Complete Over Analysis

    Let's analyse stuff  - for science! This is the blog of a hundred thousand words, where I read far too much into far too many things. Currently Liveblogging: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and xxxHolic, the two CLAMP series that are ruining my life. In a good way. Mostly. Posts tend to happen all at once and nothing in between, but everything is tagged and organised if there is anything you would like to skip.  

[completeoveranalysis]

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Welcome to the blog of a hundred thousand words, where we liveblog things and analyse far too much. For science.

The liveblogs for Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and xxxHolic are now complete!

Here is a list of past and present things I’ve done or hope to do! Links to help navigate.

Looking Forward To: 

Tsubasa OVAs

Tsubasa Anime

Tsubasa World Chronicle

xxxHolic Rei

Legal Drug/Drug and Drop

Gate 7

Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card

xxxHolic Novel

Mokona Side Chapter

Remaining Horitsuba Drama CDs

Pandora Hearts

Completed Liveblogs:

Tsubasa liveblog (100%)  

Tsubasa Catch Up Chronicle: Completed in 2022. The first 13 arcs of Tsubasa re-examined before resuming the Liveblog after Seresu.

xxxHolic liveblog (100%)

Horitsuba Drama CDs (50%)

Tsubasa Movie: The Princess and the Birdcage Kingdom (100%)

xxxHolic Movie: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (100%)

RG Veda (100%)

X/1999 Manga (100%)

CLAMP School Detectives (100%)

All PDF back up files can be found here

What Happens if Tumblr Dies: 

You can find me on Patreon under the same name - linked here. You can follow this at no cost!

[completeoveranalysis]

Do you think about Kurogane lost his arm could pay a price to heal possible? Because there some images shown situation his prosthetic arm not permanent, it still hurt him when moving around

https://www.reddit.com/r/CLAMP/s/5vALOqUa77

Sorry these look like they're from World Chronicle, so I won't read these yet.

But is it possible to pay a wish to heal an arm? Sure! Would they? I don't think so!

Given all the consequences from wishes throughout the adventure, I don't think they'd be eager to jump straight into that - and I don't think Kurogane would not regret any price from his choice to save Fai.

I also wouldn't read 'causing pain' as a sign of the prosthetic not being permanent. Medical aids just have side effects some times.

[completeoveranalysis]

do you think li tsubasa will ever find a way to bring his parents back again? how would you go about it? and will that resolve his whole world hopping price? i have been having these thoughts ever since i finished this manga years ago and would love your thoughts on it. me personally, i think the world hopping price is something that isnt connected to his parents, so hed probably still have to do it. but i can see why it would be otherwise. the easiest way i can see him getting his parents back is to also create functional bodies for them but how complicated of a task that would be, im not so sure.

This is very fun to think about!

It sounds like we have pretty similar thoughts on this already - the impression that the end of Tsubasa gave me was that constantly traveling was the price he had to pay to keep existing, so I don't think that would resolve even if he met his parents again. (Though, with endless magic in the universe who knows - someone somewhere could make a wish to fix this, but as it stands I think constantly traveling is just his only path forward)

As for the parents, I don't know if this is touched on at all in World Chronicle so for now I'll just guess. Since the reborn Sakura and Syaoran still kind of exist inside Lava Lamp and Not!Sakura, I think one option for them would be to end up in a dimension where the extra souls can exist separately on their own. A physical body could work, but I could also see it as a more spiritual realm where souls don't really need bodies at all.

In saying that, I do think if they accomplished this they'd still have to say goodbye - either because Lava Lamp still needs to keep traveling, or because their final goodbye was his ultimate goal in the first place, but either way it'd be very nice to see!

[completeoveranalysis]

Do you know what is the character on Princess Tomoyo is? It's not Japanese or Chinese, I look it up it belong to Sanskrit language, is it show how Tomoyo divine magic is?

http://www.visiblemantra.org/a.html

You know, I'm not sure!

I can't say I know enough about Hindu or Buddhist culture to say what the connotation is there, but it's at least a slight indication of what kind of cultural history Kurogane's Nihon has.

There will be many people out there who can give a lot more detail on this than anything I might guess at out of ignorance.

[completeoveranalysis]

My approach to most clamp works is that everything happens in its own world unless proved otherwise. A lot of worlds are very similar and share many things like the piffle princess company, some schools and whatnot. The only thing that can be assumed to be the same is Yuuko's store and, by extension, Watanuki, also every world has a Miyuki-chan running around, no exceptions lol.

Yes exactly - this is why it has been a bit mystifying to dig into Wish/Legal Drug/Kobato, since the same exact cast of characters show up in each series and refer to the same events each time. This is the 'proven otherwise' bit that you mention.

And then the characters from Suki show up in both Legal Drug and Kobato, and Legal Drug crosses over with xxxHolic more than once, so that's at least 5 series all in the same world, 6 if you count Tsubasa crossing with xxxHolic, and 7 if you interpret Cardcaptor Sakura in this same world as well.

So, you know, more than one exception to every rule!

[completeoveranalysis]

I always thougth ccs took place in same world as kobato for the sheer fact that at end Nadeshiko and kobato were the same school uniform (which is the same as suki's).

Oh my gosh, I never noticed that!

Thank you for point that out!

[completeoveranalysis]

Do you know Kobato has the same soul with the angel Suishou? Do you think Kazehaya has the same soul with angel Kohaku too? Because I saw Kazehaya and Kohaku kinda of similarity in their hair and faces. Even though Kohaku is a tomboy, not clear on her gender is Male or Female or she could be both.

Oh I can help with that last bit - Kohaku is genderless! Like Ashura in RG Veda, Kohaku is nonbinary and doesn't identify as male or female.

As for the soul question, I think that's entirely up to interpretation.

For me personally I don't see Kohaku and Kazehaya as the same soul, I read their personalities as incredibly different. But! I think you could interpret it any way you felt makes sense to you personally. The beauty of reading is that everyone will read things a bit differently.

[completeoveranalysis]

Another Kobato Question

What is the intended timeline?

Some facts:

Kobato, Legal Drug, and Wish are set in the same world

Both Kobato and Legal Drug are definitively after Wish

Wish is set in contemporary Japan

Wish ends with a 100 year waiting period, where Kohaku is asleep until Shuichirou is reborn

Kohaku is awake in Kobato, which is also set in a modern city setting

Legal Drug, xxxHolic, and Kobato all appear to be set at the same point in time

And then:

In Kobato, Kohakus reveals that by this point in time, Shuichiro has been reincarnated 5 times

So how does time work in this world?

Kobato is contemporary - the others are in the future

The world has been a contemporary city for hundreds of years

The world is a modern city, but Kohaku's life doesn't sync with time normally

Wish was retconned in Kobato

The timeline doesn't matter, don't worry about it!

Voting ended onJul 18

[completeoveranalysis]

So I reread Kobato!

And oh, I adore Kobato. It is such a nice and gentle time.

But I have a question to see what everyone thinks about something.

Here is Touya outside the Legal Drug store, which shares a universe with Kobato.

Which Touya is this?

Cardcaptor Sakura Touya

Alternate Universe Touya

Voting ended onJul 18

[completeoveranalysis]

I can’t find the post that pointed it out, but fun angst fact! Spoilers warning for anyone who didn’t finish X/1999 or TRC yet, but the scene were Clone Sakura disappears and can’t finish her confession, and the scene Clone Syaoran disappears in Syaoran (Lava Lamp) arms both parallel the scene Seishirou dies in Subaru’s arms in X/1999

It's true! I'm not sure if you mean a post by me or by someone else, but here's the one I made during Nihon that mentions it just in case it's the one you were thinking of.

[completeoveranalysis]

In Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, where exactly did Tomoyo come from, given that Sonomi makes no appearance? It is possible that— Nadeshiko having previously halted time to save her daughter RSakura—Nadeshiko had passed away; consequently, Sonomi's very existence vanished along with her. In this scenario, Tomoyo was adopted by Kendappa and raised as her younger sister, or perhaps Kendappa's mother gave birth to both Kendappa and Tomoyo, leading the two sisters to grow up together. Once the time loop in the Clow Kingdom was resolved and returned to normalcy—thereby bringing Nadeshiko back to life—Sonomi was restored to her role as Tomoyo's mother in the Tsubasa: World Chronicle.

That’s entirely possible! I don’t have any information about Tomoyo’s mother in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, and I haven’t read World Chronicle. 

I don’t think I know of any examples of someone being erased in one world affecting their counterpart in another world, so I’m not sure if Nadeshiko being erased in Clow would affect a Sonomi that lived in Nihon, but stranger things have happened in this series. 

I think you could interpret that aspect of the plot any way that works for you!

[completeoveranalysis]

What do you think about Ashura and Fai relationship with each other as his adopted father? And the past of cursed twin Fai and Yui? Both Fai and Yui trapped in the tower, they may not interact with each other, but the twin want to leave the tower together not giving up. The fact that Fai (the real one) is slightly more self-sacrificing than Yui, aside from being a dramatic misdirection aligned with the "death-seeking Fai-san," is probably because, in addition to being unable to move from the top of the tower, he couldn’t bear to watch Yui stubbornly climb toward the tower instead of the cliff outside, no matter what. So the real Fai wanted to to die so Yui can be free from the tower. Ashura did not treat Fai cruelly, he murdered the people living in Celes country just because Ashura wanted to be stronger than Fai's magic. So he can triggers Fai's curse so he can be free, but Sakura triggers the first curse. Ashura’s magic overpowered that’s causing the reason he losing himself because of his own magic put him over the edge. So he need Fai to kill him so he can free from Celes country. When Fai and the group arrived to Nihon country, Tomoyo already explained to him how Ashura wants Fai to live happy without misfortune or his curse.

My thoughts are that this plot point is very open to interpretation. Like you say, Tomoyo introduces a bit of a "free pass" to the plot in that logic in the universe is apparently not working very well, so things don't have to make as much sense. Which, as far as I am aware, only really applies to Ashura - but the upside of that is: I think the reader is free to choose to think what they want about Ashura, and it’s kind of correct either way. 

It sounds like you’ve already landed on an explanation that works for you, but since you asked for my thoughts, for me it’s the opposite.

I will explain below but since Fai’s story line has some very dark elements I will give people the option to not have it on their dash if they don’t want it today.

I do agree that Ashura treated Fai kindly but that’s not necessarily the same as not being cruel. Regardless of his intentions, the mental scars he left on Fai were extreme to the point that Fai would not have survived this series of events if Kurogane had not directly intervened. Either Fai would have let himself die by Ashura’s hand, or if he HAD killed Ashura he would have killed himself straight after. (And this isn't even taking into account that Fai was already willing to die in Acid Tokyo, where Kurogane also intervened)

This is Ashura’s fault. I don’t think he did this damage to Fai intentionally - I think he either did not consider the effect it would have on Fai, or he did not care what the effect on Fai would be. 

Either way, the things he did to Fai include:

Lying to him about the purpose of his tattoos

Hypotising him and rearranging his memories to suit Ashura’s purposes

Raising him in an emotionally manipulative environment, so that Fai was taught to repress his true emotions at all times and only ever smile 

Brutally murdering every other living person that Fai knew

Possibly brutally murdering everyone in the country

Telling Fai that brutally murdering an entire country was for his benefit

Pushing Fai to kill the only family member he had left

Using Fai’s dead twin to manipulate him

Threatening Sakura’s empty body to manipulate him

Trying to force Fai to kill Kurogane (his new family)

When that didn’t work, actively trying to kill Fai’s new family himself to force Fai to do what he wanted

Trying to frame all of the above as acts of love

So! You know, to me, that reads as cruel. It reads as so far beyond cruel that Ashura is the only person in the plot I actually think is even worse than Evil Wolverine. 

You don’t have to be “mean” to somebody to be emotionally abusive to them, and I do personally read Ashura as both emotionally and psychologically abusive to Fai. (again, to the point that it drove Fai to the point of suicide)

So that’s my read on their relationship! Though again, everyone is welcome to read it in other ways.

[completeoveranalysis]

Do you think why it need two curses from Fai to activate his power to kill RSyaoran and trapped the group in Celes? So they cannot finish the journey and collect all Sakura’s feathers. It take CSyaoran continue collects Sakura’s feathers instead of the group. Fai killed CSakura instead RSyaoran so her soul could transfer to the dream and take back the lost heart of CSyaoran. It good CSakura success to take back CSyaoran’s heart. Princess Tomoyo willing to pay the price dreamseer to take the group escape from the closed world it should be safe already. So RSyaoran and the group can finish the journey to Clow country to save RSakura trapped in halted time. What if the group didn’t finish the journey, they didn’t success to save RSakura? So the looped of SyaoSaku didn’t continue for RSyaoran to reborn to go to Clow country to meet RSakura, he never wished turn back in time to save RSakura, will the existence of Watanuki born in halted time will be lost too?

If I’m reading your questions correctly, then yes! I do think Evil Wolverine put so many overlapping curses onto Fai so that he could control who lived and who died - so that Fai could kill off all the characters Evil Wolverine didn’t want in the way (ie, Kurogane, Real Syaoran), and then Fai himself would get trapped and die. 

My memory could be wrong but I suspect that Evil Wolverine never intended for Real Syaoran to escape his lava lamp, but that Fai’s curse was there as a back up plan just in case he did (which ended up happening), but like you said, Sakura ended up dismantling this part of his plan before it could happen. 

If Evil Wolverine had successfully killed off Kurogane and Fai (with Real Syaoran either dead or still in prison) I believe his plan was for Clone Syaoran (with no soul, and so blindly following Evil Wolverine’s orders) to continue collecting feathers for Sakura and take her to all the right places, and eventually bring her back to the Reservoir to destroy all of time and space. 

And, yes! I think if this had been successful then Watanuki would never have been born - since Real Syaoran also would never have been born. (I think this is why, at one point in xxxHolic, Watanuki starts to fade away. Because the timeline is unstable, and the universe isn’t sure if he should really exist or not)

On the one hand, the fact that Watanuki and Syaoran exist in the story is sort of proof that everything in the plot had technically “already happened”, but not yet, if that makes sense. It hadn’t actually happened yet, but Watanuki and Syaoran DO exist, and so on some level the reborn Clone Sakura and Syaoran had already been reborn and had their child. It’s kind of like if the future events were happening in the past, with all of time kind of caught in a circular time loop, even though none of it happened more than once. Which is messy to picture and a bit confusing to think about, but it does mean that the timeline eventually does iron itself out (mostly) correctly and everything (mostly) stays stable. 

But! If Evil Wolverine had succeeded it all would have fallen apart and they all would have been deleted from the timeline anyway - or the universe would have just broken so completely that it stopped working at all.

[completeoveranalysis]

Do you think the relationship of Rikuou and Kazehaya similar to Kurogane and Fai? Kazehaya was born a twin with Kei, running away from his village feel guilty leaving his sister behind similar to Fai running from his country leaving Ashura and his dead twin far away to join the journey. Rikuou was living with his sister Tsukiko before his sister disappeared and he go to the drugstore and meet Kazehaya similar to Kurogane was living with Tomoyo before he banish from his country to the journey and meet Fai.

(Spoilers for both)

Sort of! They definitely have the similarities that you’ve listed, though the way the stories use those similar plot elements is very different in each series. There’s a lot of potential twin comparisons in Clamp, and to me Kazahaya has a lot more in common with Watanuki than Fai, though comparing all of them would be pretty fun. They all have overlapping elements, but in each case the set up of the “twin problem” is very different. (In this case, "My twin is evil" is very different to "My twin is dead and I think I killed them")

I think the same can be said of Kurogane and Rikuo. They both have “the grumpier of the two” and “missing family members” in common, but the actual use of those pieces is very different - Kurogane’s family was super tragically murdered, while Rikuo’s sister is mysteriously missing. And while Rikuo doesn’t know where Kei is, Kurogane knows EXACTLY where Tomoyo is and is trying to get back to her. 

I quite enjoy that Clamp aren’t afraid to take a collection of character tropes they’ve used already and re-use them in a completely new context. It can be fun to see all the things that make them different and try to figure out what the story is doing differently each time.

[kurofai-olympics]

Signups Open! KuroFai Olympics 2026

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[completeoveranalysis]

So I read Legal Drug!

Or Gohou Drug? Or Lawful Drug? 

Whatever it’s called, I read THAT and Drug & Drop. Or do they both get called Lawful Drug when grouped together? 

I actually don’t know, but whichever name the series goes by, I read it!

And I loved it. OH I loved it so much.

(And I will partially spoil part of the premise as far as it’s published as I talk about it, so if you would like to hold on to any surprises feel free to stop reading here)

The series is clearly going hand in hand with xxxHolic in all the best ways. It’s practically the same scenario, with the same set up, with the same clash of similar character types. 

It’s another store that deals with supernatural requests and items, run by a mysteriously supernatural storekeeper who set the store up for a Foreseen Reason that will directly benefit the main character, who works there, but will also relentlessly tease the main characters because of course they do. Meanwhile the main character has their own mysteriously supernatural backstory that makes them a bit complicated and alone in the world, but they bring the exact kind of indignant energy that makes them clash with The Guy They Spend All Their Time With, where they get sent on jobs together to solve minor supernatural problems and eventually have their fates irrevocably tied together. 

WHICH, YOU KNOW, RIGHT UP MY ALLEY. So much up my alley that I practically live in that alley. I live right there. 

But! One of the main differences between xxxHolic and ‘The Legal Drug Series’ is that Legal Drug actually commits to the queer subtext that Watanuki and Doumeki dedicate their entire lives to avoiding. The characters here are gay!

And to give xxxHolic it’s credit Yuuko Ichihara was very much the queer icon she deserves to be, but the equivalent character in Legal Drug is straight up dating the son of satan in the gayest way possible, the gay subtext is literal text in pretty much every chapter, and the two main leads Actually Are Positioned to be in a relationship with each other. 

Which! Is kind of actually everything I wanted from xxxHolic, and did not get, but is served up here to me directly as its own entire story just on its own. 

So! You know, if I already adored xxxHolic, then Legal Drug swoops in, takes the crown, and dances away in the gayest way I could ever possibly ask for. 

And then gets cancelled! Naturally. 

If I’m reading the dates right, I do find it endlessly fascinating that both times Legal Drug was cancelled, Clamp immediately began publishing a xxxHolic series - with Legal Drug ending in 2003, the same year xxxHolic began, and Drug & Drug ending the year xxxHolic Rei began. Perhaps that means nothing in particular, and perhaps they were planned to be similar from the very beginning, but considering just how much dna both series share I do very much long for what might have happened if both series actually continued at the same time. What would happen if we had both xxxHolic and Legal Drug side by side? Even just from what I’ve seen, xxxHolic goes in a completely different direction than where Legal Drug is going - so could we have ended up with both? The implied gays AND the canonical gays at the same time? We could have had it all. 

At the very least, I’m glad we got as much of it as we did, and I also love how Legal Drug ties several more Clamp works directly together in a way that really asks a lot of questions. Legal Drug is in the exact same world as xxxHolic, for one. 

And I’ll honestly say I don’t know how that timeline possibly lines up (where the Legal Drug characters show up in early xxxHolic, and by Drug & Drop they visit Watanuki in a post-Yuuko store. But it's only been a year in Legal Drug, so does... xxxHolic all take place within a year?) but I’ll take it all the same.  

But the characters from Suki are also here!

And so are the characters from Wish!

Which also means Kobato is connected. And xxxHolic brings Tsubasa for the ride, which means all THAT is in the same universe, if not directly the same world, along with Magic Knight Rayearth - but also Cardcaptor Sakura, and if I’m not mistaken Gate 7 hints at being set in this same actual world as well. 

So if I don't get ending to Legal Drug at least I have all of that to think about!

[kurofai-olympics]

KuroFai Olympics 2026 - Sacrifice vs Preservation

KuroFai Olympics returns for 2026 with Sacrifice vs Preservation.

Who will make the sacrifice to ensure the other survives or what will someone do to ensure both of them come out of this alive and together. These are some of the questions that might be answered during the Olympics.

Our banner artist for this year is Okami and it should be ready by time Signups open (fingers crossed).

The Key Dates for this years Olympics are the following.

Signups open - 25 May 2026

Signups Close - 7 June 2026

Teams and Prompts assigned - 10 June 2026

Posting starts - 15 August 2026

Voting closes - 4 October 2026

Winners Announcement - 7 October 2026

The current draft list of prompts is the following (subject to change)

Day of Reckoning

Divine Right of Kings

False Prophet

Offerings to the Gods

Crisis of Faith

Deal with the Devil

Divine Punishment

Katabasis (Journey to the Underworld)

Answer to Prayers

Rituals and Ceremonies

Creation of the World

Life after Death

Apotheosis (Ascending to Godhood)

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