Clamp Questions

[sharpeslass]

Okay, so my return to LiveJournal didn't take off quite with the momentum I'd planned. I just don't know where my time goes. I looked at my e-mail today and realized that two months had passed since I'd received an e-mail from a very good friend and that I still hadn't responded. I'm sure she is cross, but the time... it just sprints in epic

Comments

[lauand]

CLAMP have a very especial concept of love. It's always 100% spiritual and the fact that there might be intercourse is secondary or directly irrelevant. They also consider love has no barriers of gender, age or status. And it's always a very "pure" kind of love, not because there's not a carnal aspect to it, but because the feelings are really intense and true and drive the characters to often hurt others, including the beloved person. Not because it's a selfish kind of love, but because they're doing it in that person's benefit. And the thing is that the characters very rarely regret their actions or think they're wrong because that feeling is truly the most important thing for them, so it's morally justified in their eyes. For that reason, it doesn't bother me in the least that the teacher is going out with a fourth grader (I actually laughed in a "ha, ha, no way!" way when I read it) because, well, it's CLAMP. They're not depicting something perverted, it's just romantic love with unusual characters, purely platonic (BECAUSE THAT

[sharpeslass]

All discussion aside, this is kind of the sort of comment I was hoping for. I was hoping someone who knew the artists would come in and give me a perspective like this, a sort of "world according to clamp" and so I thank you very much for doing it. This almost elevates it to the realm of a sort of high fantasy in a way, where it is a world in which the ethical questions of reality don't come into play and perversions don't exist but a higher purer "agape" sort of love is real. (which is what some others were trying to say when they said "separate 'fantasy' from 'reality') Very helpful observations. Thank you!! What story included the dismembering? I like anime characters who dismember... especially megane characters who dismember... Oh, god... It is SO American of me to be shocked by the romance and to ignore the violence. that is exactly the sort of attitude I constantly decry and I fell right into it. *facepalm*

[lawless523]

I can't read or buy CLAMP. I find their stuff too unreal. Their Magic Knight Rayearth was the first manga Ally read, and what she showed me was so off the wall romantic that I have never been able to bring myself to look at anything of theirs ever again.

[sharpeslass]

You would probably like xxxHolic. I think you would. I don't know if it is representative of their stuff as a whole, though. It definitely has slash appeal. And the art is lovely. It was nothing like Cardcaptor so far; totally different feel. I wouldn't have guessed they were by the same people.

[lawless523]

I realize I'm being prejudiced in some ways, but there are plenty of manga I already know I like and don't own. I'm not in the market for more atm.

[sharpeslass]

LOL. It wasn't really a rec. I wouldn't pursue something by writers I didn't like either. I was just expressing an opinion that so far I've not found a strong common thread between their stories, content or style-wise. If I hadn't known better, I wouldn't have guessed they were by the same group.

[lauand]

Hi! Sorry for intruding.

Magic Knight Rayearth is not a representative work of CLAMP, I think. They usually touch a lot of different genres and their approach is quite different in all of them. I would give them another chance. Try reading "Clover", you'll discover a totally different kind of story with a different approach and even totally different visual narrative and story-telling technic.

Their stuff is unreal, but sometimes you can also identify an universal human nature in there.

[sharpeslass]

I've found the (admittedly only two) things I've read by them to be utterly different in almost every way: style, content, message, etc. Mention of Clow Reed was the only thing xxxHolic and Cardcaptor have had in common so far.

[lawless523]

You're not intruding. I have other reasons for avoiding CLAMP, like their penchant for not finishing work and dissatisfaction with how they finished some of it, but I have to say, they're so prolific that having a "no CLAMP" rule saves me a lot of reading. And as I said, there's plenty of manga I like that I don't own and in some cases haven't read all of (Death Note, DOGS, and Kyou Kara Maoh, for example) that's higher up on my priority list.

[sharpeslass]

I've only finished one of their series, but the ending of xxxHolic did piss me off. As a rule, though, manga endings tend not to satisfy me. The exception was Ouran High School Host Club (manga not anime) which had an awesome ending. *sighs* Mostly, with Manga and Anime, I have to evaluate the journey, not the destination.

[lauand]

Death Note is beyond awesome. Intelligent writing at its finest.

And, of course, I didn't intend to push you in a direction you have clear you don't want to go!

[sharpeslass]

I lost interest in Death Note when ... How far are you in Deathnote, Lawless? I don't want to give spoilers, but at a certain point, for me, Deathnote was Over and Finished but for some reason there were still more books...

[lauand]

Ha, ha, you don't need to specify, I felt the same. But I actually liked the whole series, even with the mixed feelings at some point.

[sharpeslass]

I stopped reading them. And Jedishampoo took them away with her, so now I couldn't read them even if I wanted to. I do have the anime which I haven't watched yet. Does it follow the same storyline exactly?

[lauand]

Ha, ha, such a radical response!

To be honest, I don't know. I tend to avoid watching the anime of the manga series I love. I tried to make an exception with Saiyuki, but it didn't work, I didn't finished the anime since it's clearly inferior to the manga. At least the Burial OVA #3 is very nice and the movie, while crappy, has a scene with Gojyo in the shower. But I'm still a manga bitch.

[sharpeslass]

I prefer the manga in most cases as well. At best, a good anime is a sweet bonus material to the manga. Ouran was very well done and very cute. Saiyuki has a few fun extra side stories, though the animation is very terrible, which is a huge pity. I like the black butler anime as well, though some of it is just bizarre... But yeah, the manga is always better. Without question, I'm with you on that one.