Sunday, November 28, 2010

[Review] Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus Book 1

Here's another one of my slapdash reviews.
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Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus Book 1 (of 4) published by Dark Horse is like the previously released omnibuses; nicely made, great compilation, heavy, wanting hardback. Someone commented in a previous post, and asked how the Chobits omnibus binding stood up against the test of reading. The binding was strong, but the book is heavy. I'm sure I will be happy to fork over another $10 for the Kindle version. I'm fairly careful with my books in general, and I don't really read my books more than once in a short period of time, so I could not accurately predict how well these omnibuses will stand against time and multiple readings. CCS Book 1 is about 586 pages (with the illustrations). It's a large book; larger than the original manga size and larger (but thinner) than the Chobits omnibus; coincidentally the size of the original Rayearth manga. Out of the two translators credited, one was also cited as the translator for Tokyopop's version. Of course, the editor is different. I appreciate the time that Dark Horse has taken to review the prior English translation. The translation is smooth, and there were no americanizations that I could see.

I have a scattered collection of CCS; a few original Japanese, Kodansha's bilingual version and a couple of Tokyopop's volumes (see above photo for size comparisons). Again, I do appreciate being able to collect the whole series with all the colored illustrations affordably through Dark Horse's release. On the slightly downside, the colored pages seem awkwardly inserted as compared to the Clover & Chobits releases. The original colored pages are still in b&w, but the said illustrations are either compiled in the back of the book or inserted inside probably not, but seemingly randomly ordered. I suppose it's not too big a deal since the pages do not consist of panels from the story. Anyway, I recommend these omnibuses for any CLAMP fan and to anyone who enjoys the magical girl genre of manga.

[Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus Book 1 @ Amazon]
[Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus Book 2 @ Amazon] - release date December 21st

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