valkyrie-baal replied to your post “Mom, watching JC and LWJ at the tea station: “Why are they so mad at...”
It's a long story...like 40 episodes long
hicchanpicchan replied to your post “Mom, watching JC and LWJ at the tea station: “Why are they so mad at...”
Tell her it's all explained in the next 31 episodes
I did!
She said, “they’re so over the top about it, it’s probably over a woman.”
Ummmmmmm...
(I since explained to her that this show is Gay and she is also now much more excited about watching, especially since I told her that the romance is all in the meaningful looks and careful arm touching. She likes period pieces, though not censorship.)
I know you said Ashura is repeating Evil Wolverine's patterns but I'm also getting major Seishirou flashbacks here. Like, MAJOR. They even both mindwipe the people they want to kill them!
Oh that works too! I hadn’t thought about him in this context, but that parallel is too good to pass up.
Ashura is very definitely in the company of all the worst villains CLAMP has to offer.
Okay, possibly unpopular opinion incoming: I actually LIKE Fuuma? It may have something to do with the fact that Tsubasa was the first CLAMP manga that I read, and I therefore didn't have the same context of X!Fuuma that you do, but other than that creepy moment with Kamui I actually liked him a lot! He seems genuinely concerned for the Tower people he stayed with for the past four years, and his whole purpose in travelling to different dimensions is to collect cool stuff? Sign me up lol(1/2)
(2/2) Being Yuuko's errand boy seems a much less extreme (and more enjoyable) price than giving up an eye to travel dimensions. And I don't blame him for not immediately saying who his brother is, because it's Seishirou. Can't have been a great way to keep friends back in the day. At the very least, his character is hella interesting and raises a whole bunch of questions about the background story with Seishirou, Kamui, and Subaru.
Again, that’s totally fine! Everyone is free to enjoy the characters that they enjoy, and I’m very glad that you find him so interesting. That’s a sign that Clamp are doing their job well!
Personally, like I’ve mentioned before, I read X/1999 first. It’s coloured my impressions of a lot of these characters, and I can’t avoid that - especially when Clamp are making the connections on purpose. I found (possessed)Fuuma in X/1999 to be distasteful at best and horrifying at worst, and any sign that those same characteristics might show up again in Tsubasa doesn’t sit well with me.
But that’s just me! I’m just one voice, and you have the power to ignore absolutely everything I say, and please do so if anything I ever get too annoying.
Oh, but I enjoyed CLAMP school detectives a lot more than I expected to. Let’s talk about it, but like, under a cut. For length purposes.
Because it was SUCH a fun series.
I think the obvious comparison would be Ouran High School Host Club - which the series is very similar to on the surface. And also at it’s core. And also in every single aspect. It was. It was basically like reading an early 90s version of Ouran and I ADORED that about it.
It didn’t have the benefit of having a nonbinary protagonist like Ouran does - but again, this is 1992, and I think what it does do was probably equally interesting for it’s time period.
I think one of the most interesting things for me was finally getting a solid read on who these characters are supposed to be. From reading Tsubasa I had an impression of who the detectives were, but to my delight it was a lot PURER than what I had... feared? I guess? It’s one of those trade-offs that tends to happen when CLAMP does throw backs to their earlier characters. If you know who they are already, you don’t need to have them explained to you. But if you don’t already have a deep understanding of them, Tsubasa doesn’t quite have the time or resources to explore them in a way that will get you completely up to speed.
So, Tsubasa had already given me the puzzle pieces that said Pretty Hair Detective was “rich”, “over the top”, and “just really loves women”. What I really enjoyed learning was that the last bit was a lot deeper than I’d been given to believe. The detectives (again, much like Ouran) are devoted to aiding and improving the lives of all women on campus. Does it have a bit of a weird gender angle? Yes. But the fact that they do it selflessly, with no need (or actual want) for anything in exchange makes it a lot more charming than it would have been otherwise. For something as early as 1992 I adore it for the genuine dedication to the message that all women are important and should be treated as such, no matter who they are or how they act in the moment.
In hindsight I can definitely see the similarities between Pretty Hair Detective and Tomoyo’s attitudes, in that respect. The fact that Pretty Hair Detective in particular never expresses any romantic intentions towards any women in the series is actually very important in establishing that, so I’m very glad they took that route.
I also enjoyed some of theeeee references? In reverse? Like, there were a couple of things Tsubasa did that weren’t obvious to me AT AL until now, but they were very nice nods to the ridiculous tone of Clamp School Detectives.
The other wild thing was THIS.
THE CAMPUS LOOKED LIKE THAT ALL ALONG.
You have to forgive me for thinking that was just an X/1999 detail, because HELLO IT WAS X/1999, OCCULT SYMBOLS WERE KIND OF A HUGE THING, but nope the school just looked like that the whole time and everyone was cool with it.
Incredible.
All in all the series was such a lighthearted and fun series that I genuinely quite enjoyed. It’s really strange to think about where CLAMP started (with RG Veda), and where they went later (with X/1999, and Tsubasa), and then to look at the trio of just NICE and PLEASANTLY HUMOURED adventures that is Man of Many Faces, Clamp School Detectives, and Duklyon. I want to make the joke “Who knew they had it in them?”, but like, this is CLAMP. No matter what genre they try they hit it out of the park, and I love that they do.
Okay this is really late, but since you've now read Clamp School Detectives, I was wondering what you thought of Nokoru and Suoh's relationship? There are some (implied) parallels to Tomoyo's relationship with Sakura, but it's still different and I'd like to see your take on them.
Ooh I never thought about it that way! That’s a really interesting take on those characters.
Nokoru and Suoh’s friendship was a really interesting highlight of the manga, especially how the last (?) chapter is devoted almost entirely to telling the backstory of how they met. And it’s longer than any of the previous chapters. It’s shame that it was so close to the end of the story, because that kind of stuff would have been wonderful to explore even further. (And I still really want to know how Akira got there)
But ohhh, parallels with Tomoyo and Sakura. I can definitely see how Nokoru would be the Tomoyo of that situation, as they have a LOT of similarities. Suoh’s personality reminds me a lot more of Syaoran or Meiling than Sakura, which is probably besides the point, but my brain keeps getting snagged on that and refusing to translate any further.
I’d love to hear more about the parallel if anyone feels like talking about it though!
