Book Reviews: X and Tokyo Babylon, Clamp
May. 24th, 2019 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaSometimes you find something in your 30s that makes you wonder "but how did I become me without this thing?" I managed it in part because I read a lot of other Clamp in my teens, but in many ways (nearly all ways except for "has a lot of feels about robots") these feel the most Clamp and the most relevant to how Clamp informed my id. Anyway, they were good.
Title: X
Author: Clamp
Translator: Lillian Olsen
Published: Viz Media, 2011-2013 (1992-2003)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 3,415 (584+560+554+540+538+544+95)
Total Page Count: 312,850
Text Number: 1052-1071
Read Because: fan of the author group, paperbacks borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: A teenager returns to his childhood home and friends in Tokyo to participate in a battle to determine the fate of the world. This is review of the series "entire", which is 4 stars for the first few volumes and a strong 5 stars by the end. Short version: This is slow to begin, to improves as it goes on to become both strong and particularly tailored to my personal tastes. That it stands unfinished is unfortunate but doesn't lessen the work, particularly because there is closure to a personal favorite and thematically central arc. This is a new favorite Clamp series; I loved & recommend it.
Long version: I read a few tankobon of this series when I was a teen, about the time it was canceled, and never bothered to "finish" it for that reason. This was a mistake! The start is slow, and not just because it's familiar to me—Kamui's early characterization is flat and irritating; numerous character introductions slow the pace, and the apocalyptic good vs evil setup is trite. But it improves dramatically once Fuma's role develops, because this changes everything, forcing dynamic, complex growth in Kamui and making ambiguous the clear divisions of the premise.
On some level, I don't mind that it took me so long to pick this back up, because reading new-to-me Clamp at this point is like discovering them all over again—and discovering how much I love and value their ethos. The shape of the character dynamics, the queer themes, the way that love and desire motivate so much without losing their ethical complexity, the intimacy and efficacy of touch—including violence, the cerebral distance that marks the most important relationships are all phenomenal, enthralling, and highly relevant to my interests.
I regret that the series was never finished, but it doesn't feel unsatisfying or unsubstantiated—in part because I trust that Clamp had a feel for the ending even if they were unable to realize it, but moreso because it runs as long as volume 16 and 17, the climax and resolution of the Subaru/Seishiro arc. It's ridiculously good, and their dynamic parallels Kamui's arc in such a way that it sketches the structure of the end of the series. It doesn't provide closure—whether Kamui adheres or deviates from Subaru's example would have been pivotal—but it's thought-provoking and significantly more than nothing.
Clamp's ornate art, here leaning away from cute and towards gothic/romantic, compliments the apocalyptic themes; there's a Neon Genesis Evangelion-vibe to the imagery: picked for drama more than external logic, but so effective. The humor is a restrained counterpoint to the violence. The large cast and stereotypical characters blossom into an affecting web of relationships which supersede some repetition and backtracking in the overarching plot—and when the plot threatens to stagnate, it's progressed by significant, bold character deaths. I've loved a lot of Clamp. They were formative to my adolescence and they still own my heart of hearts, because this is as good now as it would have been then.
Title: Tokyo Babylon
Author: Clamp
Translator: Ray Yoshimoto, Alexis Kirsch and Carol Fox
Published: Dark Horse Manga, 2013 (1990-1993)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 1,170 (560+610)
Total Page Count: 314,250
Text Number: 1079-1085
Read Because: fan of the author group, paperbacks borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: A young occult practitioner works in busy Tokyo with two constant companions: his exuberant twin sister and the mysterious older man who professes to love him. The bizarre combination of shojo boys' love occult monster-of-the-week meeting high fashion, social commentary, and musings on life in a metropolis meeting slow-build character development and a phenomenally dark ending is something that feels like it could only have come from Clamp, especially early Clamp. It can be discordant, and the art (especially the fashion) is dated, but the tonal bait-and-switch has a strong, creeping tension and incredible payoff. Like X, this is a 4-star series that makes it to 5 stars by the end, nonetheleast because it appeals so well to my particular tastes. (My only regret is that it makes me want to reread it and/or X, immediately after finishing both!) Clamp has built a lot of special things throughout their long career, but the characters which begin here are easily some of my favorites.
Further, borderline incoherent thoughts, excised & edited from an email:
I grew up with Clamp as a mesh of fetishism and representation. They began as a doujin studio, a lot of their BL and also yuri has a touch of the titillating, or humorous, or tragic, or dramatic. But it's also pervasive, their view of how love and intimacy work: that they exist outside of gender, that they're profoundly motivating but emotionally and moralizing compromising. It's not gayngst/bury your gays, it's not exploitative. It's sincere and important, even when played for attention or laughs.
And this is in many ways the arc of my personality growth! The titillation of being a teenage fangirl is still part of being a queer and kinky adult—these aspects aren't in conflict; they're different forms of engagement with the same approach to the world. Some aspects are easier, more fun, more identifiable, more flashy. Some aspects are incredibly complex, internally conflict, private, personal, profound. The approaches compliment and balance each other.
X and Tokyo Babylon parallel that balance. On the macro level of tone, but also on a narrative level. There's a balance in Subaru's character development—clear, showy motivations like revenge or titillating aspects like wanting to die at a rival's hand, both balanced by the long, involved, evolving arc of his love—which he sublimates into violence, which he comes to terms with even when self-destructive. Seichiro's sociopathy is a twist but not a throwaway twist, because his understanding of what it means to connect emotionally despite being unable to experience emotion is complex writing. Their dynamic is pinnacle "everything trashy but also meaningful about BL/id-level writing/violence-as-intimacy."
Title: X
Author: Clamp
Translator: Lillian Olsen
Published: Viz Media, 2011-2013 (1992-2003)
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 3,415 (584+560+554+540+538+544+95)
Total Page Count: 312,850
Text Number: 1052-1071
Read Because: fan of the author group, paperbacks borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: A teenager returns to his childhood home and friends in Tokyo to participate in a battle to determine the fate of the world. This is review of the series "entire", which is 4 stars for the first few volumes and a strong 5 stars by the end. Short version: This is slow to begin, to improves as it goes on to become both strong and particularly tailored to my personal tastes. That it stands unfinished is unfortunate but doesn't lessen the work, particularly because there is closure to a personal favorite and thematically central arc. This is a new favorite Clamp series; I loved & recommend it.
Long version: I read a few tankobon of this series when I was a teen, about the time it was canceled, and never bothered to "finish" it for that reason. This was a mistake! The start is slow, and not just because it's familiar to me—Kamui's early characterization is flat and irritating; numerous character introductions slow the pace, and the apocalyptic good vs evil setup is trite. But it improves dramatically once Fuma's role develops, because this changes everything, forcing dynamic, complex growth in Kamui and making ambiguous the clear divisions of the premise.
On some level, I don't mind that it took me so long to pick this back up, because reading new-to-me Clamp at this point is like discovering them all over again—and discovering how much I love and value their ethos. The shape of the character dynamics, the queer themes, the way that love and desire motivate so much without losing their ethical complexity, the intimacy and efficacy of touch—including violence, the cerebral distance that marks the most important relationships are all phenomenal, enthralling, and highly relevant to my interests.
I regret that the series was never finished, but it doesn't feel unsatisfying or unsubstantiated—in part because I trust that Clamp had a feel for the ending even if they were unable to realize it, but moreso because it runs as long as volume 16 and 17, the climax and resolution of the Subaru/Seishiro arc. It's ridiculously good, and their dynamic parallels Kamui's arc in such a way that it sketches the structure of the end of the series. It doesn't provide closure—whether Kamui adheres or deviates from Subaru's example would have been pivotal—but it's thought-provoking and significantly more than nothing.
Clamp's ornate art, here leaning away from cute and towards gothic/romantic, compliments the apocalyptic themes; there's a Neon Genesis Evangelion-vibe to the imagery: picked for drama more than external logic, but so effective. The humor is a restrained counterpoint to the violence. The large cast and stereotypical characters blossom into an affecting web of relationships which supersede some repetition and backtracking in the overarching plot—and when the plot threatens to stagnate, it's progressed by significant, bold character deaths. I've loved a lot of Clamp. They were formative to my adolescence and they still own my heart of hearts, because this is as good now as it would have been then.
Title: Tokyo Babylon
Author: Clamp
Translator: Ray Yoshimoto, Alexis Kirsch and Carol Fox
Published: Dark Horse Manga, 2013 (1990-1993)
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 1,170 (560+610)
Total Page Count: 314,250
Text Number: 1079-1085
Read Because: fan of the author group, paperbacks borrowed from the Wilsonville Public Library
Review: A young occult practitioner works in busy Tokyo with two constant companions: his exuberant twin sister and the mysterious older man who professes to love him. The bizarre combination of shojo boys' love occult monster-of-the-week meeting high fashion, social commentary, and musings on life in a metropolis meeting slow-build character development and a phenomenally dark ending is something that feels like it could only have come from Clamp, especially early Clamp. It can be discordant, and the art (especially the fashion) is dated, but the tonal bait-and-switch has a strong, creeping tension and incredible payoff. Like X, this is a 4-star series that makes it to 5 stars by the end, nonetheleast because it appeals so well to my particular tastes. (My only regret is that it makes me want to reread it and/or X, immediately after finishing both!) Clamp has built a lot of special things throughout their long career, but the characters which begin here are easily some of my favorites.
Further, borderline incoherent thoughts, excised & edited from an email:
I grew up with Clamp as a mesh of fetishism and representation. They began as a doujin studio, a lot of their BL and also yuri has a touch of the titillating, or humorous, or tragic, or dramatic. But it's also pervasive, their view of how love and intimacy work: that they exist outside of gender, that they're profoundly motivating but emotionally and moralizing compromising. It's not gayngst/bury your gays, it's not exploitative. It's sincere and important, even when played for attention or laughs.
And this is in many ways the arc of my personality growth! The titillation of being a teenage fangirl is still part of being a queer and kinky adult—these aspects aren't in conflict; they're different forms of engagement with the same approach to the world. Some aspects are easier, more fun, more identifiable, more flashy. Some aspects are incredibly complex, internally conflict, private, personal, profound. The approaches compliment and balance each other.
X and Tokyo Babylon parallel that balance. On the macro level of tone, but also on a narrative level. There's a balance in Subaru's character development—clear, showy motivations like revenge or titillating aspects like wanting to die at a rival's hand, both balanced by the long, involved, evolving arc of his love—which he sublimates into violence, which he comes to terms with even when self-destructive. Seichiro's sociopathy is a twist but not a throwaway twist, because his understanding of what it means to connect emotionally despite being unable to experience emotion is complex writing. Their dynamic is pinnacle "everything trashy but also meaningful about BL/id-level writing/violence-as-intimacy."
