TSUBASA: Reservoir Chronicle; Volume 1

In the mythical land of Clow, the brilliant but romantically clueless teenager Syaoran is working on an archeological dig, while his friend Princess Sakura works up the courage to tell him she loves him. Unfortunately, just as she's about to, a mysterious symbol robs her of her memories and scatters them across countless parallel worlds. What follows next is no surprise: Syaoran vows to restore her memories and embarks on a quest, joined by a wizard, a ninja and a Pokémon-like creature. In this first volume, the motley group finds itself negotiating with an interdimensional witch and visiting the Hanshin Republic, a parallel world obsessed with Japan's perennially second-place baseball team. While Clamp (the Japanese collective of women manga creators) has pitched this work as a more sophisticated take on its source material (the Cardcaptor Sakura series), the art is stereotypical manga: lithe figures, occasionally confusing layouts and lots of cutesy chibi figures. Alas, the writing is equally confusing. Characters appear and disappear with great fanfare but little foundation, and if the dramatis personae "scorecard" in the back of the book is any indication, half of the central ragtag fellowship aren't even characters in the series. Still, Clamp taps into some story lines that are likely to pay off. Fans of Cardcaptor Sakura will enjoy this; everyone else will be left scratching their heads. (May)