Manga Match 93 Cardcaptor Sakura

This is a real childhood nostalgia moment for me. When I was in elementary school, before I knew anything about the world of anime and manga, I went to the bookstore with my grandparents and encountered Cardcaptor Sakura in the form of this tome of comics that you read from right to left. I didn't know what manga was and I didn't really know what I was getting into, but I really liked that book. I liked it so much that I tried to find more online and I found these random, really poor quality rips of the anime on Youtube or something and watched those. But then someone took them down I think so that was the short life of my independently discovered love of this manga. 

Fast forward like 10 years and I finally finished the manga. To be honest, I think I had the second or third volume of the manga all along, because only halfway through did things start to look familiar and it made sense why I was always so confused over what was happening. 

{Spoilers, but it's pretty cutesy so not a whole lot of plot twist}

As we all know, Cardcaptor Sakura is a magical girl manga created by the iconic CLAMP. It centers around this elementary school girl Sakura and her quest commissioned by Kero-chan (aka Kerberos) to capture all the unruly Clow Cards wreaking havoc on her city. Clow Cards are kind of like spirits trapped inside each of the cards with a different power such as illusion or fire and were all created by this famous powerful magician named Clow Reed. Sakura goes around with her friend Tomoyo and later on Shaoran to capture the cards. This is the basic summary of the first arc anyway. In the second arc, Clow Reed's presence is mysteriously felt after the Clow Cards have been captured and mischief is afoot once again in the city. To deal with this new obstacle, Sakura changes the Clow Cards into Sakura Cards and becomes more powerful along the way. At the pinnacle of this second arc, Clow reveals himself to be reincarnated as Eriol, a transfer student in Sakura's class. He needed Sakura to gain magical strength in order to split his magic into two so that he was no longer the most powerful magician and could live a normal life. 

While the plot may seem a little bit childish and like every hero story, I think there's a bit of charm to be found in the whimsy of childhood found in this manga. Because it centers around elementary school children there's lots of wonder and innocence to be found. And there's quite a bit of diversity in terms of Yukito and Touya being a canon ship as well as Tomoyo's unrequited love for Sakura. 

Maybe I'm just partial due to the childhood nostalgia factor, but this was such a fun read. It really brought me back to my little magical girl stint and made me really appreciate the genre once again. I think it's obvious that I'd say you should read the manga. It's full of a little girl with a can-do and hopeful spirit saving the world and all of her friends supporting her along the way. It's wholesome and whimsical and delightful beyond words and I think if you like my recommendations, you'll find this one to your liking as well!

Manga Match 44 Migawari Hakushaku no Bouken

23 Sept 2018

Well, I've officially moved into my dorm for the year and the good part is that I'm not really homesick to the point of tears this time. The bad part is that there is no kitchen in this building. I took all of the luxuries from last year for granted and now I miss it :((((

{Spoilers}

Well this is another gender swap kind of manga that's set in this fantastical ~medieval(?)~ era (LOL it's hard to describe because I know little to nothing about what kind of era it's supposed to be set in). There's this girl Mireille who has to stand in as her twin brother inside the royal court and while she's there she encounters many interesting people. She takes part in many of the mysteries that unfold such as the secret plot to kill one of the princesses of a nearby kingdom and all of the plot twists that came along with it.

I was reminded a bit of Clannad with the fact that Mireille and her family own a bakery and yet she's such a terrible breadmaker similar to Nagisa's mom.

It's kind of hard to summarize something that had such a complex plot for only being 32 chapters, so if this summary ish thing doesn't make any sense please just don't mind it. In fact it was so complex that I don't even think I got some of the more nuanced mystery points. It's definitely a manga that you could reread and probably gain more insight on into everyone's hidden motives and such, especially the king's.

{Ahah I just woke up, maybe I should've picked a better time to write this}

Overall though it was a pretty interesting read. There was just enough mystery, and the normal amount of romantic misunderstandings for it to be shoujo, and a bit of comedy as well which made it enjoyable to read. If you're looking for something a bit more dimensional than your straight up shoujo, you should consider reading this one.

I just had to add this one because Fred is actually gold. It's hard to read him since he is always scheming and plotting things from multiple angles, so it's hard to tell if he was really scared of having to do a test of courage in the haunted house or if that was just an excuse for him to go on vacation or investigate other threats to the royal family.

When Richard is not only the main interest, but also the castle's hero.