CLAMP
Encyclopedia
, is an all-female Japan
ese manga artist
group that formed in the mid 1980s. Many of the group's manga
series are often adapted into anime
after release. It consists of their leader , who provides much of the storyline and screenplay
for all their works and adaptations of those works respectively , and three artists whose roles shift for each series: , , and . Almost 100 million CLAMP tankōbon
copies have been sold worldwide as of October 2007.
Beginning as an eleven-member dōjinshi
circle in the mid 1980s, they began creating original work in 1987. By the time they debuted with RG Veda
in 1989, their numbers were reduced to seven. In 1993, three more members left, leaving the four members who are currently still part of the group. In 2006, each member decided to change her name; Ohkawa later changed her name back from Ageha Ohkawa to Nanase Ohkawa, while the other three members retained their new names.
circle named CLAMP Cluster. This included , , , , and , , and . Like many dōjinshi groups, CLAMP did welcome guests in their team from time to time. For example, Yuzuru Inoue is often listed as the twelfth member of the group but was only a guest. The three artists of CLAMP—Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi—first began drawing manga when they were either in middle or high school, inspired by friends. The three artists were good friends in the same school. They met Nanase Ohkawa when one of her friends befriended Mokona after buying a comic that she was selling, and through that connection, the four of them became friends. The original group of twelve members began to meet at every event held in Osaka and Kobe, which usually occurred once a month. Before they began creating original work, the group produced dōjinshi of Captain Tsubasa
, and yaoi
dōjinshi of Saint Seiya
. However in 1987, the group stopped dōjinshi and began creating original work; it was at this time they began working on RG Veda
. Their first collaborative work was entitled "CLAMP", which they continued to work on until shortly after their debut.
The group first decided to debut as professional comic writers when they decided to print the manga RG Veda that they had first began working on as a fan comic. After seeing the comic digest
of the manga series that CLAMP decided to publish, an editor for Shinshokan
's Wings
manga magazine asked the group to work for them. They submitted an approximately sixty-page story as a sample of their talents, however the work was rejected. Ohkawa later lauded the draft stating that "everything was bad", attributing the quality to having never before completed a story as a cohesive group and to lack of experience. The group was given another chance at publication should they submit a new story that Shinshokan liked, and they submitted RG Veda.
During this time before their official debut, the group moved to Tokyo and rented a small, two-bedroom apartment. Ohkawa stated that she thought she was "gonna die there." Nekoi stated that "the only private space [they] had was under [their] desk."
, serialized in Shinshokan
's Wings magazine, its members had gone down to seven. During the production of the manga RG Veda, O-Kyon had left the group. In June 1990, Sei Nanao officially left the group(last mentioned in Shōten 6), , , and officially left in March 1993 (as mentioned in the Shōten 3).}} In October 1992, Tamayo Akiyama
and Leeza Sei officially left the group.
RG Veda was originally planned to be a single story rather than a series, although because of good reader response and higher-than-expected sales for its first volume Shinshokan permitted the group to create more volumes, however after each chapter of the manga was released, Shinshokan threatened that it would cease serialization should its popularity fall.
In July 1989, Genki Comics began serializing Clamp's second work, Man of Many Faces
. It also began serializing Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders
in August 1991, which became the work that the three artists Mokona, Nekoi, and Igarashi enjoyed working on most. In March 1990, Wings began serializing Tokyo Babylon
. In December 1990, Monthly Asuka
ran CLAMP School Detectives
, and in May 1992, it began serializing X
.
CLAMP was serialized by many other magazines and publishers including Kobunsha
publishing Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales
on June 10, 1992. In 1993, CLAMP released two different manga: in March, Miyuki-chan in Wonderland
, which began serializing in Newtype
, and in November, Magic Knight Rayearth
which was serialized in Nakayoshi
. Nakayoshi also began to serialize Cardcaptor Sakura
in May 1996; Ohkawa, CLAMP's leader and storyboarder, particularly enjoyed working on Cardcaptor Sakura it was not tragedy, unlike many of her previous works. Kadokawa Shoten
published The One I Love
on July 17, 1995. Wish
first began serializing in Asuka Comics DX
in October 1996. In December 1998, Suki: A Like Story began first serializing in Asuka Comics DX, and in January 1999, Angelic Layer
first began serializing in Monthly Shōnen Ace.
began serializing CLAMP's Chobits
which completed its run in 2002. Although their previous works are targeted at a female audience, Chobits marked the first time CLAMP wrote for an older teen male audience. CLAMP began writing the two works that tell separate parts of the same overaching plot, xxxHolic seralized in Young Magazine beginning in 2003 followed by Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
serialized in the Weekly Shōnen Magazine
beginning in 2005. Tsubasa marked the first time CLAMP had ever tried writing for a younger male audience.
In 2004, CLAMP's 15th anniversary as a manga artist group, the members changed their names from Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona Apapa, Mick Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi to Ageha Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi (her name is pronounced the same, but written with different characters) respectively. To celebrate CLAMP's 15th anniversary, Tokyopop
released a twelve-part magazine series entitled CLAMP no Kiseki
that contained a plethora of information for fans. The August 2004 issue of Newtype USA, a magazine specializing in events of the anime
and manga
subcultures, reported that the members of CLAMP simply wanted to try out new names. In a later interview with Ohkawa, it was revealed that initially Mokona wanted to drop her surname because it sounded too immature for her liking, while Nekoi disliked people commenting that her name was the same as Mick Jagger's
. Ohkawa and Igarashi, wanting to go with the flow of Nekoi's and Mokona's name changes, changed their names as well.
In 2006, Ohkawa made her first appearance overseas at the Taipei International Book Exhibition
sponsored by Production I.G. During an interview there, she announced that CLAMP would be making its first USA public debut at Anime Expo
in July in Anaheim, California
co-sponsored by Anime Expo, Del Rey Manga
, Funimation and Tokyopop. They were well received at the convention as fans completely filled all 6,000 seats present in the auditorium of the focus panel in addition to more on the waiting list. By 2006, CLAMP had reportedly sold in excess of 90 million copies of their manga internationally.
acts as the group's spokesperson, producer-director, and storyboarder. Mokona is the chief character designer, while Igarashi and Nekoi work for the background; however, the three often shuffle their roles. Sometime they may split the work of the characters and backgrounds or have one person draw all the art depending on the story. The three artists try to stay as "close as possible" to Ohkawa's original designs. Ohkawa advises the artists on what colors to use. Although Ohkawa chooses which projects they decide to decline or accept, Satsuki Igarashi
decides on the actual time and order the group works on each project, creating the schedules for time allotted to each individual work. They do not have any assistants stating that assistants would slow them down as the assistants would not understand the "years worth of jargon" they created among themselves.
Once Ohkawa has conceived a story, the four members of the group gather "to discuss the purpose of the story and its main characters." After the group become familiar with the story, Ohkawa drafts an outline for the story during which time, she determines the story setting. The ending for each story is predetermined. Ohkawa designs many of the characters early in the story's development; frequently appearing guest characters are designed from the beginning whereas minor characters are designed early on. As Ohkawa drafts the outline, the other three members formulate character designs by creating character profile sheets so as to avoid confusion. After drawing a sample story and sketch for their editor and receiving approval, Ohkawa assigns the roles to each group member and then chooses the visual styles depending on factors such as the complexity of the story, the chosen art style, and its relationship to the group's other works. Ohkawa provides a rough draft for each chapter detailing things such as dialogue, panel size, props, movement, and character's emotions.
On average for each chapter that they produce (for CLAMP, an average of 20 pages of artwork in a magazine), storyboarding takes twelve hours, the script takes eight hours to write, and the artwork depends on the story. For example, a chapter of xxxHolic takes two days whereas a chapter of X
took four to five days.
who specialize in a single genre, CLAMP has created a diverse body of work. CLAMP's genres vary widely, from childish and comedic (Cardcaptor Sakura
, Clamp School Detectives
) to much more dramatic and teen-rated (xxxHolic, X
) series. Furthermore, drawing from the idea of Osamu Tezuka's Star System
as they did in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
, CLAMP often reuses characters from their own earlier works, which gives rise to a loosely defined "CLAMP Universe".
feels that, aside from basic art skills, drawing manga requires a different skill set; however, since none of the group have worked as assistants for already established manga artists
, most of their ability is self-taught.
CLAMP's manga is distinguished by its diverse visual styles. CLAMP's art changes frequently depending on the primary artist of a given project and the target audience; however, most of their works have characters with highly detailed hair, heavily stylized eyes and human figures, and elaborate clothing. In addition, sweeping curved lines are common in many of their shōjo
manga. Clover
is remarkable for its heavy use of negative space
.
Also common is the idea of soulmate
s, or couples tied together by fate
. CLAMP also explores the idea of chaste or pure love as in the manga Chobits
. CLAMP's disregard for gender (or at times biological age) in these couples has led them to write normal homosexual couples into many of their manga in contrast to many other manga artists (for example, Touya and Yukito in Card Captor Sakura). A number of such couples have been shown together across parallel dimensions in the CLAMP multiverse
. Although CLAMP often writes romantic works, Ohkawa has mentioned that she feels that it is more putting one's life on the line than love that causes women to grow or change. However CLAMP never features love as a central theme, because Ohkawa state in an interview with Takeshi Oshiguchi in 1997 for Animerica
that she is not "good at love stories" since her "idea of a relationship is different from that of a lot of other people."
Perhaps drawing inspiration from Ohkawa's own poor right-eye vision, CLAMP frequently features one-eyed characters or characters that lose their sight in one eye as means to express the feeling of loneliness. However, there is always something later on that comes to supplement the loss in vision.
, CLAMP was elected ninth most popular manga artist from Japan in 2007, while they were eighth in 2008, sharing the spot with Fujiko F. Fujio.
Gen Fukunaga
, the president and CEO of Funimation, has praised CLAMP as being "one of the most acclaimed groups of artists in Japan." According to Charles Solomon, a journalist for The New York Times
, CLAMP "ranks among the most successful creators of manga ... in Japan and the United States." Dallas Middaugh, associate publisher of Del Rey Manga
, stated that CLAMP was a integral part of "manga explosion" that has been occurring in the United States over the past few years. He also praised the group's artwork and storytelling style as having "struck a strong chord with male and female manga readers." The group was placed third after the winner for the Shogakukan Manga Award
in the Children's category in 1999. Their work Cardcaptor Sakura
won the Seiun Award for best manga in 2001. Almost 100 million CLAMP tankōbon
copies have been sold worldwide as of October 2007. Various of their selling series include xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle that have sold over eleven million and twenty million volumes, respectively.
When asked about the universal popularity of CLAMP's works, John Oppliger of AnimeNation
stated that although it is "not based on originality [or] their artistic skill", they possess a distinct style that "perfectly mesh[es] the conventional attributes of shōnen and shōjo manga". He also pointed out that CLAMP often "recycles" characters from their own earlier works, which gave rise to "a loosely defined 'CLAMP Universe' that gives much of their work a unifying tone", and creates "absorbing, complex narratives that appeal to both male and female readers". All these factors result in "a cult following
devoted to anything and everything the group publishes". The Anime Encyclopedia
authors stated that "whatever CLAMP are on, we'd like some".
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese manga artist
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
group that formed in the mid 1980s. Many of the group's manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series are often adapted into anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
after release. It consists of their leader , who provides much of the storyline and screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
for all their works and adaptations of those works respectively , and three artists whose roles shift for each series: , , and . Almost 100 million CLAMP tankōbon
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...
copies have been sold worldwide as of October 2007.
Beginning as an eleven-member dōjinshi
Dojinshi
is the Japanese term for self-published works, usually magazines, manga or novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from and . Dōjinshi are part of a wider...
circle in the mid 1980s, they began creating original work in 1987. By the time they debuted with RG Veda
RG Veda
is a manga created by Clamp, consisting of ten volumes in all. It was first published in Japan in 1989 as Clamp's debut manga. The story features elements of Vedic mythology; the title itself imitates Rigveda, the name of one of the four Vedas. The series is known for its extravagant and richly...
in 1989, their numbers were reduced to seven. In 1993, three more members left, leaving the four members who are currently still part of the group. In 2006, each member decided to change her name; Ohkawa later changed her name back from Ageha Ohkawa to Nanase Ohkawa, while the other three members retained their new names.
Before their debut (1980s–1989)
CLAMP originally began in the mid 1980s as an eleven-member dōjinshiDojinshi
is the Japanese term for self-published works, usually magazines, manga or novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from and . Dōjinshi are part of a wider...
circle named CLAMP Cluster. This included , , , , and , , and . Like many dōjinshi groups, CLAMP did welcome guests in their team from time to time. For example, Yuzuru Inoue is often listed as the twelfth member of the group but was only a guest. The three artists of CLAMP—Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi—first began drawing manga when they were either in middle or high school, inspired by friends. The three artists were good friends in the same school. They met Nanase Ohkawa when one of her friends befriended Mokona after buying a comic that she was selling, and through that connection, the four of them became friends. The original group of twelve members began to meet at every event held in Osaka and Kobe, which usually occurred once a month. Before they began creating original work, the group produced dōjinshi of Captain Tsubasa
Captain Tsubasa
, also known as Flash Kicker, is a popular long running Japanese manga, animation, and video game series, originally created by Yōichi Takahashi in 1981...
, and yaoi
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...
dōjinshi of Saint Seiya
Saint Seiya
, also known as Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac or simply Knights of the Zodiac, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masami Kurumada and serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1986 to 1991, and adapted into an anime TV series by Toei Animation from 1986 to 1989.The story follows...
. However in 1987, the group stopped dōjinshi and began creating original work; it was at this time they began working on RG Veda
RG Veda
is a manga created by Clamp, consisting of ten volumes in all. It was first published in Japan in 1989 as Clamp's debut manga. The story features elements of Vedic mythology; the title itself imitates Rigveda, the name of one of the four Vedas. The series is known for its extravagant and richly...
. Their first collaborative work was entitled "CLAMP", which they continued to work on until shortly after their debut.
The group first decided to debut as professional comic writers when they decided to print the manga RG Veda that they had first began working on as a fan comic. After seeing the comic digest
Digest size
Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately 5½ x 8¼ inches, but can also be 5⅜ x 8⅜ inches and 5½ x 7½ inches. These sizes have evolved from the printing press operation end...
of the manga series that CLAMP decided to publish, an editor for Shinshokan
Shinshokan
is a Japanese publishing company. It was established on June 14, 1961. In April 2009, the US publisher Digital Manga Publishing announced a co-branding operation with Shinshokan, to license yaoi and shōjo manga from Shinshokan's Wings, Dear and Dear+ anthologies under the DokiDoki imprint .-Manga...
's Wings
Wings (manga magazine)
is a shōjo manga magazine published by Shinshokan. The magazine is aimed at a female audience in the 16 to 20 year-old age range and tend to be action- or fantasy-oriented stories. Wings previously had a number of special editions such as Shinshokan South, or simply South, Phantom Club,...
manga magazine asked the group to work for them. They submitted an approximately sixty-page story as a sample of their talents, however the work was rejected. Ohkawa later lauded the draft stating that "everything was bad", attributing the quality to having never before completed a story as a cohesive group and to lack of experience. The group was given another chance at publication should they submit a new story that Shinshokan liked, and they submitted RG Veda.
During this time before their official debut, the group moved to Tokyo and rented a small, two-bedroom apartment. Ohkawa stated that she thought she was "gonna die there." Nekoi stated that "the only private space [they] had was under [their] desk."
1990–1999
By the group's professional debut in 1989 with the manga RG VedaRG Veda
is a manga created by Clamp, consisting of ten volumes in all. It was first published in Japan in 1989 as Clamp's debut manga. The story features elements of Vedic mythology; the title itself imitates Rigveda, the name of one of the four Vedas. The series is known for its extravagant and richly...
, serialized in Shinshokan
Shinshokan
is a Japanese publishing company. It was established on June 14, 1961. In April 2009, the US publisher Digital Manga Publishing announced a co-branding operation with Shinshokan, to license yaoi and shōjo manga from Shinshokan's Wings, Dear and Dear+ anthologies under the DokiDoki imprint .-Manga...
's Wings magazine, its members had gone down to seven. During the production of the manga RG Veda, O-Kyon had left the group. In June 1990, Sei Nanao officially left the group(last mentioned in Shōten 6), , , and officially left in March 1993 (as mentioned in the Shōten 3).}} In October 1992, Tamayo Akiyama
Tamayo Akiyama
a Japanese shōjo manga author and artist. She was a former member of CLAMP.Akiyama has also done illustrations for three novels and illustrations for a CD .-Works:Hyper Rune, Mouryou...
and Leeza Sei officially left the group.
RG Veda was originally planned to be a single story rather than a series, although because of good reader response and higher-than-expected sales for its first volume Shinshokan permitted the group to create more volumes, however after each chapter of the manga was released, Shinshokan threatened that it would cease serialization should its popularity fall.
In July 1989, Genki Comics began serializing Clamp's second work, Man of Many Faces
Man of Many Faces
is a manga by CLAMP about a nine-year-old boy named Akira Ijyuin who steals beautiful and valuable objects to please his two mothers and is known to the public as the dashing, clever thief named the Man of 20 Faces. The manga took inspiration from the works of Edogawa Rampo, most notably from the...
. It also began serializing Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders
Duklyon: CLAMP School Defenders
is a manga created by Clamp, a Japanese artistic group of four women.The story features two teenagers on Clamp Campus, Kentarou Higashikunimaru and Takeshi Shukaido, who are called upon occasion to become monster-battling superheroes while wearing armored outfits in this comic parody of typical...
in August 1991, which became the work that the three artists Mokona, Nekoi, and Igarashi enjoyed working on most. In March 1990, Wings began serializing Tokyo Babylon
Tokyo Babylon
is a manga series created by Clamp. The series follows Subaru Sumeragi, the head of the Sumeragi clan, and his sister Hokuto as they work to protect Tokyo from a myriad of supernatural perils....
. In December 1990, Monthly Asuka
Monthly Asuka
is a monthly Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Kadokawa Shoten, aimed at teenage girls. Much like its sibling publication Shōnen Ace, it places some emphasis on anime tie-ins and spinoffs...
ran CLAMP School Detectives
CLAMP School Detectives
is a manga series by Clamp, which was adapted into a 26-episode anime series, produced by Bandai Visual and Pierrot. The manga series was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Asuka manga magazine between January 1992 and October 1993, spanning three tankōbon, while the anime premiered in Japan...
, and in May 1992, it began serializing X
X (manga)
, also known as X/1999, is a Japanese shōjo manga series created by Clamp, a creative team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Nanase Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Mokona. It premiered in Monthly Asukas May 1992 issue and ran there until the magazine's editors showed concern with the increasingly violent...
.
CLAMP was serialized by many other magazines and publishers including Kobunsha
Kobunsha
Kobunsha is a Japanese publishing company. It publishes literature, manga novels, and women's magazines.Kobunsha was first established on October 1, 1945 and belongs to the Kodansha group....
publishing Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales
Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales
is a manga anthology created by Clamp, a creative team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Ageha Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi and Mokona.The three stories revolve around Yuki-onna, a yōkai found in Japanese folklore....
on June 10, 1992. In 1993, CLAMP released two different manga: in March, Miyuki-chan in Wonderland
Miyuki-chan in Wonderland
is a yuri manga series created by Clamp and serialised by Kadokawa Shoten in its Japanese edition of Newtype from 1993 to 1995. In 1995, an image album and an OVA version of the first two stories was released. The English language version of the manga was published by Tokyopop in 2003.The manga is...
, which began serializing in Newtype
Newtype (magazine)
is a monthly magazine publication originating from Japan, covering anime and manga . It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985 with its April issue, and has since seen regular release on the 10th of every month in its home country...
, and in November, Magic Knight Rayearth
Magic Knight Rayearth
is a Japanese manga series created by Clamp, a manga artist team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Ageha Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi and Mokona. Rayearth combines elements from the magical girl and mecha anime genres with parallel world fantasy....
which was serialized in Nakayoshi
Nakayoshi
is a shōjo manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. First published in December 1954, it is a long-running magazine with over 50 years worth of manga publication history. The target demographic for Nakayoshi is aimed at young girls between...
. Nakayoshi also began to serialize Cardcaptor Sakura
Cardcaptor Sakura
, abbreviated as CCS and also known as Cardcaptors, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. The manga was originally serialized monthly in Nakayoshi from the May 1996 until the June 2000 issue, and later published in 12 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha...
in May 1996; Ohkawa, CLAMP's leader and storyboarder, particularly enjoyed working on Cardcaptor Sakura it was not tragedy, unlike many of her previous works. Kadokawa Shoten
Kadokawa Shoten
is a well-known Japanese publishing company based in Tokyo, Japan. Kadokawa has published both manga novels and magazines, such as Newtype magazine...
published The One I Love
The One I Love (manga)
is a twelve story anthology by Clamp. It is a collection of short manga vignettes and essays about various unnamed heroines dealing with various aspects and hardships of love...
on July 17, 1995. Wish
Wish (manga)
is a Japanese shōjo manga series created by Clamp. It is published in English by Tokyopop. The American translation was imported to Australia by Madman Entertainment.- Plot:...
first began serializing in Asuka Comics DX
Monthly Asuka
is a monthly Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Kadokawa Shoten, aimed at teenage girls. Much like its sibling publication Shōnen Ace, it places some emphasis on anime tie-ins and spinoffs...
in October 1996. In December 1998, Suki: A Like Story began first serializing in Asuka Comics DX, and in January 1999, Angelic Layer
Angelic Layer
is a manga series released by Clamp. The manga is published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, and in English originally by Tokyopop, but has since been re-licensed by Dark Horse Comics. It is the group's first work to use a quite different art style unseen in any other CLAMP series, which uses a more...
first began serializing in Monthly Shōnen Ace.
2000–onwards
In 2001, Young MagazineYoung Magazine
is a Japanese manga magazine published weekly by Kodansha. The magazine was started on June 23, 1980 and is targeted at adult males . It is also known as Young or YM. It goes on sale Monday every week...
began serializing CLAMP's Chobits
Chobits
is a Japanese manga created by the Japanese manga collective Clamp. It was published by Kodansha in Young Magazine from February 2001 to November 2002 and collected in eight bound volumes....
which completed its run in 2002. Although their previous works are targeted at a female audience, Chobits marked the first time CLAMP wrote for an older teen male audience. CLAMP began writing the two works that tell separate parts of the same overaching plot, xxxHolic seralized in Young Magazine beginning in 2003 followed by Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
is a shōnen manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. It takes place in the same fictional universe as many of Clamp's other manga series, most notably xxxHolic. The plot follows how Sakura, the princess of the Kingdom of Clow, loses her soul and how Syaoran, a young...
serialized in the Weekly Shōnen Magazine
Weekly Shonen Magazine
, also known as Shōnen Magazine, is a shōnen manga magazine published by Kodansha, first published on 17 March 1959. Despite some unusual censorship policies , it's mainly read by an older audience, with a large portion of its readership falling under the male high school or college...
beginning in 2005. Tsubasa marked the first time CLAMP had ever tried writing for a younger male audience.
In 2004, CLAMP's 15th anniversary as a manga artist group, the members changed their names from Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona Apapa, Mick Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi to Ageha Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi (her name is pronounced the same, but written with different characters) respectively. To celebrate CLAMP's 15th anniversary, Tokyopop
Tokyopop
Tokyopop, styled TOKYOPOP, and formerly known as Mixx, is a distributor, licensor, and publisher of anime, manga, manhwa, and Western manga-style works. The existing German publishing division produces German translations of licensed Japanese properties and original English-language manga, as well...
released a twelve-part magazine series entitled CLAMP no Kiseki
CLAMP no Kiseki
CLAMP no Kiseki is a twelve volume series of anime books celebrating the 15th anniversary of Clamp in 2004. It is published in America by and in Spain by . Each volume is a full-color, 32-page book that contains summaries of featured series, interviews with Clamp and friends of Clamp, artwork,...
that contained a plethora of information for fans. The August 2004 issue of Newtype USA, a magazine specializing in events of the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
and manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
subcultures, reported that the members of CLAMP simply wanted to try out new names. In a later interview with Ohkawa, it was revealed that initially Mokona wanted to drop her surname because it sounded too immature for her liking, while Nekoi disliked people commenting that her name was the same as Mick Jagger's
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
. Ohkawa and Igarashi, wanting to go with the flow of Nekoi's and Mokona's name changes, changed their names as well.
In 2006, Ohkawa made her first appearance overseas at the Taipei International Book Exhibition
Taipei International Book Exhibition
The Taipei International Book Exhibition , abbreviated TIBE) is a book fair organized by the Taipei Book Fair Foundation and supervised by the Government Information Office. It was established on 15 December 1987 at the National Central Library and focused on distribution and copyright negotiations...
sponsored by Production I.G. During an interview there, she announced that CLAMP would be making its first USA public debut at Anime Expo
Anime Expo
Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation . With rare exceptions, the convention is traditionally held on the July 4th weekend and lasts for four days...
in July in Anaheim, California
Anaheim, California
Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was about 365,463, making it the most populated city in Orange County, the 10th most-populated city in California, and ranked 54th in the United States...
co-sponsored by Anime Expo, Del Rey Manga
Del Rey Manga
was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. It was formed as part of a cross-publishing relationship with Japanese publisher Kodansha. Some of the Del Rey titles, such as Tsubasa...
, Funimation and Tokyopop. They were well received at the convention as fans completely filled all 6,000 seats present in the auditorium of the focus panel in addition to more on the waiting list. By 2006, CLAMP had reportedly sold in excess of 90 million copies of their manga internationally.
Business model
The members of CLAMP all share a single workplace and as such do not need to arrange specific meetings. Nanase OhkawaNanase Ohkawa
is a member of the all-female manga-creating team Clamp. She is the director of the team and is primarily responsible for writing the stories and scripts for Clamp's various works....
acts as the group's spokesperson, producer-director, and storyboarder. Mokona is the chief character designer, while Igarashi and Nekoi work for the background; however, the three often shuffle their roles. Sometime they may split the work of the characters and backgrounds or have one person draw all the art depending on the story. The three artists try to stay as "close as possible" to Ohkawa's original designs. Ohkawa advises the artists on what colors to use. Although Ohkawa chooses which projects they decide to decline or accept, Satsuki Igarashi
Satsuki Igarashi
is a member of the all-female manga-creating team Clamp. Her duties in the team are Nanase Ohkawa's sounding board, and the character designer of Chobits and line artist for Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle....
decides on the actual time and order the group works on each project, creating the schedules for time allotted to each individual work. They do not have any assistants stating that assistants would slow them down as the assistants would not understand the "years worth of jargon" they created among themselves.
Once Ohkawa has conceived a story, the four members of the group gather "to discuss the purpose of the story and its main characters." After the group become familiar with the story, Ohkawa drafts an outline for the story during which time, she determines the story setting. The ending for each story is predetermined. Ohkawa designs many of the characters early in the story's development; frequently appearing guest characters are designed from the beginning whereas minor characters are designed early on. As Ohkawa drafts the outline, the other three members formulate character designs by creating character profile sheets so as to avoid confusion. After drawing a sample story and sketch for their editor and receiving approval, Ohkawa assigns the roles to each group member and then chooses the visual styles depending on factors such as the complexity of the story, the chosen art style, and its relationship to the group's other works. Ohkawa provides a rough draft for each chapter detailing things such as dialogue, panel size, props, movement, and character's emotions.
On average for each chapter that they produce (for CLAMP, an average of 20 pages of artwork in a magazine), storyboarding takes twelve hours, the script takes eight hours to write, and the artwork depends on the story. For example, a chapter of xxxHolic takes two days whereas a chapter of X
X (manga)
, also known as X/1999, is a Japanese shōjo manga series created by Clamp, a creative team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Nanase Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Mokona. It premiered in Monthly Asukas May 1992 issue and ran there until the magazine's editors showed concern with the increasingly violent...
took four to five days.
Style
In general, Ohkawa gets her inspiration for the group from everyday events such as dreams or the news. Unlike most manga artistsMangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
who specialize in a single genre, CLAMP has created a diverse body of work. CLAMP's genres vary widely, from childish and comedic (Cardcaptor Sakura
Cardcaptor Sakura
, abbreviated as CCS and also known as Cardcaptors, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. The manga was originally serialized monthly in Nakayoshi from the May 1996 until the June 2000 issue, and later published in 12 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha...
, Clamp School Detectives
CLAMP School Detectives
is a manga series by Clamp, which was adapted into a 26-episode anime series, produced by Bandai Visual and Pierrot. The manga series was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Asuka manga magazine between January 1992 and October 1993, spanning three tankōbon, while the anime premiered in Japan...
) to much more dramatic and teen-rated (xxxHolic, X
X (manga)
, also known as X/1999, is a Japanese shōjo manga series created by Clamp, a creative team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Nanase Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Mokona. It premiered in Monthly Asukas May 1992 issue and ran there until the magazine's editors showed concern with the increasingly violent...
) series. Furthermore, drawing from the idea of Osamu Tezuka's Star System
Osamu Tezuka's Star System
Over the course of his career, Osamu Tezuka reused the same characters in different roles in different stories. The way that Tezuka used the characters in his "star system" can be seen as somewhat analoguous to a film director frequently casting members of a regular "stable" of actors in different...
as they did in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
is a shōnen manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. It takes place in the same fictional universe as many of Clamp's other manga series, most notably xxxHolic. The plot follows how Sakura, the princess of the Kingdom of Clow, loses her soul and how Syaoran, a young...
, CLAMP often reuses characters from their own earlier works, which gives rise to a loosely defined "CLAMP Universe".
Art
The current members of CLAMP took art-focused classes during their high school. However, Tsubaki NekoiTsubaki Nekoi
is a member of the all-female manga-creating team Clamp. She is the co-director and her duties in the team include applying screentones and correcting manga illustrations. She was also the lead artist on Legal Drug, The One I Love, Wish, Suki and xxxHolic...
feels that, aside from basic art skills, drawing manga requires a different skill set; however, since none of the group have worked as assistants for already established manga artists
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
, most of their ability is self-taught.
CLAMP's manga is distinguished by its diverse visual styles. CLAMP's art changes frequently depending on the primary artist of a given project and the target audience; however, most of their works have characters with highly detailed hair, heavily stylized eyes and human figures, and elaborate clothing. In addition, sweeping curved lines are common in many of their shōjo
Shojo
The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...
manga. Clover
Clover (manga)
is a manga series created by Clamp, a creative team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Ageha Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Mokona. The manga takes place in a dystopian future, where the government is out to control the "Clovers", a race of children with special powers....
is remarkable for its heavy use of negative space
Negative space
Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used to artistic effect as the "real"...
.
Themes
Many CLAMP works span a wide variety of themes. As oppose to keeping consistent themes across their works or having individual themes for each work, Nanase Ohakawa stated "we come up with a new theme for each story. One thing to say each time". Their works often deal with the theme of human fate that relates to Ohkawa's view on life; Ohkawa believes that "fate is something you choose", not a "mystical force manipulating your destiny" such that with determination and resolve, "you can change your fate". The idea that all events are inevitable due to past decisions (hitsuzen) as in Card Captor Sakura, Tsubasa Chronicle, and xxxHolic, and the idea that humans choose their destiny through their own efforts.Also common is the idea of soulmate
Soulmate
A soulmate is believed by some to be the person with whom one has a feeling of deep or natural affinity, similarity, love, intimacy, sexuality, spirituality, or compatibility. A related concept is that of the twin flame or twin soul, which is thought to be the ultimate soulmate...
s, or couples tied together by fate
Destiny
Destiny or fate refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual...
. CLAMP also explores the idea of chaste or pure love as in the manga Chobits
Chobits
is a Japanese manga created by the Japanese manga collective Clamp. It was published by Kodansha in Young Magazine from February 2001 to November 2002 and collected in eight bound volumes....
. CLAMP's disregard for gender (or at times biological age) in these couples has led them to write normal homosexual couples into many of their manga in contrast to many other manga artists (for example, Touya and Yukito in Card Captor Sakura). A number of such couples have been shown together across parallel dimensions in the CLAMP multiverse
Multiverse
The multiverse is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes that together comprise all of reality.Multiverse may also refer to:-In fiction:* Multiverse , the fictional multiverse used by DC Comics...
. Although CLAMP often writes romantic works, Ohkawa has mentioned that she feels that it is more putting one's life on the line than love that causes women to grow or change. However CLAMP never features love as a central theme, because Ohkawa state in an interview with Takeshi Oshiguchi in 1997 for Animerica
Animerica
Animerica is a quarterly digest published by Viz Media. It initially started as a monthly magazine featuring reviews of anime and manga titles, as well as related works. After a preview issue was released in November 1992, the magazine's first issue was released in February 1993 with a March 1993...
that she is not "good at love stories" since her "idea of a relationship is different from that of a lot of other people."
Perhaps drawing inspiration from Ohkawa's own poor right-eye vision, CLAMP frequently features one-eyed characters or characters that lose their sight in one eye as means to express the feeling of loneliness. However, there is always something later on that comes to supplement the loss in vision.
Works
| From | To | English Translated Title | Serialized in | Status | Volumes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | 1996 | RG Veda RG Veda is a manga created by Clamp, consisting of ten volumes in all. It was first published in Japan in 1989 as Clamp's debut manga. The story features elements of Vedic mythology; the title itself imitates Rigveda, the name of one of the four Vedas. The series is known for its extravagant and richly... |
Wings Wings (manga magazine) is a shōjo manga magazine published by Shinshokan. The magazine is aimed at a female audience in the 16 to 20 year-old age range and tend to be action- or fantasy-oriented stories. Wings previously had a number of special editions such as Shinshokan South, or simply South, Phantom Club,... |
10 | |
| 1990 | 1991 | Man of Many Faces Man of Many Faces is a manga by CLAMP about a nine-year-old boy named Akira Ijyuin who steals beautiful and valuable objects to please his two mothers and is known to the public as the dashing, clever thief named the Man of 20 Faces. The manga took inspiration from the works of Edogawa Rampo, most notably from the... |
Newtype Newtype (magazine) is a monthly magazine publication originating from Japan, covering anime and manga . It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985 with its April issue, and has since seen regular release on the 10th of every month in its home country... |
2 | |
| 1990 | 1993 | Tokyo Babylon Tokyo Babylon is a manga series created by Clamp. The series follows Subaru Sumeragi, the head of the Sumeragi clan, and his sister Hokuto as they work to protect Tokyo from a myriad of supernatural perils.... |
Wings | 7 | |
| 1992 | 1993 | Clamp School Detectives CLAMP School Detectives is a manga series by Clamp, which was adapted into a 26-episode anime series, produced by Bandai Visual and Pierrot. The manga series was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Asuka manga magazine between January 1992 and October 1993, spanning three tankōbon, while the anime premiered in Japan... |
Monthly Asuka Monthly Asuka is a monthly Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Kadokawa Shoten, aimed at teenage girls. Much like its sibling publication Shōnen Ace, it places some emphasis on anime tie-ins and spinoffs... |
3 | |
| 1992 | 1993 | Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders Duklyon: CLAMP School Defenders is a manga created by Clamp, a Japanese artistic group of four women.The story features two teenagers on Clamp Campus, Kentarou Higashikunimaru and Takeshi Shukaido, who are called upon occasion to become monster-battling superheroes while wearing armored outfits in this comic parody of typical... |
Newtype 100% Comics | 2 | |
| 1992 | 1992 | Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales is a manga anthology created by Clamp, a creative team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Ageha Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi and Mokona.The three stories revolve around Yuki-onna, a yōkai found in Japanese folklore.... |
Monthly Asuka | 1 | |
| 1992 | — | X/1999 X (manga) , also known as X/1999, is a Japanese shōjo manga series created by Clamp, a creative team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Nanase Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Mokona. It premiered in Monthly Asukas May 1992 issue and ran there until the magazine's editors showed concern with the increasingly violent... |
Monthly Asuka | 18 | |
| 1992 | 1994 | Legend of Chun Hyang Legend of Chun Hyang is a manga by Clamp. Its story and characters are loosely based on a well known Korean folktale of the same name.Shin Shunkaden was first published in 1996 by Hakusensha in Japan.... |
Serie Mystery - Special | 1 | |
| 1993 | 1995 | Magic Knight Rayearth Magic Knight Rayearth is a Japanese manga series created by Clamp, a manga artist team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Ageha Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi and Mokona. Rayearth combines elements from the magical girl and mecha anime genres with parallel world fantasy.... |
Nakayoshi Nakayoshi is a shōjo manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. First published in December 1954, it is a long-running magazine with over 50 years worth of manga publication history. The target demographic for Nakayoshi is aimed at young girls between... |
3 | |
| 1993 | 1995 | Miyuki-chan in Wonderland Miyuki-chan in Wonderland is a yuri manga series created by Clamp and serialised by Kadokawa Shoten in its Japanese edition of Newtype from 1993 to 1995. In 1995, an image album and an OVA version of the first two stories was released. The English language version of the manga was published by Tokyopop in 2003.The manga is... |
Newtype | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1995 | The One I Love The One I Love (manga) is a twelve story anthology by Clamp. It is a collection of short manga vignettes and essays about various unnamed heroines dealing with various aspects and hardships of love... |
Young Rose Comics DX | 1 | |
| 1995 | 1996 | Magic Knight Rayearth 2 | Nakayoshi | 3 | |
| 1996 | 2000 | Cardcaptor Sakura Cardcaptor Sakura , abbreviated as CCS and also known as Cardcaptors, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. The manga was originally serialized monthly in Nakayoshi from the May 1996 until the June 2000 issue, and later published in 12 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha... |
Nakayoshi | 12 | |
| 1996 | 1998 | Wish Wish (manga) is a Japanese shōjo manga series created by Clamp. It is published in English by Tokyopop. The American translation was imported to Australia by Madman Entertainment.- Plot:... |
Monthly Asuka | 4 | |
| 1997 | 1999 | Clover Clover (manga) is a manga series created by Clamp, a creative team made up by Satsuki Igarashi, Ageha Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Mokona. The manga takes place in a dystopian future, where the government is out to control the "Clovers", a race of children with special powers.... |
Amie | 4 | |
| 1999 | 2001 | Angelic Layer Angelic Layer is a manga series released by Clamp. The manga is published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, and in English originally by Tokyopop, but has since been re-licensed by Dark Horse Comics. It is the group's first work to use a quite different art style unseen in any other CLAMP series, which uses a more... |
Monthly Shōnen Ace | 5 | |
| 1999 | 2000 | Suki: A Like Story | Monthly Asuka | 3 | |
| 2000 | — | Legal Drug Legal Drug is a manga series by Clamp. The main artist in this serialization is Tsubaki Nekoi, formerly Mick Nekoi. It is published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten and it is published in English by Tokyopop who have currently released 3 volumes as of 2005... |
Monthly Asuka | 3 | |
| 2001 | 2002 | Chobits Chobits is a Japanese manga created by the Japanese manga collective Clamp. It was published by Kodansha in Young Magazine from February 2001 to November 2002 and collected in eight bound volumes.... |
Young Magazine Young Magazine is a Japanese manga magazine published weekly by Kodansha. The magazine was started on June 23, 1980 and is targeted at adult males . It is also known as Young or YM. It goes on sale Monday every week... |
8 | |
| 2003 | 2011 | xxxHolic | Young Magazine, then Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine | 19 | |
| 2003 | 2009 | Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle is a shōnen manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. It takes place in the same fictional universe as many of Clamp's other manga series, most notably xxxHolic. The plot follows how Sakura, the princess of the Kingdom of Clow, loses her soul and how Syaoran, a young... |
Weekly Shōnen Magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine , also known as Shōnen Magazine, is a shōnen manga magazine published by Kodansha, first published on 17 March 1959. Despite some unusual censorship policies , it's mainly read by an older audience, with a large portion of its readership falling under the male high school or college... |
28 | |
| 2005 | 2011 | Kobato. | Monthly Sunday Gene-X, then Newtype | 6 | |
| 2010 | — | Gate 7 Gate 7 is a manga series by Clamp serialized in Jump Square magazine published by Shueisha. It was published as a one-shot in December 2010, while the serialization began in March 2011. It concerns a young student who visits a shrine in Kyoto and meets a beautiful child-like female-looking warrior who... |
Jump SQ. | 2 |
Reception and awards
Mystery has surrounded the members of CLAMP as, in order to avoid being harassed by overzealous fans, they avoid making public appearances. In polls conducted by marketing research firm OriconOricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...
, CLAMP was elected ninth most popular manga artist from Japan in 2007, while they were eighth in 2008, sharing the spot with Fujiko F. Fujio.
Gen Fukunaga
Gen Fukunaga
is a Japanese-born businessman and producer who is the founder and president of Funimation Entertainment, a company that distributes anime in the United States and Canada.Fukunaga was born in Japan and grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana in the United States....
, the president and CEO of Funimation, has praised CLAMP as being "one of the most acclaimed groups of artists in Japan." According to Charles Solomon, a journalist for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, CLAMP "ranks among the most successful creators of manga ... in Japan and the United States." Dallas Middaugh, associate publisher of Del Rey Manga
Del Rey Manga
was the manga-publishing imprint of Del Rey Books, a branch of Ballantine Books, which in turn is part of Random House, the publishing division of Bertelsmann. It was formed as part of a cross-publishing relationship with Japanese publisher Kodansha. Some of the Del Rey titles, such as Tsubasa...
, stated that CLAMP was a integral part of "manga explosion" that has been occurring in the United States over the past few years. He also praised the group's artwork and storytelling style as having "struck a strong chord with male and female manga readers." The group was placed third after the winner for the Shogakukan Manga Award
Shogakukan Manga Award
The is one of Japan's major manga awards, sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga since 1955 and features candidates from a number of publishers.The current award categories are:...
in the Children's category in 1999. Their work Cardcaptor Sakura
Cardcaptor Sakura
, abbreviated as CCS and also known as Cardcaptors, is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by the manga artist group Clamp. The manga was originally serialized monthly in Nakayoshi from the May 1996 until the June 2000 issue, and later published in 12 tankōbon volumes by Kodansha...
won the Seiun Award for best manga in 2001. Almost 100 million CLAMP tankōbon
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...
copies have been sold worldwide as of October 2007. Various of their selling series include xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle that have sold over eleven million and twenty million volumes, respectively.
When asked about the universal popularity of CLAMP's works, John Oppliger of AnimeNation
AnimeNation
AnimeNation is an American retailer of anime, manga, and other products of Japanese culture. It was founded in 1995 and is located in Tampa, Florida...
stated that although it is "not based on originality [or] their artistic skill", they possess a distinct style that "perfectly mesh[es] the conventional attributes of shōnen and shōjo manga". He also pointed out that CLAMP often "recycles" characters from their own earlier works, which gave rise to "a loosely defined 'CLAMP Universe' that gives much of their work a unifying tone", and creates "absorbing, complex narratives that appeal to both male and female readers". All these factors result in "a cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
devoted to anything and everything the group publishes". The Anime Encyclopedia
The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917
The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917 is a 2001 encyclopedia written by Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy. It was published in 2001 by Stone Bridge Press in the United States, and a "revised and expanded" edition was released in 2007. In the United Kingdom, it was...
authors stated that "whatever CLAMP are on, we'd like some".
External links
maintained by Frontier Works- Official website for mobile phones maintained by Frontier Works