One of the greatest joys in me writing the New Trials of Card Captor Sakura over the years was undeniably the awesome fanwork that I have seen inspired, even in the tiniest bit, by my writing (which in itself is a fanwork inspired by CLAMP). I have seen spin-off fanfiction, fanart and many other creative projects and am always eager to see all the creativity out there. I got a request to make New Trials into a doujinshi many years ago from a reader in Asia, but I never really heard back about the results. Some time last December, Asocialcat (from the Yahoo Group) asked if she could make a manga out of New Trials. I said definitely yes. And as you know, I went in MIA for a while. Somehow, half a year or so has passed by, and Asocialcat-sama has completed the first chapter!
It's a whopping 74 pages. 74 pages!!! It's as many chapters drawn as the average New Trials Chapter, and I know how painstaking it is to draw even a page. Truthfully speaking, I haven't looked back at the first chapter in a long time, and it was so fun reading the chapter in manga-format. It was fun reading it, and I felt like I was reading everything for the first time just because it's in a different medium. I told Asocialcat to take whatever liberality she wants to take with the story, but overall, the first chapter is very faithful to Chapter 1: A New Beginning. I love how you can see how much thought she put into each panel and page, and truthfully am a bit overwhelmed at thinking how much time the project took her. I had so much fun reading the doujinshi, so please go ahead and check it out! here: http://www.butterflyspell.com/ntmanga/
This is a message from our humble Vanessa-sensei (aka Asocialcat): "I apologize for the inconsistent character designs and sketchy artwork. I promise that it'll get better as I get more comfortable. Also, I am planning on getting as far as I can into the series, but don't expect it to be an exact replica of Wish-chan's work. After all, I'm making a sequel to the manga and not the anime, whereas Wish-chan tends to follow the anime more often than the manga."
She is just being overly humble, and she is a very talented artist, writer, singer and pianist, a little bit like our Tomoyo-chan. ^_^ She is a very talented young lady, and do check out her site at: http://www.asocialcat.butterflyspell.com/ and give her feedback either via the New Trials Yahoo Group or at the New Trials Facebook Group (and please join either group if you have not already done so!)
