[ SECRET POST #4995 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4995 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 19 secrets from Secret Submission Post #715.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

02. https://i.imgur.com/6kwvEyj.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Is this Rig-Veda?

[ibbity]

Yes, I only read one volume of it ages ago but I recognize the characters

[(Anonymous)]

CLAMP has some beautiful artwork. I haven’t read every series they’ve created, but for me, the worst ones are Tsubasa and xxxHolic, so if I were to make a secret criticizing them, I would use pics from those series.

[ibbity]

I loooooved xxxholic for most of its run because the concept/philosophy of the wish shop was really fascinating to me and I liked the characters (+ found the super stylized art interesting.) Then they Did That at the end and I was so fkn mad.

[(Anonymous)]

I loved most of xxxHolic too (and Tsubasa as well), but the endings really soured me on both.

[(Anonymous)]

I love xxxholic (also it was probably one of the best non-drama fandoms I was ever a part of way back in my LJ days), but haaated Tsubasa. The only thing I liked was spotting all the references to CLAMP's other series and the Kuro/Fai shipping.

+1000%

[(Anonymous)]

I saw this comment, and thought it was a given, but apparently not if these replies have anything to say;;
Both of those stories started incredibly as being both substantial and strong. Beautiful characters, fun and unique plot, fantastic storyline, magnificent worldbuilding- but both shot itself both in the foot and dick simultaneously, xxxHOLiC especially. And everything turned to complete shit almost instantaneously.

What you said was literally my first thought after reading this secret. Somehow even the creepy ecchi pedo relationships they tend to peruse still isn't as bad as the crap they pulled with those two series.

[(Anonymous)]

Card Captor Sakura = Love

[(Anonymous)]

xxxholic is my favorite, but I have an eternal soft spot for the old school stuff like Tokyo Babylon (my first ever manga, which 14 year old me is still recovering from lol) and the Clamp School Detective series.
I've read all of their works but I have to say that Tsubasa is my least favourite next to Suki - but my hate for Tsubasa mostly stems from feeling tricked into reading it when latter half of xxxholic made it feel like I was missing out on the whole story by not-reading it.

I know they have flaws and very 'yikes' choices were made - but their stories and characters have gotten me through some rough times, so I'm forever emotionally attached to the mangas.

[(Anonymous)]

God, yes, the end of Tokyo Babylon hit me like a freight train. Amd then I immediately read it again to pick up on all the hints I had missed in my first read.

This might be submitted as it's own secret tbh

[(Anonymous)]

I criticize CLAMP mostly because I never see anyone talk about all the adult/minor pairings they keep shoving into stories. No one wanted to warn me that Cardcaptor Sakura has an elementary school child dating her teacher in his 40s, and she receives an engagement ring and it's treated like it's all 'blushing blushing uwu uwu'? Okay...

It keeps happening over and over again. Kobato did this too. This is like the one thing I never hear people bring up when talking about CLAMP, and I wonder if it's out of awkward politeness to CLAMP's massive popularity.

Re: This might be submitted as it's own secret tbh

[(Anonymous)]

I didn’t know it happened in CCS either and I was pretty shocked by it. Neither character appears in Clear Card and I thought that was CLAMP thinking that they effed up and trying to erase it.

Re: This might be submitted as it's own secret tbh

[(Anonymous)]

lol definitely an awkwardness to it.
I think back in the day when I was really young and getting into CLAMP, I loved the idea of how 'love is love' no matter what in a time when I didn't have much choice on queer media and getting to see characters who could identify/be coded as queer being part of the story line instead of just a one-off or just faded into the background (unfortunately most of those kind of characters in CLAMP die or sidelined with the exception of a precious few, like Touya and Yuki in CCS).
Which was great for that - but obviously not so much for the age difference; which I use to let slide because I had really believed at the time that 'you can't help who you love/age is just a number/some people are mature enough' because I was young and at the time when I was about 14-16 at school I would often hear other girls in my class talk about dating 20-something year olds like it was a normal thing (and I can't tell you how many times I look back now in horror at memories like that now).

Now I'm older and hopefully a lot wiser than teen-me, while being happy about the fact that there's better information for younger people now than there was back than.
That went a bit off topic and obviously I can't speak for everyone who is into clamp - but that was my experience of it then. Now I'm older I have a lot of sentiments to the characters and stories - but I've learnt to be a lot more critical and know that the problematic things that happen in fiction would absolutely not be ok in real-life.

I think one of the reasons don't bring it up is because there's a lot of people on spaces like Tumblr who don't do any critical thinking on it and just believe things like 'You read about murder = you think murder is a good thing to do because you read it.' so whenever the age difference comes up it's seldom an actual discussion - it's more like a split between people who thinks reading/watching anything problematic is being supportive of it, and people who get tired of explain about liking something and still being critical of it.

Ultimate people who are into it are probably tired of the same circular drama that's going to predictably come up whenever it gets mentioned. It's a shame that it doesn't get discussed, but that's thanks people who are more interested in kicking up drama rather than having a conversation.

Re: This might be submitted as it's own secret tbh

[(Anonymous)]

It's not so much because of CLAMP's popularity as it is the fact that these are nostalgia fandoms for most of the fans who rec them and talk about them. The adult/minor pairings hit a lot differently for people who read them when they're much closer to the younger party's age - reading CCS at 13, it's a wish-fulfillment fantasy for a lot of people, seeing their daydreams reflected on the page, and nostalgia goggles often keep that gloss on it.

[(Anonymous)]

lol i'm an old school CLAMP fan and love the shit out of the early stuff but don't care about Tsubasa or xxxHolic. I could make secrets that i dont like those two newer series rather than just gush how I love the 90s huge shoulders and sparkly shoujo eyes stuff!

[epicurean]

Old school clamp is amazing, I agree. New clamp is... hum.

Holic is one of my favorite series and I love that it got me more into researching about myths and culture and was willing to give it a chance after the big reveal even when I thought that was bullshit. And then the ending hit. I'm booboo the fool, I guess. 🤡

[(Anonymous)]

Rayearth is the only CLAMP series I love. I tried getting into X/1999 back in the day and a few other series by them but it didn’t strike me as much as Rayearth sticks with me today.

[(Anonymous)]

With you on Rayearth. I have the manga (translated) and the series and OVA (back when it was ridiculously expensive to buy that kind of media in the US). I haven't consumed enough other anime/manga to comment on how CLAMP it is.

[(Anonymous)]

I wouldn't mind Tsubasa so much if I could only figure out what the heck actually happened. Were either of the Tsubasas or the clones ever really Syaoran and Sakura (soul) or just by name only? What happened with the hourglass thing? How many clones did we meet by the end? + many other questions.

[(Anonymous)]

The clones were technically Syaoran and Sakura, just an alternate universe version of them. When they 'died' as clones they were able to be reborn as AU Syaoran and Sakura, met, married and had Tsubasa (who they gave the name 'Syaoran' to hide his true identity). The price they paid to send Tsubasa to Clow where he met Tsubasa-Sakura was to be trapped in the hourglass separated from each other. We only met two clones, the ones who were the protagonists of the first half of the series, though I believe it's implied that Xing Huo may be a failed Sakura clone, along with all of Fei Wong Reed's other random black-haired girls.