Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle Volume 1 Comparison (Del Rey and Chuang Yi)

Today, I give you an overview of the differences between Chuang Yi and Del Rey releases of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle volume 1. The tale of the ongoing struggle of one boy and the measures he was forced to resort to in order to restore his childhood friend's memories. Teaming up with a foul-mouthed swordsman and an easy going sorcerer, he travels through the different parallel worlds looking for these memories all the while knowing his friend will never remember the bond they once shared due to the price he paid to save her.

So...it's the anime equivalent of "Sliders"....cool! 


This is the manga artist group, Clamp's, first voyage into the shounen genre and an interesting parallel story to another of their titles, xxxHolic, which crosses over with the story multiple times. Some also consider it a spin-off of Cardcaptor Sakura due to the reuse and reference of many of its characters. 

I was given a first taste of Clamp's work, when I was 12, with the Cardcaptors dub which had been accidentally recorded along with Digimon Zero Two. Yes, I know what the general opinion of the dub is, but let's not get into that...yet. Anyway, this led to me not only discovering one of my favourite anime of all time but years later discovering this rollercoaster of a series, which has succeeded and acknowledged it.

But enough of my blabbing!

Important Note: Because I don't own a copy of the Japanese volume nor have any knowledge of the language, aside from the covers, I will not be comparing the English releases to the original Japanese.  

Also, there may be spoilers, but I'll try my best. 

The Covers

  The prize for being closest to the Japanese cover goes to Del Rey this week with only a logo change and colour fix really separating them. The contrast is also significantly stronger on Del Rey's cover. It might just be the image I found, but the original Japanese cover looks really washed out compared to it's English counterparts. Chuang Yi's window-boxing the image of Syaoran and Sakura, unfortunately, obscures the artwork and prevents us from seeing what is visible in the other two covers. Though the Chuang Yi logo keeps the wing symbol behind the title, it also has that vertical strip of white going down and along the bottom. I'd imagine that's probably to make the text easier to read. Sadly there's no way for us to know if the text is an accurate translation or not.

Well, they all use green, I'll say that much. It's funny how Del Rey was closer to the original with their front cover, but by recycling the same images and a similar layout to the Japanese, Chuang Yi have brought it to a tie with their back. Finally, BLURBS, the Japanese back cover actually has a blurb this time around. You live long enough, you see everything.

Artwork

	Del Rey	Chuang Yi
Cover Design	Unknown	Eva Lee
Touch-up and Lettering	Dana Hayward	Word Image Pte Ltd

Colour pages?!!!
No, your eyes do not deceive you. The first 4 pages of the Chuang Yi release are in full colour, which is a really nice bonus. To Del Rey's credit though, they printed their manga light enough that all the important details are still perfectly visible. In fact, once you get into the story, details like the fine crosshatching are much easier to see in the Del Rey release while in the Chuang Yi it sometimes looks faded as though it was printed too lightly.

Translation and Terminology

	Del Rey	Chuang Yi
Translator	Anthony Gerard	Sharon Ho
Adaptor	Anthony Gerard	Josclynne Kua
Editor	Unknown	Flora Leow P. C.

What attracted me to the Chuang Yi release, in the first place, was the rumour that all the Japanese honorifics had been translated unlike Del Rey, who choose to leave them in. After a long search, I finally got a copy and was ecstatic that the rumour was true.  Don't get me wrong, I don't avoid manga that leaves in Japanese honorifics, but in my own personal opinion: this is an English translation so give me the full English experience. The only person who has a reason to use Japanese honorifics is Kurogane, but he doesn't seem to bother. Fai comes from a world that doesn't use kanji so why would he address people with 'san'.

Once again, we run into the same problem where most of the sound effects remaining untranslated. The Del Rey release isn't perfect in this regard either with many sound effects being bizarrely translated or possibly even just being romanizations of the Japanese. The few that Chuang Yi does translate are done fairly well and win the prize for being more understandable then Del Rey's. It's just a pity that they are few and far between.

Annoyingly, the Chuang Yi release has no contents page making it difficult to find a specific chapter and speaking of the chapters. Though I will give praise for a nicer looking font, Chuang Yi has called both chapters 1 and 5 by the same name. Awakenings of some kind do occur in each of those chapters, but you'd think they'd try to come with something different. It could be a mistake. 

Hitzusen is mentioned in both versions and I can't help, but question why it isn't simply destiny or fate. Chuang Yi even translates it to that in the second speech bubble as inevitable. I suppose "hitsuzen" does have more of a ring of mystery to it.

Character Notes
Syaoran

Just thought I'd include this as it feels like there's more passion.

Sakura

How couldn't he guess her feelings from a greeting like that?!

Nothing much to say as Sakura hasn't really changed much. 

I must mention though that they reference the title a lot more in Chuang Yi's version, often talking about Sakura's Tsubasa rather than her wings or feathers.

Kurogane
Oh, where to begin with Kurogane.

Shall I start with how Chuang Yi left the last letter off the name of his sword and move on from there?

Kurogane! You're from an alternate version of feudal Japan, what with this dialogue?! He throws out quite a few more curse words then Del Rey, but these word choices!!!!!

Wait, what?! She's not firing you into the air. You know it's bad when I have to look at another translation to figure out what on Earth he's saying or meant to be saying.


Fai/Fye

A simple respelling of his full name that my research tells me is an acceptable version of his name. I think with his polite manner of speaking, the translator wanted to make him sound more refined. However, that notion falls apart in later dialogue.


 This happens with many of the characters almost as if the translator was eager to show how many different English words they knew that meant the same thing. Mission accomplished, but they've failed to understand the context in which those words should normally be used and it vastly changes the tone of the panel.

Oh and not forgetting his little assistant.

Mokona
The super annoying cuddly anime sidekick that guides them through the portals and occasionally speaks in the third person. annoying in both versions.

Princess Tomoyo

In some bizarre way, I want that on a t-shirt. Maybe the translator thought with Princess Tomoyo's expression that she was joking.

Again, this is Japan so why are french words here. I accepted that with Shigure, in Fruits Basket, because that was modern day Japan. This is feudal Japan which to my knowledge, has had no contact with France. Still, it's a different universe so maybe they have.

Yuko

Yuko is still the sleuth combination of a sorcerous and saleswoman, but she has a different title in each release.

Kudan

The term kudan is still used, but the master of flames actually gives his name.

Del Ray's Strengths

The entire book is Del Rey's strength. There are too many to list, but I'll try.

I keep wondering if that could've been something like"I will protect her, my world, with my own hands" (complete guess). It probably would have been Chuang Yi's strength in that case. Considering it got a full page, it was probably a deep meaningful declaration, but Del Rey simplifided it and Chuang Yi fumbled it.

Though this is explained fairly well by Yuko in both releases, Chuang Yi confuses the reader by constantly swaping in the word 'world' for 'realm' and 'dimension' while Del Rey just sticks to 'world'.

Chuang Yi's Strengths

This panel made more sense to in Chunag Yi's release, if you can believe that. After all, why address a king that was already asleep.

Story Inaccuracies

To my own shock, I only found a few in Del Rey's release, though I suppose you could almost count most of Chuang Yi's release as such due to it's characters that are always switching between formal and casual dialogue. The soldiers that attack the kingdom of Clow at the beginning clearly have swords. No bows and arrows to be seen.

Fai's name is also spelt differently in the notes at the back of Del Rey's release.

At the End of the Day

Del Rey is probably the one to read as it's quality is consistant throughout and it maintain the nuances of the characters nicely, though at times the dialogue does feel a bit stilted. Chuang Yi had a promising start until it unexpectantly derailed right before my eyes. However when Chuang Yi got something right, it really got it right, but there's not enough of it to balence out the strange word choices. The sad thing is most sentances would have been good if not for a word or two. Most. Unfortunately, I have seen the future and know what's ahead and things will definitely get worse before they get better.

Hope you'll stick it out and join me for volume 2 in the near future.