Nakayoshi 60th Anniversary Edition: Cardcaptor Sakura

By { Justinn } - Friday, June 26, 2015 - No Comments

I have just realised to my sheer horror that I truly need to buck up on my reading after a random browsing at Books Kinokuniya earlier. The paperback mountain in the middle of my bedroom isn't sinking any moment too soon, as I have recently added a little magical spice at the top with much pride. Yeah, take a good look at the shelves in the bookstore and one could just weep in agony. Well, I suppose that it would make some sense to take down one mountain with another mountain, except that in this case I would just require a solid space to move the existing mountain to. Nope, I'm not quite down with some trending ailment which constitutes mindless shopping every now and then. For starters, I actually like reading. I'm just struggling with completion of a book before the next comes along.

Just how many books are towering over my field of vision? I don't wish to exaggerate, but certain things could get out of control if left unrestrained. The last time I ever checked diligently, I was down to only a few books to finish. Those few books however had minds of their own and quite effectively laid out the path of no return. A few gradually became tens. Thankfully, those books came with a little constraint or some. Anyway, I have found to my utmost delight several interesting, jackpot-worthy titles that could very well continue the upkeep of this mountain. I hope that they would stir up a little interest as well in some weary souls. First in line is a commemorative series which I have at long last got hold of. From CLAMP and Nakayoshi come the 60th Anniversary Edition of Cardcaptor Sakura.

I have to say that I wouldn't have expected the many differences between the manga and its anime adaptation if not for the extremely wonderful Wiki articles around for my reading pleasure. For the longest time in my memory, I have preferred the anime as it felt much fuller and colourful with the many different cards tormenting Sakura in her quest to seal all of them and become the true owner. Yeah, I was surprised to discover the considerable gap as in the manga Sakura has only 19 cards to deal with. The manga also opens differently with Sakura already undertaking her duties as Cardcaptor and in the chase for The Jump. Naturally, I was a little confused. Somewhat.

Some storylines were also depicted differently in the manga. As of the first tankoubon, the pursuit of The Watery has left quite the impression; the incident originally took place at the swimming pool, and it was Chiharu AND Sakura who were stuck with the water spiral. The latter hadn't seen it coming though. The anime brought the Tomoeda students to the aquarium instead with the victims being a penguin and its trainer. Touya made a coincidental appearance in the nick of time as a part-timer. The struggles that Sakura faced were somewhat the same. Another card which had a tweaked storyline was The Illusion. I felt that the manga was a lot more gripping in its depiction. Oh, and Tomoyo wasn't hungry anyway (?).

Currently, I'm in the midst of the second tankoubon where Shaoran made his appearance as the transfer student and such. I'm about done with The Sword storyline! Rika-chan looked so awfully cute and mature; her match with Terada-sensei was more refined in the manga. Gosh, I should have realised the manga way before this commemorative edition. Not that I'm complaining about it anyway.