CLAMP: Манга суретшілер тобының тарихы

Manga artist group

Clamp (stylized in all caps) is an all female Japanese manga artist group, consisting of leader and writer Nanase Ohkawa (born in Osaka), and three artists whose roles shift for each series: Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi (all born in Kyoto). Clamp was first formed in the mid 1980s as an eleven member group creating dōjinshi (self published fan works), and began creating original manga in 1987. By the time the group made its mainstream publishing debut with RG Veda in 1989, it was reduced to seven members; three more members left in 1993, leaving the four current members of the group. Notable works by Clamp include X (1992), Magic Knight Rayearth (1993), Cardcaptor Sakura (1996) and its sequel Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card (2016), Chobits (2000), and xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (both 2003). Various series by the group cross reference each other, and characters reappear in multiple works by the group, with Tsubasa, a series set across multiple dimensions, featuring multiple alternative versions of characters from past works. Clamp are noted as among the most critically and commercially acclaimed manga artists in Japan, and as of 2007, have sold nearly 100 million books worldwide.

The name "Clamp" refers to a storage clamp, in the sense of "a bunch of potatoes". This is referenced in Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders, where a teacher is observed saying: "The name 'Clamp' incorporates the words 'hinge,' as well as 'potato mountain,' within its definition."

Clamp originally began in the mid 1980s as an eleven member dōjinshi circle. This included O Kyon (お·きょん), Sei Nanao (七穂せい), Tamayo Akiyama (秋山 たまよ), Leeza Sei (聖りいざ), Sōshi Hishika (日鷺総司), Kazue Nakamori (中森かずえ), and Shinya Ōmi (大海神哉). Three of Clamp's artists—Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi—first began drawing manga when they were teenagers, inspired by friends. The three artists were good friends in the same school. They met and befriended Nanase Ohkawa through one of her friends who had bought comics from Mokona. The original group of twelve members began to meet at every event held in Osaka and Kobe, which usually occurred once a month. Before they began creating original work, the group produced dōjinshi of Captain Tsubasa, and yaoi dōjinshi of Saint Seiya and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. However, in 1987, the group stopped dōjinshi and began creating original work; it was at this time they began working on RG Veda, a loose adaptation of the Rigveda. During the production of the manga RG Veda, O Kyon had left the group. In June 1990, Nanao officially left the group (last mentioned in Shōten 6). In March 1990, Wings began serializing Tokyo Babylon. In December 1990, Monthly Asuka ran Clamp School Detectives, and in May 1992, it began serializing X.

Clamp was serialized by many other magazines and publishers including Kobunsha publishing Shirahime Syo: Snow Goddess Tales on June 10, 1992. In 1993, Clamp released two different manga: in March, Miyuki chan in Wonderland, which began serializing in Newtype, and in November, Magic Knight Rayearth which was serialized in Nakayoshi. Nakayoshi also began to serialize Cardcaptor Sakura in May 1996; Ohkawa, Clamp's leader and storyboarder, particularly enjoyed working on Cardcaptor Sakura because unlike many of her previous works, it wasn't tragic. Clamp began writing the two works that tell separate parts of the same overarching plot, xxxHolic serialized in Young Magazine beginning in 2003 followed by Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle serialized in the Weekly Shōnen Magazine beginning in the same year. Tsubasa marked the first time Clamp had ever tried writing for a younger male audience, although their first work published in the Shōnen demography was Angelic Layer. In 2004, Clamp's 15th anniversary as a manga artist group, the members changed their names from Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona Apapa, Mick Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi to Ageha Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi (her name is pronounced the same, but written with different characters) respectively. The August 2004 issue of Newtype USA, a magazine specializing in events of the anime and manga subcultures, reported that the members of Clamp simply wanted to try out new names. In a later interview with Ohkawa, it was revealed that initially Mokona wanted to drop her surname because it sounded too immature for her liking, while Nekoi disliked people mistakenly commenting on her as a Rolling Stones member. Ohkawa and Igarashi, wanting to go with the flow of Nekoi's and Mokona's name changes, changed their names as well. In 2006, Clamp provided the character designs for Code Geass. This came into fruition after producer Yoshitaka Kawaguchi called them. This also marked Clamp's first time being requested to provide a character design for an anime series not originally created by them. Ohkawa made her first appearance overseas at the Taipei International Book Exhibition sponsored by Production I. G that same year. They were well received at the convention as fans completely filled all 6,000 seats present in the auditorium of the focus panel in addition to more on the waiting list.

While Tsubasa ended in October 2009, xxxHolic ended in early 2011. The authors were satisfied with the two manga ending commenting it was difficult to serialize the two interconnected manga at the same time due to Tsubasas focus on action which required them to write side stories for xxxHolic. Clamp collaborated in the Blood: The Last Vampire spin off anime, Blood C, as they are responsible for designing the characters and providing the story. Ohkawa wrote the scripts with series supervisor, Junichi Fujisaku for both anime series and the sequel movie, Blood C: The Last Dark. Legal Drug restarted serialization in the same year in Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace under the new title of Drug and Drop. A new xxxHolic manga titled XXXHOLiC Rei also started serialization in Kodansha's Young Magazine in March 2013. Clamp also provided character design for Studio Deen's the anime adaptation of Kabukibu!, which aired in April 2017. Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card began serialization in 2016 with an anime that aired from January to June 2018 on NHK. On October 19, 2020, the official Clamp fans website posted a link to a YouTube video due to start on October 25, 2020. These daily links are each accompanied by a graphic displaying the number of days to go until the announcement, and a single word. Each word relates to a chapter of Tokyo Babylon from the respectively numbered tankobon volume. This has caused speculation among Clamp's fans that a new Tokyo Babylon related work is due to be announced. On October 25, 2020, at 15:00 UTC (October 26, 2020 at midnight Japan Standard Time), a trailer was released for a new anime adaptation of Tokyo Babylon. The new series, Tokyo Babylon 2021, will be released and set the story in the year 2021. It was to be made by the studio GoHands. The series was to debut in April 2021, but was postponed due to the production team's plagiarism incident. On March 28, 2021, the production committee announced that the series's production was discontinued, and Clamp and the production committee will restart the anime series with a different studio. In January 2021, it was announced that a new series in the Cardfight!! Vanguard franchise will begin on April 3, 2021, and will feature character designs by Clamp. The new series will be called Vanguard overDress. In June 2021, it was announced that Clamp will collaborate with Netflix to produce an original anime series based on the Grimms' Fairy Tales, with Wit Studio handling the animation. In March 2024, the series' title was revealed as The Grimm Variations and will be released as a Netflix exclusive in April.

The members of Clamp all share a single workplace and as such do not need to arrange specific meetings. Unlike most manga artists who specialize in a single genre, Clamp has created a diverse body of work. Clamp often crossover characters from their own series into their other works, which gives rise to a loosely defined "Clamp Universe". Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle is a male oriented manga but Clamp still added multiple motifs to attracts readers such as Syaoran's romantic journey. xxxHolic is an adult oriented manga but it uses Kimihiro Watanuki as a protagonist that would attract a female demographic.

The current members of Clamp took art focused classes during their high school. However, Tsubaki Nekoi feels that, aside from basic art skills, drawing manga requires a different skill set; however, none of the group members has worked as an assistant for already established manga artists, and most of their ability is self taught.