It will come as no surprise to anyone who has read some of my other reviews that I'm fan of CLAMP’s work (and have been ever since I first came across ‘Cardcaptor Sakura’ years ago on TV.) So this truly gorgeous collection taken from CLAMP’s series ‘Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle’ appealed to me from the instant I saw the cover. Here we have over a hundred pages of full-colour artwork, some (for promotional items, such as telephone cards) never seen before in the UK, as well as some of the splash pages already published in black-and-white in Del Rey’s editions of the manga. So for anyone who’s been following the further adventures of Sakura and Syaoran, this book offers many delightful vignettes of the leading characters (and travelling companions Fai, Kurogane, and Mokona) in many different guises. There are some impressive double-page spreads of characters who reappear from other CLAMP works too, including Chi, Seishirou, and Ashura-o. 

The artwork will probably appeal to art students and graphic artists as well, for the four mangaka who make up CLAMP have always lavished a great deal of care and attention on their colour plates. At the back of the book (which reads right-to-left) are illuminating little comments from the mangaka on each illustration, mentioning where it was first featured and what the intention was in creating the image. For example:

‘Weekly Shonen Magazine #41 2005: We like situations where large men protect frail girls. So we came up with a concept where Princess Tomoyo is attacked by numerous arrows and Kurogane fends all of them off with his cape. But we think we drew too many arrows (laugh).’

It’s fascinating to read about what CLAMP have done to make their style more ‘shonen’ for ‘Tsubasa.’ If I’m a hundred per cent honest, I have to confess that I personally prefer the art in ‘xxxHolic’ over ‘Tsubasa’ – but that’s a small quibble, as there’s so much to enjoy here.

And as a bonus, there’s a  light-hearted original ‘Tsubasa: the Untold Story #8’ manga at the back.

In Summary
This sumptuous treat is a must-have for CLAMP fans – but may well appeal to illustrators and aspiring mangaka too. Given the high price of most anime and manga art books, Del Rey have priced this Album de Reproductions very attractively – so for anyone with book tokens left to spend, this could be the perfect buy!