Before the demise of the TOKYOPOP Forum, I told many in The Official Cardcaptor Sakura Thread that I would do a comparison between the new omnibus released by Dark Horse Comics and the TOKYOPOP manga version. Note that the series I'm comparing is the re-released version and not the original one with the flipped art and left-to-right though I may do it at a later date.
Differences in each one:
* The DHC version is bigger and I don't mean the thickness of the book since it IS an omnibus containing the first three CCS books. The pages are larger though if you look at the art, there are some space around the borders of the pages. In the TP books, the artwork bleeds off the edges, not enough to really notice too much and nothing of any real significence is cut off because of it.
* Since the claim is that DHC utilized the original artwork for their version, to me it shows in the art being more crisp and the shading showing up better. But then again, since the quality of the paper in the DHC version is superior in both quality and whiteness over the TP version, the printing of the artwork stands out that much more.
* TP took out many of the Japanese sound FX which are printed during the action sequences of the manga while the DHC kept them all intact. The translations have only very slight variations but nothing drastic enough to be an annoyance. DHC seems in some point to make the speech sound less informal than its TP counterpart. The lettering, while bigger than the TP version, to me is more appealing to the eyes in the DHC version, varying between using all caps and not, especially during Sakura's summoning of the cards and staff.
* The one thing I liked more in the TP books: "HOE!!!" screamed by Sakura, which is almost her trademark thanks to the anime and the TP translation. No trademark screams in the DHC omnibus.
* Color pages added in the omnibus, some are reprints of posters and of the 'Clow Card' found in the TP version. Nothing new but nice to see some color in what is otherwise CCS' black and white world.
So that's pretty much it in a nutshell. If you have the original TP series, you're really not missing much by not getting the DHC Omnibus but as a collector and die-hard Sakura fan, you bet I got it, as well as the old TP books, the original Japanese books and the bi-lingual books. Later on, I may also do comparisons about those versions as well.
I would love to hear comments from anyone so post them if you want to know more or if you want to add your 2 cents on this. Thanks
