Clamp

Rei-chan

Now, I have to say I absoloutly adore Clamp. I love their stories, their art syle and how many different manga they have. It seems that they have a different Manga out monthly.
If you don't know who Clamp are, they are supposidly a four female manga team that have made manga such as Card Captor Sakura, Chobits, Magic Knight Rayearth, Angelic Layer, Wish, The one I love, Clamp School Detectives, Tsubasa Chronicles, XXXHolic, X and sooo many more.
But I have never seen a picture of them, and cannot find one anywhere. I'm starting to wonder if they're even real or not. My friend thinks they're just made up by some guy in Japan.
So, what I posted this to ask is if anyone has a real photo of clamp or has anyone ever seen one?

Carbon Blob

They seem real enough. Aside from the groupshot, there are links there to an article on each member, each one containing an individual shot.

Rei-chan

Omg, dude, thanks! I love you.
Woo! -Is happy now.-

Eva24

You've got excellent taste Rei-chan!!
They did that photoshoot for their 15th anniversary along with a plethora of other stuff, there are more photos , don't you think they look good considering the hours they're reputed to work
I'll assume that you know about "Clamp no Kiseki" but just wondering if you heard about the gallery show they compiled also. I saw it in Newtype magazine. They had things like a life-size replica of a sword from "X", a mokona golfcart and life-size Elda and Freya Dolls [from the illustration with the two of them holding hands in their light/dark outfits], not to mention posters, doujinshi compilations and the front door from their old studio:D

Cy_Revenant

I heard that they're listed as a company in Japan.
Thats right, a company. Dunno if its true. I wonder what their business plan looks like?

sharingan

It would make sense for them to register a company. Especially as there are four of them involved, it is the fairest possible way of having shared ownership of their intellectual property rights. They also have many properties, many of which are in anime form, and therefore they are due royalties on them. Again, incorporation is the best way to manage those revenues.

There was an article in Neo a few months back about them. They have never been particularly secretive, and even their roles are well known. In fact the division of labour seems a bit strange. One of them does most of the drawing.

I also know they have been particulalry busy this year. Both xxxHolic & Tsubasa are serializing concurrently, and there has been a lot of each this year. They have gotten 2 volumes of xxxHolic out this year, and they are gettign a new volume of Tsubasa out every 3 months. 6/7 tankobun a year worth of output is pretty impressive considering one of them had to take a break from work for health reasons.

Mind you they have always been famous for their industriousness. I kinda wish they would finish X though. It sounds like their best work and I was a real fan of Tokyo Babylon.

Eva24

sharingan wrote:

Mind you they have always been famous for their industriousness. I kinda wish they would finish X though. It sounds like their best work and I was a real fan of Tokyo Babylon.

X is supposed to be their ultimate masterpiece of gothic Shoujo. It's so complicated that it will probably take a while to decide on an ending with the whole "Fate versus Choice" theme. Saying that I also love Tokyo Babylon, I just wish I could see the live action version:( . at least I have all seven volumes:D

Rei-chan

I have never read Tokyo babylon, even though they have all the manga in Forbidden Planet. I'm just too cheap... I have the X movie though.
I'm totally dreading making my Dark Chii costume, I haven't started yet and the convention is in like, three weeks or something...xD Oh well. I have no clue how I'll make the ears. Look for foam or something.
I really love all the dresses they draw for like, Chobits and Card Captor Sakura...I wish I owned them all. Maybe when I win the lotto... Why don't you try downloading the Tokyo Babylon live action show on like, Bittorrent or something?

Raziel

Wow, did'nt know Clamp was four people, let alone four classy ladies!! I used to think it was actually just one guy!

Eva24

Raziel wrote:

Wow, did'nt know Clamp was four people, let alone four classy ladies!! I used to think it was actually just one guy!

:eek: :eek: :eek: Did you never read any of the manga?? they appear in little skits at the back of half the stuff and there's always a blurb about them in the back of the book

Eva24

[... Why don't you try downloading the Tokyo Babylon live action show on like, Bittorrent or something?[/QUOTE]

quite simply, i don't have the facilities for it

sharingan

And good luck finding it. Can't say I have ever seen it around, and plenty of Live Action stuff appears on the trackers I frequent.

direbadger

Clamp are indeed fantastic. I find the drawing in Cardcaptor Sakura and Xxxholic mindblowing! And the attention to detail is to die for! I don't like the art style in some of their other work though. I didn't like the extremely stylised character design in Magic Knight Rayearth and also didn't feel as much empathy with the characters in that manga. Seeing that same style crop up in some of their other mangas has put me off reading them. That said, I'll probably get aroun to reading them all eventually. The company that brought me CcS can do little wrong in my eyes ^___^

sharingan

Clamp really have 2 distinct styles of character design. You got the cute stuff like in Chobits & CCS, and then you have a more elegant style like that used in Tokyo Babylon, X, RG Veda etc. Not sure where MKR comes in, but it was their first really big break, but I think it follows the more elegant style.

Its kinda hard to say where the wind blows with xxHolic & Tsubasa

Eva24

If you go to their website [clamp-net.com] they have sute little cariactures of themselves, i included the current ones but I can't find the older ones that I have.

Yeah MKR was their first huge hit, it really launched them with cardcaptor sakura appearing directly afterwards in the same magazine-they requested 'something cute'. I think their newest series [can't remember the name] is in the same vein with chitose, freya & Elda all making supporting character appearances[Chobits]


I found out that it's called 'Kobato' [temporary] and there's only about three chapters published but if you fancy a glimpse, scanlations are available through the site 'fukanou na shigoto- a (Kobato) temporary website.--http://fukanounashigoto.free.fr/

Of course, they does this providing that you but and support the manga when it's published over here [but in all likelihood, that could be years ]

Nirina

CLAMP. What a great topic!! Lols, i love Clamp, they're fab! I adore Chobits, tis my fav manga of all time. I've also finished Clamp School Detectives. I very much liked it, pity there was only 3 volumes.

Eva24

Yeah, That was so much fun!!:D But Nokoru-sama and the others appear in X and Tsubasa;Reservoir chronicle.
Clamp never forget their characters;) they'll come back again and again [yay] BTW there is a clamp school detective anime but its really old. I have seen the VHS turn up on Amazon though

Raziel

'Tis a pity their sites not available in English...althought you can have Google translate it.

Eva24

Yeah, but I'm a busy woman I don't have time for that [i.e. impatient] Besides there's like a zillion fansites out there so you still get the same basic info if your japanese is deficient

Nirina

@Eva24: wow, really? i didn't know there was an anime, tho there are prob old animes for most mangas nowadasy. Ya, i think another spin-off (is that the right word to use there?), are called "Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders" and also "Man of Many Faces". tho i can't seem to find em.

Amry

I honestly think most of CLAMP's work are overrated. But then again, I'm hardly the target demographic for Card Captor Sakura or Magic Knight Rayearth.

On the other hand, I willingly shelled out €23 euros for the first two volumes of xxxHOLIC (which is nigh impossible to find in Dublin -- had to order 'em online ). And it's delightful to think that next year, the anime version will be out.

So... uh, to end this pointless ramble, let me just say Kubo Tite > CLAMP.

Eva24

Technically, They're not spinoffs, although it is based in the same world with the same characters, In fact in volume one of detectives, the duklyon crew are having tea in the cafe.

Nokoru establishes a power rangers styled team to fight evil on campus and cameos as the illustrious General. it's only two volumes but it's a brillant parody.

20 faces stars Akira [I might have mixed up the name here] as the boy inheriting his fathers role as the phantom thief "20 faces" [ more tuxedo mask than Darl mousey:( ]

these series have some sort of link to popular novel series in Japan , Theres an article on tokyopop that explains it better. you'd have to go through the sites for the mangas there to find it.