I breezed through Diana Wynne Jones‘ Chronicles of the Chrestomanci vol 1 and found it good 🙂

I read the first couple volumes of Tsubasa and enjoyed it. The storyline focusing on versions of previous characters across multiple dimensions that are the same yet not the same wasn’t as continuity heavy as I thought it might be. It doesn’t seem as if Sakura is the exact duplicate of the character in Cardcaptor Sakura, although with not having read the earlier manga I’m not totally sure.

I picked up Alichino, and didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. I should probably try to read it again in one sitting instead of breaking up the reading experience across a few days. I was a little confused by the continuity, and the similar look to some of the characters made it hard for me to keep track of what was going on. The art was great, but for me there was something a little static about the character’s facial expressions. I kept thinking that the characters looked mildly annoyed when they should have been very upset. The plot revolves around the magical Alichino who grant wishes and prey on humans, and a haunted boy with amnesia, Tsugiri, who seems to have a special bond with them.

I picked up Wild Com, a manga collection featuring three stories by Yumi Tamura. Basara is one of my favorite series, so I’ll try anything by this author. In “Psychic Squad Wild Com” a girl comes to terms with her psychic powers and her past. “The Beasts of June” is a tale of young love in the underworld with much nature symbolism. “The Eye of the Needle” shows a stuck-up male model get what’s coming to him after he treats those around him with indifference. Wild Com was ok, but I really think that Tamura’s strengths are showcased more in a long-running story.