CLAMP is really weird.

[snarp]

I just finished the first arc of Magic Knight Rayearth.

...

This makes something like four times that CLAMP have done a story that's some variation on "I have summoned you... to destroy me!" Is this a self-made tradition for them, or is there a manga ur-narrative they're working from?

Comments

[branchandroot]

It's a CLAMP favorite, certainly, but it's true there's a strong tendency in many manga to redeem villains by angsty past + death wish.

[snarp]

But the thing is, they don't usually do it to the straight-up villains! Twice it's been good guys, and twice it's been morally-ambiguous guys!

[branchandroot]

*rueful* Well, yes. If you meet a fully adult and (especially) sexually active woman in CLAMP, you can bet your last dime she's for the chopchop before the final page. CLAMP has Issues that way. Thematically speaking, it's like being an adult woman /is/ some brand of villainy, for them.

[mikkeneko]

Karen is still alive, isn't she? In the X manga.

[mikkeneko]

And so is Arashi, come to think of it.

[branchandroot]

I do not expect this state of affairs to outlast the end (supposing it's ever released). The only one standing is going to be Yuzuriha. Clamp girls get to have all the romance, love, power, and agency they like, but adult women are screwed, most especially if they're major characters. Karen has been too significant to survive, most especially as this appears to be another "rocks fall everyone dies" Clamp special. *sighs*

[mikkeneko]

Oh, I see. So really, you've got no idea, you're just assuming the worst. Are you sure it's CLAMP that has the issues?

[branchandroot]

*faintly disgusted* Yes, I'm assuming that they will follow an established pattern that shows up in the vast majority of their other work. MKR, the subject of the OP, is the flagship example, but it is far from the only one. If I thought you were seriously interested in discussing the topic, as opposed to making snide assumptions, I might continue, but you'll excuse me if I doubt that on the evidence presented so far.

[salinea]

So when did Kaho die again?

[branchandroot]

*dry* Ah, you mean the one who got a cameo in the single fluffiest, least angst-ridden manga Clamp ever wrote (which nevertheless managed to kill off the actual mother beforehand) and then got shipped out of the plot express? That one? *snorts* Don't even try to get them out of this. A minor character slips by every now and then, yeah, but the pattern is smashingly obvious and consistent.

Of course, she was also in a (physically) cross-generational relationship, and that generally does score survival points in Clamp.

[salinea]

"cameo"? okayyy.

[salinea]

and let me be clear I'm not saying CLAMP's work don't have some issues with sexism (X in particular strikes me as being problematic with the amount of dead women), but I don't think the best way to criticise it is making stuff up (Karen's death), re-imagining supporting characters as "cameos", playing "psychoanalysing" the author instead of making a case about a work, and hyperbolic statements.

[mikkeneko]

Well, to some extent all of CLAMP's works exist in a sort of shared same-continuity mutliverse, which you see when they begin to crossover with each other (particularly in Tsubasa, but in others as well.)

[snarp]

True. It must be a special multiverse reserved for self-destructive wizards with good hair and their unwitting pawns.

[inkstone]

Have you read either Devilman or Jojo's Bizarre Adventure?

[snarp]

I read the first couple volumes of Jojo, but that was years ago. Is this a Thing there, too?

[inkstone]

No, I'm saying that reading Devilman and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (especially part 3) will explain much about CLAMP and their, uh, tendencies because those two titles were their biggest influences.

[snarp]

I shall investigate this.

[inkstone]

Srsly, if you ever read/watch Devilman, just compare the relationship between the two male characters with that of Fuuma and Kamui.