#ijuin akira

[shizukateal]

Grimm Variations - Episode Three Review: Hansel and Gretel

(Buckle up, everyone, this is the call-back episode.)

Hansel and Gretel live a pretty routine, gray life at their orphanage/boarding school, with their fellow classmates and their mama and papa- wait a fucking second, that's Sakura's great-grandfather from Card Captor Sakura!

Jesus Christ, CLAMP, I know designing old men isn't your wheelhouse, but that's no excuse to be lazy! Anyways, their life is pretty boring and restricted, so Gretel usually acts out and Hansel gets swept up until they're both grounded. Finally, one time after too many antics, their "parents" decide to spice up the punishment by leaving them to sleep outside in the forest. They're warned that they can sleep near the fence if they want to, but of course that's too boring for Gretel, so they go on a walk until they find a small wooden cottage, although it does have two ca- Yuuko.

...

I never really finished XxxHolic. I only watched the two seasons of the anime, so I didn't really experience Yuuko's death, I just spoiled myself. Still, it gets me unexpectedly emotional. To see a version of her blessed with the ability to age.

So the Dimensional Witch and the kids get to talking around some cocoa, and Yuuko incites the kids to find out about The End of the World. Her words, not mine. That's silly! reply Hansel and Gretel, the world doesn't have an end, it's spherical! They would know, they've been taught a lot of suspiciously advanced scientific stuff in school. So Yuuko proposes them to do a little empirical research to settle the debate. Next time someone loses a ball during a game they should go pick it up themselves, instead of letting their "parents" get to it first. Hansel does that at the first opportunity he gets and indeed, he finds a forcefield, proving Yuuko correct.

This discovery sparks a fire in Hansel, so he gets himself deliberately sent out to the forest again and Gretel does the same to accompany him. He reaches a bargain with Yuuko: she'll help him discover what's real and in return he will help her grant her own unspoken wish. She tells him to look for unusual things in his school and gifts him a tube filled with what could be candies or gems, saying that they'll help guide the way, but to not eat them or they'll run out of it.

Hansel and Gretel start paying attention to their surroundings and finally the weirdness of their situation starts to stand out to them, like how their classmates keep disappearing out of nowhere and nobody bats an eye, especially when there's photographic evidence about their numbers dwindling in the school group pictu- Syaoran.

And 2/3 of the Clamp School Detectives!

I find it hilarious that Nokoru and Akira are here, but Suoh had to be deleted from existence because his blue hair would've stood out too much. RIP, lmao.

Anyways, Hansel decides to try to see if he can find a way out through the forest and obviously his sister goes along with him. Before they can properly set out, however, one of the candies acts up and opens up a portal. The siblings go through it and they find themselves in a mysterious space station of all things, with data of all of their classmates. Soon enough their "mother" finds them sneaking around and they run away from her, using up the candies to open doors. But when Hansel almost gets squished by a closing door, Mother sacrifices herself to save him, confirming to everyone that she is, in fact, a robot.

Naturally, this leaves Hansel with more questions than answers, so after coming back to the school he and his sister straight to Yuuko, who gives him the Matrix choice of taking a pill to forget everything or learning the truth. Hansel chooses the latter and Yuuko takes them back to the space station, explaining that the earth has long since become inhabitable and that the school is teaching the children how to restore it until they deem them fit to go there. Her previously mentioned "wish" is to send them all safely there. Hansel is apparently fit to travel already, but he starts dithering about the choice, especially because the space shuttle only has one seat, so where is Gretel to fit?

That's when the curtain is lifted: Gretel doesn't exist. She's a mental projection for cowardly, dithering Hansel to act out decisively on his own impulses while mentally excusing himself for following along, but now that he has come this far on his own accord he doesn't need her anymore. Hansel, with Gretel's encouragement, chooses to leave, but he still cries tears of bitter regret at loosing his "sister" to the truth instead of taking Yuuko's offer to forget.

Alas, however, he arrives at earth, where his lost classmates have grown up and welcome him with open arms. Yuuko eulogizes the mom-bot, congratulating her for raising the kids and then welcomes Syaoran to her hut...

Oh boy, ok, this one's a doozy, let's see where to start.

Ok, I'm gonna start with the blatant Revolutionary Girl Utena references and work up from there, because if I don't it's gonna drive me insane. Here's the thing people, it's not a sin to reference RGU; in fact I'd encourage it, but if you're gonna pull iconography from there of all places, then you'd better be really fucking conscientious about The Themes™️ and what you say with them.

So this episode presents us with a school in which time is apparently bubbled, constricted by The End of The World it represents, supervised by two figures emulating the heteronormative family structure, contrasted by a witch who at first seems like an outcast but is actually essentially powering the whole thing (maybe), and where students disappear without anyone properly remembering them because if they dare to figure out what lies behind the curtain of the system, just like Ohtori Academy. So far so good... kind of.

The implication is that the school is deliberately set up as this secret test of character thing so, like Hansel, the students learn to be independent. There's even some clever hints that disobedience and figuring out the mystery gives them the passing mark before we watch our protagonist. But then like... why do the students forget whenever one of them leaves? In Utena that's implied to be the magic of whatever time bubble Ohtori is in keeping everyone ignorant to perpetuate itself without objections, but more important that the explanation itself is the metaphor it's in service of. Ohtori students forget because the system wants to present a narrative about itself without any blemishes, so tragedies get trivialized into gossip, victims swept under the rug. Even if you assume that this schools timeloop or whatever is also passively mindfucking with the children, why is there so much focus on the dadbot and especially the mombot keeping things like the forcefield hidden? What is the purpose of that? What commentary is it making? What does breaking the cycle of apathy and blind obedience mean in this setting?

It might sound like I'm doing a pointless nitpick here, but trust me when I say that the viewing experience is already too confusing because of the tone and its use of the imagery. The school really is portrayed like if Othori met the orphanage from The Promised Neverland met an oscarbait period flick about world war II. Like, you genuinely expect that the twist is that the school is farming the children for their brains or something. It took me until I was writing this review to actually put the pieces together as to what the robo-parents motivations are, because their secrecy and strictness is completely antithetical to them wanting the children to grow independent!!!

The truth of the matter is just too soft for the themes its exploring and the imagery is presenting. Hansel created Gretel because he's afraid of taking responsibility for his actions, the same way a character in Utena projected a Rose Bride to not acknowledge the fact that he killed like a 100 people in a fire on purpose. So one would assume, based on how fucking creepy the school and the parents are, that he has some real good fucking reason to reach that extreme of cognitive dissonance, but no!!!!! Even the parents sending them out to sleep in the forest lands like mere chiding!!!!

But going back to Gretel, the usual initial portion of the episode is about how Charlotte doesn't seem to like her character in the original fairytale. How she thinks Gretel should be punished for getting Hansel into trouble which... istg I have NO idea how this show is trying to engage with its source material at all, because that is NOT a conclusion anyone would reach after reading the fucking fairytale, but whatever. It's fine. Or rather it WOULD be fine if there was a smidge of actual feminist commentary in this script which goes OUT OF ITS WAY TO REFERENCE ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL FEMINIST PIECES IN ANIME, but noooooooooooo it's all so bittersweet. On the one hand I'm glad he chose to grow up, and since I don't believe in punitive justice I don't think he needs to be punished to get there, but I'm still upset the character of Gretel gets reduced to this when she was an active heroine in her own story. Guess Charlotte succeeded in her purpose then, although it is curious that she casts herself as the twins.

Like, am I evil for expecting Hansel to straight up die in that oven-shuttle? In her original universe, Yuuko was an agent of karma. If she was scary it wasn't because she was evil, but because she would give you exactly what you want and not shield you from the consequences. It would feel weird to me if she were to endanger children the way she does some of her customers, but it would not have been completely out of place in this "grimm variation" that is about our protagonist literally deluding himself to avoid taking responsibility for his choices to end up with those consequences catching up to him in a terrible fashion.

Guess I shouldn't have expected all that much better. Although I am surprised that they didn't just straight up turn Subaru and Hokuto from Tokyo Babylon into Hansel and Gretel. Alas, to be a CLAMP fan is to suffer, and it seems that these past 20 years have not taught them much about theming. This is why I'm still terrified of reading Clear Card Arc, even though I should.

[vestal-spirit]

07 shadow

[b-else-writes]

The Great CLAMP Re-Read Part 5: CLAMP School Detectives

Part 1 (RG Veda) | Part 2 (Man of Many Faces) | Part 3 (Tokyo Babylon)| Part 4 (Duklyon)| Part 6 (Shirahime)| Part 7 (X)| Part 8 (Chunhyang) | Part 9 (Miyuki-chan)

I don't know about all of you, but one of my first fond fanfic-adjacent writing experiences was painstakingly creating a magical school rip-off story where mine and all my friends self-insert OCs could go on adventures. And we wrote all this by hand in a notebook! I bring this up because CLAMP School Detectives says so much about CLAMP's doujinshi roots and how that thinking, of a vast playground for their characters to mess around in, was going to shape their opus. I also bring it up because this is self-indulgence to its core, in the way the best and frankly, worst, of fanfiction is. Despite having an expanded anime adaptation, CLAMP School Detectives did not have the lasting cultural memory that their other adaptations did.

CLAMP School Detectives ran from 1992 to 1993, concurrent with all of their early series, and bridges several, with dozens of other references to their doujinshi and uncollected early abandoned works. It is out of print and only had a 2000s Tokyopop English release, of 3 volumes comprising 13 chapters. Again, I read this entirely online and wouldn't pick up a copy unless I wanted to be a completionist. "Spoilers", I guess?

Synopsis: Imonoyama Nokoru, Takamura Suoh, and Ijuin Akira are members of the Elementary School Student Board at CLAMP School. Nokoru has the incredible ability to detect when a woman needs help, and the three precocious children decide to form a detective team that solves the problems of fair maidens everywhere - if only Nokoru could get his paperwork done, to Suoh's despair!

The Story: If Dukylon and Man of Many Faces had barely a story, this is even less than that - it's a bunch of barely mysteries that the trio solve every chapter, with the finale being a flashback to explore Suoh and Nokoru's past and bond. It's a gag manga that relies on whether you think the gimmick of Nokoru being able to sense a woman in danger is funny, and find the little adventures cute, and it just did not land for me. It feels like an overly saccharine attempt at Enid Blyton type school boys solving mysteries (but in Japan), and it was just plain boring. Mostly because they're barely even mysteries - I felt cheated as a huge mystery lover! This is either going to read as really cute, or really boring to you, and it was the latter for me.

The Themes: Uhh.....help out fair maidens. It's a gag manga, if you're doing analysis on this, good for you, but I have a very packed life and I don't think CLAMP wants me to learn anything but "Nokoru cutie".

The Characters: The characters are largely enjoyable but quite plain. Nokoru is basically the perfect little elementary school boy dream, but it's done sweetly enough that he reads as funny rather than irritating. Suoh is textbook tsundere who devotes his life to Nokoru (Ashura & Yama you will always be famous), and Akira is ditzy. There's not much here beyond Nokoru secretly feeling distanced from people because he doesn't want to hurt others. If you like cute wacky elementary school stories, you'll like them. I found them fine. Though I did squeal in fondness when they showed up in X. CLAMP knows how to charm you despite yourself.

The Art: I find this some of CLAMP's weakest character design - Nokoru and Suoh look too similar to me beyond the colour palette, and the different women featured are unimaginative. It's overall decent art, but nothing special or groundbreaking. As someone who devoured RG Veda, Tokyo Babylon and even Man of Many Faces for just how damn pretty and creative they could get, it's lacklustre.

Questionable Elements: I don't know if this is a translation issue, but Nokoru's behaviour is referred to as "feminist", and it is not. This is Victorian era paternalism that women need taking care of and can't be held responsible for our actions because we're the emotional and fairer sex. While satirical, the sexism is still irritating. Also there's another "older person x literal minor bad, but only because older person is a woman". Are CLAMP ageist? One wonders.

Also. There is overt fascist imagery in CLAMP School Detectives:

CLAMP draws them in Nazi uniforms on another cover, and there are MULTIPLE images of the Rising Sun Flag (which is a symbol of fascist WW2 imperial Japan). It's abhorrent and there is much to discuss frankly about how fascist imagery is so ubiquitous in manga.

Overall: Putting aside the REALLY bad elements, CLAMP School Detectives is probably the most unmemorable so far of CLAMP's oeuvre. The characters are charming and the premise itself is not bad, but it never lands. It's a very cutesy, almost slice of life manga, which is just really not my thing because it never succeeds in at least being funny or exciting or anything substantial to linger on. Not something I'd recommend to anyone beyond devoted CLAMP fans, besides the adorable main trio. Say what you will but CLAMP really knows how to make you love their characters.

[sophieslittlecorner]

Kindly scanned by @azoozkiller-787

[bunnymajo]

[card-captor-sakura-chan]

[landofanimes]

CLAMP 30th Anniversary 

Commemorative Chibi Illustrations (Part 5)

[shysheeperz]

[alinavgo]

I really liked Akira and Utako, except for the fact of their age... If the story was with them in middle or highschool...

Still, I love those characters.

[shigatsutsuitachi]

hi tumblr!!! it has been SO long since i’ve been on my personal, but i wanted to see if any of my mutuals (and maybe followers) would be interested in taking a couple of CLAMP related things off my hands!

i have some leftover acrylic keychains + stands from the CLAMP 30th anniversary merchandise that i don’t want! i basically only ordered two of the sets for yuuko/watanuki/mokona + the trc cast, and after giving a few them out to some friends, i’m left with the following:

kamui shirou (x)

fuuma monou (x)

nokoru imonoyama (clamp school defenders)

akira ijuin (clamp school defenders/man of many faces)

all i ask is that you pay for the shipping so i can send them to you! if these interest you, feel feel to shoot me a DM and i’ll get ‘em out to you asap! pictures of the stands will be under the cut

[tachiaku]

Hey! I just got into all of these guys from watching high&low! Can you give me some mvs and maybe vids to learn more about them? Your posts are awesome and I want to learn more!! Thanks!

ooh man... i’m stupid actually and don’t know much about each member of each group, mostly i just follow my select favorites, so if you want to learn about them as people with their personalities and such you should page @apotatowhenever because she knows so much or you can look in the tags i have for each group which are just like, their group names!

but i can give you lots of mvs to watch

the rest of this is under a cut because it got hella long.

a few rapid things: the following groups are managed by an entertainment company known as LDH short for love dream happiness. i’ve listed them as separate groups but there are two larger groups made up of these members known as exile and exile tribe. unlike in kpop, where every member sings and dances, ldh focuses on a model of having vocalists and performers.

vocalists, of course, sing. performers focus on dancing. this allows for a really unique presentation especially in concerts because it allows people to specialize in their skill instead of struggling to sing while dancing complicated routines. all of the groups i follow have at least two vocalists and the rampage has three so there’s still plenty of variety and harmony in the singing and this also ensures the vocalists get more lines as well.

also, members get moved around a lot. some of them leave the groups as well, so in some of the older videos especially for exile, you’re going to see guys who aren’t in the current group. other members are added to different groups. a few guys graduated from the acting troupe to join the performance groups.

quick notes on the members who are actually in high & low:

exile

takahiro plays amamiya masaki of amamiya kyoudai

exile the second

tachibana kenchi plays nikaido of iemura group

akira plays kohaku of mugen

kuroki keiji plays rocky of the white rascals

sandaime j soul brothers

elly plays ice of the mighty warriors

iwata takanori plays cobra of sannoh rengokai

yamashita kenjiro plays dan kazuya of sannoh rengokai

tosaka hiroomi plays amamiya hiroto of amamiya kyoudai

naoto plays jesse of the mighty warriors/prison gang

kobayashi naoki plays kiku genji of kuryu group

generations

shirahama alan plays bernie of the mighty warriors

sekiguchi mandy plays pho of the mighty warriors/prison gang

sano reo plays takeshi of rudeboys

the rampage

likiya plays diddy of the mighty warriors

ryu plays shibaman of oya ko

suzuki takahide plays tsuji of oya ko

e-girls

kaede plays shiba of ichigo milk

sato harumi plays oshiage of ichigo millk

yamaguchi nonoko plays nonoriki of ichigo milk

fujii shuka (formerly) plays naomi

bando nozomi plays ijuin nika

fantastics

sato taiki plays chiharu of sannoh rengokai

these are just the musicians actually let me include gekidan exile. gekidan is the acting troupe that are managed by ldh.

gekidan exile

aoyagi sho plays tsukumo of mugen

akiyama shintaro plays takano of doubt

ozawa yuta plays kato shu of daruma ikka

suzuki nobuyuki plays yamato of sannoh rengokai

machida keita plays noboru of sannoh rengokai

onozuka hayato plays kirinji of iemura group

nogae shuhei aka sway plays pearl of the mighty warriors

yagi masayasu plays ijuin kabuto of sannoh rengokai

sato kanta plays tetsu of sannoh rengokai

this is too many people. okay, onto the music videos. if you want to have any hope of keeping up with their releases (which come out without warning 3/4 of the time) subscribe to the youtube channel avex.

high & low music videos

do or die by doberman infinity

jump around by doberman infinity

strawberry sadistic by e-girls

mugen road by sandaime j soul brothers

one time one life by exile the second

run this town by generations

mighty warriors by like 100 fucking artists

sin by ace of spades

exile

fireworks

style of 24karats

turn back time

this is my life

heads or tails

roman no hoshi (romantic star)

new horizon

choo choo train

i wish for you

my star

ki mi ni mu chu

exile tribe

the revolution

higher ground

24world

24karats tribe of gold

exile the second

yeah yeah yeah

acacia

shut up!! shut up!! shut up!!

head bangin’

super fly

think ‘bout it

route 66

wild wild wild

summer lover

survivors

ray

sandaime j soul brothers

koi to ai

jsb love

welcome to tokyo

cosmos

feel so alive

summer madness

ryusei

jsb happiness

jsb dream

rainbow

orion

storm riders

unfair world

fighters

so right

generations

hard knock days

alright! alright!

big city rodeo

always with you

ageha

evergreen

hot shot

ymca

taiyo mo tsuki mo

animal

pierrot

love you more

the rampage

hard hit

la fiesta

only one

fandango

13 savage

100 degrees

lightning

get ready to rampage

knocking knocking

frontiers

e-girls

show time

let’s feel high

my way

candy smile

dance all night

dance with me now

ymca

follow me

pain, pain

eg summer rider

highschool love

love queen

pink champagne

dance dance dance

let’s go let’s go

diamond only

solo work

neotokyo by crazyboy

the backcourt by crazyboy/loco

private party by crazyboy

double play by crazyboy

tropical paradise by crazyboy

starship by crazyboy

luxe by tosaka hiroomi feat. crazyboy

full moon by tosaka hiroomi

wasted love by tosaka hiroomi

diamond sunset by tosaka hiroomi

end of line by tosaka hiroomi

angel by imaichi ryuji

one day by imaichi ryuji

love hurts by imaichi ryuji

thank you by imaichi ryuji

out of the darkness~ catch my light by imaichi ryuji

eternal love by takahiro

love story by takahiro

memories by takahiro

irish blue by takahiro

just the way you are by atsushi

i think of you by atsushi

i love you by atsushi

precious love by atsushi

never say goodbye by sway

futen boyz by shokichi

the one by shokichi

underdog by shokichi

anytime by shokichi feat. crazyboy

ignition by shokichi

[crazyasianlove]

HiGH&LOW THE MOVIE 3 FINAL MISSION (JM, 2017) (Sub. Esp)

DESCARGAR O VER ONLINE AQUÍ

Título: HIGH&LOW The Movie 3 Final Mission País: Japón Género: Acción Duración: 118 min. Fecha de estreno: 11 de noviembre, 2017 Dirección: Kubo Shigeaki, Nakakuki Tsuyoshi Guion: Hiranuma Norihisa, Watanabe Kei, Kamijo Daisuke Producción: Ueno Hiroyuki, Fujimura Naoto, Nakabayashi Chikako SINOPSIS A fin de ocultar la pasada corrupción del gobierno, el grupo Kuryu sigue un plan para destruir uan calle y construir un casino. Para detener al grupo Kuryu, los miembros de SWORD comienzan a moverse. CAST ASOCIACIÓN SANNOH Iwata Takanori como Cobra Suzuki Nobuyuki como Yamato Machida Keita como Noboru Yamashita Kenjiro como Dan Sato Kanta como Tetsu Sato Taiki como Chiharu Yagi Masayasu como Ijuin Kabuto Iwaya Shogo como Ken Yamamoto Shogo como Hikaru WHITE RASCALS Keiji como Rocky Endo Yuya como Koo Inaba Yu como Kizzy Yanagi Shuntaro como Kaito Nishimura Ikki como Heidi Hirose Tomoki como Marco Nisikawa Shunsuke como Lassie Matsuda Ryo como Cosette Kyan Yutaka como Bito Darvish Kenji como Shimura INSTITUTO OYA Yamada Yuki como Murayama Yoshiki Suzuki Takayuki como Furuya Hideto Ichinose Wataru como Seki Kotaro Aoki Ken como Nakakuki Kiyohara Sho como Nakabayashi Jinnai Syo como Nakazono RUDE BOYS Kubota Masataka como Smoky Sano Reo como Takeshi Zen como P Sano Gaku como Yu Fujii Karen como Lala DARUMA IKKA Hayashi Kento como Hyuga Norihisa Abe Ryohei como Sakyo Ozawa Yuta como Kato Shu Mizuno Masaru como Futa Tanaka Shunsuke como Raita Moriya Koji como Agyo Izawa Yuki como Ungyo DOUBT Nakamura Aoi como Hayashi Ranmaru Akiyama Shintaro como Takano Takeda Kohei como Hirai MIGHTY WARRIORS Elly como Ice Oya Kana como Sarah Nogae Shuhei como Pearl Shirahama Alan como Bernie Anarchy como 9 Likiya como Diddy Sukezane Kiki como Dixie PRISON GANG Naoto como Jesse Sekiguchi Mandy como Pho Iwanaga Joey como Brown Nakatani Taro como Mocai Jay como Nakamon Takeru como Miou Kido Yasuhiro como Akune (EX)MUGEN Akira como Kohaku Aoyagi Sho como Tsukumo HERMANOS AMAMIYA Takahiro como Amamiya Masaki Tosaka Hiroomi como Amamiya Hiroto GRUPO KURYU Tsugawa Masahiko como Kuze Ryushin Iwaki Koichi como Kurosaki Kimitatsu Kishitani Goro como Zenshin Yoshitatsu Kato Masaya como Katsunari Ryuichiro Sasano Takashi como Ueno Ryuhei Takashima Masahiro como Minamoto Ryukai Kinoshita Youka como Fujimori Tatsuo Nakamura Tatsuya como Iemura Tatsumi Saotome Taichi como Ryu Tatsuhito Kobayashi Naoki como Kuki Genji Kenchi como Nikaido Onozuka Hayato como Kirinji Takeda Kozo como Yoshida Kagetora Kuroishi Takahiro como Udaka Shinichi Yuki Jutta como Oba Kunimitsu Shogen como Okido Ken Shiroishi Tomoya como Eto Araki Hideyuki como Fukuda Watanabe Kohei como Yagi ICHIGO-MILK Kaede como Shiba Sato Harumi como Oshiage Yamaguchi Nonoka como Nonoriki Kido Airi como Ichikawa OTROS Fujii Shuka como Naomi Bando Nozomi como Ijuin Nika Nakai Noemie como Furuno Suzuki Rio como Eri Horibe Keisuke como Natano Eichi Hasegawa Hatsunori como Shinohara Toyohara Kosuke como Saigo Ikeue Kohei como Kikuchi

TRÁILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq7mAAjn8nw

[b-else-writes]

The Great CLAMP Re-Read Part 2: Man of Many Faces

Part 1 (RG Veda)| Part 3 (Tokyo Babylon) | Part 4 (Duklyon) | Part 5 (Clamp Detectives)| Part 6 (Shirahime)| Part 7 (X)| Part 8 (Chunhyang) | Part 9 (Miyuki-chan)

Onto the next work in CLAMP's oeuvre, Man of Many Faces (technically the translated title should be 20 Faces, Please!!). This ran from 1990 to 1991, and it is wild to think that it was running concurrently with RG Veda (and Tokyo Babylon!) because it is SO tonally different. It is also technically CLAMP's first foray into shonen, running in Newtype magazine, although it feels like it's aimed younger. I had never knew it existed! It's one of the few CLAMP manga with no anime adaptations (it did have 2 drama CDs).

It's out of print and was released in English by Tokyopop in the early 2000s, in two volumes comprised of 11 chapters. I read this entirely online and would probably only hunt down a physical copy if I'm feeling like being a completionist. Spoilers? I guess?

Synopsis: Ijuin Akira is a precocious 9 year old at CLAMP School who leads a double life as the gentleman thief 20 Masks/Faces. As 20 Faces, Akira steals beautiful objects to satisfy the whims of his kleptomaniac two mothers. One day, Akira ends up in the bedroom of 5 year old Okawa Utako, sparking off a romantic comedy due to his double life and the nature of love!

The Story: There really....isn't one. Whatever it bills itself as, this is not a heist story. Man of Many Faces is pure fluff, basically a gag manga, which is what makes it so crazy that it was concurrent with the dark, fatalistic fantasy of RG Veda and the tragic urban fantasy of Tokyo Babylon - did CLAMP need a cute comedy as a mental break?

The chapters have a similar structure: Akira's two mothers spot something and cry "we want it!". Akira goes after the object and ends up entangled with Utako as they overcome the next (very low stakes) obstacle in their relationship. Akira often gets advice from his uncle and school pediatrician Akechi Shigetaka, while narrowly escaping his next door neighbour Kobayashi Ryusuke, who acts as the Inspector Javert. Along the way, he and Utako mediate on love and what makes a good man and good bride.

The story ends with the two getting married and still working to make sure that their relationship is always loving and new. It's a light, charming read (I was able to read the whole thing in about an hour) and it did make me smile a few times. The Christmas episode is particularly cute. Otherwise, the story is fine, just enough to string together the story that it doesn't implode from meandering fluff.

The Themes: Despite being so divorced from their serious works, I'd actually say you can see a lot of what would come to be CLAMP's attitude towards love - what makes a good love? Can love last forever and overcome all barriers? Are people destined for each other, and if so, does that make love easy? Some of the waxing poetic is very silly (Akechi once quotes the plot of Some Like It Hot, yes, the Marilyn Monroe film, to give advice) and very questionable, but there are some surprisingly nuanced takes too.

Namely, you are entitled to your feelings (very CLAMP), that nobody can fully know another person's heart (hello Tokyo Babylon) so we must remember we are two people and not lose ourselves in each other (X 1999??), be understanding and kind, and that love and people will change, and love is about meeting that new person each day, which is shockingly mature for CLAMP, who I had always taken to be rather fatalistic and immature in their romantic attitudes. I definitely walked away thinking that I hoped these two kids made it.

The Characters: It's an 11 chapter gag manga - the characters are thinly written. That doesn't mean they aren't charming. Utako is a rich brat but an adorable one, and Akira's maybe polyamorous mothers are very funny. Akechi and Ryusuke are especially funny, and Akira's father definitely leaves an impression. Akira himself is rather boring, he's a Mamoru with even less personality (interestingly this predates Sailor Moon by 2 years, but you can't read it without thinking of Tuxedo Mask!). They all serve their purpose, are funny and cute enough, but you're not going to be left contemplating them either.

The Art: It's very 90s shojo in style (despite being marketed for shonen) so it is competently drawn, comprehensible visual storytelling, and nice to look at, but it is not particularly transcendent, especially by CLAMP standards. The only time they really shine is in the splash pages, which are sooo delightfully sweet. Akira's mothers are very pretty, and Utako is cute, but the character designs are unremarkable despite the nice outfits. It also hits one of my irritations, which is that the backgrounds are very ill-defined and replaced by patterned screentones. In short, it is fine.

Questionable Elements: The way gender roles was discussed did not sit right with me. This was written in the 1990s in Japan so I am not surprised it is so "woman are emotional and crazy and end up as housewives" and shojo like it or not has a lot of sexism baked in so it didn't shock me, but it is disappointing and can make some of the advice and comments touted unpleasant. Also I see you CLAMP with Utako's first love being her teacher - at least he rejects her!

Overall: A little sidetrack in CLAMP's oeuvre as sweet as the pastries our couple enjoy. It's got enough genuine charm to get it across the line into enjoyable, but it's also perfectly obvious why it remains one of their most obscure works - you'll end with a smile, but it won't change your life. I wouldn't personally recommend it to anyone except diehard CLAMP fans. It's a nice sugary treat for a quick read and doesn't overstay its welcome, but only just.

[shysheeperz]