhere in the timeline of a world, given how time works differently across the mutliverse, and we DID just straight up go backwards and forwards in time via Mokona, so it’s absolutely possible for them to appear in the Past of the Kingdom of Clow. 

WHICH IS APPARENTLY ACID TOKYO????

WHICH JUST ABSOLUTELY BLOWS MY MIND WHAT THE FUCK

WHAT A WAY TO TIE IT ALL TOGETHER??

X/1999 IS THE SET UP TO THE CLOW KINGDOM?

THE CLOW KINGDOM IS IN THE RUINED ECOLOGICAL DISASTER OF OUR OWN CURRENT WORLD??? 

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle as a pseudo-not-really-but-kind-of-sequel-event to Cardcaptor Sakura but ACTUALLY ALSO being the sequel-kind-of-but-not-exactly sequel to X/1999???? Or Alternate Timeline X/1999? Where things are ever so slightly different but the world was ruined in the same way?

AND THE RESERVOIR

THE RESERVOIR IN ACID TOKYO IS THE RESERVOIR IN THE CLOW RUINS????

I’m REELING OVER THIS

THEY SET THAT UP

SAKURA WALKED THROUGH THE DESERT TO PURIFY THE WATER TO SAVE THESE PEOPLE AND IT MADE THE RESERVOIR THAT LOVED SAKURA SO MUCH THAT IT PROTECTS HER

AND WATANUKI! WATANUKI WAS AN ESSENTIAL PIECE OF SETTING UP THE RESERVOIR IN A WORLD BEFORE HE EVEN EXISTED IN THAT TIMELINE

And that’s Definitely the feather they’re talking about, isn’t it? The feather that Sakura left in Acid Tokyo is still in the Reservoir right now, and is the reason the water is magic and loves her so much - because it’s a piece of her, and -... well, a piece of her clone. But it’s a piece of SAKURA, and so they resemble and resonate with each other, and that's why the water is so close to her, but 'Sakura' can’t absorb the feather because she’s already a full person and those aren’t her memories, but the memories of her clone.

Meanwhile Sakura (ie, our cloned Sakura) is currently on the other side of the portal at a point in time that DIDN’T exist a few seconds ago, for Original 'Sakura', but the rest of the universe has moved on and decades have passed (even though no time at all has passed for her) and now the feather from her clone has ended up in the past that set up the reservoir potentially centuries before she was even born. 

Timeline!

Oh my god?

Oh my god. 

I’m going to be thinking about this forever. 

No wait I’m not done ACID TOKYO WAS like THE point in the narrative where everything changed forever. And from a Tsubasa point of view it felt like a world picked at random for all the Important Narrative changes to take place - but it never was! It was the most important world of all! It was the Clow Kingdom!

So Syaoran lived his life in the Clow Kingdom, and then his soul collapsed in Acid Tokyo, which was ALSO the Clow Kingdom, and then he went and died defending Lava Lamp, in the Clow Kingdom. All at completely different points in the timeline but all in the exact same world. 

Though I will say I am thoroughly baffled by the connection between the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and THE CLOW RUINS???

ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO BE THE SAME BUILDING?

Oh my god they’re in the same location aren’t they. The reservoir was underneath it and now it’s under the ruins. I suppose they have Magic so they could probably reshape them however they want but WHAT A CON CLAMP HAVE PULLED ON US

TO SPEND THE ENTIRE MANGA STARING AT THE WINGS OF THE CLOW RUINS AND THEY WERE SECRETLY WAITING FOR THE RIGHT TIME TO TELL US THAT WE WERE ACTUALLY LOOKING AT THE TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT BUILDING ALL ALONG

[8]

WELL I GUESS THAT'S THAT FOR THIS INSTALLMENT OF TSUBASA: ACID TOKYO CHRONICLES

This is leaving me drowning in so many thoughts. Even like... the end of X/1999 that we never got to see, can you imagine if it was going to end with like... a future shot of a desert? With maybe a small town of people surviving despite it all? Some compromise between Kamui and Fuuma's fates that wiped it all out but left a small portion of humanity behind that would have grown into the peaceful and happy people that are the Clow Kingdom in the future? Is this some small preservation of the ideas that Clamp never got to publish or am I reaching too far?

EITHER WAY IT'S MAGNIFICENT AND I'M HAVING THE BEST TIME

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE HERE TO WITNESS MY SUFFERING AS WE DESCEND INTO ACID TOKYO: THE PLACE YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE

And! Extra special thanks to everyone who supports me on Patreon! You keep me going even when it turns out WE WERE IN ACID TOKYO ALL ALONG

First Tier of Patrons

Coconi

Rien [Ri]

Sapphireswimming

Luke Wilson

Stupid Kitsune

Jordan Fredriksz

Shynerdycactus

CloudMenaceBird

Corinne Burr

Qatari Pekarsky

Fer E

MokoCharm

limitless_paper

Higher Tier of Patrons:

WHO KNOWS WHAT THE HECK COULD BE NEXT BUT IT SURE WILL BE HAPPENING IN TOKYO!

[2]

OH. 

WELL THEN!

We pick back up again confronting the (sadly, still living) Evil Wolverine in his lair, over the dead body of Kyle Rondart lying on the ground before them. 

AND HE FADES AWAY. AS EVIL WOLVERINE OUTS HIM AS A MANMADE OBJECT. 

Whatever that means. A clone? Or something different? It’s kind of the same concept either way I suppose - Kyle was made by Evil Wolverine, just like the rest of the soldiers and all the other clones in the cast. 

And just. Kyle not being respected as a living being even as he dies for the person who made him?

I can’t believe I’m mad on Kyle’s behalf??

I can’t believe CLAMP keep doing this to me???

Also… something about the way Kyle fades away like this, just like the Clow Cards do in Cardcaptor Sakura. And what that might say about them and how they were made. 

And what that opens as a potential crossover between the methods of Clow Reed and Fei Wang, using their magic to create entire life forms to do their bidding. Clow making magical beings who live sealed in cards, and Evil Wolverine creating entire human beings who live out specific tasks to fulfill his plans. 

There’s a lot I want to unpack in that but I’ll wait until I know as much as I can first. Put a pin in that thought. I'll come back to it eventually.

And now he’s gone and confused me all over again. He calls Sakura “the real thing” but isn’t she also a clone? 

Is there some difference in the “realness” of the clones, as compared to “man made objects” ? Does he mean that she's one of the few PERFECT clones that keep their entire magical capacity and look like the original? Because even then I wouldn't call that "the real thing" but maybe that was a murky wording choice?

[3]

... Ok! Sure! Something sure is... beginning!

I guess that's what we're saying!

Oop time looks like it’s resuming again too! Which very much sucks for people who are not named Sakura who are trapped back in the reservoir. (But also, was this ever a Full Sakura? Or just a frozen fragment of one, like the people stuck in the time loop?) (And does it matter? Maybe it doesn't!)

We have two Sakuras to try and protect now - the one we’ve travelled with the whole story, and the one that is the core trauma that Lava Lamp has lived with his entire life. 

Fun!

OH AND THE CHILD SAKURA RIGHT ABOUT TO SUCCUMB TO THE CURSE CAN SEE HER FUTURE CLONE SELF HANGING IN THE AIR AS THE DARKNESS FINALLY CLOSES IN AROUND HER. 

[5]

OOP THERE HE GOES

I’m actually not sure exactly what he’s doing in that last panel but it looks like this 

[7]

Mokona is still here! 

I know this is The Moment That Is Occurring Starting Now but I’m immediately distracted by Mokona’s eyes. Which always do that, kind of, but like

Snatched

She’s out here with full Shoujo Eye Magic and I love that for her. 

Meanwhile we’re talking about feathers or something I guess let’s pay attention

I am so so so very over the way he explains things but yes, yes we are aware that things have changed. In the past and the future. And that the universe is falling apart. It has been completely impossible to miss at any point ever. Thank you for the continuous reminder. 

"There wasn’t a feather here before but now there is." That’s not hard to explain Evil Wolverine why do you have to do this every time. 

I don’t think I have the language context to understand his point about the cadence of people’s names so I’m ignoring that and just focusing on the other things

Is he talking about Acid Tokyo

We haven’t seen any other world where they are fiercely fighting over water in a desert

Is he implying this is Acid Tokyo

IS HE

I'm just going to turn the page to double check before going on about this too long BUT PLEASE PICTURE ME LIKE THIS FOR THE MOMENT

[4]

OH THAT’S SO SUPPORTIVE

GO LAVA LAMP FULFILL YOUR DREAMS! GRAB HER HAND!

YOU CAN STILL SAVE HER (?)

I’m not convinced that they’ll be able to save both Sakuras here but still let’s see how it goes!

Points for trying!

AHH THE HUSBANDS FACING EVIL WOLVERINE TOGETHER

We had this moment before already a few chapters ago BUT WE HAVE IT AGAIN SO I’M HAPPY ALL OVER AGAIN. AND THIS TIME WITH THE REAL DEAL.

THE PARALLEL STEP.

THE MOVING IN SYNC.

They are massively injured and things aren't looking amazing but they’re buying time for Lava Lamp to save his Sakura and they’re facing Evil Wolverine down IN PERSON instead of through a portal this time. 

Also Fai has his magic back now SO REMATCH?

KILL HIM??