Sakura, princess of Clow, has an unusual experience when her friend Syaoran, a renowned archaeologist, has to rescue her when she finds herself growing ghostly wings. When the wings dissipate Yukito, Clow’s high priest, realises that the wings contained Sakura’s memories and soul, without which she will die. Unwilling to let this happen her friends set out on a quest, from world to world, across the dimensions, to retrieve what she had lost...

Book thirteen of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle: This Book’s a real Trip, sees Sakura and her group appear in the country of Recort, a sort of pseudo Victorian world where magic is real. This is Clamp's most self referential book so far. The more you read it the more you realize just how many characters have been transposed from their original stories to appear in what is ultimately a fairly light quest story. Still, I suppose that they do own the characters so they can do what they like, but it would have been more intriguing if they had attempted to somehow pull all the series together to make one great mythology. The book is starting to feel like a missed opportunity.

This part of the story is really just a prologue to the central one, as Syaoran is whisked away from the others after he opens a book. He finds himself in a land which resembles feudal Japan ruled over by a lord who bares an uncanny resembles to his friend Kurogane.

Ultimately the book is no more than one extended flashback, interesting enough if you have come this far in the series, lord knows there has been little in the way of background information in the previous volumes. Whilst I’m sure that fans of the series will have their own favourite character to do a back-story with, you get the gruff Kurogane. Apart from this extended flashback there is little in the way of any progress in the main story.

In line with the other books in the series you get the honorifics explained, a couple of pages of translation notes, and another bonus story Tsubasa: World of the Untold Story Number Five and a sneak preview of Volume Fourteen.

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Charles Packer