As expected, they follow the same logic as the original series’ covers, with one of the girls being in the foreground, with the other two girls at the background. The circle ornamental piece is the fixed element for all covers, with the jewel color changing its position to follow each girl’s main color.
Umi looks so sassy in her cover, as she should xD And Fuu has her glasses only on the cover of volume 3.
Both volumes are coming out on November 11.
UPDATE: Here’s the complete release schedule for Magic Knight Rayearth in CLAMP PREMIUM COLLECTION:
December 13, 2022: Magic Knight Rayearth 2 volume 1 January 13, 2023: Magic Knight Rayearth 2 volumes 2 & 3
Following the publication of the 7th and last volume of Tokyo Babylon for the CLAMP PREMIUM COLLECTION series, the next title to be published will be Magic Knight Rayearth! This was indeed the guess of a lot of people (including myself).
The first volume will be released on October 13 and its cover has been announced!
As a bonus, each volume will come with a postcard featuring the same illustration used as the cover of the classic edition. The bonus is the same as XXXHOLiC (a bit of a bummer, I expected something different for each series).
Just a reminder that Kodansha and Kadokawa will alternate their titles for the CLAMP PREMIUM COLLECTION releases. We have had XXXHOLiC (Kodansha), Tokyo Babylon (Kadokawa) and now Magic Knight Rayearth (Kodansha). The next title, which still hasn’t been announced, will be a Kadokawa one.
What did we learn from this cover?
We learned that they will probably be using the same colors from the classic edition, so likely volume 2 will be blue and volume 3, green.
We also learned that we have 3 characters right from the start. It could not have been different, right? I thought maybe each volume would feature just one girl (like the Kodansha new issue), but this is of course, much better.
Hikaru is on the foreground while Umi and Fuu are in the background (again, just like the classic edition), which means that volume 2 will have Umi on the foreground and volume 3, Fuu on the foreground.
It’s a refreshing cover. It’s nice to see the girls in a new art but at the same time, a bit shocking to see them with with much less detail. The original Rayearth art is so polished, after all!
At this moment, only volume 1 has been announced. It’s unclear if volume 2 will come out on the same day and we will have 2 volumes as usual, or if it’s going to be one per month, meaning a 6 months run for all 6 volumes. I personally think that they will keep the 2 volumes pace.
Kodansha is marketing this as a celebratory release for Magic Knight Rayearth‘s 30th Anniversary, which will be in 2023, and in alignment to that, they will be reprinting the two Magic Knight Rayearth artbooks, that will also be released on October 13. This will be just a reprint, there’s no new content to be added on it (it’s just a reprint, not a new edition).
Card Captor Sakura Clear Card arc volume 13 will be released on October 13, 2022. This time, the special edition will come with a set of three big acrylic stands featuring three previously released illustrations of Sakura and Kero, Sakura and Spinel and Sakura and Momo. Each acrylic stand is approximately 9 cm (width) x 13-15 cm (height) x 8.5 cm (depth).
Here are pictures of the volume cover and the special edition:
Kodansha lists volume 13 as having 195 pages, which is way more than the typical 160 pages. If this is not a mistake, it probably means that Chapter 65 will be included in volume 13.
The cover illustration is so gorgeous! Worthy of final volume, even. But I guess CLAMP will go even higher on the cover of volume 14 (which seems to be the last one). Anyway, worthy of second-to-last volume!
The prices for the regular and special editions are 550 and 3,080 yens, respectively, and they are both available for pre-order at CD Japan with worldwide shipping: [Regular Edition], [Special Limited Edition]
Technically, it’s still one person on the cover, or is it three? Hmmm it’s quite unclear.
The cover is very reminiscent of the classic edition, with Subaru looking like a priest. The new additions being obviously Seishirou and Hokuto (which seems to be attending her own funeral?). I have mixed feelings about this cover. Not sure if I find it so ingenious…
Oh, and this time around we got a full view of Seishirou’s shoulders, no cheating 😉
The seventh volume will be released on September 2.
This is it, ladies and gentlemen, this finishes Tokyo Babylon‘s ride with CLAMP PREMIUM COLLECTION. It was a fun one, and definitely shorter compared to XXXHOLiC. Kadokawa surely made things more fun than Kodansha with announcing the covers in advance and spoiling us with heavy promo.
The next CLAMP PREMIUM COLLECTION has not yet been announced.
Loved these also! So in the end indeed we ended up with three covers featuring Hokuto and two covers with Seishirou (and we have seen again how Mokona-sensei got away with drawing Seishirou’s big shoulders, haha!)
The cover colors keep following the same pattern as the classic edition, as CLAMP have planned.
These covers also confirm the “rule” that we won’t be getting more than two chararcters on the same cover for the CPC editions.
Volume 7 will probably feature Subaru alone and it will be likely white, as the original.
The fifth and sixth volumes will be released on August 4.
Here’s the upcoming release schedule for Tokyo Babylon in CLAMP PREMIUM COLLECTION:
August 4th, 2022: volumes 5 & 6 September 2nd: volume 7
In other news, a box to store all 7 volumes will be sold by Kadokawa. It will feature illustrations from the original series.
As promised, we have finally Seishirou debuting CPC on the cover of volume 3, along with Subaru, looking like gangsters. Hokuto is back on the cover of volume 4 with Mokona fulfilling her promise that she would draw Subaru in clothes that could be worn by all genders.
As for the hot topic of Seishirou’s shoulders length, you can’t really tell how wide they look due to the furry accessory he’s wearing over them, but Seishirou looks cool af and that’s all that matters.
The cover colors keep following the same pattern as the classic edition.
Volume 7 will probably feature Subaru alone, so is it going to be for volumes 5 and 6? Again Seishirou and Hokuto, respectively? Or are we getting one (or two) cover with the trio?
I loved them!
The third and fourth volumes will be released on July 4, with two volumes coming out every month.
Here’s the upcoming release schedule for Tokyo Babylon in CLAMP PREMIUM COLLECTION:
July 4th, 2022: volumes 3 & 4 August 4th, 2022: volumes 5 & 6 September 2nd: volume 7
In addition, Character PVs for Subaru, Hokuto and Seishirou have been added to Kadokawa‘s Anime Channel on YouTube as “Shorts:
The XXXHOLiC live-action movie directed by Mika Ninagawa dropped to the 8th place in Japan’s box office on it’s second week, grossing a total of $295,141 (-56.5%).
The movie’s total domestic gross is now of US$2,882,403.
May 7th-9th weekend (Gross/Total Gross)
1st – Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($9,337,114 / $9,337,114) 2nd – Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween ($3,040,033 / $53,371,256) 3rd – Crayon Shin-chan: Mononoke Ninja Chinpuden ($1,093,629 / $11,281,299) 4th – Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore ($1,073,066 / $30,891,296) 5th – Radiation House ($551,481 / $4,622,406) 8th – XXXHOLiC ($295,141 / $2,882,403)
It’s also worthwhile checking XXXHOLiC‘s performance against the previous movies directed by Mika Ninagawa by their second week:
Sakuran (2006) – second week at #7 (Grossing: $670,913 / Total domestic gross by week 2: $1,615,641)
Helter Skelter (2012) – second week at #4 (Grossing: $2,152,782 / Total domestic gross by week 2: $10,263,918)
Diner (2019) – second week at #5 (Grossing: $1,398,350 / Total domestic gross by week 2: $5,921,261)
No Longer Human – second week at #5 (Grossing: $1,147,796 / Total domestic gross by week 2: $6,045,219)
It doesn’t seem like the movie is doing super well. It’s only winning against Sakuran at this point, but then again, maybe Sakuran‘s numbers have not been adjusted to reflect inflation over time.
One potential reason is the lack of a better distribution. So it depends on how many theaters the movie is actually showing.
They recently announced that from May 20th they will start screening sessions with audio commentary by the cast and director, as a strategy to make people go back and watch it again.
Chibi Yuuto's CHRoNiCLEs 