Back to reading manga!

[xparrot]

Since I've been reading xxxHolic for a while, figured I should finally catch up with Tusbasa Reservoir Chronicle. So, just finished that.

...

There is not enough "OH CLAMP" in the world. In the world.

(For those not familiar, CLAMP is one of the most popular shoujo manga makers; they have gorgeous art and storylines which OTT can't even begin to describe. Tsubasa was a foray into shouen manga and an excuse to revisit most of their previous series. Basically imagine if Joss Whedon's next show was a Sliders ripoff with Buffy & [insert pairing partner of your choice] and a couple new friends going on an epic quest across the dimensions and meeting AU versions of every Joss!verse char. Then add a random supervillain, magic feathers, and time-travel. That's Tsubasa.)(Oh, and wildly angsty backstories and oodles of barely subtextual slash. But that's only to be expected with CLAMP.)

Fry is his own grandfather and Lister is his own father, but Tsubasa!Syaoran has to take the temporal paradox cake, for being the son of the cross-dimensional reincarnations of his own magical clone and the magical clone of his true love Sakura. There is no universe in which this is not completely batshit awesome.

Sakura herself is disappointingly shounen-ified - it's one of the reasons I was always reluctant to read Tsubasa, because I adore her in Card Captor Sakura and Tsubasa!Sakura is rather lessened to let the guys take center stage. Even if there's in-plot reasons for it, it's still sad to see her so subdued and ineffectual for most of the series. She may have improved toward the end but by then the crack count had climbed so high that I was too busy WTFing to appreciate it.

Kurogane & Fye. If xxxHolic's Doumeki/Watanuki are a semi-disguised 'port of doujinshi!ZoSan (which I've suspected for a while, and considering the anime cast Nakai Kazuya as Doumeki I think I'm not the only one who saw it) then Kurogane/Fye were made from all leftover bits of dj!Zoro and dj!Sanji - pour in a few gallons of angst, simmer over a low heat and there you go. Or maybe not. Though when Fye loses his eye (as you do, when you're a CLAMP char) it is the same eye that Sanji keeps covered. I really want to know if one of the CLAMP ladies is a OP fan.

And then there's all the Fun With AUs! - AU!Subaru is the pure-blooded vampire twin of Kamui, hunted obsessively across the dimensions by Seishirou, and gotta love that that's a happy, functional version of Seishirou/Subaru, compared to the original. And apparently in any universe Fuuma (Seishirou's little brother, hee~) will be CLAMP's second-hottest man (after Clow Reed, natch :P)

Really CLAMP's style adapts rather well to shounen (such is this is shounen, which I'm still iffy on, what with Kuro & Fye and the X/1999 boys and the epic love stories. But then Shounen Magazine did put out GetBackers as well. Apparently Shounen Mag believes that what guys really want to read about is lots of pretty boys with ambiguously intense friendships...) Artistically I don't find Tsubasa as appealing as some of their other work but it's still awful pretty. And hey, it's nice to get a CLAMP series with an actual, you know, ending. However cracktastic that ending may be.

So, overall had wtfun with it, which proves I really am back in a manga mood; CLAMP is too much for me otherwise (with the exception of the original Card Captor Sakura in all its almost frightening and questionable adorableness (reading it now to practice my Japanese, in fact), and xxxHolic which sort of snuck up on me without looking.)

I've also been watching Gintama, but that is deserving of its own post. In a nutshell: OMGWTFBBQLOLOLOLOLOL4EVER!!11eleventy1!

Comments

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

I kinda gave up on CLAMP when they abandoned Lawful Drug. I was already annoyed with them for X-1999, and considering how they seemed to, I dunno, get drunk on their own awesomeness? Go completely batshit? I decided to just leave them be.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I have a general policy only to read completed CLAMP series (xxxHolic's the one exception) because they are worse than a lot of fan writers when it comes to finishing WiPs! And for the most part I don't fall in love with their stuff anyway - it's a little too outrageous, and their kinks aren't quite my kinks. But I find it entertaining, and their art is awful pretty, which I'm weak to, so...

[snarkydame.livejournal.com]

*snaps. points* This. Yes, exactly. Ain't it fun? :D

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Haaw - it is so crazy! But yes, really quite a lot of fun. Overall I prefer 'Holic (I love that series for no good reason; something about the chars just works for me, in a way CLAMP chars rarely do) but Tsubasa is a ride. CLAMP + shounen = win!

[snarkydame.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's something about the melancholy quiet of xxxHolic that just draws me in -- but Tsubasa was great fun. CLAMP can be really hit/miss for me, but when they hit their stride, they're really something!

[greyias.livejournal.com]

I've also been watching Gintama, but that is deserving of its own post. In a nutshell: OMGWTFBBQLOLOLOLOLOL4EVER!!11eleventy1!

Hahahaha, welcome to the Madhouse! XD

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

My bro and I are nearly 100 episodes in and would be further except we can't watch more than 3-4 eps at a time, otherwise our brains end up in little broken piles on the floor...! (If I'm not actually fanning on it yet, I am very, very close, so...)

[lysambre.livejournal.com]

I never went very far reading Tsubasa, everytime I was trying to read, it made me want to re-read/re-watch Card Captor ! Hehehe.

I didn't knew the serie was finished though, so I might give it a try now I know there's and ending... even though this ending apparently is a little crazy ? ^_^

Kurogane and Fye, does it ever goes at least as far as Touyo and Yukito in CCS or did they go for more subtle in this one ?

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I'm reading CCS right now just to cover that ^^ (in Japanese it goes a lot slower than Tsubasa, so...and I've never read the whole manga, so that's fun.)

Tsubasa is entertaining, as long as you're ready for ever-increasing crack counts and vaguely nonsensical epic endings as only manga can manage.

And Kuro & Fye - yeeeeah, they don't ever say "most important person" so it's not as explicit a confession as Touya/Yukito; otoh there's quite a bit of outrageous sacrifices and living for one another, so...if you know xxxHolic it's about as blatant as Doumeki/Watanuki, but in different ways. Technically they could just be friends, but...

[lysambre.livejournal.com]

About CCS : I had only ever seen the anime until about a year ago, then a friend bought me the first manga volume. The drawings were so pretty I had to buy the rest, and I mean, it's only 12 volumes, so it's very far from other mangas I've bought in the past (I remember Ranma 1/2 and it's 30+ volumes madness :p).

The story is also different from the anime. And yet I love them both in their own ways :).

Yes, that was very much not on topic ! To get back there : I never read xxxHolic actually, saw the hints of it in Tsubasa but never went further. I do like finished stories though, so if it's still a WiP I might give it a pass for now.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I've had the CCS manga (in Japanese) for a while and had flipped through it, but hadn't ever sat down with a dictionary and read it before. And it's been years now since I saw the anime so there's much I'm forgetting - it's fun to go through again (even if there's so many things that are, umm, kind of creepy out of the super-cute context? like Sakura-chan's friend dating the teacher at ten years old ^^;;;;;)

I really quite like Holic, but given CLAMP's track record finishing series, yes, waiting for it to finish before reading might be wise!

[lysambre.livejournal.com]

The 10 year old dating the teacher, is indeed creepy.

And the anime Tomoyo is actually creeping me out too. There's liking someone and then there's being a creepy stalker...

But still, Sakura and Shaoran are so cute <3.

[angel-love-song.livejournal.com]

Good for you! You discovered the wonders of the cracked!clamp world. And you managed to understand all of it. All I know is that the whole thing made my world go upside down... all in good fun, I suppose. Great review. CCS is for Sakura-chan. TRC is for Syaoran. Hey, it became a shounen anime so yeah... :D

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

XDDDD I wouldn't say I understand all of it - oh man in those last couple volumes I gave up even trying to figure out which Syaoran or Sakura was speaking! - but it...more or less made sense to me by the end? Maybe? Sorta? ^^;;;

And yeah, I just feel sorry for Sakura-chan, when Syaoran gets twice as many volumes to be awesome! But Syaoran/Sakura's an OTP for me either way you slice it, so... ^^

[tyreling.livejournal.com]

Ah I love Card Captor Sakura a lot too. Tsubasa anime killed me D: but the manga was okay. I did have fun trying to get the whole gist of Tsubasa!Syaoran's existence. It gave me quite a headache.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I tried a bit of the Tsubasa anime when it first came out, but it never did anything for me. The manga was fun, though (if mind-bending) - but CCS is still my favorite CLAMP! ^^

[tyreling.livejournal.com]

I meant the TRC anime killed my interest in the series. D: I can't believe I even tried out the OAV... which was about the Tokyo Towers arc. D:

The first few arcs were okay, but then when CLAMP started unraveling every mystery they thought up in the most twisted ways I lost myself in their logic. ^^;; I even opted to go re-read it again once I have time.

Oooohhh I always tell other people that CCS is one of my favorites series. Have you ever written for the fandom?

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, I'm curious to see the Tokyo OAV - I figure it's gotta be pretty, if nothing else!

I never wrote fic for CCS - it's one of those series that I like just as it is, never had the desire to see more than what we got. ^^ (I actually never saw the whole anime, only the first half and then key later episodes. But geeze it is so cute~! I've recently been rereading the manga in Japanese - it's right about my level with the language ^^; - need to get back to that, but am a little Gintama-distracted at the moment...)(Gintama, now, I am ficcing for, it seems... ^^;)

[tyreling.livejournal.com]

The OAV was all right. It did give me a better view of how that arc was about. I mean the manga-version was a bit confusing with the eye part and the action scenes.

Ahhh CCS does give me that kind of feeling. But for some reason I just tend to look underneath the surface of the characters and their relationships. Which is probably why I actually thought the TRC/CCS fanfic could work if it's done well. (... I'm sorry for pimping... ) Ever read Vikki's works "Consequences (http://vikki.livejournal.com/276391.html#cutid1)" (a CCS/TRC fic) or "Gonna have a baby" (CCS future) 1 (http://vikki.livejournal.com/277329.html#cutid1) and 2 (http://vikki.livejournal.com/277734.html#cutid1)?
(Really? I've watched the anime more than once and I keep loving it more and more. I really recommend everyone do watch the whole series and read the manga at the same time. As for reading the Japanese version... wow you're amazing. I'm actually illiterate on that part. ^^; I'd already a bad time trying to read it in Chinese.)

Oooh, I wanna read your Gintama fics. :D I thought it's a bit difficult to fic this series since you just have to get the right about of crack/the character's voices right to make the fic work.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

At the time I was watching the CCS anime I was buying it on DVD, and if I recall not all the official DVDs were out yet (it was a number of years ago, when downloading anime was possible but tricky). Sometime later I d/l'ed the end of the series (...okay, mostly for the Touya/Yukito, I confess, even though I adore Syaoran/Sakura too) but while I've rewatched some of those eps multiple times there's still some in the middle I've never seen.

The manga is fun, though, and it's quite simple Japanese, which is good (I lived in Kyoto for 3 years and still am intermediate level at best ^^;)

My Gintama...well, it's one fic right now, which I'm not going to post 'til it's done, but it's going pretty fast. Whether I'm getting the suitable crack balance remains to be seen...the story itself is going to be dramatic but most of what I've got so far is comedic, to set the mood!