#CLAMP tsubaki nekoi satsuki igarashi mokona Nanase Ohkawa

[skyflyinginaction]

Clamp Art Style Analysis: Part 1: Creation Process and Materials

Introduction

Clamp is a manga artist team of four women. They are a prominent distinguished manga artist team known in the West and in China. The thing they are most recognized for is their highly detailed art style many people may have known and many may not. They did several manga you might have known such as Card Captor Sakura, Chobits, and even Tsubasa.

Clamp is one of the artists whose art style I highly admire and want to imitate in my art. I created this post so I can understand and take apart their art style and better understand it. It is going to be difficult since there are four people with different specialties and years of professional experience in their belt. They are constantly changing and adapting to every genre. 

I am going to analyze Clamps’ art style in this post and this may take a while to crack due to how extensive the Clamp style is. I am going to pile up everything and explain this in this post which is going to take time to explain in this post. I am going to take apart interviews from different sources while explaining their art style in this post.  

I am going to examine their art style and the materials they use. I am going to split into sections talking about the art style and what they use for materials for the manga.

To understand the art style and how it is defined I need to understand Clamp themselves since they created an entirely individual style that is going to talk about other things, not about the art style there is going to be so much I might miss while explaining in this post. I could be wrong while explaining this is an analysis I am going to take my crack at understanding the art style. 

Influences

Though the members of Clamp are largely self-taught they are inspired by many figures that influence their art. The list consists of Reiji Matsumoto, Osamu Tezuka, Go Nagai, Hirohiko Araki, and Moto Hagio. The other works that influenced Clamp are animated cartoons and Galaxy Express 999. Reiji Matsumoto and Osamu Tezuka are major influences in their works Clamp used Osamu Tetsuka’s star system in their works which is seen often in the crossing over of characters from their series into their other works. You can see this prevalently in Tsubasa, X, and Kobato where you would find characters from the different series crossover.

Nekoi's favorite cartoonist was Moto Hagio in high school and Mokona mimics pictures by Reiji Matsumoto when she was younger. 

While working on manga Nekoi started copying Shinji Wada and Rumiko Takahashi, in which She copied her art in drawing legs. She drew them thick and big. She liked the legs Rumiko Takahashi drew since they seemed long until short feet. She took them to make them more delicate and feminine. Clamp used other artists to help them while drawing. 

Go Negai influenced the creation of X, taking inspiration from his work of Devil Man featuring two main male characters, and the murder of the lead's sweetheart triggers the apocalypse. Devil Man is used in creating x The extreme levels of violence depicted in X came from Go Negai's works. Clamp knows about Devil Man. They did a doujinshi of Devil Man in their works as doujinshi artists a while back and even had a doujinshi about the lead character's relationship in their works. 

X was inspired by Go Nagai the heavy violence in x inspired from Go Nageis works and the assembled cast of x is inspired by Kyokutei Bakin's Nansō Satomi Hakkenden, The fight sequences of x were inspired by the manga Dragon Ball specifically Akira Toriyama's use of white backgrounds.

Mokona influences are H.R Giger and gérard di-maccio are used  for the RG veda backgrounds.

Mokona likes Alphonse Mucha who is a considerable influence in drawing XXXHolic art.

Hirohiko Araki is another influence of Clamp with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fan manga back when they drew doujinshi and starred in Clamp in wonderland animation with Jojo animated.

They drew a doujinshi on Jojo a while back starring Josuke and Kakyon and even they drew Jolynn once.

There is a lot of Kakyoin and Josuke fanart with Yaoi art drawn by these two characters.

Jojo was used in drawing wish with Kohaku and Shuichiro strongly resembling Jotaro Kujo and Noriaki Kakyoin and Kohaku's hairstyle strongly identical to Kakyoin and Shuiichiro resembling Josuke.

Members

Nanase Ohkawa     

The main leader of the group, the main writer of the scenario, is in charge of the original story, script, and design. The other three artists are Mokona, Nekoi, and Satsuki, who are in charge of the art.

Mokona 

Mokona is the artist and designer in charge of drawing. Mokona is in charge of sketching out the construction of the characters by hand. Mokona draws the storyboards and sketches out the characters. Mokona is responsible for drawing female characters.

Tsubaki Nekoi    

Nekoi is in charge of character design, background scenery, finishing touches, and charge of the foundation of the art in their works. Her booth has been painted for design and screens for finishing touches.Nekoi likes to doodle and throw pages. Nekoi is in charge of drawing male characters.

Satsuki Igarashi

Satsuki Igarashi is in charge of design and drawing and is in charge of the finishing touches. She is in charge of designing the cover of the book itself.

Bio 

Three members of Clamp were classmates in high school who took art-focused classes in school; none of them studied at school for manga. Nekoi tried using colored pencils and opaque watercolor in school when she was young. Satsuki and Nekoi were in middle school when they first started drawing manga. Mokona was in an art club in middle school. In high school, she started drawing manga with proper frames and dialogues. Mokona, Nekoi, and Igarashi studied art in high school Nekoi, Mokona, and Igarashi met in high school as a kid She found a friend who loved manga, Satsuki went to an art-type highschool and Mokona high school and college had art-focused classes, Igarashi was at an art department in highschool then to computer graphics vocational school. Clamp started as doujinshi artists who first published doujinshi fanzines Back then they had more people it went down to four in the year of their commercial debut.

The group never worked as assistants with most of the members being self-taught with Tsubaki and Nekoi being more self-taught.  

They never used assistants to help them with their work since they wouldn’t be able to understand the years of jargon they created among themselves They created work for years without any help from assistants since assistants would slow them down and wouldn’t understand when we would tell them to do the same thing as before disrupting the workflow they created for work.

For inspiration, Ohkawa gets her ideas from dreams or inspiration based on events she hears or sees on the news a lot of times its deadlines. Ohkawa doesn’t always take notes and she usually loses ideas.

Clamp’s daily work hours while working on manga is in the morning, get in the studio at about 10 or 11 in the morning and in the afternoon they eat dinner at 6 in the evening then stop working at midnight. 

The members share a single workspace and are separated into three booths while they work.

There are four separate studios and the member's workspace accommodates all four of them. Clamp work requires complete perfection with members having their own space where they have to work to create one of their works 

The art of Clamp is lush layered and amazingly detailed. It has a high-quality art style with extensive details. Due to this, it's almost difficult to adapt to animation.

Each of Clamp’s titles has a different art style depending on the genre or magazine they are running in; their art styles change to suit the work and magazine the manga will appear in. The art style of the work is based on Ohkawa’s decision in charge of the art direction of the work. The art styles and pictures have changed but not their methods.

There is a lot to talk about the Clamp art style which may not be enough to explain one segment

Creation process 

Clamp's work process is similar to an animation production; they work like a small animation studio. if you look closely at the work process for creating works it's more like an animation with the director, playwright, character designer, painter, background artist, creator, and publicist treating the manga or story like a script for a movie or anime, the creative process for creating manga is similar to that of animation and movies.

Ohkawa is the storyteller and writes the scripts other three draw drafts and original design, Mokona is the chief character designer, and Tsubaki and Nekoi work for the background Sometimes they they take turns doing different jobs

Ohkawa writes then it goes to Mokona who draws out the outline of the storyboard and sketches the characters

They would normally go to Nekoi for the finishing touches Igarashi and Nekoi work on the final touches the team may shuffle roles. Clamp members do get outside work with computer graphics. For drawing sometimes the members do character backgrounds or may draw everything depending on the story. They have a work where one person designs the character and another draws the actual story. They make storyboards and start drawing. Sometimes they decide who is going to make storyboards and then start drawing.  The art is drawn by Satsuki, Mokona, and Nekoi, Nekoi draws the rough draft and thinks about how the story is going forward to next month's script. The designs are handled by Satsuki and Mokona. Satsuki worked on the design for the cover page. In the beginning, they believed that everything in the comic from front to back was important to the story. They take turns completing the rough sketch depending on the story. They divide the story into frames; they mostly draw it on art board paper after they create characters and scripts. Ohkawa explains what in each frame props and the characters in they have how they turn around and include emotions in the panel. Ohkawa and Igarashi never drew manga with split frames. They Look like frames from a movie 

When Ohkawa comes up with stories Ohkawa drafts the outline of the story and the story setting The ending for each story is determined from the last scene back to the first scene and the end last and deciding the thing and heading into this way makes way for change drags the reader along for the story Ohkawa drafts the outline the other three members formulate characters designs by creating character profile sheets to avoid confusion. Ohkawas style of writing is considered a color woodblock print in the way it conveys and portrays things the manga is close to picture books and elimination of everything unneeded. Ohkawa thinks about the setting of where the story takes place and Ohkawa constructs a visual image at least in their head then splits up panels in their manga. for the writing process, they come up with the story Ohkawa gets together to discuss the story with the members about the purpose of the story and the main characters when writing and drawing After the members get well used to the story they write it down when creating a story for a weekly magazine they first decide on a rough story from beginning to end Ohkawa works backward from the ending for the story to have an ending like this the members don’t always know how the story develops. Ohkawa's style of writing for stories is not telling anyone the progression of the storyline before it happens reason for that is that when the members of Clamp learn of Hokuto's death one of the members couldn’t draw Hokuto's smile the same way this is how badly shaken they were since that the way Ohkawa created her stories changed for most of the works it was until Chobits she could tell them again. Ohkawa kept using memos in the beginning when she wrote the stories where she kept track of the flow of the story.

Before they start drawing they decide the flow of the story up until the end as well as the materials used for color and monochromatic drawing and the direction of the illustration. The members consider the art style during the planning stage and the materials for the manga, for materials Clamp uses color samplers In the order of how they draw. They draw them the same size as manuscripts, they draw rough sketches, and the size of the manuscript is b4 size and genkou size. They seldom use computers to create manga but only to color pictures, sometimes Clamp uses the scanning method when they draw or draw the rough draft using tablets. They don’t use references for their designs except at one time for Ohkawa she drew inspiration from a perfume and drink package she gathered together she drew more influence from the business art and art from Alan Chai's design. 

The amount of lines and the thickness of the lines in the manga depends on the work. When you look at the manga, there are a lot of lines in the characters, Clamps can make the lines, and the thickness of the lines depends on the nature of their work from the thicker lines shows how serious and heavy the story thicker lines match the nature of their work that fits with a heavy theme like works like Tokyo Babylon, which have a heavy atmosphere. Mokona draws with thicker lines and uses pens with strong pressure when drawing. Clamps drawing methods changed with Tsubasa and xxxholic.

In the process of launching a serialization first is to decide on the major storyline work out the details of the characters later and consider the number of chapters needed to tell a story, second Ohkawa has a meeting with Mokona and Nekoi to decide on the design of the main characters Ohkawa asks for designs once they are finished they go over one more time.  They go about creating manga and have two processes,  one creating a manga based on the request from a publisher The second Clamp decides on the story first and then thinks about the magazine to write it for. Clamp comes up with an outline for the story First after they create the outline they discuss who's going to draw pictures or if they all draw together. They turn the project into a movie telling how a story goes and who the main characters are among themselves. They talk about the rough story and how they should do it when they bring a story to the publisher, attach the rough story and characters, attach characters' settings to them and draw the appearance in the manga to the publisher. Then after they show the work to the editor if the editor thinks it's okay they start the story. After receiving approval from an editor, Ohkawa assigns roles to each group member and then chooses the visual styles depending on the factors such as the complexity of the story and chosen art style the artwork depends on the genre and magazine of the story. Ohkawa provides a rough draft for each chapter with things such as dialogue panel size props and movement and characters' emotions. Storyboarding takes 12 hours while the script takes 8 hours to write. To Mokona from rough draft to inking 10 pages per day, the average Mokona puts into how many pages of black and white manuscript draws in a day the number of pages they draw in a month to finish one installment For example if they're in two monthly publications like Tsubasa and xxxholic one is about 19 or 20 pages other takes one day to finish 6 pages for the foundations for the fishing touches and inking takes a couple of days every 2 weeks when it comes to two weekly series its 120 and 130 pages a week. xxxholic takes two days and x took four days 

Ohkawa will specify the proper production for the story and character. After the story, they will choose a person to perform the character design. Clamp switches up who works on character design and the drawing. Igarashi and Ohkawa do it together. One of them directs the work for design and the person in charge of the drawing for that work will draw a rough sketch which is discussed. Mokona is one of the concept artists When the scenario is specified in detail, Mokona listens to the basic story and consults the original concept with Ohkawa Mokona will show what she designed on the spot of the drafting and period.  Mokona and Clamp often decide on the design first, then Mokona draws the illustration from format, paper, and photoshopping specifications to color specification. Mokona does pencil drawing first then ink and color it the pencil stage first so Mokona can fix errors in the pencil stage. Ohkawa as the main scriptwriter Ohkawa determines the story and setting and tells the members about it and the rest give their thoughts on it Ohkawa maps out the location, ideas, and character design Ohkawa gives the character's figures hairstyles, and clothes she envisions to the designers or sometimes Ohkawa draws them herself only sketches the rest get the art close to Ohkawa original version. Ohakwa doesn’t talk about the characters until it's time to create their visual design, Ohkawa decides the design of the character and the group visualizes it She explains their appearance she sometimes brings sketches instead of explaining Ohkawa decides the characters they have long or short hair their style of clothes and complexity. Clamp discusses together and thinks about how to make characters, Ohkawa makes requests and discusses them with the other three Ohkawa gives concrete and specific thoughts on what she wants the main characters to be. Ohkawa is the one who decides on the details of the characters and Clamp crafts their characters. They explain the story in the works that include the drawing of the clothes of what the character wears. Ohkawa takes all the info she gathered and has them design the characters based on the descriptions she gave like body build, hair length, and small details, next decide who is going to design the characters either Nekoi or Mokona design them characters and pick one of them then make a character setting chart and decide on the character's height. After the story they choose a person to perform character design. When that is happening, they use specific proper proportions for the story and character. They come up with a story through a character design phase Clamp and choose different styles and proportions for the characters. When it comes to designing characters they determine the head and body ratios since the person drawing can change the proportions in their sketches without knowing.  They reference the proportions of the characters in case the person drawing it gets it wrong. Igarashi and Ohkawa consult each other and ask for revisions so that the proportions don’t shift, so it can come in tandem when working for 4 people. Mokona had difficulties drawing Yuko's proportions; she considered drawing them constantly a nightmare. Mokona found it reassuring to have partners who can check your work. Sometimes they decide on the colors to get the approval of the publisher to work on the storyboard and then agree on the birthday and height of the characters. The height is important because it's for drawing proportions that are made to keep consistency when drawing characters. The character designs look like character sheets like the ones you would see in anime. When they first set out to draw the members consulted such things as whether or not thin lines mesh well in the manga. what color materials they would be using the members play it by ear as they go along when they draw. Before drawing the portraits of the characters, Nekoi takes special care of the characters by differentiating them with their hairstyles. 

For creating the clothes for the characters, Clamp dresses their character in stuff based on their own or things their acquaintances wear. Clamp reads a lot of informational magazines and fashion magazines on a personal basis which serves as inspiration for characters. Some of the clothes and other items that characters in Clamp wear are inspired by real-life pieces but most of them are done initially by Mokona.

Once the main characters are completed, they decide on the detailed settings for those characters,  The members decide on each character's birthday and height. The height is used for doing the proportions of the characters. for the character settings the group goes into detail about the characters like what food they eat, special skills, how and when they do things, how they grew up, when they were young, their hobbies, the type of house they live in whether its Japanese or western style, if they are sleeping wearing pajamas or negligees and whether they like sweets or not; for example if a character is eating sweets it means that a character grew up in an environment where sweets can be easily eaten and if a character has long hair it can be tied or untied these details reference the characters way of life and polices the reason Clamp focuses on what a character likes to eat is because what a person eats says a lot about a character in personality. There's a lot of thought that goes into making character settings. It's mostly to advance writing their characters or fleshing them out as individuals. The character settings are important when writing the characters in the story These details are important for them to write for the characters the character profile is used so they won’t get confused when writing a character for the story to keep the writing of the character to remain consistent throughout the story. 

Materials 

When drawing manga and illustrations the group often determines the materials they use to draw during the meetings 

Once they set out drawing they first consult things like whether or not thin lines and colors. Clamp used different techniques, art materials, and paper when they did manga and color illustrations Clamp used different materials at their disposal. For drawing Rayearth, the materials they use to draw manga are used include other works as well. The heavy colors are used to suit the tone of the story. This goes to show that you can change the impression by changing the pen you use and the paper used. 

You can change the impression based on the paper you use. The paper makes a great first impression on the manga. Paper is not the only thing that changes the impression of the manga they draw, also the materials they use are used to change the impression. 

Clamp uses different paper sizes for each work, the manga paper is sorted for each one of the members to use. Clamp has strong drawing pressure for their strong drawing pressure they chose thick paper.  They use paper made by Daieidou printing for manga drawings because the members have a strong drawing pressure so they chose a thick paper that's three times thicker than manga paper. For the paper that the members use for illustrations Igarashi, Nekoi, and Mokona use Watson paper, BB Kent back of manga paper of copy paper. Both Ohkawa and Igarashi like acid-free paper, they love the sandy texture and don't like smooth art-coated paper. The reason for that is that if the paper is too smooth the texture will not be the same. Clamp uses many materials for works such as Copic markers and alcohol-based products, They use Kaimei Indian ink, and for color inks, they use Holbein and Holbein special black The screentone they use Brans that Clamp uses is  I.C. 's and Letraset.

When they first used computer equipment,  they were instructed by Takeshi Okazaki and Katsuya Terada. satsuki was into photoshop so Takeshi Yamazaki gave satsuki lessons in photoshop.  

For the materials that Clamp used in their past works, rg veda used color inks, aeroflash, Liquitex, and modeling paste, Rayearth used Copic markers, Mokona used color inks for Mask of 20 faces, Tokyo Babylon used color tones and angelic layer had them use thick fountain pen like liner markers for drawing the manga.

Mokona’s pen uses a Kabura and a Marupen. Depending on the weather she draws a line to see which is better. Her favorite pens are Zebras Maru pen and Kabura pen nibs. with lnks, her favorite is Kaimei Indian Ink and Holbein’s Grey or Nouvel’s Burnt Sienna. What she used to draw backgrounds is Pigma 0.05, Mokona has strong drawing pressure. The G pen is too soft for her. She tried using one but it is hard to adjust and prefers using a harder pen. She uses a magic marker with a pigment ink called Prokey she used to draw letters on paper and uses Pentels water-resistant brush pens for solid areas like hair. She uses a powder board for paper with larger pieces and Baron Kent paper stretched with water. For RG Veda backgrounds Mokona used a lot of airbrush techniques. Mokona draws with thicker lines, and her drawings have been drawn with thicker lines. In the beginning, like in the third volume of Tokyo Babylon, the character's faces are angular and have thicker lines which show that her art is changing. Syaoran was Mokona’s favorite character to draw in Tsubasa.

Nekoi uses different nibs for the maru pen and g pen; she uses the Kabura pen for concentrated and close straight lines, also Pigma 0.5 for backgrounds.

For paper Nekoi uses whatever paper they have at hand to the back of wrapping paper bits of cardboard that have fallen around the back of cosmetics box envelopes from the publisher, the wrapping paper from a cup of tea that is Japanese style. She uses an eraser to reduce the tones in the screentone and sandpaper to reduce the large areas of tone she uses. A fine grit sandpaper will decrease nicely but not allow for fine adjustment which she had to fix with an eraser later. Nekoi loved experimenting with new painting materials; she especially loved painting in color.

Step to Step in Creating Manga

When it comes to drawing manga there are steps taken to create manga. these are the materials they use for drawing manga The list of materials and things they use in the steps to create manga are listed as this

1.) plastic eraser, mechanical pencil 0.5 HB

2.) Pigma 0.5, magic marker

3.) brush pen

4.) screen tone, tone cutters round sand eraser 

5.) pen white, liquid paper ink, Mython

lastly, for writing the script, they use a pc

For the steps they use to create manga Rayearth I think it might be the same steps they use to draw other manga that come after it might be the same steps they did for Tsubasa,xxxholic, and other manga that come after it, and the materials they use. I bet it's the same materials used for Tsubasa, Card Captor Sakura and xxxholic.

1.) The plot is written by Ohkawa on a personal computer with manuscript paper, For the rough they draw frames with a pencil and roughly insert characters and other elements, they draw the rough while paying attention to the composition and balance the draw the panel as to what you want to show most when you are doing a specific scene. The rough is a lot of lines and its way is less detailed. The rough is used for the placement to know the place of things to ink. You can see the same rough stage with Tsubasa and xxxholic. 

Clamp pays attention to the distribution of lines in the panels, the reason why Clamp pays attention to the number of lines is because it's a manga and they are going to ink over and over again. The reason they pay attention to the number of lines in the rough is to calculate how much you ink while you draw. the number of lines you use while you ink is important because you are going to use it over again

the rough is drawn with a pencil, they used a regular pencil for the rough rather than a mechanical pencil since the mechanical pencil has fine lines 

2.)  Next is the sketching phase, in the sketching phase the characters are drawn with a mechanical pencil they check the drawing by looking through the rough manuscript and back. Once the sketch is finished the member will fix it until they are satisfied The background is only included briefly in the sketch.

3.)  The inking stages for the steps of Magic Knight Rayearth are inked mainly using a Pigma 0.05 or Kaimuji marker or brush. When Mokona was drawing Rayearth Mokona had strong drawing pressure so her lines became thicker She changed pens as soon as she noticed it her strong drawing pressure caused Mokonas tip of her pen to break quickly they often used 4 to 5 bottles a day for inking. 

4.)  Next up the beta stage, after they are done with inking they erase and check it again After that the members add solids the tool used is a brush pen to fill in areas like hair and stuff. They use ink that is resistant to water because if it is water resistant the area will become thin when the eraser is applied. 

The steps for rough and sketch are used in their other works only the materials that are used for inking change consistently Depending on the series 

5.)  Next is the toning stage when they add screentone traditionally to a manga page, when it comes to screen tone they make sure that no more appears in the overlapped areas Clamp use a circular blade type cut when they apply screentone traditionally to a manga and small areas might be scrapped with a sand eraser scrapping the tone can change the texture of the object. They consider the effect and carefully cut it and their grain to the tone and know in which its neatly scrapped directions are not scrapped. 

In Rayearth tint and gradation tones are used, and a little gala for the screen tone of the manga. 

6.) This is the last stage of Clamp creation in drawing manga. The last stage is to express light and create glamorous images white is used for it. when applying white fluid to the image which is done by flicking the brush on the correction fluid with the rim of the container the effect changes depending on the concentration of the liquid. You can add white to the toothbrush or flick it with your finger. It changes the effect of the image. If you add fine white dilute it with water to adjust for the white. Clamp uses quirk drawing because the pen can be put on the white later.

This technique was applied in other manga like Tsubasa, Card Captor Sakura, and their other works. They used the same white ink to make a beautiful panel.  

Next

[wanderingmir]

As fun as this treasure is, I'm ready to let another CLAMP fan enjoy it and it's up for auction on Ebay. Auction ends 7/3/24 6:08pm PST - that's less than 2 days left! https://www.ebay.com/itm/156270325198

I wanted to share this neat item with you all! This is a shikishi style autograph board signed by Satsuki Igarashi, Nanase Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Mokona of CLAMP. CLAMP made their first US public debut at Anime Expo 2006 in Anaheim, Ca. And to my knowledge, it may have been the only time they made a public appearance in the US to date. Wiki’s report that “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.” I was there as a fan and recall the lengthy line and wait to get in. I was cosplaying as Sakura from the Season 2 opening of Card Captor Sakura that weekend and I was super excited to be there! During the panel the CLAMP Wonderland animation was shown. At the end of the panel a raffle to get into a signing room was held. Though I don’t recall the number of people who received signing tickets, they were very limited. Winners were escorted to a signing room, where they were given this event exclusive art board while waiting in line for the signing. Characters featured are Ichihara Yuuko from xxxHOLiC, Li Syaoran from Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE and Chii from Chobits. :)

[the-corvus-luna]

CLAMP Herbal Tea Diary January 1998

[Rosemary]: So, my next job will be with CLAMP.

Marigold: CLAMP? Isn't that supposed to mean "fastener" or something? That's weird.

[Rosemary]: It's not "fastener", it actually means "pile of potatoes".

Marigold: Either way, it's still weird.

[Rosemary]: Marigold, don't speak about our employers like that.

[Marigold]: Even if they're our "employers", they're just those 3-inch tall figures, right?

[Rosemary]: Whether they're 3 inches or 1 inch tall, they're still our employers.

[Rosemary]: Alright, let's get to work. We need to check on CLAMP's living conditions… oh dear, this won't do. This could make them sick.

[Marigold]: Lack of sleep, lack of exercise, and lack of happiness.

[Rosemary]: We need to help them feel better… I know, let's make herbal tea.

[Marigold]: It looks like they only have black tea, coffee, and Japanese tea here.

[Rosemary]: Of course, those are all good options with caffeine, but drinking too much of them can upset your stomach.

[Marigold]: Well, the four girls here have already upset their stomachs from drinking too much.

[Rosemary]: They're our employers, dear. Now, let's make that herbal tea.

[Marigold]: Alright, let's get started on our first task.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rosemary's Recipe

2 parts Peppermint

1 part Rosemary

1 part Rose Hips

1 part Fennel

This is a herbal tea to drink before work. It's meant to be consumed after eating a proper breakfast. Peppermint refreshes the mind and body and also helps regulate the digestive system. Rosemary is called the "tea of rejuvenation". Additionally, rosehip has ten times more vitamin C than lemon, which helps purify the blood, and fennel helps with indigestion and obesity. Fennel can be a bit difficult to drink for some people, so I added a little extra peppermint. How does it taste?

Satsuki Igarashi: "I can drink it. I don't dislike it, but having more Rosemary may not be good. It has a refreshing aftertaste."

Nanase Ohkawa: "I like it. It's delicious. I usually don't like peppermint, but I like this one."

Tsubaki Nekoi: "The smell of fennel might bother some people. Does it smell like curry? But it's delicious when it's warm."

Mokona: "I can drink it. I like it. But I would like it even more if there was a little less fennel in it."

Rosemary's Diary: As I suspected, it seems like the Fennel is a bit hard to drink. Maybe I should reduce it a bit more. But I'm glad they drank it all. Let's do our best again next time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marigold's Recipe

2 part Eucalyptus

1 part Yerba Mate

"I haven't tried this blend before, but I added eucalyptus and yerba mate to it to stay healthy, since it's been cold lately. Eucalyptus has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effects and is said to be effective against influenza… As for yerba mate, it's said to be good for physical fatigue and reduced concentration according to a book I read…

Satsuki Igarashi: "Bitter!! But if you put a ton of honey in it, it's somehow drinkable… But still, it's bitter!"

Nanase Ohkawa: "I can't drink it, the smell is really strong. I'm sorry."

Tsubaki Nekoi: "I feel like I'm going to die, it's so awful. It's like there are burnt leaves in it."

Mokona: "It's so bitter that I feel like I'm going to die! It's like being killed."

Marigold's Diary: What's this?! I worked hard to make this! Well, I know eucalyptus and mate have a bit of a unique smell and taste, but still! . . . sigh. . . Let me try drinking it. . . gulp Ugh, it's bitter. . . Next time, I'll make something even more delicious!

[ridingthewhitechocobo]

For All My Girls!

Because you are fighters, because you are not scared to express yourselves, because you do not belong to any "group" that demand you to think as them, because you are free! to express your sexuality and desires, scream loud and Proud! that you are happy TO BE A WOMAN!

to celebrate and commemorate our fight, a little female mangaka special on this post! Happy women's day my babygirls!

There are a lot more, that If I add them this post will last forever lol! xD, these are just a few or my faves!! Names are on tags cause I think these are all quite famous and recognizable mangakas.

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!

(for those who don´t know her, yamaguchi sensei is the one of the frog mask)

( I grew up with CLAMP that's why they are first lol)

[sunkentreasurecove]

[kayura-sanada]

What is "clamp"-? :0

I am so glad you asked, because you just opened the door to some serious nerdiness.

CLAMP is a conglomerate of what is now four women, but was once eleven doujinshi artists. Remember this, because it explains so much about their writing style and just. It’s incredible. They wrote Saint Seiya yaoi, ladies and gentlemen.

These ladies are well known for their art style, something that, if you like anime, you’ll likely recognize, even if you never knew who they were. Here are a few:

In the eighties, these women got together and decided they were going to create original work. By the time they created their first manga in ‘89, they only had a fraction of their team. Their first piece was RG Veda, and if you know the story of X/1999, you already know a large portion of the plot. But to be clear: a genderless main character often given masculine pronouns and a male friend embark on an epic quest. While this story has as tragic an end as X/1999 (and indeed is extremely similar to X/1999), GUYS, IT WAS AS CLOSE TO A GAY STORY AS THEY COULD GET AND STILL KEEP IT OUT OF B-L. These doujinshi writers created an LGBT+ love story as their first contribution to original work.

And it was a hit. It got two OVAs.

They wrote other stories with LGBT characters, too; their next series was about a little kid who stole things for his lesbian mothers, and there’s the famous Toya/Yukito ship in CCS that is canon. They had an early Ronin Warriors-type story with only two ronins (easily shippable, ppl) that also introduced the school they use in nearly every story of theirs that includes a school. They had a couple of smaller stories, too, after that.

By the early nineties, they were down to just the four that remain now, and they created stories you’ll likely recognize if you like anime, including Magic Knights Rayearth, which piggybacked on Sailor Moon’s success but, imo, did it a bit better (likely due to the shorter run, to be fair, but still) and Cardcaptor Sakura. Ever heard of Tokyo Babylon? That’s them. CLAMP School Detectives? Chobits? X/1999? Angelic Layer? Wish? All theirs.

But here’s where they have an amazing flex that, though I personally don’t like it, I have to applaud their balls. They created what is essentially a doujinshi of their own works called Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles. In it, Sakura and Li from Cardcaptor Sakura live in an AU, and on their journey, they repeatedly meet multiple characters from their other universes. Biggest flex? They entwine TRC with another of their stories, xxxHolic, and make it so you can only understand either story by following both. That’s how big they are - they can get readers to follow two separate stories in an effort to understand either of them. Put it all into one big story? They could, but why bother when they can make it two and get people buying both? I can’t help but applaud the sheer chutzpah.

Anyway, these ladies are amazing and wonderful and while I don’t agree with everything they do, I still love them terribly and want to give them more love and appreciation because it’s what they deserve.

Edit: I forgot to give you their names! They’re Ohkawa Nanase, Mokona (yes, that’s right, Mokona like from their stories), Nekoi Tsubaki, and Igarashi Satsuki.

YOU ROCK, LADIES.

[magicherry]

APRIL 4 CLAMP (ABRIL PARA CLAMP) ENGLISH (Español más abajo, lista traducida al final) DYNAMIC:

From april 1st to the 30th of april, upload/post in you favorite social media about theme of the respective day. (better if is something made by you! if not, don’t worry but don’t forget to give the respective credit) It can be drawings or any other media (articles, fanfic, writings, videos, ect). Add the hashtags #april4clamp #april4clamp2019  HAVE FUN! PS. Don’t worry if you didn’t make it one day, go on and make as much uploads you can ;D CLAMP WHO?!

Is an all-female japanese mangaka group that formed in the mid-1980s. It consists of leader-writer Nanase Ohkawa  and three artists whose roles shift for each series: Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi , and Satsuki Igarashi . Almost 100 million Clamp tankōbon copies have been sold worldwide as of October 2007. Recognized by their drawing style, they commonly treat themes as fate, magic, ocultism, soulmates, social critiscism and multiverse. Clamp's works span a wide variety of manga genders too. From shoujo to ecchi, shonen and shonen ai. There a CLAMP history for everyone.

They have many works but some of the most famous (that also reached the anime media) are Card Captor Sakura, Magic Knights Reyearth, X, Chobits and so on... Also they help out with the design and sometimes with the story of others as Code Geass, Blood C and Moryo no Hako. Social Media:  https://twitter.com/CLAMP_news https://clamp-net.com/ https://www.instagram.com/clamp_4_official/ https://www.instagram.com/7se_ohkawa/ https://www.instagram.com/tsubaki_nekoi/ THE IDEA: So I came up with the idea of making some kind of tribute for a group of mangakas that I love very much. I know that some of the stories aren’t the best for other people but I really like their work. I made this prompt list helped by some users of a spanish talking facebook group named Grupo CLAMPers (part of Kokoro no CLAMP page, one of the biggest sources of info in spanish in the web).

 Each theme day’s was thought out and was a really fun activity to think in a reason to choose a specific day to each thing (ex. day 2 relating to Hokuto and Subaru, the twins of Tokyo Babylon, and so on), following the idea of “There is no such a thing in this world as coincidence, there is only the inevitable”... So, yeah, that was it hahaha Hope you have fun!!! Please if you want, tag me back, share and ENJOY! x3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ESPAÑOL: Abril para CLAMP DINÁMICA:  Del 1° al 30 de abril, sube/postea en tu red social favorita sobre el tema que corresponda al día (¡aun mejor si es algo que hayas hecho tú!, sino, no te preocupes, solo no olvides dar el crédito correspondiente) Puede ser un dibujo o cualquier otro medio (artículos, historias, videos, etc.) agregando los hashtags #april4clamp #april4clamp2019 ¡DIVIÉRTETE! PD. No importa si te brincas días, el chiste es que posteés la mayor cantidad de días que puedas =) ¿¡CLAMP, QUIÉN!?

Es un grupo femenino de mangakas formado a mediados de los 80′s. Consiste en la líder-escritora Nanase Ohkawa y tres artistas que intercambian roles dependiendo la serie: Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi , and Satsuki Igarashi . Al rededor de 100 millones de copias de tankōbon  de sus obras habían sido vendidas alrededor del mundo para octubre de 2007. Reconocidas por su estilo de dibujo, comúnmente tratan temas como el destino, la magia, el ocultismo, las almas gemelas, crítica social y el multiverso. Los trabajos de CLAMP cubren una gran variedad de géneros también, desde el shoujo al ecchi, al shounen y shounen ai. Hay una historia de CLAMP para todos los gustos. Ellas tienen muchos trabajos pero algunos de sus más famosos (que también alcanzaron adaptación al anime) son Sakura Card Captor, Las Guerreras Mágicas, X, Chobits y más... También han ayudado con los diseños y a veces con la historia de otros como Code Geass, Blood C y Moryo no Hako. Sus redes sociales: https://twitter.com/CLAMP_news https://clamp-net.com/ https://www.instagram.com/clamp_4_official/ https://www.instagram.com/7se_ohkawa/ https://www.instagram.com/tsubaki_nekoi/ LA IDEA:

Me vino la idea ya que las CLAMP son de mis artistas favoritas y el primero de abril es conocido por sus fans como el Día de CLAMP (por ser una fecha importante y la fecha de cumpleaños de varios de sus personajes más populares). Como todo tienen sus deficiencias *coff dejar sus obras inconclusas coff* pero aun así siguen siendo una gran inspiración para mí y uno de mis grandes impulsores para gastar mi dinero y tiempo en tonterías muy entretenidas y bonitas. Hice esta lista con la ayuda de algunos usuarios del grupo de facebook llamado Grupo CLAMPers (parte de Kokoro no CLAMP page, una de las más grandes fuentes de información para los fanáticos de hablahispana en la web).

Cada tema de cada día fue realmente pensado y respaldado por una razón específica y fue una actividad muy divertida para todos los que participamos (ej. el día 2 por los mellizos Hokuto y Subaru de Tokyo Babylon y cosas así), siguiendo la premisa de “En este mundo no existen las coincidencias, sólo lo inevitable”. Y bueno, eso, jajaja ¡Esperamos se diviertan! Si gustan, nos etiquetan, comparten y ¡DISFRUTEN!   ;) -Lista en Español: 1.Cumpleaños 2.Tokyo Babylon 3.Guerreras Mágicas 4.Clover 5.Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles 6.Hanami / Sakura (flor) 7.Magia 8.Hiatus 9.Angelic Layer 10.Chobits 11.Gemelos / Mellizos 12.Destino 13.Campus Clamp 14.Dragón(es) de X 15.RG Veda 16.Colaboraciones 17.XXX Holic 18.Crossover 19.Sakura Card Captor 20.X (equis) 21.Kobato 22.Inicios 23.Poco conocido 24.Mascota (acompañante) 25.Lugar 26.Objeto(s) 27.Música 28.Wish 29.Parejas / Amor 30.CLAMP (las autoras)

[meimi-haneoka]

Hello! First time visiting your blog! Thanks for sharing your translations! May I know who the current creators and members of CLAMP? Are the founding four members still operate CLAMP?

Hi and sorry for the delay!!! The CLAMP mangaka team is still composed by 4 people, pretty much by 1989 I think? Yeah, when they debuted with RG Veda!Their current alias are:Nanase Ohkawa (script writer)Mokona (artist)Tsubaki Nekoi (artist)Satsuki Igarashi (artist and designer)

Here is a pic of all four of them (one that isn’t circulating around that much) with creative director of Blythe, Junko Wong (in the middle).Credits for the pic: @chibiyuuto and Junko Wong’s blog

[usaginoyukistore]

Tenemos CLAMP DAY EN CORDOBA Cuando? el Sábado 2 de Abril Donde? En el @cc.alberdi Celebración Anual por el aniversario de los trabajos del grupo CLAMP creado por las 4 legendarias mangakas: Satsuki Igarashi, Nanase Ohkawa (Ageha Ohkawa) Tsubaki Nekoi y Mokona. ENTRADAS ANTICIPADAS: reserva Online con nuestra página, tiene un valor de $300 , en la puerta del evento se presenta el recibo y se entrega la tarjeta impresa EN PUERTA: Dependiendo del cupo de venta, tienen un valor de $400 Que habrá? Set para sacarse fotos, concurso cosplay , stands de venta, pastelería temática y cafetería, trivias, juegos , música de las series , y algunas sorpresitas más #clamp #magic #clampday #sakura #ccsakura #xxxhoolic #tsubasa #trc #wish #anime #manga #x1999 #tokyobabylon #miyukichan #magicknigthrayeheart #angeliclayer #mokona (en Usagi no Yuki) https://www.instagram.com/p/Camp2fPO4Qb/?utm_medium=tumblr

[radfemandreadaly]

S. E. Hinton

Annie Proulx

Donna Tartt

Anne Rice

Becky Albertalli 

Maia Kobabe

Rebecca Sugar

Lilian Lee

CLAMP:  Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi, Satsuki Igarashi. 

[cinemedios]

CLAMP y Netflix crearán contenido original

#CLAMP y #Netflix crearán contenido original.

Los creadores de Sakura Card Captor traerán nuevos proyectos.

El estudio CLAMP es el responsable de diversos y exitosos anime, entre los cuales se encuentran Chobits, Clover, xxxHOLiC y el muy conocido Sakura Card Captor.

El grupo CLAMP se encuentra integrado por 4 mujeres dibujantes de manga: Mokona, Nanase Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi y Satsuki Igarashi. Muchas de sus creaciones se han convertido en…

[skyflyinginaction]

Clamp Art Style Analysis Masterpost

Part 1: Creation Process and Materials

Part 2: Series styles and Compare and Contrast

Part 3: Examining Concept art: X/1999, RG Veda, Tsubasa reservoir chronicle

Part 4: Examining Concept art: xxxholic, Code Geass, Kabuki Bu

Part 5: Examining Concept art: Blood C

Part 6: Analyzing the art style

[wanderingmir]

I’m auctioning off this super rare art print autographed by CLAMP from Anime Expo 2006. Characters featured are Yuuko, Syaoran and Chii. https://www.ebay.com/itm/156270325198

[the-corvus-luna]

CLAMP Herbal Tea Diary May 1998

[Rosemary]: Hey, Marigold, what's your favorite color?

[Marigold]: Huh? Me? Um, maybe red.

[Rosemary]: Oh, how coincidental. I love red too. There are also some leaves that turn red when you add them to herbal tea, you know.

[Marigold]: Ah, I see.

[Rosemary]: Well then, let's make some red tea this time.

Rosemary's Tea

1 part Hibiscus

1 part Rosemary

1 part Lemongrass

1 part Lemon Balm

1 part Rose Hips

I tried adding hibiscus for the red tea, as I originally intended. Hibiscus is sometimes consumed by athletes as a nutritional supplement, as it can promote metabolism and have a strengthening effect. It's quite sour, though, so I added lemongrass and lemon balm to make it easier to drink. I also added rosemary to give it a refreshing taste, as it also has a strengthening effect. Rosehip is good for improving blood circulation.

Satsuki Igarashi: "Hmm, a little sour."

Nanase Ohkawa: "It's delicious. I might like this."

Tsubaki Nekoi: "It's delicious. I like it."

Mokona: "It's easy to drink and has a nice feeling."

Rosemary's Diary. It seems like you enjoyed it, which makes me happy. Hibiscus tea is also effective for physical fatigue, so it might be a perfect tea for you and your partner.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marigold's Tea

2 parts Hibiscus

1 part Rosehips

"When you want to make it red, it's gotta be hibiscus, right? And since it's sour, it's hard to figure out what to pair it with. Oh, I heard hibiscus also helps prevent eye strain. I tried mixing it with rose hips, but..."

Satsuki Igarashi: "Sour!"

Nanase Ohkawa: "It's tart."

Tsubaki Nekoi: "It's delicious, but sour. But it really wakes you up."

Mokona: "I might like it."

Marigold's Diary: Oh. It looks like it wasn't unpopular after all. Hibiscus really is sour, isn't it? But I kinda like this taste.

[rheanimalsachikokassielynn]

“My Life in Comics”

If any comic artist(s) could illustrate my life, I would want the Japanese manga author/artist team of Nanase Ohkawa, Satsuki Igarashi, Tsubaki Nekoi, and “Mokona” (known collectively as “CLAMP”) to be the ones to do it. Now, as to why I want CLAMP to illustrate my life - well, it mostly boils down to the art style and what that might mean for my life as it’s being represented by their drawings.

As I understand it, CLAMP has always had a consistently pretty way of drawing manga that’s been showcased across a lot of their works. “Cardcaptor Sakura” for example is drawn with less emphasis on the backgrounds and more emphasis on the characters in the foreground. If there’s any attention paid to the backgrounds at all, it’s usually to make them look sparkly or sprinkled with as many flower petals as possible because at the crux of the story of “CCS” is literal magic and a bunch of overwhelmingly wholesome romantic relationships between the characters. As such, the character models themselves look equally as starry-eyed as the textures behind them. I think the artists draw this way in order to not only match how the characters are feeling, but also to serve the lighthearted tone being permeated throughout “Cardcaptor Sakura” specifically. 

But my life is neither filled with romance or magic - it’s just... average. I want these women to illustrate my life for the sake of witnessing how their manner of illustrating might change to accommodate me. Since CLAMP isn't known for championing true-to-life stories, asking them to the depict the overall “feel” of my straightforward existence (wherein I don’t do much other than try to stay afloat in college while watching anime in my free time) through their artwork would be nothing if not a fun challenge! 

[sunkentreasurecove]