The
four members of the Clamp artistic partnership, from left to right, are
Satsuki Igarashi, Ageha Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi and Mokona. While there
have been as many as eleven members of Clamp, the group currently
consists of these four. They joke about making stories based on their
dreams, but the reality is that they have to meet deadlines. "In terms
of choosing which projects to accept, Ohkawa chooses," she said. "In
terms of choosing priorities and schedules, that's handled by Igarashi.
There is worldwide popularity, but the reality is that we work on the
work that has the first deadline first." Maybe there's a woman's
intuition in the stories they choose that emphasize love and adventure.
"It's not just love," Ohkawa said. "For a woman to change, when they
find something for which they'll put their life on the line, they'll
change. We look at girls as our audience, so it's natural that love is
a factor in our stories." English-speaking fans from recent years are
familiar with the use of the storybook as a metaphor in the Chobits
manga series, but those fans may not realize that Clamp used the
metaphor in a previous series, found that Japanese readers enjoyed its
use, and brought it back to life when Chobits was created.
There's
also a bit of the autobiographical in the number of one-eyed characters
in Clamp's stories, and it comes from Igarashi, who admits one eye is
stronger than the other and says having only one eye "...is something I
can relate to." Like many manga artists, Clamp's members began as
doujinshi-publishing amateurs who turned professional, and they're
self-taught. Most have been friends since high school, and the only
additional training they got was art classes in that school. Yet, their
creative process turns into something resembling a professional
animation production when they create a series. After story
conferences, they meet to decide the design of their characters, just
like animation producers. "For the XXXholic story, we wanted to use an
art style that dictated longer proportions for the characters," Ohkawa
said. "It's not that our characters get thinner and longer." Even with
a four-person team, manga creation can be a solitary, desk-bound job,
and it isn't until you get away from the office and meet a group of
fans that you understand that your work has paid off. That was the case
with Clamp at Anime Expo, where they had a chance to see how fans
reacted. "Before we had the focus panel, while we were waiting in our
room we could see a lot of costume plays from our series," Ohkawa said.
"If those persons noted us watching, we did wave back to those people."
The
four members of the Clamp artistic partnership, from left to right, are
Satsuki Igarashi, Ageha Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi and Mokona. While there
have been as many as eleven members of Clamp, the group currently
consists of these four. They joke about making stories based on their
dreams, but the reality is that they have to meet deadlines. "In terms
of choosing which projects to accept, Ohkawa chooses," she said. "In
terms of choosing priorities and schedules, that's handled by Igarashi.
There is worldwide popularity, but the reality is that we work on the
work that has the first deadline first." Maybe there's a woman's
intuition in the stories they choose that emphasize love and adventure.
"It's not just love," Ohkawa said. "For a woman to change, when they
find something for which they'll put their life on the line, they'll
change. We look at girls as our audience, so it's natural that love is
a factor in our stories." English-speaking fans from recent years are
familiar with the use of the storybook as a metaphor in the Chobits
manga series, but those fans may not realize that Clamp used the
metaphor in a previous series, found that Japanese readers enjoyed its
use, and brought it back to life when Chobits was created.
There's
also a bit of the autobiographical in the number of one-eyed characters
in Clamp's stories, and it comes from Igarashi, who admits one eye is
stronger than the other and says having only one eye "...is something I
can relate to." Like many manga artists, Clamp's members began as
doujinshi-publishing amateurs who turned professional, and they're
self-taught. Most have been friends since high school, and the only
additional training they got was art classes in that school. Yet, their
creative process turns into something resembling a professional
animation production when they create a series. After story
conferences, they meet to decide the design of their characters, just
like animation producers. "For the XXXholic story, we wanted to use an
art style that dictated longer proportions for the characters," Ohkawa
said. "It's not that our characters get thinner and longer." Even with
a four-person team, manga creation can be a solitary, desk-bound job,
and it isn't until you get away from the office and meet a group of
fans that you understand that your work has paid off. That was the case
with Clamp at Anime Expo, where they had a chance to see how fans
reacted. "Before we had the focus panel, while we were waiting in our
room we could see a lot of costume plays from our series," Ohkawa said.
"If those persons noted us watching, we did wave back to those people."
