Honestly that middle panel is haunting. It might just be because we know how she arrived here, and that this is the only world her soul exists in right now, but still. There’s such a sad tilt to her eyes that it hurts.
It’s entirely possible that this lines up exactly with events in Tsubasa too. This might be the first time she opens her eyes in the world of dreams at all, and Watanuki was there to greet her. That might be less “a possibility” and more “exact canon”, so I’m just going to check.
YES OK HERE WE GO. Yuuko’s exact words:
This meeting on their shared birthday is a central meeting that changes the future itself. And Lava Lamp knows what’s happening too.
The next moment makes a lot more sense as well:
Lava Lamp WAS aware that Watanuki was on the verge of being written out of existence, but Yuuko assured him that his life is safe at the moment. I’m not sure if Lava Lamp was concerned about the moment we’ve already seen in xxxHolic or another one, but either way I would LOVE to know how he knows all these things.
I can’t imagine how little sense this must make without both series happening at the same time.
I was kind of expecting them to say something a bit more important if this is such a Future Changing moment, but that’s actually the end of the conversation.
Either way, they’ve met!
And the sheer relief on Sakura’s face when she realises her plan has succeeded and she’s ended up exactly where she needs to be (despite the 50/50 chance) is so uplifting I kind of want to cry.
Here we are again with some excellent translation notes about the first part of Volume 20, all from the wonderful @giniroangou.
Highlights Include: Tube mysteries solved!, Fai’s dramatics actually making sense, wonderful explanations of Fai’s lies, Yuuko Queen of sass, Watanuki will change the future!, a touching Lava Lamp moment, and oh god the Fai flashback gets worse?
Chapter 150
p.9 - Yuuko is still talking about a one-in-two chance here, not two-in-one. A couple of the speech bubbles are also swapped around - first she explains the body/soul separation, then the two worlds Sakura has gone to.
p.12 - Kurogane’s words to Fai are even more straight-forward in the original text. Just: “Don’t hurt anyone else with that sword. Including yourself.”
p.18 - Mokona and Yuuko aren’t talking about the store being different here, they’re saying that the inside of the tube is not in the same place as the store.
p.19 - An alternate translation for the dream world Sakura went to could be “The World of ‘Dreams’.” Once again for clarification, this is NOT in reference to Yuuko’s shop - the inside and outside of that tube are in different places.
p.20 - “My man Lantis” is BEAUTIFUL and I wouldn’t change a thing about it, but unfortunately it’s much less funny in Japanese. Eagle says “uchi no Lantis” which is basically like “our Lantis” - it’s an expression that indicates someone as part of the speaker’s in-group, so it can be used for a family member, a member of an organization, etc.
Lantis doesn’t actually say “I saw the future,” just “I had a dream,” though they would amount to the same thing.
p.24 - I would translate Fai’s line as, “Sakura-chan knew what I was lying about.” It’s not that she knew he was lying but that she knew the truth behind it.
Chapter 151
p.26 - This is a continuation of Fai’s final line from the previous chapter, so the lie Sakura knew about was that Fai knew one of her feathers was in Celes. Also, they dropped the honorific in the translation but Fai is still saying “Sakura-chan.”
p.28 - Fai is saying here that he found out at Yuuko’s shop that Sakura and Syaoran were searching for the feathers but he never told them about the one used to make Chii.
p.29 - It’s obvious from the flashback, but Syaoran is talking about what happened when they all arrived in the first world they were sent to (by Yuuko not Yukito.)
p.30 - Mokona isn’t talking in general terms, but saying specifically that from the moment she awoke at Yuuko’s shop she could sense a feather there but couldn’t tell who in the group had it.
Fai then says to Lava Lamp, “That’s why you kept your distance from me.”
Again, this is not really about Fai lying in general but about the specific lies people around him were already aware of. He’s basically saying to Yuuko, “You knew what some of my other lies were too, didn’t you?”
p.33 - Fai refers to his wish to go with the group as something that was devised/planned - it’s the same word they’ve used previously to talk about Fei Wang arranging for all of them to go on this journey, so I’d assume that’s what he’s referencing here.
p.34 - Kurogane asks why Sakura wanted to go into the tube, not why she’s living there.
p.39 - Slight adjustment: Fai’s saying he wouldn’t mind gouging out his eye if he could, but he can’t because losing all his magic along with both eyes would probably kill him and he can’t die yet.
Chapter 152
p.45 - In case it wasn’t clear, Kurogane is connecting his punch here with his line from the previous chapter about punching Sakura.
p.46 - Yuuko’s criticism of Kurogane after he says, “Hey, Witch,” is much more entertaining in the Japanese version. She says, “On top of being beyond rude, there isn’t a shred of taste in the way you address me.” Kurogane’s comeback is the ever-eloquent, “Shut up.”
p.47 - It’s not actually the meeting between Sakura and Watanuki that Yuuko says will trigger another change to the future, but Watanuki himself.
p.48 - I would change Yuuko’s line about Watanuki vanishing to, “Watanuki hasn’t vanished either” (presumably in addition to Sakura’s soul not having vanished.) Then she says that “for now” Watanuki’s identity has nothing to do with them. It’s an ongoing state that has the potential to change in the future.
p.50 - Lava Lamp says nothing about Fei Wang slicing out Sakura’s memories - he’s saying that Fei Wang wants her body with the dimensional memories etched into it. (This isn’t new information btw - Yuuko already explained it to the group back in Acid Tokyo.)
p.51 - We have another “Syaoran” with quotation marks from Mokona here.
p.52 - Let’s re-translate Lava Lamp’s lines here because they came out super awkward: “The reason I didn’t say anything despite what I knew was that Sakura… the Princess trusted you. Even if you’d lied, the Princess trusted you, lies and all.”
p.53 - Lava Lamp only speaks for himself here; he specifically says “I’m going to trust you too.”
p.57 - Again, we have “Syaoran” in quote marks, this time from Fei Wang. I’m sure everyone’s tired of me pointing these out, so just assume the quotation marks should be there from now on unless I say otherwise. And the translators are very inconsistent with this, but Lava Lamp’s relationship to Clow Reed has so far only ever been denoted with the word “chisuji”/血筋. He’s part of Clow’s lineage, but we don’t know anything beyond that.
Chapter 153
p.62 - Eagle specifically says that he’s offering the clothing as an apology for keeping silent.
p.63 - Kurogane could just be talking about Fei Wang watching them - he doesn’t specify whether it’s a single other person or multiple other people.
p.76 - More precisely, Eagle says here that Lantis lying would have come to nothing.
Yuuko says that the one Sakura saw being “stabbed” in her vision was Lava Lamp. The implication matches what Fei Wang was talking about in the previous chapter - that Sakura put herself in Lava Lamp’s place.
Chapter 154
p.84 - Lava Lamp refers to Sakura’s feathers as both her memories and her heart (“kokoro”), furthering the parallel with Syaoran.
Chapter 155
p.101 - This is actually a complete sentence in Japanese. It contains the same information as the translated version, but since pronouns aren’t necessary it stands on its own and can be assumed to mean, “You killed me.” It’s also written entirely in katakana, which can indicate stilted speech and here I think is meant to just drive home how horrific this is.
p.102-103 - I can see why the translator struggled a bit with these pages because a lot of the Valerian titles are unconventional. The twins’ father is the “teiou” written with the characters for “younger brother” and “king” (弟王), and the other ruler is the “kyouou” written with the characters for “older brother” and “king” (兄王). A little later it’s clarified that the “kyouou” is the country’s king/emperor - the reading of the word is “ou” meaning “king” but the kanji is 皇 meaning “emperor.” The twins’ mother is referred to as “okisaki,” (御妃) which can refer to an empress, a queen, or a princess consort. The twins themselves are called “koushi” (皇子), meaning “imperial prince(s).” It’s kind of hard to tell from all of this what the best representation of these terms would be in English, but I would guess that this is intended to be an imperial family, with either the younger brother next in line to inherit the throne if the older brother has no children or with dual rulers who were reduced to a single ruler once one of them died.
Whatever the case, as has already been explained, the twins’ parents both died and their fate was left in the hands of their uncle (their father’s older brother and the current ruler of the country.) Specific to the official translation, the “elder prince” refers to their uncle the kyouou, and “his majesty” who passed away is their father the teiou. The “royal consort” who killed herself is their mother.
I also want to point out that in this chapter we see the return of the term “fukou,” which we’ve seen Fai use in Acid Tokyo and Himawari use to discuss her effect on the people around her. The official translation often equates this word to unhappiness but as I’ve said before, I think it would be better represented as “misfortune.” Where this translation says that the twins’ mother committed suicide because “life held no joy anymore” I would interpret it as “because she’d brought such misfortune into the world.” Just keep in mind that generally when words like “unhappiness” and “sorrow” pop up in this part of the story, that’s what they’re translated from. Another word that gets used a few times in reference to the twins is “kyouchou” (凶兆), meaning “evil omen.”
p.104 - Though the implied concern here could be the twins taking the throne, the original text just refers to them one day surpassing their uncle’s power.
p.108 - “And the people shall be happy” isn’t necessarily saying that the people are going to be happy about this situation, just that the king believes enclosing the twins in a bubble of their own misery is going to allow the people to live happy/blessed lives. You could probably interpret the line either way though.
p.110 - The king doesn’t just say that one of the twins must die to get out of this situation, but that one must kill the other.
Chapter 156
p.136 - I had left a comment saying the king was telling the twins to pay for their sins rather than atone, but I’m taking that back! There are two words that sound the same when spoken (“aganau”), but depending on the kanji they’re written with one means “to pay for” (購う) and the other means “to atone for” (贖う). In this case, the one used is “atone.” Still horrific though!
That wraps it up for now. I am really regretting doing this by page numbers with all the black pages coming up, but otherwise thrilled to be back in the game! I hope all my babbling has been somewhat informative and as always, please remember that I can make mistakes too so I am always open to questions, suggestions, corrections, etc.
I see the chain is actually being used for it’s non-aesthetic purpose.
Which, like. Makes you wonder if CLAMP had this in mind when they designed the chains in the first place, but there you go!
Chains on your clothing: can backfire.
But that aside, Kurogane does insist on what I said before - this isn’t just Fai’s burden, and he shouldn’t be the only one to pay it. The self-sacrificing attitude has never gotten any of them anywhere - and has, in fact, kind of just killed Sakura.
I’m not saying it was a good or bad decision, because it came with a lot of benefits (ie, everyone else not dying), but Kurogane’s point rings pretty true for Sakura’s entire deal as well. She basically took everyone’s self-sacrificing attitudes and outdid them all. She saved them all, and she paid the price for it - but did she need to pay that price alone?
If she had told the rest of the family instead of keeping them in the dark, could they have split the payment and saved her as well?
Yuuko made a similar point in her talks with Sakura, but she can’t directly interfere. Kurogane can, and in his own way, this is him forcibly trying to save the family from themselves.
Like above, I think the first two panels speak a lot more than the dialogue really shows.
Kurogane says he “let” them do what they like, and we’ve talked about his unfortunate rhetoric in this vein back in Acid Tokyo, but if we ignore that his point isn’t bad. He knew they were up to something and being secretive, but he decided not to do anything. In a way, he trusted them to handle their own problems.
And look how that turned out.
Now Fai is continuing the trend by immediately trying to sacrifice his vision, and Kurogane is drawing the line. He can’t trust them to make their own wishes and deals anymore, because it keeps leading back to this - to their inability to see that their family is right here and can help and support them to make sure that they don’t HAVE to make these huge self sacrifices as their default decisions.
So TLDR: Kurogane isn’t trusting them with that anymore and is stepping in whether they like it or not.
HI YES I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW EVERY THING ABOUT THIS
Is this something we’ll see more of in xxxHolic
Did I do something out of order
Can I just have this immediately
Oh man
All that aside? Sakura and Watanuki being friends? HELL. YES.
I hadn’t considered that Watanuki’s dream meetings with people would enable him to meet Sakura, but hot damn am I happy it’s happening.
I’m especially interested in Yuuko saying that this will be “the trigger that changes the future”. I could spend all day theorising about that, but I assume it’ll be beyond my realm to theorise and will make sense eventually anyway.
The extra bonus is that Lava Lamp seems to know exactly who she’s talking about, which again shows his extreme awareness of and connection to Watanuki, even though Watanuki doesn’t recognise him at all. Yet.
There is something deep and special connection this Syaoran, Sakura, and Watanuki together, I just don’t know what it is.
THE REMNANTS OF THE FAMILY MIGHT BE FINE AFTER ALL.
Yuuko watching approvingly from a distance is me to the core.
Also nobody asked you, Eagle Vision.
OH!
Ok, Yuuko smiling happily? Pure. Blessed. So many good and wonderful images in this chapter despite everything that has just happened.
A COLLECTION OF GOLDEN SIGHTS TO FUEL MY SOUL.
And now: Evil Wolverine’s plans being foiled.
THE GOLDEN SIGHTS CONTINUE.
I... Oh. Oh my god ok so the next page is a bit of a THING and there’s blood so it’s going under the cut BUT IT’S GOT SOME PLOT IN IT TOO SO THE CHOICE IS YOURS
OK EVIL WOLVERINE YOU OFFICIALLY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE DOING ANY MORE.
In short, he knew Yuuko would be too clever to fall for the Fai Trap. But the person he killed Fai’s Twin in order to place a curse on Fai to kill wasn’t Sakura at all, but Lava Lamp Guy.
WHICH.
LIKE.
EVIL WOLVERINE? ARE YOU OK?
HE WAS IN YOUR HOUSE.
THIS WHOLE TIME.
YOU COULD HAVE DONE THIS AT ANY TIME.
And ok, it’s probably safe to assume that there was a Specific Event he was trying to manufacture, where Fai killing Lava Lamp would have been excellent for his plans or whatever, but it also means he didn’t have the foresight to predict any of what went down in Infinity.
So his future plans are Long and Complicated, killing certain people at particular points in time to trigger long drawn out events twenty years later, but his plans are nowhere near flawless and he’s guessing at some factors. For example, Sakura not becoming stronger than Fai before Syaoran did.
The triple world connection was probably what threw his calculations off, and apparently this turn of events will lead to a brighter future than the one he wants, but still. I’m thoroughly unimpressed with him not thinking that SAKURA might get stronger than SYAORAN.
It’s possible I’m just outraged at anyone under valuing Sakura, even if it leads to good outcomes.
Still, things to hold on to;
Lava Lamp is slated to gain his full power “back” in the future, which means it’s missing at the moment. I thought he had all of his soul back from the other Syaoran at this point, but I guess not! I’m not sure if this means they were gonna confront Syaoran, Win, and Take back the rest of whatever power is still in him - or if something else is holding him back. I’m not particulaly worried about the difference just yet.
What I AM also annoyed at is Syaoran being called Clow Reed’s successor.
Because, just.
SINCE WHEN?
Descendent, sure. But successor?
The Tsubasa’s Clow Reed’s successor should be Touya (or Sakura).
The Cardcaptor Sakura’s Clow Reed’s successor should be Sakura. Or, by the end of the series (spoilers for Cardcaptor Sakura), Clow Reed’s successor should still be Sakura, for even more complicated reasons than before.
Is there another alternate timeline where Syaoran somehow inherits Sakura’s birthright instead because I don’t want it.
Mokona summing it all up and bringing them all in for the united goal they should have had in the first place.
It’s the corrected version of what Fai tried to do - and this time taking the whole family into account without any extreme self sacrifice.
And I’m THRILLED that Mokona is being counted as an individual here who can also contribute to their shared goal of saving Sakura.
The bottom panel is still wider and more empty with the loss of Sakura’s presence (which is fitting, because they’re all feeling it) but the goal is so pure and I’m THRILLED about it.
Oop yes! And now it circles back around to readdress Fai’s doubts.
I feel like Lava Lamp’s words also come off a little harsh, calling Fai “the liar” in the third person like that, but again, the message is meant to be pure. Sakura trusted in Fai (which is a strong point) and so they’re going to trust Sakura’s judgement - which I feel is less of a strong point, but coming from Lava Lamp, maybe it’s as close as he’s going to get. He doesn’t have the extended time with Fai that the others have. Mokona and Kurogane have the room to trust Fai on the same merit that Sakura did, trusting him because of who he is and not because someone else told them to.
But! Sakura is still a positive enough influence that this should still be pretty convincing to Fai.
