Dark Horse’s Re-releases of CLAMP’s Back Catalogue

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Sunday, 18th April, 2010

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Articles, Manga, Totemo Subarashii

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anime, clamp, manga

Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus 1

I’m not the biggest CLAMP fan.

In fact, I used to be a more vocal fan, especially before I’d read the fast majority of their manga. I have all of their manga released in English, plus more than a few pieces of merchandise; Tokyo Babylon is, without a doubt, my number one manga; Clover maybe unfinished and a bit wishy-washy with the lyrics, but it is a real example of how manga framing, graphic design, etc. can be done differently, and is just simply beautiful.

But there are more than a handful of their work that doesn’t get me that excited. It took until the last few episodes of the Kobato. anime to encourage anything mirroring enthusiasm from me (and even then it felt like a rehash of Wish. Though that may not be the case with the manga, which I’m waiting until the English release to read); Tsubasa was great to start off, but it has always been very uppy-downy in terms of quality throughout; xxxHOLiC has been the only work they’ve put out in the past number of years that still truly excites me.

Lately I have been more absorbed by other manga-ka, such as Naoki Urasawa and Fumi Yoshinaga, but I still have a soft spot for CLAMP. And now that several of the English licenses to their work have expired, only to be quickly bought up by Dark Horse, I can see myself double-dipping for more than a few of their titles.

Cardcaptor Sakura especially is a definite for me. I adore the series, even though I’m not the biggest shoujo fan. I have the second edition version of Tokyopop’s release, but the thought of a new edition with colour pages, a newer translation closer to the Japanese original, using remastered image files is exciting. Magic Knight Rayearth is another one I’ll definitely be picking up; it’s not anywhere near to being a favourite of mine, but it is enjoyable and Tokyopop’s second editions have a lot that could be improved upon. I’m not too sure whether or not to pick up Chobits; again, not a favourite, but I don’t feel the need to supplement my current volumes with a new edition as much as the other two.

But probably what excites me the greatest about these re-releases are the possibilities for the future. One of my favourite CLAMP titles, X, has never gotten the treatment in English that it deserved. Even at a time when the right-to-left format was taking over, it was still being published flipped. I’ve actually picked up quiet a few of the Japanese release to see the artwork as it’s meant to be. There is also the removal of honourifics and the like, things that nowadays are standard for translated manga. Dark Horse hasn’t said much about a re-release of the series other than that it’s not a possibility until CLAMP are able to go back and finish it (it has now been on hiatus for about eight years), but hopefully in the future, we’ll get a beautiful new edition to collect.

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