Forum - View topicHave Clamp lost their craft?
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anime racket
Posts: 314 |
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Clamp is one of my favorite manga groups, having created three of
my all-time favorite manga in X, Cardcaptor Sakura, and xxxHolic. But even I have to wonder if there losing it as they have gotten lot's of complaints about their tacked-on nonendings and their constant renewal of tired ideas; just look at Blood-C to see what I mean. Now, there making a new manga, Gate 7. From what I've read I can say that while the characters are a little interesting; the story is just a repeat of xxxHolic and Tokyo Babylon. So, what do you all think? |
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I would agree to a certain extent. I thought the non ending of XXXholic was pathetic, (IMO it became rubbish after spoiler[Yuuko disappeared] ) and Tsubasa became utterly, needlessly complicated, what with the spoiler[different kinds of clone] etc.It seemed to me like they had been told they had to end them and just went "Oh sh*t" and pulled out every lame cliche they could think of. I've not read enough of Gate 7 to judge it (I'm avoiding the scans so have only read volume 1), but I can see the similarities to both X and Tokyo Babylon. I guess we'll see which direction they take it in. I'm also interested to see what happens with "Drug and Drop" as I'm sure I remember seeing somewhere that they originally planned Legal Drug to be 15 volumes. Blood-C was the biggest troll since Endless Eight, and I really did expect better from them. We'll see if the movie can redeem it at all, though the standard has been set pretty low.
The one thing that has still remained good over the years is their art. I like all their styles, some more than others and their costume designs are usually amazing. Now when are you going to finish X and Clover, CLAMP? |
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Kelly
Posts: 868 Location: New York City |
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Interestingly, VIZ just started publishing an omnibus edition last month (at least according to Amazon), which might be an intriguing little tidbit of news for X hopefuls. However, the tragic natural disaster earlier this year might make a continuation inappropriate (I actually haven't heard any news recently about how Japan is recovering) for a period of time yet, even if CLAMP didn't know any victims personally this time as I read they did in the disaster which occurred at the time X was sidelined. There was also the recent news ANN posted that one of CLAMP's members is partly-to-largely out of commission for a significant period of time due to back problems, so the crystal ball would seem to indicate that CLAMP won't have anything major in the works anytime soon. If they did have a continuation of X on the table, it may have been shelved, as they've already acknowledged that under the circumstances there will be a drastic slowdown in things they already have in the works. |
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ZepysGirl
 Posts: 470 Location: NY, NY |
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You say they're losing their touch, but then you mention that three different series from three different parts of their career are your favorites?
If anything, I like CLAMP more now. I found them because of Tsubasa, which did its job and made me want to go out and buy everything else by them! Some of it I loved (Magic Knight Rayearth, CLAMP School Detectives), some of it I'm impartial to (x/1999, Angelic Layer), and some of it I really dislike (Suki, Miyuki-chan in Wonderland). Still, they remain my favorite creators. Just because they have a series I'm no longer gaga for doesn't mean they're "losing their touch"--- people are so quick to call that. I'm not all that interested in Gate 7 right now, but I'm really enjoying Kobato.! And as far as art-style goes, I much prefer their newer stuff. The guys don't all look like rectangles now~ |
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anime racket
Posts: 314 |
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Oh yeah, I forgot about Kobato! Is that series really worth reading? |
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ZepysGirl
Posts: 470 Location: NY, NY |
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I think it's cute.  If you liked Wish, then I would suggest checking out Kobato. as well, since it has ties to Wish and has a similar style of storytelling. It's not a very action-y series, but it's full of little heartfelt moments that I just love. I'm on volume 4 of 6, and it looks like the plot just showed up. 
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anime racket
Posts: 314 |
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I've heard that Watanuki appears in it, is that true? |
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ZepysGirl
Posts: 470 Location: NY, NY |
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I don't remember seeing Watanuki, but that could very well be because he only shows up in the last two books. As far as character cameos, there have been people from Chobits (Chitose, Chi, and Freya), Angelic Layer (Misaki and Tamayo), Cardcaptor Sakura (Toya, maybe Yukio?), Wish (Kohaku), and xxxHolic (the old fortune teller woman). Suki might have snuck in there somewhere as well. That's all I can remember off the top of my head. |
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anime racket
Posts: 314 |
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Ok, that's cool. The crossover characters are some of the coolest Clamp moments. Some say that there just an excuse to avoid working on a new character but I disagree. Edit: I just remembered! The Watanuki scene was in the anime, I saw a video of it on youtube in japanese. |
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ZepysGirl
Posts: 470 Location: NY, NY |
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I'd hardly call it an excuse for bad storytelling, what with the sheer number of characters they have created. CLAMP clearly has no trouble thinking of new personalities to populate their stories with. I like it when we see old characters again, anyway; it makes me feel like their story isn't over just because their series ended.
I've only seen the first episode of the anime.  ; I haven't finished reading xxxHolic yet, either, so it's probably for the best. I get the feeling that there'd be spoilers.
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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Honestly, I doubt that. I really do not believe CLAMP will ever finish the X manga because they showed no signs of doing anything of the sort after this many years, even before the latest crisis in Japan. CLAMP is probably a bit inconsistent. I like most of their stuff and they can be brilliant at times (especially in Clover, which is just wonderful). I don't know how much of Blood-C can really be attributed to them. As far as I know, they only did the character designs (just as was done for Code Geass), which looked pretty stunning to me. |
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st_owly
Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I heard that Mokona was involved with some of the story as well. I could be misremembering though.
I know X is probably highly unlikely to ever be finished, but I can live in hope. After all, Legal Drug just restarted after all those years. I kind of think that if they really want to publish the ending they originally envisioned for X, they should just go and do it anyway. Japan is an earthquake prone country, so they'll more than likely upset some people with it, regardless of when they publish it. They can't keep waiting for people to recover from an earthquake, because there'll be another earthquake happen a few years later. I think they should just be bold, and do it, even if it means self publishing or something. |
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anime racket
Posts: 314 |
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I've often thought that, if Clamp were to finish X, they should have
it done as a special anime feature film. That would solve the problem of having to go to their old drawing style, as the anime studio that did the X tv series could animate it, and they could just come up with the story. |
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Kelly
Posts: 868 Location: New York City |
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Actually, the anime series had a pretty solid ending (which I've read had very little to do with how CLAMP intended to end the manga, but it was an ending nevertheless), so there's really no need. The manner in which it ended left little more to say animeverse-wise. |
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anime racket
Posts: 314 |
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On a totally unrelated subject, does anyone know where I can get
the Cardcaptor Sakura anime for less than 1,000 dollars? A lot less. |
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