FromCardcaptor SakuratoxxxHolic, the collective known as CLAMP is responsible for the creation of several acclaimed manga and anime titles. The all-female collective has, in the years since their first original manga release in 1987, sold over 100 million books worldwide as of November 2007.
CLAMP began as “Clamp Cluster”, an eleven-member collective in the mid-1980s, publishing dо̄jinshi at first before moving onto creating original works in 1987. The name “CLAMP” is actually a misspelling of the English word “clump”; in the context of “a clump of potatoes”. The group is one ofthe most notable entities in anime and mangatoday, and exerts an immense influence over anime and manga of various genres and demographics. Here’s how the group came to be.
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Origins
CLAMP began at some point in the mid-1980s, with eleven members. The exhaustive list of founding members includes O-Kyon, Leeza Sei, Nanao Sei, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi, Satsuki Igarashi, Shinya Omi, Soshi Hishika, Tamayo Akiyama, Kazue Nakamori and Nanase Оhkawa. Of the original eleven, only Mokona, Nekoi, Оhkawa and Satsuki Igarashi remain.
The spread of labour within the group has Nanase Оhkawa as the storyboarder, group spokesperson, producer, director. Mokona is CLAMP’s head character designer, and the remaining two work on backgrounds, but these roles are prone to change depending on the project.
In 1987, the group began working on a fan manga adaptation of the Rigveda, an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns and is one of the four most authoritative texts in Hindu scripture – the Shruti. The manga was titled “RG Veda” and serialised in the Wings shо̄jo magazine, running for ten volumes from 1989 to 1996.
From then on, CLAMP went on to produce a new body of work nearly every single year, running in various magazines from Genki, Monthly Asuka, Monthly Shonen Ace, Jump SQ and more; withTokyo Babylonbeing their big break in 1990. 1996 saw the creation of what is perhaps CLAMP’s greatest success – theCardcaptor Sakuraseries, while another CLAMP classic,xxxHolic, saw serialization in 2003.
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Current Members
CLAMP began with eleven members, but lost several members in its initial stages. By the timeRG Vedawas in publication in 1989, the group had already been cut down to seven members, and by 1993, three more members departed the group, leaving the current members who have been active since.
Satsuki Igarashi
Impact
CLAMP has been considered an influential factor in the manga boom in the west, and the group has been celebrated by various significant personalities in the industry for the way in which their works prioritise the emotions of the characters. This was particularly true of theCardcaptor Sakuraseries, but this is common praise for CLAMP works. TheFunimation president and CEO, Gen Fukunaga, hailed CLAMP as one of the most acclaimed artist groups in Japan, whileCardcaptor Sakurawon the Seiun Award for best manga in 2001.
The nature of the stories created by the group, while completely variant in terms of their themes, setting, plot and characters, there is a sense of a contained universe when it comes to CLAMP works. This is due to their tendency to loosely recycle particular character traits and themes, such as fate and destiny. CLAMP also has a heavily identifiable artistic fingerprint, especially in the character designs. The collective, while not behind the story ofCode Geass, they were responsible for the creation of the character designs.
A recurring element in CLAMP character designs is the loss of an eye in one of the characters, drawing inspiration from CLAMP writer and storyboarder Nanase Ohkawa’s poor vision in her right eye.Code Geassprotagonist Lelouch Lamperouge (vi Britannia)does not lose his right eye, but it rather becomes the vessel for the Geass, manifested in Lelouch’s Absolute Obedience ability. Overall, CLAMP is regarded as one of the most influential groups in manga, and is largely responsible for the boom of otaku media in United States, and the west in general.
This powerful collective of women has exerted an incredible amount of influence through their stories, which championed different kinds of protagonists, explored different kinds of relationships, and were aimed at a host of different demographics; from younger girls to older teen boys. In an industry generally dominated by men, CLAMP serves as one of many examples ofwomen in the manga industrypushing the boundaries of the medium and consistently driving it into territories yet to be explored.
