Rules of CLAMP

[branchandroot]

... because you know they tell the same story every time.

1. The villain probably isn't. No matter how many horrible, cruel things he does, it always turns out that he's acting for higher neccessity or love (occassionally twisted) or some such. Female villains, however, are more likely to actually be villains and, in fact, incarnations of evil and darkness.

2. If it's small and cute, it's probably an avatar of chaos and destruction.

3. At least two thirds of the love affairs will be tragic, involving the partners eternally parted or only requited in death or some such. The primary love affair has about a three quarters chance of succeeding, but only after buckets of angst.

4. There will be at least one, and more likely two or three, cross-generational love affairs. These have the best chance of succeeding, even outweighting the primary love affairs. If the primary affair is cross-generational, you can be pretty well assured it will prosper.

5. The world will be destroyed, or nearly. The likelyhood of an eleventh-hour save with a TON of mess to clean up and emotional scarring all around is about three quarters.

6. The only way to deal with a shadow-self is to accept it, rather than fight it.

7. Pure-heartedness conquers all. Though it usually gets severely trodden on in the process.


Based on the above, I'm expecting that Fuuma wants to be killed by Kamui and is trying to provoke him into it, but that the overshadowing dark Kamui will be reabsorbed just in time for the sun to rise over a world in ruins, running with the blood of absolutely everyone else, probably including Fuuma himself, but not actually ended because Kamui managed at the last minute to save it. Not that it will do him any good to have done so.

Remind me again why I read these people?

Comments

[chronolith.livejournal.com]

Remind me again why I read these people?

Because after X they got their heads out of their asses? I mean, Clover is pretty good, Legal Drug is cute, and I adore xxxHolic.

X seems to be their never ending angst festival. I never got past vol. 18.

[branchandroot]

This is true; with xxxHolic they actually seem to get the hang of telling a story episodically, and still having a general underlying story-direction.

Thing is, despite the truly alarming hair, I liked RG Veda. I think it was Twisted!CLAMP at their best. Rayearth, however, is just annoying, X seems to be an excuse to stab pretty boys, and even Card Captor Sakura never quite got the hang of the whole motivation thing.

I'm hoping they actually take Holic somewhere.

[chronolith.livejournal.com]

If you read Tsubasa in conjunction with xXxHolic then yes they do take the series somewhere. In a very odd sort of ... tangental line.

[branchandroot]

Perhaps fortunately, my budget limitations have made me hold off on reading more than an issue or two of either. *frowns* I did get several volumes into TRC and really felt like it wasn't going anywhere.

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

I'm just...so very very tired of CLAMP. I think the popularity of Chobits with teenage female fans was really what made my disdain real. ...okay, popularity of Chobits with ANYBODY, but I just can't blame the men quite as much seeing as it's aimed at them!

I would actually really appreciate more fluffy mahou-shoujo things like Card Captor Sakura. Sakura...just seemed to be ENGINEERED to be cuter, dimmer, and frillier than any mahou shoujo before her. They just seemed to cover all the shoujo bases, and it all seemed so...detached. But perfect! I really liked that from them.

[branchandroot]

Yeah, I attempt not to remember Chobits because the whole thing made me rather ill. Kind of like the girls who think that Touga, of Utena, is cool and wonderful. *shudders*

I do like Yuuko, though, the totally-not-heroine of xxxHolic. She's fun.

[chronolith.livejournal.com]

Touga, of Utena, is cool and wonderful.

^^;; My husband sort of identifies with Touga. Or rather strongly identifies with Touga with his playboy, manipulative ways. Personally I think Touga is fascinating because he is so subtly fucked up. Unlike Saiogi who is very obviously fucked up.

Besides, next to Akio they all sort of pale.

[forochel.livejournal.com]

Pretty art. And general addictiveness.

[branchandroot]

*sighs* It's so unfair of them to give X such pretty art.

[forochel.livejournal.com]

Ah..I haven't read X yet. Pretty art, you say? *contemplates buying it* I read the blurb of Volume 1, though, and was incredibly put off. Oh well. xxxHolic I have only read the first volume but it seems highly interesting.

CCS!! ♥~ Sparkly and Cute and Fluffy and Oh-So-Manufactured, But In A Good Way Somehow!

[branchandroot]

X is annoying, in that there is no ending, nor much hope of one. Tons of blood and angst, and it's completely unresolved.

*considers* For sweet and fluffy, I'm actually partial to CLAMP Campus Detectives. CCS was great fun, and I love Touya and Yukito dearly, but the overall plot kind of flopped. CCD doesn't have any overall plot, so it actually works better. *wry*

[gisho.livejournal.com]

I understand the thing with X having no ending is actually not their fault, they got in some sort of dispute with the magazine it was running it. (This would also be why Legal Drug stopped cold. Pity, it was amusing.)

I liked Dukylon best, in fact. It was so utterly madcap, it didn't even try to take itself seriously, and it had aliens! CCD was nice too, though. Both of those are from their very early days, which I don't believe to be a coincidence.

CCS was cute, but not that funny. I liked Eriol, though.

And Clover was breathtakingly beautiful.

Basically, we all like Clamp because they're pretty and the characters are intruiging, even though the plot is weak. Same reasons people like my fic, I figure, so I can't turn my nose up. And TRC does rather keep one on the edge of one's seat, at least if one has gotten a crush on Fai like three-quarters of the English fandom.

[branchandroot]

Finding out what all is up with Fai might be what keeps me going with TRC.

[forochel.livejournal.com]

Eh. I shan't read X, then. OH MAN. More manga to hunt down and read! CCS had a plot?! ..never noticed...I mean, yeah. There was the whole Go-And-Collect-Cards-And-Random-Other-Things general line, but..plot?

[branchandroot]

*laughing* There was plot, actually, but it all revolved around Clow and his reincarnations and emotional attachment, and barely got any development until the very end. I really think CLAMP couldn't make up their minds whether they wanted CCS to be episodic and fluffy (collect-the-cards) or emotionally insightful and significant (love and changing loves over time and Clow-Eriol-Fujitaka and Yue/Yukito's attachment to Clow and Touya and Sakura herself). So they tried to make it both and failed the second part pretty badly.

[forochel.livejournal.com]

It'd be hard, though, to try and mix Collect The Cards together with the more emotionally insightful things, because fluff slides off angst like water slides off a duck's back.

I wish they'd just kept it to Collect The Cards and the very cute relationship between Sakura and Syaoran. WHO IS FROM HONG KONG WOOHOO. *kerhem*