CLAMP MMF: Introduction & CLAMP Directory

From Carlos Santos at Anime News Network, “Even in their first book, CLAMP’s florid art style is already fully developed, filling each page with broad-shouldered men, sharp facial features and expressive eyes. Principal artist Mokona Apapa shows great confidence in her linework, rendering the characters with dramatic expressions and poses. These characters look awfully alike, though—”that dude with the dark, wavy hair” could be any one of three or four possible candidates. In fact, it might not even be a dude. RG Veda has its share of androgynous characters, and while Ashura has the excuse of being a young child, Kujaku is just plain confounding. On the other hand, there’s no confusion with the page layouts, which take a straightforward storytelling approach. Even as the panels change in size and shape to fit the action, it’s easy to see what’s going on. Occasional full-page spreads add impact to the artwork, as do the lush backgrounds and exotic outfits that define the land of Tenkai.”

From Michael Hopcroft at RPGnet: “All in all, ‘Man of Many Faces’ is a simple case of a team that usually writes more serious fare setting out to create a manga that just plain fun to read. The artwork is brilliant as usual, the storyline is as serious as a herd of weasels (i.e. not very serious at all), and there will be times when you will be tempted to laugh out loud in places where laughing out loud might not be such a good idea. But CLAMP’s gift for characterization has not deserted them either. Akira and Utako are very interesting characters who have an extremely interesting Romeo-and-Juliet dynamic, especially for their age (Utako is 6, Akira is 9). This is evidently going to be a short series – only two volumes long – and while the second volume has not been translated yet, it will apparently finish the series with the characters much older. An interesting trick, but if anyone can pull it off it’s CLAMP.”

From MJ at Comics Should Be Good: “With its beautiful, clean imagery and striking use of black, Tokyo Babylon is unmistakably CLAMP’s work, though again, it doesn’t show the maturity of their later work, or even X/1999 which began its run before Tokyo Babylon was completed. As early as this work is, however, the visual storytelling is extremely effective, with the same intuitive panel layouts and creative use of space that makes all of CLAMP’s work both a pleasure to look at and easy to read. The artwork shines in black and white, capturing perfectly the stark drama and lurking melancholy of the series, and the story’s seven volumes feel truly epic, largely on the strength of its visuals … For fans of CLAMP’s newer work, Tokyo Babylon provides a glimpse into the group’s past which will be both compelling and familiar. For new readers, it is a great introduction to the CLAMP universe, in all its complex beauty.”

From Lissa Pattillo at Kuriousity: “Overall, CLAMP School Detectives delivers heart-filled mysteries and charming interaction that’s great for a happy-day pick me up. As far as mysteries go, it’ll leave readers more full of warm feelings than edge of their seat suspense, so to each their own in that regard. It’s a definite must read for CLAMP fans who’ve enjoyed any others of the era, such as Man of Many Faces and Dukylon, as the pages are full of relevant character introductions and background cameos. Readers of their newer series, Tsubasa, may find interest in seeing where some of the characters there came from too. This series is one of my favourites and I was delighted to go back to it after all this time. I’ve reread it what feels like a hundred times and it never ceases to bring a smile to my face!”

From Megan Lavey at Mania.com: “The adventures are pretty standard – so standard that they get old very quick. Each chapter consists of Kentaro and Takeshi goofing around, the General saying there’s a mission, Duklyon transforming and encountering the Imonoyama Shopping District Association, fighting some weird monster and then a short epilogue. All of the chapters are self-contained and, frankly, if you read the first chapter, you’ve pretty much read the entire book … There are some bright spots in here. The last chapter pits Duklyon against the Man of 20 Faces (aka Akira from Clamp School Detectives and his own book), and it’s a very funny fight … If you’re going to read this book, take it for what it is – poking fun at general manga storylines and as a foray into the ultimate childhood dream.”

From Katherine Dacey, in an interview with David Welsh at the now-defunct Comic World News, preserved here by Fandemonium CLAMP: “I’m also very fond of Snow Goddess Tales. The images in that volume bear traces of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Japanese scroll painting techniques. They’ve got a beautiful, spare quality that serves the folkloric subject matter and tone perfectly. It’s a great book to give an adult reader who associates manga with Pokemon or Gundam because it really showcases the expressive possibilities of the medium … another one-volume wonder that just doesn’t get enough love from all those Card Captor fans”

From Dusky Fey at Anime Planet: “As expected on CLAMP, all the people all lean and tall with detailed clothing. The highlight of this volume is, without a doubt, the rain dance of the priestesses. It’s absolutely gorgeous! There are some pretty solid fights in here, and the way that magic and enchanted weapons are woven into the cultural fabric is exquisite.The connection between Chun Hyang and Mong Ryong doesn’t fully develop in this volume. Their relationship, or the hint of it that we see, reminds me of Sango and Miroku in InuYasha, though I think Chun Hyang uses violence a bit too easily … I wish there was more here! One volume is not enough to really appreciate the growing love, but the manga that’s presented here is amazing.”

From Shaenon Garrity at ANN/Jason Thompson’s House of 1000 Manga: “Of all CLAMP manga, X just may be the CLAMPiest … Relentlessly dark, intense, and humorless, X disturbed many readers—not to mention parents who flipped through their daughters’ copies of Asuka. From the beginning, the magazine received complaints about the manga’s content … X often seems like a catalog of characters and arresting images in search of a story. The thin plot thread is in constant danger of getting totally lost amid the characters and their countless side stories, and it’s never clear if all the symbolism means anything, or if it’s just there because it looks good … In the end, the central theme of X is the nature and need for human connection.”

From Katherine Dacey at The Manga Critic: “Shonen manga in drag — that’s my quick-and-dirty assessment of CLAMP’s Magic Knight Rayearth, a fantasy-adventure that adheres so closely to the friendship-effort-victory template that it’s easy to forget it ran in the pages of Nakayoshi. A closer examination reveals that Rayearth is, in fact, a complex, unique fusion of shojo and shonen storytelling practices … Fuu, Umi, and Hikaru prove just as adept at repelling surprise attacks and killing monsters as their shonen manga counterparts; though all three girls experience pangs of self-doubt, they show the same steely resolve in combat that Naruto, Ichigo, and InuYasha do.”

From Erica Friedman at Okazu: “Miyuki-chan is a collection of 6 short, service-filled stories of hapless high school girl Miyuki, as she wanders through dreamscapes loosely based on Lewis Carroll’s iconic works, games and CLAMP’s own work. All of these are filled with primarily female characters, mostly adult, and almost all focused on feeling Miyuki up or stripping her down. A psychological reading of the book could easily attribute all sorts of pent-up lesbian feelings to Miyuki but, as she’s completely fictitious, we have to just assume that CLAMP really likes drawing women in underwear … The Yuri in this manga is really Yuri – there are no lesbians here. Just fictitious female beings groping a fictitious female character. There’s no emotion at all involved, unless you count titillation as an emotion.”

From Mikhail Koulikov at Anime News Network: “From a purely technical standpoint, if looked at as an exercise in visual storytelling under very restricting conditions, this is an extremely interesting work. The task that needs to be accomplished is simple: tell a complete story in no more than seven pages. Of course, manga as a visual medium is uniquely suited to accomplishing such a task, since within those seven pages, there are no limits on panel number, shape, or layout. Some pages feature a simple and straight-forward layout of rectangular panels—but there are plenty of others where the layouts are much more dynamic, almost cinematic … Many readers will find it charming, not necessarily funny or memorable, but an enjoyable read nonetheless, but there are plenty of others for whom it will hold no interest whatsoever.”

From David Welsh at Manga Bookshelf’s Off the Shelf: “I’ve already used the word “adorable” twice in this review, and you should gird yourself for me using it again, because this book is adorable in all of the best ways a thing can be adorable. The character designs? Adorable. The jokes and romance? Adorable. The sparkly, easy-to-read art? Adorable. It’s cheerful, heartwarming stuff that still manages to be thoughtful and exciting, and I can’t wait to read more of it, because, beyond being very endearing magical-girl manga, it seems like it might be heading interesting, even daring places.”

From Jennifer Tanko at Better Read: “… there will always be one book series that I hold in the highest regard, and that’s “Wish” from the people at CLAMP … ‘Wish’ to me exemplifies exactly what’s best about the genre with a complex storyline that combines elements of the monotheistic structure of Christianity with the nature-based spiritualism of Shinto and boasts some of the most stunning art I’ve ever seen … Beauty, trees, the four elements; “Wish” combines the cooler parts of Eastern and Western to create something stunning. Turning a page is like being at a stylized art exhibit. Since the series is so short and thus requires less commitment, I really recommend it for anyone. If you’re looking for something new and different or just haven’t stumbled onto in your encounters with this particular genre, ‘Wish’ is more than worth it.”

From Deb Aoki at About.com: “With its dramatic use of black and white, typography, innovative page compositions and plot structure, Clover is a story that seduces and perplexes. It’s undeniably gorgeous, but clarity can be elusive … Clover rewards repeated readings, because your first encounter will leave you dazzled by its visual artistry and slightly confused by its unconventional story. Your second read will allow you to sort out the intertwined relationships and see how each characters’ tragic destiny is revealed, then echoed in subsequent chapters … Elegant and poetic, Clover is more than a sci-fi / romance manga; it’s a fascinating experiment in visual storytelling that seduces the eye and touches the heart.”

From Alison Kotin at Teenreads: “CLAMP’s drawings of the angels of Angelic Layer are riveting — beautiful captures of speed, agility, and dancer-like grace. Next to them the human “deus” controllers seem young and awkward. Don’t be fooled, however — these girls’ powers of concentration and imagination are honed to razor-sharpness! The world of Angelic Layer is enticing for its glamour and excitement, but also as a place where anyone can become a fantastic sports competitor without possessing any special physical prowess. In these fights quick thinking and street smarts are what separate the winners — if only things had been the same on my 7th grade basketball team!”

From Johanna Draper Carlson at Manga Worth Reading: “Hina’s innocence is well portrayed without becoming stupid or cloying … The three books in this series trace her growth from liking to love, as she explores the emotion her neighbor raises in her. We also learn why she lives alone and how her neighbor is more than he seems. Her childlike innocence protects her from the very real dangers she faces, and her joy of living inspires those around her. Suki is a modern fairy tale, but it’s affecting all the same. If only more people could be so honest and open with themselves and others.”

From MJ at Manga Bookshelf: “As Kazahaya and Rikuo give off a definite Watanuki/Doumeki vibe, so do Kakei and Saiga evoke visions of Tsubasa‘s Fai and Kurogane, though in this case, what many readers see as subtext in the relationship between the later incarnations of these character types is clearly text in Legal Drug. … Sadly, with the series unfinished (perhaps indefinitely), there is an incredible amount of mystery left unsolved in this story. The art, as always, is fantastic, though more plain than something like xxxHolic. The clarity of CLAMP’s panels, with their generous white space and striking use of black, is one of the reasons I love reading their manga so much.”

From Sean Gaffney at A Case Suitable for Treatment: “There’s a whole lot of philosophizing in this 2nd volume of Chobits, and it would be interminable (it verges on it already) were it not for the fact that the quartet do make me succeed in pondering whatever it is the characters talk about, at length, in the 2nd half of this series, be it the nature of humanity, what love really means, or simply how much of this is a metaphor about otaku and their love for toys. As I noted in the review of the first omnibus, this was an experiment for CLAMP, their first seinen series geared towards young men, and as such it’s a bit of a flawed success.”

From Ed Sizemore at Manga Worth Reading: “I love XxxHoLiC. Of the currently running manga, this is, hands down, my favorite. I confess to being completely emotionally invested in the series. CLAMP has created wonderful characters and a rich fascinating universe. … Good occult comics are hard to come by and XxxHoLiC ranks among the best. CLAMP have proven time and again they are master storytellers. XxxHoLiC is further proof of how meticulously they craft every aspect of a manga. This is one of few comics I would call perfect. Mysticism is not everyone’s cup of tea. Still, I recommend everyone pick up at least one volume of this series to experience the comic art form at its best.”

From Michelle Smith at Soliloquy in Blue: “It’s not a surprise that when CLAMP does shounen, they don’t do it like everyone else. In most shounen series I’ve read, characters aren’t allowed to undergo such fundamental changes as have occurred in these last couple of volumes of Tsubasa. There’s also lots of rather subtle character growth and interaction, too, especially between Fai and Kurogane. I love every scene where these two are together—okay, part of it may be “squee, they’re so in love!” but there’s a lot more to it than that. Fai’s struggle to stay remote and unconnected is particularly fascinating to me … Again, I urge people not to judge this series based on its early volumes—I think it’s starting to become one of my favorites by CLAMP.”

From Snow Wildsmith at ICv2: “Manga powerhouse group CLAMP kicks off a comedy series with this volume, but fans will need to hang on for the next one to get the full grasp of where the story is going. Kobato’s tale dives right into the thick of things, without any explanation of who Kobato or Ioryogi are or why Kobato doesn’t really understand the rules of human behavior. Along the way hints are dropped, drawing readers into the story. The humor is light and very silly, fashioned a little like manzai, the traditional Japanese comedy style … The art is as airy as the story and Kobato’s clothes will have fashion-minded readers drooling. References to alcohol and prostitution, as well as some language, make this for teens.”

From Rebecca Silverman at Anime News Network: “If you have never read a Clamp series before, you have more of a chance of enjoying this one. It features many of the things that have contributed to their enduring popularity as mangaka: beautiful, androgynous characters, mystic overtones, cryptic commentary, and devotion to detail. If you’ve been a reader of the group for a while, however, you may find yourself less thrilled, as Gate 7 really does nothing new and with its emphasis on Kyoto, noodle dishes, and historic figures isn’t the most easily accessible series for Western audiences. It may be too soon to really judge, but as of the end of volume one, Gate 7 is a healthy dose of more of the same done the same way Clamp has always done things.”