TRC Album de reproductions: translation of Clamp's comments
Ok guys, so I'm posting here my Album de reproductions comments translation, as la_vie_noire kindly advised I should do. Sorry if my English is weird, I tried my best, but I'm afraid it may be far from perfect. My knowledge of vocabulary refering to art isn't all that deep nor thorough, either, so if you find anything not understandable, inappropriate or ambiguous, just let me know and I'll try to fix it somehow. ^^'
Thanks for stopping by, and remember to have fun! ^^
Front Cover:
The setting is the same as in the scene of departure in the Special Edition. The four have gathered at the ruins of their memories. The colour of the sky is in sync with the vol. 28 of the Normal Edition ( p. 90) and Deluxe Edition ( p. 92 ). We decided to make the birds yellowish to match it with the ornament of Sakura’s outfit, because if they were white, they would melt into the background.
p. 1:
This pattern appeared quite often in “X”. I actually like to draw such pictures with objects only, without any characters accompanying them. The feather is a precious item that stores memories and the spirit, so it should be treated like something valuable. This picture is a result of such way of thinking. This time we used Copic’s airbrush.
p. 2- 3:
It’s an image of Western criminal series. In the actual manga around that time Sakura was wounded, so we matched the remaining three by wounding them all over and making them look like a street gang. The meaning of the cards they are holding is what the four have rejected or do not wish for from now on. Thus, the cards have been designed by Ogawa quite some time beforehand.
p. 4-5:
It’s Shaoran after his transformation, so one of his eyes has turned blue, and we dressed him in Chinese-style clothes similar to Fei Wang’s. In this ilustration I wanted to draw Shaoran and flames upon a mirror-like floor, and so I used airbrush for drawing the reflection of clothes on the floor and the area surrounding the flames. It seems that in “Tsubasa” we hardly ever used anything except Copics.
p. 6:
I like the motif of being bound by a red thread in a pitch-black space. We used it many times in “X”, too. This time the red thread shows the state in which Shaoran has found himself, losing his freedom. Red lines make the picture look collected, and the red stands out with Shaoran’s clothes, which are mainly monotone or earth-colour.
p. 7
We happened to draw for the covers or splashes “countries, where they may or may not have been to”. For example, after “Tokyo” they may have gone to a country like that, been in such situation and worn such clothes - it was purely playing with imagination to the heart’s content. The hair on the top of Sakura’s head looks a little strange, because it stands up under the veil, but if the hair is still, it doesn’t seem like Sakura anymore ( laughs ), so it’s kind of troublesome.
p. 8-9
The situation where they are in reversed positions towards each other is something that I have been fond of for a long time, and it can be often seen in other pictures, too. And when there’s black and white, I can’t help but feel like adding some red ( laughs). You can see the emblem of the Country of Clow’s ruins beneath the two. The colour of their eyes differs, so it’s easy to tell them apart.
p. 10
This picture is a part of a scene from the actual manga, so we drew it with an assumption that there would be some lines to insert there. It’s a scene from the dream, so we drew them floating in the pure white space, and made it simple, without any redundant objects. It was about then that Shaoran grew taller and started to look older than the plot setting claimed he was ( laughs).
p. 11
This is another country that didn’t make an appearance in the manga. The Shaoran on the left wears an eyepatch, so we don’t know if the eye that is hidden is blue or the same colour as the other one. We’d like our readers to imagine their own version of that. The clothes are Mongolian-style, and the ethnic details attached to them are a mixture of various countries. We wanted it not to reflect any particular country in the real world.
p. 12 - 13
In “Tsubasa” we colour the deepest part of shading all over with a single colour, and we use Copics when the colouring is supposed to be rather anime-styled. But with such colouring the cherry petals, or the lightness and softness of Princess’s hair cannot be expressed, so this picture was trials and errors. I used up a lot of energy to draw this picture, for example drawing the main line of Sakura’s hair a little thinner.
p. 14 - 15
I wanted to draw a theatrical scene evoking “The Phantom of the Opera”. But it wouldn’t be interesting just as it is, so I decided to make him wear a kind of armor and a “mecha-style” mask. Thinking up such tricks is real fun. Basically we use the Copics for colouring “Tsubasa”, but this time we used Poster Colour for the golden lace pattern.
p. 16
It’s a Japanese-style concept. Come to think of it, there weren’t many occasions in “Tsubasa” to draw something entirely in the Japanese style. It would often be pseudo-Japanese style with Japanese clothes but exotic armours, and so on. This time all the elements are Japanese-style, only the historical periods they come from are various. It seems that Sakura’s hairpin is of the most modern origin ( laughs ).
p. 17
The Princess and her two companions. The cherry tree appears often in the manga, too, so we decided to set the three together with the tree at the nighttime. Come to think of Shaoran’s clothes from the time he was Fei Wang’s prisoner, and the fact that he comes from Hong Kong, it seems that he always ends up wearing Chinese-style clothes.
p. 18-19
This time I decided to draw as a part of Shaoran’s outfit the seal tatoo attached to the real Shaoran’s body. You can see the same pattern on his eyepatch. From then on we started to decorate the eyepatches. The two are often pictured in reverse, upside-down positions towards each other, but in this picture we made them stand in such a manner that we can see the one’s front and the other’s back. There is the feeling that the two are passing each other by.
p. 20
The garments are in general Japanese-style, but with various Western and Chinese details it’s “pseudo-Japanese style”. For a long time I have been fond of making them contrast each other like that, when one wears black outfit and the other white. It’s fun to think up such things, as if they were the extra costumes for characters in a game.
p. 21
“What if there was a world where the Shaorans were true twins?”, I tried to imagine when drawing this picture. We drew a whole lot of pictures with Japanese-style clothes, and so this time we dressed them in kimonos from the Warring States period. The swords and armours consist of a lot of parts, so it was hard to colour them properly. It also cost a lot of effort to do the shading so that the picture would be clearly visible, and so no matter how many times we coloured it, the end still seemed nowhere near ( laughs ). It really took a lot of time to finish.
p. 22 - 23
The concept was to show the two pairs contrasting one another, and so their outfits and the background are also the opposite, black and white. These clothes are also original ones which didn’t appear in the actual manga. I wanted to draw a streamline design like in the art nouveau, which is visible in the ornaments of Sakura’s dress. Shaoran’s clothes aren’t pale green, but the stand-up collar makes them look Chinese anyway.
p. 24
The scene where Sakura is divided into the body and the soul. The right side of the picture was well-suited for drawing it with typical manga style techniques, but the water on the left side was difficult. Anyway, it was hard to give out the impression of the water being transparent. After all, if it’s carried too far the effect looks too heavy, and if it’s too clear the result looks like glass. And so I struggled day by day ( laughs).
p. 25
Yuuko’s kimono is the outfit she wears in the actual manga, too, and it appeared in “XXX Holic” as well. As the impact of the obi is too strong, I decided to leave the kimono without any pattern upon it, but later on in “XXX Holic” there was the scene where Watanuki picked up this kimono, which was then without the obi. Only then did I realize that without it the kimono could not be recognized anymore, and I wished I had drawn some pattern back then.
p. 26 - 27
It was awfully hard to draw the cherry blossoms beneath the Mokonas. It was difficult to give away the transparent feeling of the petals. We finally broke “Tsubasa”’s rule and used a technique peculiar of shoujo manga, drawing the outline of the petals with a really pale colour. If we coloured it with the anime style, drawing distinguished black lines as we used to do with “Tsubasa”, the Mokonas would merge into the background.
p. 28-29
It’s an image of a foreign funeral ceremony. The twilight is golden, so that the black outfit of the three would look attractive. For some reason when I think of a funeral, it’s the lilies that come to my mind. Even a single lily looks spectacular, and it’s the kind of flower that gives out a serious impression, and so we make the characters carry the lilies in their hands in our other works, too. It sometimes happens that even if a boy holds roses it doesn’t look interesting. ( laughs )
p. 30 - 31
The concept was “snow-white”, and so there is snow as the background, and the clothes are snow-white, too. The clothes look as if they belonged to characters from a “group of knights” kind of computer game. Anyway, we reduced the number of colours used here. If the shadow of the snow is too deep, it looks as if it were gray, and if it’s too light, the picture lacks the proper shading, so it is difficult to strike a good balance of density.
p. 32- 33
I like this kind of smoky colours. We used it quite a lot in “XXXHolic”, but hardly ever in “Tsubasa”. But since this time the theme was Sakura in a dream, we thought that subdued colours would fit the picture better and decided for greyish russet. There’s no water here, but we drew it as if Sakura was sinking into the water.
p. 34 - 35
I wanted to draw a picture with a wall coated with ice in the background, and a picture of wings upon the ice. It cost some effort to make the wall show through the ice. The pointed shards of ice within the crown, the sword and the cloth resembling bandage represent the fate Fai has been burdened with and the feelings with which he takes it.
p. 36-37
I love the motif of chess, so I have sometimes used it in other works, too. It’s always fun to arrange the figures in your own way, and so this time I decided to make them mechanical. The Infinity splashes were always gothical, but here the gothic is reduced to make a good match with Eagle’s image.
p. 38-39
This Kamui is a vampire, so I wanted to arrange it with red and black. The outfit from the original manga is the base, with tribal patterns and a coat resembling bat’s wings added here. I drew the rubble behind Kamui’s back so that it would resemble wings. This Kamui is a different person from the “X” Kamui, but I wanted to keep here the mood of “X” anyway.
p. 40 - 41
The vol. 16 Kamui picture was red, so to contrast it, the Fuuma picture is blue, and the proportion of black and white inside the picture has been switched, too. Fuuma travels to a lot of countries and wears a lot of different outfits, but I imagined that his default clothes might look like that, and put it into the picture. I also thought that he may carry some big weapon, since he’s a kind of a treasure hunter.
p. 42- 43
In vol. 16 Kamui wore the clothes from the Tokyo Arc, so here we decided to dress Subaru in his true vampire clothes. The background suits an European vampire image, too, and the picture is full of gimmicks like the candlesticks and the pattern on the curtain. In this picture it was the background that called for a lot of effort, rather than Subaru himself.
p. 44 - 45
There wasn’t such a room depicted in the actual manga, but I drew it, because I thought it would be so beautiful if there were such a palace made of ice. In the eyes of an onlooker the King Ashura might have been a normal person who gradually collapsed mentally, but before his complete collapse he and Fai were in a good parent- child relationship. This is a picture representing that period.
p. 46 - 47
It’s Clow-san who changed his job for a king of the Clow Country ( laughs ). The general design of his outfit is the same as it was in Card Captor Sakura, but we added here the emblems and ornaments of the Clow Country. The Clow that appears in “XXXHolic” has the same base, too. It seems that if he doesn’t wear this design then he doesn’t look like Clow anymore.
p. 48 - 49
It’s Fujitaka-san not as the king, but as Shaoran’s foster father. Because Fujitaka-san made his appearance in the manga as the king as well, we made him wear the cloak of the Clow Country’s king, so as to reconcile the two. Both Fujitaka-san the king and Fujitaka-san the foster father were shown as the scholarly souls, so shelves full of books make the background of this picture.
p. 50 - 51
This staff is something that is passed on from the predecessor to the successor in the line of the High Priests, so it’s the same thing as the one Yukito held on the cover of Deluxe Edition vol. 6. The Queen’s dress was developed in terms of the pattern and the ornaments so it could be used for the cover, but basically its design is the same as the High Priest Yukito’s clothes’. The background is violet to make a match with her hair colour. It’s a light nighttime, with cherry blossom petals flowing in the air.
p. 52-53
Amaterasu’s prototype was Kendappa-ou of “R.G.Veda”, so the colour of the outfit and the form of the weapon or the armour are based on those from “R.G.Veda”, too. We decided to arrange the picture as a whole with the colours of red, gold and white, matching it with black and red, which are the main colours of the outfit, and the sun, which is Amaterasu’s symbol. In the background there is a typical of Japanese style paper sliding door.
p. 54 - 55
When Watanuki was talking to Sakura in a dream, cherry blossom petals were floating in the air, so here we had him sitting on a branch of a cherry tree. I wanted to insert butterflies somewhere here, so I drew them upon the kimono Watanuki’s wearing over his shoulders. The pattern of the lining is garish, too, so unexpectedly it all turned out to be overly adorned. In his hand he holds a cage with Sakura’s feather.
p. 56 - 57
This one’s setting is inside a dream, too. We had them sitting back to back in the glass tube which made its appearance in the beginning of the first volume. The tube is broken and the glass shards are falling all over, and as the slightest details of the colour of the glass are important in this picture, the colour of glass changes depending on its position and angle. Even with the so typical of “Tsubasa” “colouring-all-over” technique, the feeling of transparency still comes through.
p. 58-59
The Country of Nihon is the stage. Still, instead of pure Japanese style the garments are the kind of “Japanese-style” featuring elements from other countries. For example, Sakura wears a pannier - it’s real fun to think up such tricks. The kimono patterns all have in common the motif of a bird: Shaoran’s is crane, Sakura’s is dove , Kurogane’s is hawk or eagle, and Fai’s is swallow.
p. 60
This picture is makes a set with the picture on page 61, and so the background is the same. We drew Fai and Kurogane dressed in vampire-style clothes, with the white moon floating on the night sky behind their backs. Still, we had to make many minor adjustments so that their clothes wouldn’t seem too different from those worn by the other three ( laughs ). The Infinity splashes were meant to represent the gothic line, so we tried hard to make it look good.
p. 61
We started to draw it with the same background as the previous one, but since there are more characters here, and the clothes are heavy, too, we featured here a lot of the sky. So as to contrast with the previous page, the colours of the moon or the clothes are diffrent. The outfit of the three have been based on the clothes from the Infinity Arc of the actual manga.
p. 62-63
The style of colouring in this picture has been planned so that there would be only about three clearly visible colours. Among them we wanted the orange to be the most impressive, so we used it for the sky and the ground. The remains of a tree are white and the mood is fierce, so we added shards of glass to make it even more savage. I wish I could draw glass just a little more beautiful.
p. 64
Fai’s eyepatch is on the opposite side. This changes a lot depending on the setting, and would take too many lines to explain here ( laughs). This is a country that did not appear in the actual manga, and its image is that of a retro mecha city. I wanted to colour everything grey, but if their clothes were grey they would merge into the background, so I made them white and used yellow as the supporting colour.
p. 65
The motif is the world of an imaginary RPG. Shaoran is the warrior wearing an armor, and Mokona is sitting on the palm of his hand like a white bird. This time the image is overall blue. I hadn’t drawn any close-ups for some time, so here I drew a waist-up after considering the location of the title logo.
p. 66
This one has got a feeling of being “Asian style”. It may be Chinese, but elements from other places have been featured here, too. Where on earth is that country?! - I like to draw clothes that make people wonder about such things. In this picture the weapons have been well thought over. Kurogane’s weapon is a kind of club, whereas Shaoran’s is a sword with ornaments. It’s fun to design weapons while thinking over how exactly they are used.
p. 67
This is another imaginary country, but this time I dared to draw clothes entirely differing in taste for each of the three. Fai’s style is European and Kurogane’s is Japanese. Shaoran often wears greenish things, so I thought it would be good to dress him in something bright-coloured once in a while, and decided it should be earth-colour orange. This is the setting of three people of different origin who form a party and travel together.
p. 68 - 69
The age of the four differs a lot, but in this picture we decided to gather them all together as they were in their childhood. Each of them has been clad in the clothes of their home country. Still, because Fai ages slowlier than the remaining three, I think that at this point of time he is already the oldest one of them. We can’t see him in the picture, but perhaps Yuui is standing there right beside Fai.
p. 70 - 71
The original sketch was supposed to be coloured, but in the magazine it was published as a monochrome, so we coloured it for the artbook. We imagined the Shaoran twins as if it were a continuation of vol. 21, and added the other two to accompany them so as to show them fighting together as a team. This time there’s no girl in the picture, which is composed within the battlefield atmosphere, with men as its only characters.
p. 72
The subject is cyber-punk. I tried to imagine that maybe Shaoran’s team has been to such a country, and there have been such things there. Fai and Shaoran could be living in a cyber-punk world after exchanging their magical powers for some other kind of power, but it as for Kurogane, it felt like he probably would not use it, hence his absence this time ( laughs).
p. 73
The scenery is a desert or some kind of barren field. It repeats Fuuma’s image from p. 40, but this time it’s Shaoran who’s the hunter. His gun is a retro type. It was a cover of the normal edition, thus the close-up, which I hardly ever draw otherwise.
p. 74
We were supposed to draw a scene from the daily life for the cover of the Character Guide Book, so we depicted the three the way they would look like if they lived in our world. I imagined that each of them is an actor, and that I asked them to strike a pose and then took the picture. Each of them wears the Tsubasa mark, so that they make a set.
p. 75
“Newtype” covers always have white background, so in order to exctract the characters off of the original picture easily, we shaded them off with an airbrush. The techniques of colouring in “Tsubasa” and “XXXHolic” differ from each other, so we always have doubts which one to choose, but in this picture the “Tsubasa” colouring was applied. The patterns on their yukatas are the symbols representative of each of them, which are butterflies and feathers.
p. 76
This time around the Horitsuba Campus setting had already been estabilished, so we drew Fai as a chemistry teacher and Kurogane as a P.E. teacher. It’s the cooking class that we can see behind their backs. Horitsuba’s badge is made up from “Tsubasa”’s mark and “XXXHolic”’s “xxx” put together, and so such a badge can be seen on Fai’s sleeve and Kurogane’s jersey.
p. 77
This is also a Horitsuba Campus one. On the blackboard there are written Sakura’s and Watanuki’s names, meaning that they are on duty that day. It is supposed to show in a casual manner that they are in the same class. Until now we have drawn in our works school uniforms on numerous occasion, but this is the first one that is red. We chose dark red, becaus it can be worn also by boys, and it fits both “Tsubasa” and “XXXHolic” characters, too.
p. 78 - 79
We didn’t really think we would get to draw Halloween in “Tsubasa”, so this one was great fun. I wonder if this has not been our first Halloween picture considering even all of our works? And after all orange and black make the best match with it. If the monster ears were worn by any other character they would end up looking cute, so we decided to give them to Kurogane, who they suit the least ( laughs ).
p. 80
This picture was meant for the clear file use, so at first we wanted to draw the four with stationery. But then we realized that some of them may not look good with stationery. Sometimes I had doodled them wearing glasses, and so we changed the option from stationery to glasses. I choose the design for each of them after considering things like what kind of design they would choose for themselves, or what kind of design would suit them.
p. 81
Again it’s the Horitsuba Campus uniforms. On p. 77 the shirt or the blouse under the jacket aren’t clearly visible, so in this picture I wanted to draw them properly. And thus the buttons of Shaoran’s jacket are undone, so that even the pocket of the shirt could be seen. But I think Shaoran is the type that would wear his uniform properly, so this one seems a bit of a whim.
p. 82 - 83
For that year’s calendar we drew “XXXHolic” and “Tsubasa” characters together for two months, April and December. For April we gathered the protagonists of the two series and showed them having a party together. Somehow we made Watanuki play the role of a waiter. I think that later on the three will be sitting together at the table, but anyway I always end up feeling like making him deliver the food ( laughs ).
p. 84
In this year’s calendar the “Tsubasa” and “XXXHolic” cast were divided into the male and the female team. The scenery is such as if they were taking a souvenir picture on the board of a luxurious, a little retro - furnished passenger boat. The motives of garment shared by all of them are the laces and the ribbons, but the design and the accessories of each outfit differ. After all, the tension does rise when you are to draw girls.
p. 85
Like on p. 84 it’s the board of a luxurious passenger boat, but this time we featured the round windows. The pattern on the wall is the same as the one on the curtains from p. 84, so that it is clear that this is the interior of the same boat. There are stairs in the hall and each of the characters is standing on a different stair. Thanks to this we could focus on placing them in such a way that the composition would be good, without worrying about their differences of the height.
p. 86
This is also a set with p. 87, and we drew boys and girls separately. The guys are trying to prepare a meal for the p. 87 girls, and so they have gathered in the kitchen, each wearing clothes that suit him the best. It is really fun to come up with cook’s uniforms.
p. 87
We drew the girls waiting for the p. 86 boys to cook them the meal. The girls are wearing party clothes whose common motif are roses. Yuuko-san in her Chinese dress is the sensual one. Himawari looks a little Western even in that kimono, to make a match with her hairstyle. We gave the white Mokona a rose ornament, as she’s a member of the girls team, too.
p. 88
We drew one of the manga scenes as an ilustration. Sakura made a coronet of leaves and gave it to Shaoran. The mood is cute and tender, as it should be in a good childhood memory.
p. 89
Here we have the clone Shaoran and Sakura paired up, so in this picture they too wear the Clow Country clothes. I drew it thinking they would be just cute clinging to each other like that.
p. 90 - 91
It’s the scene of departure for the journey, the same as in the Deluxe Edition cover ( p. 92 ). The clothes and the colour of the sky are the same, but the difference is such that here there’s a close-up on Shaoran. I wanted it to have the mood of Sakura bidding farewell to Shaoran, so there are cherry blossom petals falling all over.
p. 92 - 93
It was decided in the very beginning that the cover of the last Deluxe Edition volume would contrast the first Deluxe Edition volume. By the way, on the first volume cover there is the clone, and this time it’s the real Shaoran. In the first volume there was the night sky, and here we have the early morning sky. When you compare him with the first volume, it seems that his figure and facial features have changed quite a lot.
p. 94- 95
It was the last chapter, so we wanted to give out the feeling of “all’s well that ends well”. Everyone’s here, leisurely enjoying the cherry blossoms. Initially Mokona was on Fai’s arm, but from there she seemed too small, so we moved her to Shaoran’s leg. And because of that now Mokona enjoys a better position than the heroine, Sakura ( laughs ).
p. 96
In the chapter before the clone Shaoran died, so we drew this picture trying to imagine a world where the two of them would be twins. We wanted this image to be peaceful and refreshing, and so there’s the blue sky, the grass field, and the white shirts. Such close-up on two males hardly ever happens ( laughs ).
Back Cover
The same setting as in the front cover. We matched the colour of the sky and the birds to the background, which is the ruins of their memories. When the last chapter was published we didn’t have the chance to draw the colour version of Kurogane, Fai and Mokona in the new clothes, so we thought we’d like to show them like that sometime.
Thanks for stopping by, and remember to have fun! ^^
Front Cover:
The setting is the same as in the scene of departure in the Special Edition. The four have gathered at the ruins of their memories. The colour of the sky is in sync with the vol. 28 of the Normal Edition ( p. 90) and Deluxe Edition ( p. 92 ). We decided to make the birds yellowish to match it with the ornament of Sakura’s outfit, because if they were white, they would melt into the background.
p. 1:
This pattern appeared quite often in “X”. I actually like to draw such pictures with objects only, without any characters accompanying them. The feather is a precious item that stores memories and the spirit, so it should be treated like something valuable. This picture is a result of such way of thinking. This time we used Copic’s airbrush.
p. 2- 3:
It’s an image of Western criminal series. In the actual manga around that time Sakura was wounded, so we matched the remaining three by wounding them all over and making them look like a street gang. The meaning of the cards they are holding is what the four have rejected or do not wish for from now on. Thus, the cards have been designed by Ogawa quite some time beforehand.
p. 4-5:
It’s Shaoran after his transformation, so one of his eyes has turned blue, and we dressed him in Chinese-style clothes similar to Fei Wang’s. In this ilustration I wanted to draw Shaoran and flames upon a mirror-like floor, and so I used airbrush for drawing the reflection of clothes on the floor and the area surrounding the flames. It seems that in “Tsubasa” we hardly ever used anything except Copics.
p. 6:
I like the motif of being bound by a red thread in a pitch-black space. We used it many times in “X”, too. This time the red thread shows the state in which Shaoran has found himself, losing his freedom. Red lines make the picture look collected, and the red stands out with Shaoran’s clothes, which are mainly monotone or earth-colour.
p. 7
We happened to draw for the covers or splashes “countries, where they may or may not have been to”. For example, after “Tokyo” they may have gone to a country like that, been in such situation and worn such clothes - it was purely playing with imagination to the heart’s content. The hair on the top of Sakura’s head looks a little strange, because it stands up under the veil, but if the hair is still, it doesn’t seem like Sakura anymore ( laughs ), so it’s kind of troublesome.
p. 8-9
The situation where they are in reversed positions towards each other is something that I have been fond of for a long time, and it can be often seen in other pictures, too. And when there’s black and white, I can’t help but feel like adding some red ( laughs). You can see the emblem of the Country of Clow’s ruins beneath the two. The colour of their eyes differs, so it’s easy to tell them apart.
p. 10
This picture is a part of a scene from the actual manga, so we drew it with an assumption that there would be some lines to insert there. It’s a scene from the dream, so we drew them floating in the pure white space, and made it simple, without any redundant objects. It was about then that Shaoran grew taller and started to look older than the plot setting claimed he was ( laughs).
p. 11
This is another country that didn’t make an appearance in the manga. The Shaoran on the left wears an eyepatch, so we don’t know if the eye that is hidden is blue or the same colour as the other one. We’d like our readers to imagine their own version of that. The clothes are Mongolian-style, and the ethnic details attached to them are a mixture of various countries. We wanted it not to reflect any particular country in the real world.
p. 12 - 13
In “Tsubasa” we colour the deepest part of shading all over with a single colour, and we use Copics when the colouring is supposed to be rather anime-styled. But with such colouring the cherry petals, or the lightness and softness of Princess’s hair cannot be expressed, so this picture was trials and errors. I used up a lot of energy to draw this picture, for example drawing the main line of Sakura’s hair a little thinner.
p. 14 - 15
I wanted to draw a theatrical scene evoking “The Phantom of the Opera”. But it wouldn’t be interesting just as it is, so I decided to make him wear a kind of armor and a “mecha-style” mask. Thinking up such tricks is real fun. Basically we use the Copics for colouring “Tsubasa”, but this time we used Poster Colour for the golden lace pattern.
p. 16
It’s a Japanese-style concept. Come to think of it, there weren’t many occasions in “Tsubasa” to draw something entirely in the Japanese style. It would often be pseudo-Japanese style with Japanese clothes but exotic armours, and so on. This time all the elements are Japanese-style, only the historical periods they come from are various. It seems that Sakura’s hairpin is of the most modern origin ( laughs ).
p. 17
The Princess and her two companions. The cherry tree appears often in the manga, too, so we decided to set the three together with the tree at the nighttime. Come to think of Shaoran’s clothes from the time he was Fei Wang’s prisoner, and the fact that he comes from Hong Kong, it seems that he always ends up wearing Chinese-style clothes.
p. 18-19
This time I decided to draw as a part of Shaoran’s outfit the seal tatoo attached to the real Shaoran’s body. You can see the same pattern on his eyepatch. From then on we started to decorate the eyepatches. The two are often pictured in reverse, upside-down positions towards each other, but in this picture we made them stand in such a manner that we can see the one’s front and the other’s back. There is the feeling that the two are passing each other by.
p. 20
The garments are in general Japanese-style, but with various Western and Chinese details it’s “pseudo-Japanese style”. For a long time I have been fond of making them contrast each other like that, when one wears black outfit and the other white. It’s fun to think up such things, as if they were the extra costumes for characters in a game.
p. 21
“What if there was a world where the Shaorans were true twins?”, I tried to imagine when drawing this picture. We drew a whole lot of pictures with Japanese-style clothes, and so this time we dressed them in kimonos from the Warring States period. The swords and armours consist of a lot of parts, so it was hard to colour them properly. It also cost a lot of effort to do the shading so that the picture would be clearly visible, and so no matter how many times we coloured it, the end still seemed nowhere near ( laughs ). It really took a lot of time to finish.
p. 22 - 23
The concept was to show the two pairs contrasting one another, and so their outfits and the background are also the opposite, black and white. These clothes are also original ones which didn’t appear in the actual manga. I wanted to draw a streamline design like in the art nouveau, which is visible in the ornaments of Sakura’s dress. Shaoran’s clothes aren’t pale green, but the stand-up collar makes them look Chinese anyway.
p. 24
The scene where Sakura is divided into the body and the soul. The right side of the picture was well-suited for drawing it with typical manga style techniques, but the water on the left side was difficult. Anyway, it was hard to give out the impression of the water being transparent. After all, if it’s carried too far the effect looks too heavy, and if it’s too clear the result looks like glass. And so I struggled day by day ( laughs).
p. 25
Yuuko’s kimono is the outfit she wears in the actual manga, too, and it appeared in “XXX Holic” as well. As the impact of the obi is too strong, I decided to leave the kimono without any pattern upon it, but later on in “XXX Holic” there was the scene where Watanuki picked up this kimono, which was then without the obi. Only then did I realize that without it the kimono could not be recognized anymore, and I wished I had drawn some pattern back then.
p. 26 - 27
It was awfully hard to draw the cherry blossoms beneath the Mokonas. It was difficult to give away the transparent feeling of the petals. We finally broke “Tsubasa”’s rule and used a technique peculiar of shoujo manga, drawing the outline of the petals with a really pale colour. If we coloured it with the anime style, drawing distinguished black lines as we used to do with “Tsubasa”, the Mokonas would merge into the background.
p. 28-29
It’s an image of a foreign funeral ceremony. The twilight is golden, so that the black outfit of the three would look attractive. For some reason when I think of a funeral, it’s the lilies that come to my mind. Even a single lily looks spectacular, and it’s the kind of flower that gives out a serious impression, and so we make the characters carry the lilies in their hands in our other works, too. It sometimes happens that even if a boy holds roses it doesn’t look interesting. ( laughs )
p. 30 - 31
The concept was “snow-white”, and so there is snow as the background, and the clothes are snow-white, too. The clothes look as if they belonged to characters from a “group of knights” kind of computer game. Anyway, we reduced the number of colours used here. If the shadow of the snow is too deep, it looks as if it were gray, and if it’s too light, the picture lacks the proper shading, so it is difficult to strike a good balance of density.
p. 32- 33
I like this kind of smoky colours. We used it quite a lot in “XXXHolic”, but hardly ever in “Tsubasa”. But since this time the theme was Sakura in a dream, we thought that subdued colours would fit the picture better and decided for greyish russet. There’s no water here, but we drew it as if Sakura was sinking into the water.
p. 34 - 35
I wanted to draw a picture with a wall coated with ice in the background, and a picture of wings upon the ice. It cost some effort to make the wall show through the ice. The pointed shards of ice within the crown, the sword and the cloth resembling bandage represent the fate Fai has been burdened with and the feelings with which he takes it.
p. 36-37
I love the motif of chess, so I have sometimes used it in other works, too. It’s always fun to arrange the figures in your own way, and so this time I decided to make them mechanical. The Infinity splashes were always gothical, but here the gothic is reduced to make a good match with Eagle’s image.
p. 38-39
This Kamui is a vampire, so I wanted to arrange it with red and black. The outfit from the original manga is the base, with tribal patterns and a coat resembling bat’s wings added here. I drew the rubble behind Kamui’s back so that it would resemble wings. This Kamui is a different person from the “X” Kamui, but I wanted to keep here the mood of “X” anyway.
p. 40 - 41
The vol. 16 Kamui picture was red, so to contrast it, the Fuuma picture is blue, and the proportion of black and white inside the picture has been switched, too. Fuuma travels to a lot of countries and wears a lot of different outfits, but I imagined that his default clothes might look like that, and put it into the picture. I also thought that he may carry some big weapon, since he’s a kind of a treasure hunter.
p. 42- 43
In vol. 16 Kamui wore the clothes from the Tokyo Arc, so here we decided to dress Subaru in his true vampire clothes. The background suits an European vampire image, too, and the picture is full of gimmicks like the candlesticks and the pattern on the curtain. In this picture it was the background that called for a lot of effort, rather than Subaru himself.
p. 44 - 45
There wasn’t such a room depicted in the actual manga, but I drew it, because I thought it would be so beautiful if there were such a palace made of ice. In the eyes of an onlooker the King Ashura might have been a normal person who gradually collapsed mentally, but before his complete collapse he and Fai were in a good parent- child relationship. This is a picture representing that period.
p. 46 - 47
It’s Clow-san who changed his job for a king of the Clow Country ( laughs ). The general design of his outfit is the same as it was in Card Captor Sakura, but we added here the emblems and ornaments of the Clow Country. The Clow that appears in “XXXHolic” has the same base, too. It seems that if he doesn’t wear this design then he doesn’t look like Clow anymore.
p. 48 - 49
It’s Fujitaka-san not as the king, but as Shaoran’s foster father. Because Fujitaka-san made his appearance in the manga as the king as well, we made him wear the cloak of the Clow Country’s king, so as to reconcile the two. Both Fujitaka-san the king and Fujitaka-san the foster father were shown as the scholarly souls, so shelves full of books make the background of this picture.
p. 50 - 51
This staff is something that is passed on from the predecessor to the successor in the line of the High Priests, so it’s the same thing as the one Yukito held on the cover of Deluxe Edition vol. 6. The Queen’s dress was developed in terms of the pattern and the ornaments so it could be used for the cover, but basically its design is the same as the High Priest Yukito’s clothes’. The background is violet to make a match with her hair colour. It’s a light nighttime, with cherry blossom petals flowing in the air.
p. 52-53
Amaterasu’s prototype was Kendappa-ou of “R.G.Veda”, so the colour of the outfit and the form of the weapon or the armour are based on those from “R.G.Veda”, too. We decided to arrange the picture as a whole with the colours of red, gold and white, matching it with black and red, which are the main colours of the outfit, and the sun, which is Amaterasu’s symbol. In the background there is a typical of Japanese style paper sliding door.
p. 54 - 55
When Watanuki was talking to Sakura in a dream, cherry blossom petals were floating in the air, so here we had him sitting on a branch of a cherry tree. I wanted to insert butterflies somewhere here, so I drew them upon the kimono Watanuki’s wearing over his shoulders. The pattern of the lining is garish, too, so unexpectedly it all turned out to be overly adorned. In his hand he holds a cage with Sakura’s feather.
p. 56 - 57
This one’s setting is inside a dream, too. We had them sitting back to back in the glass tube which made its appearance in the beginning of the first volume. The tube is broken and the glass shards are falling all over, and as the slightest details of the colour of the glass are important in this picture, the colour of glass changes depending on its position and angle. Even with the so typical of “Tsubasa” “colouring-all-over” technique, the feeling of transparency still comes through.
p. 58-59
The Country of Nihon is the stage. Still, instead of pure Japanese style the garments are the kind of “Japanese-style” featuring elements from other countries. For example, Sakura wears a pannier - it’s real fun to think up such tricks. The kimono patterns all have in common the motif of a bird: Shaoran’s is crane, Sakura’s is dove , Kurogane’s is hawk or eagle, and Fai’s is swallow.
p. 60
This picture is makes a set with the picture on page 61, and so the background is the same. We drew Fai and Kurogane dressed in vampire-style clothes, with the white moon floating on the night sky behind their backs. Still, we had to make many minor adjustments so that their clothes wouldn’t seem too different from those worn by the other three ( laughs ). The Infinity splashes were meant to represent the gothic line, so we tried hard to make it look good.
p. 61
We started to draw it with the same background as the previous one, but since there are more characters here, and the clothes are heavy, too, we featured here a lot of the sky. So as to contrast with the previous page, the colours of the moon or the clothes are diffrent. The outfit of the three have been based on the clothes from the Infinity Arc of the actual manga.
p. 62-63
The style of colouring in this picture has been planned so that there would be only about three clearly visible colours. Among them we wanted the orange to be the most impressive, so we used it for the sky and the ground. The remains of a tree are white and the mood is fierce, so we added shards of glass to make it even more savage. I wish I could draw glass just a little more beautiful.
p. 64
Fai’s eyepatch is on the opposite side. This changes a lot depending on the setting, and would take too many lines to explain here ( laughs). This is a country that did not appear in the actual manga, and its image is that of a retro mecha city. I wanted to colour everything grey, but if their clothes were grey they would merge into the background, so I made them white and used yellow as the supporting colour.
p. 65
The motif is the world of an imaginary RPG. Shaoran is the warrior wearing an armor, and Mokona is sitting on the palm of his hand like a white bird. This time the image is overall blue. I hadn’t drawn any close-ups for some time, so here I drew a waist-up after considering the location of the title logo.
p. 66
This one has got a feeling of being “Asian style”. It may be Chinese, but elements from other places have been featured here, too. Where on earth is that country?! - I like to draw clothes that make people wonder about such things. In this picture the weapons have been well thought over. Kurogane’s weapon is a kind of club, whereas Shaoran’s is a sword with ornaments. It’s fun to design weapons while thinking over how exactly they are used.
p. 67
This is another imaginary country, but this time I dared to draw clothes entirely differing in taste for each of the three. Fai’s style is European and Kurogane’s is Japanese. Shaoran often wears greenish things, so I thought it would be good to dress him in something bright-coloured once in a while, and decided it should be earth-colour orange. This is the setting of three people of different origin who form a party and travel together.
p. 68 - 69
The age of the four differs a lot, but in this picture we decided to gather them all together as they were in their childhood. Each of them has been clad in the clothes of their home country. Still, because Fai ages slowlier than the remaining three, I think that at this point of time he is already the oldest one of them. We can’t see him in the picture, but perhaps Yuui is standing there right beside Fai.
p. 70 - 71
The original sketch was supposed to be coloured, but in the magazine it was published as a monochrome, so we coloured it for the artbook. We imagined the Shaoran twins as if it were a continuation of vol. 21, and added the other two to accompany them so as to show them fighting together as a team. This time there’s no girl in the picture, which is composed within the battlefield atmosphere, with men as its only characters.
p. 72
The subject is cyber-punk. I tried to imagine that maybe Shaoran’s team has been to such a country, and there have been such things there. Fai and Shaoran could be living in a cyber-punk world after exchanging their magical powers for some other kind of power, but it as for Kurogane, it felt like he probably would not use it, hence his absence this time ( laughs).
p. 73
The scenery is a desert or some kind of barren field. It repeats Fuuma’s image from p. 40, but this time it’s Shaoran who’s the hunter. His gun is a retro type. It was a cover of the normal edition, thus the close-up, which I hardly ever draw otherwise.
p. 74
We were supposed to draw a scene from the daily life for the cover of the Character Guide Book, so we depicted the three the way they would look like if they lived in our world. I imagined that each of them is an actor, and that I asked them to strike a pose and then took the picture. Each of them wears the Tsubasa mark, so that they make a set.
p. 75
“Newtype” covers always have white background, so in order to exctract the characters off of the original picture easily, we shaded them off with an airbrush. The techniques of colouring in “Tsubasa” and “XXXHolic” differ from each other, so we always have doubts which one to choose, but in this picture the “Tsubasa” colouring was applied. The patterns on their yukatas are the symbols representative of each of them, which are butterflies and feathers.
p. 76
This time around the Horitsuba Campus setting had already been estabilished, so we drew Fai as a chemistry teacher and Kurogane as a P.E. teacher. It’s the cooking class that we can see behind their backs. Horitsuba’s badge is made up from “Tsubasa”’s mark and “XXXHolic”’s “xxx” put together, and so such a badge can be seen on Fai’s sleeve and Kurogane’s jersey.
p. 77
This is also a Horitsuba Campus one. On the blackboard there are written Sakura’s and Watanuki’s names, meaning that they are on duty that day. It is supposed to show in a casual manner that they are in the same class. Until now we have drawn in our works school uniforms on numerous occasion, but this is the first one that is red. We chose dark red, becaus it can be worn also by boys, and it fits both “Tsubasa” and “XXXHolic” characters, too.
p. 78 - 79
We didn’t really think we would get to draw Halloween in “Tsubasa”, so this one was great fun. I wonder if this has not been our first Halloween picture considering even all of our works? And after all orange and black make the best match with it. If the monster ears were worn by any other character they would end up looking cute, so we decided to give them to Kurogane, who they suit the least ( laughs ).
p. 80
This picture was meant for the clear file use, so at first we wanted to draw the four with stationery. But then we realized that some of them may not look good with stationery. Sometimes I had doodled them wearing glasses, and so we changed the option from stationery to glasses. I choose the design for each of them after considering things like what kind of design they would choose for themselves, or what kind of design would suit them.
p. 81
Again it’s the Horitsuba Campus uniforms. On p. 77 the shirt or the blouse under the jacket aren’t clearly visible, so in this picture I wanted to draw them properly. And thus the buttons of Shaoran’s jacket are undone, so that even the pocket of the shirt could be seen. But I think Shaoran is the type that would wear his uniform properly, so this one seems a bit of a whim.
p. 82 - 83
For that year’s calendar we drew “XXXHolic” and “Tsubasa” characters together for two months, April and December. For April we gathered the protagonists of the two series and showed them having a party together. Somehow we made Watanuki play the role of a waiter. I think that later on the three will be sitting together at the table, but anyway I always end up feeling like making him deliver the food ( laughs ).
p. 84
In this year’s calendar the “Tsubasa” and “XXXHolic” cast were divided into the male and the female team. The scenery is such as if they were taking a souvenir picture on the board of a luxurious, a little retro - furnished passenger boat. The motives of garment shared by all of them are the laces and the ribbons, but the design and the accessories of each outfit differ. After all, the tension does rise when you are to draw girls.
p. 85
Like on p. 84 it’s the board of a luxurious passenger boat, but this time we featured the round windows. The pattern on the wall is the same as the one on the curtains from p. 84, so that it is clear that this is the interior of the same boat. There are stairs in the hall and each of the characters is standing on a different stair. Thanks to this we could focus on placing them in such a way that the composition would be good, without worrying about their differences of the height.
p. 86
This is also a set with p. 87, and we drew boys and girls separately. The guys are trying to prepare a meal for the p. 87 girls, and so they have gathered in the kitchen, each wearing clothes that suit him the best. It is really fun to come up with cook’s uniforms.
p. 87
We drew the girls waiting for the p. 86 boys to cook them the meal. The girls are wearing party clothes whose common motif are roses. Yuuko-san in her Chinese dress is the sensual one. Himawari looks a little Western even in that kimono, to make a match with her hairstyle. We gave the white Mokona a rose ornament, as she’s a member of the girls team, too.
p. 88
We drew one of the manga scenes as an ilustration. Sakura made a coronet of leaves and gave it to Shaoran. The mood is cute and tender, as it should be in a good childhood memory.
p. 89
Here we have the clone Shaoran and Sakura paired up, so in this picture they too wear the Clow Country clothes. I drew it thinking they would be just cute clinging to each other like that.
p. 90 - 91
It’s the scene of departure for the journey, the same as in the Deluxe Edition cover ( p. 92 ). The clothes and the colour of the sky are the same, but the difference is such that here there’s a close-up on Shaoran. I wanted it to have the mood of Sakura bidding farewell to Shaoran, so there are cherry blossom petals falling all over.
p. 92 - 93
It was decided in the very beginning that the cover of the last Deluxe Edition volume would contrast the first Deluxe Edition volume. By the way, on the first volume cover there is the clone, and this time it’s the real Shaoran. In the first volume there was the night sky, and here we have the early morning sky. When you compare him with the first volume, it seems that his figure and facial features have changed quite a lot.
p. 94- 95
It was the last chapter, so we wanted to give out the feeling of “all’s well that ends well”. Everyone’s here, leisurely enjoying the cherry blossoms. Initially Mokona was on Fai’s arm, but from there she seemed too small, so we moved her to Shaoran’s leg. And because of that now Mokona enjoys a better position than the heroine, Sakura ( laughs ).
p. 96
In the chapter before the clone Shaoran died, so we drew this picture trying to imagine a world where the two of them would be twins. We wanted this image to be peaceful and refreshing, and so there’s the blue sky, the grass field, and the white shirts. Such close-up on two males hardly ever happens ( laughs ).
Back Cover
The same setting as in the front cover. We matched the colour of the sky and the birds to the background, which is the ruins of their memories. When the last chapter was published we didn’t have the chance to draw the colour version of Kurogane, Fai and Mokona in the new clothes, so we thought we’d like to show them like that sometime.