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February 9, 2009

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Da Vinci magazine pics

-kun was utterly nice enough to take pictures of the CLAMP special feature that was published in this month’s Da Vinci magazine.

The pictures are in this album.

It’s been a long time since the last CLAMP interview, if someone is willing to translate it, the fandom would appreciate it ^__^

EDIT: Summary of the interview here!

45 thoughts on “Da Vinci magazine pics”

  5. Thank you for links and scans to the magazine. I can’t find any store that will carry Da Vinci, so unfortunately I’ll have to settle for images until I can hopefully find a used copy. :

    *For Chobits, they had to shop the story around since the theme wasn’t suitable for Nakayoshi (thus Young Magazine, also published by Kodansha). The story was drawn with ballpoint pens, and each issue used about one pen (Mokona says it was the first time in her lifetime she’s ever used a pen completely). Since the number of pages was low, it wasn’t too hard to get used to a weekly schedule. Also, at first the number of male readers was high, but towards the end with Chitose’s story, more female readers.

    *Regarding CLOVER, it’s based on a dream Ogawa had. If drawn in their normal way, it would be over ten volumes long, so they chose the final drawings (with wasteful panels).

    ***Page 31 missing***

    *They think of the current manga they’re working on as their best work. XXXHolic and Tsubasa were thought of around the same time. Also, regarding their past characters showing up in Tsubasa, they thought it would be interesting to have characters with the same face, but living differently. Characters who may have had tragedy before, might have a happy ending in their new reincarnation. Thus a comment that Ashura and Yasha in Tsubasa probably ended up worse than before.

    *Only Ogawa knows who will show up in Tsubasa and where the story is headed. Igarashi says that they know as much as the readers and when they try to ask Ogawa for information, it’s like she sticks a carrot in front of their faces and take it away (Should I tell you? No, I won’t). Thus, Mokona has to ask Ogawa sometimes for enough information to draw the characters’ facial expressions.

    *They talk about how they use a lot of old wives tales and legends for Holic, and the thin lines used for Holic (vs. thick for Tsubasa) are based on Ukiyo-e. The characters’ small heads and long bodies were chosen for this story, and Nekoi’s male characters are actually longer than Mokona’s females. Holic is the work that they’ve had to work closest together on so far.

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    • Here’s the second part of the summary:

      *Regarding the “links” between Tsubasa and Holic, they discuss how in Hana to Yume magazine in the past, “Glass no Kamen” and “Sukeban Deka” would feature characters from each manga talking to each other on the phone. Since they didn’t show what the person on the line was saying, you had to read the other manga to figure out what the whole conversation was about. This really impacted CLAMP. They discuss how this works with Tsubasa and Holic, and how Holic is not published due to this. They say their Holic editor is nice, but he’s probably really angry about this!

      *They hate characters that are self-sacrificing, because the people left behind will be hurt.

      *Regarding their 20th anniversary, they feel that it doesn’t seem like that long. They like the same things they did before, and are like dense children. :> They like to ask “What would you do if you were a robot?” “What would you do if you had psychic powers?” etc. that turn into their stories. Their easiest to understand idea is Chobits, because it would be nice if the computer could tell you what’s wrong when there’s a problem.

      *Regarding Kobato’s anime adaption, they’re not sure how it will turn out since there aren’t many volumes. Although there is some main idea happening in the story, hey wanted to make a story with no real incidents and every story is the same.

      *Regarding the Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations OAD, they made the request for these anime adaptions to be made, since they could never be broadcast on NHK. Also, with the new OADs, it will be the first real link between Tsubasa and Holic anime.

      *Regarding Mangettes, it will be 60-70 pages per volume monthly, with simultaneous releases in Japan, America, Korea, and Taiwan (no new info).

      *Regarding the future, Mokona says she would like to travel, but doesn’t think she’ll have time. The others say they would like to continue to work like now, and Nekoi says she would like to work 20 years more with the others (never growing up until she dies).

      *Ogawa says that in many of their series, the first chapter hints to what happens at the end, so investigate the chapter since this is your chance (she’s referring to the fact that the series will be ending soon).

      Sorry for the summary and not full translation. Hopefully I didn’t make any mistakes (since I just paraphrased certains parts of the interview).

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        • First of all thank you so so much for this summary!!! I’m even more curious for the full thing now, but you seem to have covered all the important bits ^___^

          I’m sorry for missing Page 31, it’s my fault, I skipped it while uploading the pics and didn’t notice. I have added it now, could you take a look at it? ^^

          >Ogawa doesn’t go to the studio every day, due to meetings, but she does web conference and chat

          Ohhh I didn’t know that!

          >They live fantasy more than romance manga. Actually a lot of members show a sort of dislike to romance, not understanding how authors spread a whole series over this theme.

          Interesting! I like their romance approach. It’s not that romantic sugary.

          >Unfortunately, for all their hard work (Mokona’s thin lines, which she says was very hard, and Nekoi drawing tons of flowers), the readers said it was hard to read. :>

          What? Are Nakayoshi readers insane or plain dumb? XD Honestly…

          >The story was drawn with ballpoint pens, and each issue used about one pen (Mokona says it was the first time in her lifetime she’s ever used a pen completely)

          Ehhh… you mean 1 pen per chapter or per tankoubon? o.o If it’s per chapter, wow, that’s a lot of pen ink for 14 pages!

          >Regarding CLOVER, it’s based on a dream Ogawa had. If drawn in their normal way, it would be over ten volumes long, so they chose the final drawings (with wasteful panels).

          I didn’t know CLOVER’s inspiration came from a dream Ohkawa had, nor that it could have been 10 volumes!

          >They think of the current manga they’re working on as their best work

          I hope they count X as “current manga” XD

          Loved the bit about only Ohkawa knowing the plot XD

          >They hate characters that are self-sacrificing, because the people left behind will be hurt.

          Ohhh o.o and self-sacrifice happens quite a lot in CLAMP’s works… So they hate characters like Kotori and clone!Sakura and clone!Syaoran?

          >Regarding Kobato’s anime adaption, they’re not sure how it will turn out since there aren’t many volumes

          Oh my XDDDD So it wasn’t really CLAMP’s decision to make it into an anime? Oh my I’m a little afraid now, not even them know XD

          >Although there is some main idea happening in the story, hey wanted to make a story with no real incidents and every story is the same.

          Could you explain this to me, I don’t understand if they are talking about the anime or the manga of Kobato. in here.

          >it will be 60-70 pages per volume monthly

          I saw it, but wasn’t it 80? XD CLAMP is already shrinking it down. LOL! I guess it’ll be 70 pages of “actual” manga.

          >Ogawa says that in many of their series, the first chapter hints to what happens at the end, so investigate the chapter since this is your chance

          *nods nods* and it’s not the first time she says that!

          Don’t worry about “Ogawa” XD

          THANK YOU SO MUCH AGAIN! You rock ^____^

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          • Sorry, so many typos and making mistakes with “Ogawa,” it’s been a long day! Thank you for putting the missing page up. Not as exciting as I was hoping it would be, but still some insight into CLAMP… and hopefully my paraphrasing is easy to understand.

            Regarding your questions:

            >The (Chobits) story was drawn with ballpoint pens, and each issue used about one pen (Mokona says it was the first time in her lifetime she’s ever used a pen completely)

            Ehhh… you mean 1 pen per chapter or per tankoubon? o.o If it’s per chapter, wow, that’s a lot of pen ink for 14 pages!

            Sorry, I reread the section and realize I translated this wrong. Mokona just mentions that it was the first time in her life she used ballpoint pens completely. When I was typing the sentence, I somehow combined the idea of the weekly schedule to this.

            >Although there is some main idea happening in the (kobato) story, they wanted to make a story with no real incidents and every story is the same.

            Could you explain this to me, I don’t understand if they are talking about the anime or the manga of Kobato. in here.

            They’re talking about the manga here. I believe Ohkawa is working on the scripts for the anime, but in this interview they don’t mention that.

            Here’s page 31:
            *CLOVER was special, because Ohkawa not only handled the script, but to a degree the layout of the manga (which is very rare). Usually the main artist for the series will do the layout. Ohkawa acted as co-director with Igarashi, deciding on how big panels were, thickness of lines, and fonts used. Also Igarashi mentions the special effects in the panels, which can now be done by computer, was all done by hand.

            *Mokona mentions that with each work, they change the materials they use, but with CLOVER it was very difficult. She tried different pens, finally deciding on a Pigma 0.05. Even the paper for the color illustrations had to be specially made, as well as the standard manga paper printed with blue ink.

            *Next topic is CLAMP’s panel layouts, which they say they’re told they’re layouts are very normal. They’re the “old types,” and many newer mangaka have panel layouts that stand out more. Mokona says they’re following what they were told by mentors about how laying panels a certain way is easier to read.

            *Ohkawa says that the way they lay panels could be a standard, which Mokona says it might add to their originality in this day and age.

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            • Thanks a lot for your summary *_____* *bows*

              We have learnt looots of new things *_* as CLOVER’s Ohkawa dream xD, TOKYO REVELATIONS was CLAMP’s desire but Kobato animation wasn’t, etc.

              Hope CLAMP to be those 20 years more 😀 being like children forever and letting us enjoy and suffer XDD (and they even say they hate characters that are self-sacrificing? xDD)

              Again, THANKS *_*

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              • Actually the Tokyo Revelations info isn’t new xD Takuya Matsushita said it was CLAMP’s request, and they said they wanted to animate it on a Puff interview.

                CLAMP being clueless about Kobato. was totally WTF xD

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        • Thank you so much! Really, really, thanks!

          They hate characters that are self-sacrificing, because the people left behind will be hurt.

          REALLY? Ahahaha, CLAMP. I so don’t believe you.

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          • I know! I was confused about this statement. I wonder if they really said they hated the “character” themselves or the “attitute” of self-sacrifice per se. I hope it’s the latter (cause I agree).

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        • Oh, I must be brain-dead too O_o I failed to notice all the Ogawas instead of Ohkawa. Either that or I must be on linguistics mode and dismissed it… =P

          Thank you for the summary!

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  6. THANKS~!!

    Does the translator know that he/she can click the magnification button to enlarge the images?
    well I read it, and since I don’t have much time I’m not going to translate but here are some interesting points you may or may not know(since I don’t read all interviews):

    -CLAMP doesn’t really like pure love stories XD
    -Chobits was drawn with a ball pen. (How do you do that!? O.O)
    -Clover came from Ookawa’s dream. The original format would have been 10 vol ish but they condensed it using the style we see

    Well I’m sure he/she will take care of the rest. ^^

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  7. Thank You so much for sharing the pages/pictures from the Da Vinci Magazine ^___^ And the “official” Yuuko’s Cosplay is so amazing 😀

    Anyway, I hope you don’t mind that I download your picture and upload into my album… BUT I want to ask, is that “syaoran-syaoran” fight in the middle a “new” screenshot??

    I wonder was it FROM “xxxholic Shunmuki” or “Tsubasa Shunraiki”?? I am just curious, where did that part of the “flashback” come from?

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    • You’re welcome! ^__^ I agree that that Yuuko cosplay looks beyond awesome! I wouldn’t mind a liveaction with her xD

      >Anyway, I hope you don’t mind that I download your picture and upload into my album

      Not at all ^__^

      >BUT I want to ask, is that “syaoran-syaoran” fight in the middle a “new” screenshot??

      Yes it’s a new screenshot! And I think it’s from Tsubasa Shunraiki ^_~

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    • That one was ‘hidden’ on the official website ^^: if you hover over each individual image on this page, you’ll notice that the screenshot #3 is missing (Seishirou’s close shot with his blind eye is #2 and the KuroFay one is #4). I took the URL, changed the number and… ta-da:

      I discovered it when I was updating my website with the screenshots XDDD

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  8. Thank you so much for posting the scans chibiyuuto and to radiomacrossing and clamp_hikari for offering wonderful translation points! 🙂

    Very interesting factoids in there about the materials used!

    Haha, I had heard something to the effect about BL before from CLAMP. XD CLAMP doesn’t set out thinking “I’ve gotta draw some BL,” but it always ends up happening in some facet when it fits the character. They are very into alternative storylines and unusual romances, disliking sugary “pure” romances as listed here (and as evidenced by the way they torture their couples!), so I think it’s natural that they express both their atypical and typical romance storylines using BL characters or couplings (e.g. tormenting some and leaving others pretty happy–at least for now. *hopes they don’t decide to torment Touya and Yukito*). From my POV, there is a lot of depth, motivation, attitudes, and societal things surrounding a BL relationship that is not as prevalent in shoujo het couples or as relevant in terms of subject matter.

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    • I really liked what they said about BL, because I don’t see it as BL either (I don’t know, it looks different than what “BL” means out there. It is indeed less about sexual desire and more about trust).

      >and as evidenced by the way they torture their couples

      YES! NO ROMANCE FOR YOU XD

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      • I know what you mean. I think it’s the rendering–it is BL, but the way it is handled is different than much of the BL genre because it is explicit in a different way. I think they focus on the relationship dynamic and how it grips the characters to a point that transcends the sexual aspect to focus on the trust and love there…I mean, CLAMP loves to play with sexual teasing (e.g. Tokyo Babylon’s Seishirou, Fay’s come-ons about sleeping in the same room or looking down Kurogane’s shirt), but what they always gravitate toward in serious moments is depicting scenes that make the depth of emotion shine. All the sacrificing of a dear body part even if the other person is screaming for them not to (e.g. EYES always EYES!) Losing an eye, or say Kurogane losing a sword arm, is a good example since they represent a real loss to the person who sacrificed.

        BWAHAHAHA SERIOUSLY! It’s like they had to take revenge for the fluff of CCS by torturing clones! XD

        What REALLY makes me happy about that interview is that couples from other series that had a tragic ending before may have a happy ending here. It would be so nice to see Kamui and Fuuma alive and well in Horisuba Heaven, teasing, loving and content, but mostly because for HEAVEN’S SAKE I’ve been waiting for Seishirou and Subaru to have an at least sort of happy ending for how many series?! XD Geebies…maybe they could both live AND not kill anyone else important to them this time? XD

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  9. I’ve been waiting for this for so long *_________* Thanks so much for linking and sharing~ I thought Ohkawa went to the studio every day XDDD I don’t really have much to say about this other than I’m slightly scared of the Kobato. anime now

    *Regarding “BL (Boy’s Love)” like themes in their stories, they really don’t think of it as such (say Kamui and Seishirou), but rather HB (hard-boiled) where men develop a greater trust that’s greater than love.
    This felt like this line was aiming at the KuroFai fans… ;A;

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    • >I thought Ohkawa went to the studio every day XDDD

      Me too! That’s new info to me. And seems like it has always been like that, after all they used fax before XD Ohkawa is such a boss.

      >I don’t really have much to say about this other than I’m slightly scared of the Kobato. anime now

      LOL me too. Demo everything is gonna be alright XD

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    • Actually, I think that phrasing can be taken the wrong way. I don’t think it is aimed at KuroFay fans or any of the fans who enjoy BL couplings, because I don’t think it’s a denouncement of BL relationships at all! CLAMP has explicit BL couples in just about every series they’ve ever produced, one of their latest, Gouhou Drug, which is very explicit about that. 🙂

      CLAMP enjoys using both heterosexual and homosexual relationships to tell their stories.

      To me, it’s not that they are saying they aren’t in love or a couple, but rather that they see their couplings as different than the BL genre. BL series often have a very particular way of rendering romance (as does shoujo), so it was like saying they don’t do shoujo romance or BL romance per se, but that they do their own complicated relationships. I think that comment should be taken as they don’t set out to do a romance, either BL or het, but that they set out to create complex, interesting relationships–quite a few of which happen to involve two men, and sometimes two women. 😀

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  10. Thanks for the images, thank you for the heads-up and thanks and for their summaries! ^^

    Did someone said they wanted an icon with Yuuko’s model? (she’s so beautiful indeed, I couldn’t resist *__*). They’re not very good and are a little bit rushed, though ^^u They can be used as bases if you like them:

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