Episode 25 of CLAMP’s podcast, CLAMP Kanbukai, is out! You can listen to it on YouTube and all major podcast platforms.

This episode’s theme is “Information dissemination and LINE wallpaper”.

At the beginning of the episode, they gave some general information about the upcoming Sapporo leg of CLAMP Exhibition -SELECTION-.

Now, on to the episode’s main theme. They mentioned that since their debut, CLAMP have had various ways to disseminate information about their activities, like the print newsletters and newspapers they did back in the day as a subscription-based system (like a fan club). Some of them came with special goods that they produced themselves and Satsuki-sensei recalls a Duklyon handkerchief that the colors did not come off in the fabric the way they hoped since at that time the technology to print on fabric was not as great as today.

Nekoi-sensei mentions a small bag (pouch-like) that was supposedly meant to store a cellphone shaped like a penguin, but apparently it’s too small to fit one. She could not remember if it was something that was sold or something that came as a bonus item. None of the other members seem to remember of it. Ohkawa-sensei asks her to send a picture of it if she happens to find it so that it can be shared on the podcast’s instagram account (Nekoi-sensei doesn’t know where it is, but it’s somewhere in her house).

Mokona-sensei talks about a hanger, but Ohkawa-sensei doesn’t remember it at all. Mokona-sensei then says that back then a lot of “weird” goods were being produced and Ohkawa-sensei interjects her and scolds her fondly “hey, don’t call them ‘weird’, Sa-chan and I worked really hard to create them!” xD

Ohkawa-sensei talks about a Tokyo Babylon tissue, akin to those that are given away on the streets to promote a certain brand or shop in Japan.

They talk a bit about some of the hardships and limitations of that time such as having to produce goods that would fit within the delivery package (otherwise the delivery fee would cost more) or the fact that they had to use word processors to do all the typography work in a time where computers were still not around. They did not have a copy machine at the time of their debut so they had to go to the nearest convenience store to make copies.

Next, Ohkawa-sensei mentioned that the curation team for the CLAMP Exhibition had the complete set of CLAMP NEWS and CLAMP Laboratory and she was amazed by it (hey, I have them all too! xD) Mokona-sensei said that not even themselves have them anymore! =O They were checking all the materials during the planning stages of the exhibition and going “Ah, so this is what was happening at that time!”

After the print services, they had a FAX and telephone services, in which you would call a number and listen to the news/information. Mokona-sensei says it was common to have a service like that back in the day.

Then, their official website was launched (in 1997) and for a few years (before it was renamed “CLAMP-NET.COM”) all the contents published on the website were compiled and released later in a CD-ROM format. They remember that there was some original content created only for the website and only for the CD-ROM release. It’s a bit funny and completely understandable to see them trying to remember where and when this and that was published and while listening I kept thinking “no, that’s not the case” or “yes, that much is true” xD Somehow it amazes me that I know more about those things than they do, but at the same time, again, completely understandable since they have done so much in so little time and they probably did not revisit all those contents as much as I did, lol

Next, Ohkawa-sensei mentions that in today’s age they have a website, social media accounts (so cute to hear her mentioning Bluesky!) and a podcast, and how these are all of CLAMP’s current forms of sharing and disseminating information. For LINE, she says that it was her idea to have a system for CLAMP since she learned that it was possible and that some businesses had been using it. However, she understands that it can be annoying to keep receiving too many messages so for the time being the service is only notifying when a new podcast episode is released and when a new “full moon” wallpaper is released.

Then, they started talking about the wallpapers released monthly through their LINE channel by every Full Moon:

They had been aware of the Full Moon names and using that to decide which character to draw and how they would be drawn. But at the same time, they also were aiming to draw characters in pajamas/loungewear. Seishirou from Tsubasa was chosen for the Hunter Moon because he is a hunter in the story, but he is not wearing pajamas or loungewear (it seems they debated over it). Since it was around halloween, he is shown with a pumpkin. All the other characters that followed are wearing pajamas or loungewear (even Kohaku, who is wearing a dress, since they can conjure any type of clothes for themselves). Later, they started drawing characters with an object or cushion, and that became the pattern for a while. For Pink Moon, it was Haruka and they said they “cheated” a little because only the background is pink. Oh, and they said they asked permission to the animation studio in order to draw Meiling since she is an anime-only character! =0

For the following Hunter Moon, with Ferio, they dropped temporarily the pajamas/loungewear pattern, only to resume again by the following months (but it seems to be less focused on “pajamas” and more about loungewear).

For this year’s Snow Moon, Ohkawa-sensei thought about Yukito and therefore Yue as well, so she decided to try a new pattern by having pairs of characters for two consecutive months. She says they will be doing this pattern throughout this year — so we should expect more pairs!

Ohkawa-sensei asked each member to list their favorite wallpapers. Mokona-sensei chose Kazahaya (I love this one too!), Nekoi-sensei chose Shirahime (she loves the colors) and Haruka (she said she would like to have the same Mokona-shaped incense holder thing), Satsuki-sensei said that even though likes Yuzuriha, she thinks Miyuki-chan’s one is cute and Ohkawa-sensei chose Koryuu (the latest one).

Thank you for reading this post!

It was fun seeing them explaining and confirming some of the things we’ve been theorizing about these wallpapers for the past two years xD And it’s interesting to see how much thought and care to details they put into making them!

Episode 24 of CLAMP’s podcast, CLAMP Kanbukai, is out! You can listen to it on YouTube and all major podcast platforms.

This episode’s theme is “Again in Miyako-jima”.

At the beginning of the episode, Mokona-sensei explained that the reason for her absence on the previous episode was due to some pollen reaction and not really because of a cold or flu.

Later, they revealed that this episode was being recorded from inside their Shigira Mirage resort hotel room in Miyako-jima. The last time they went there was in December of 2024, and at that time they didn’t get very lucky with the weather. This time around, however, the weather is way better.

The sky was so clear that they were able to do some stargazing. They talked a little about the constellations that they saw.

It seems like Satsuki-sensei drove them in little golf carts around the resort. They were part of a tour or part of the hotel. It seems it was the first time she drove a fully electric vehicle. She said that she drove a car while they were living in Tokyo but since they moved to Kyoto (2013) she decided she wouldn’t be driving anymore because she didn’t know how to get around in the city by car, and that’s about the time when electric cars started to become more popular.

Ohkawa-sensei mentioned that Nekoi-sensei has been taking a lot of pictures of water surfaces, pool tiles and flowers to use as “textures” for their works. Nekoi-sensei mentioned they are useful particularly for the background of the illustrations they do for the Vanguard cards. She mentioned that the pool tiles from the last time they were there have been used already and this time she wants to “process” the texture/color even more and use them (specially for their digitally colored illustrations, I believe). She really knows a lot about colors!

Next, they talked a little about beer and alcoholic beverages from Okinawa, particularly Orion.

After that, they changed subject a little and talked about the Roningai stage play they saw in Kyoto. Actor Miyu Irino (who voiced Syaoran in the Tsubasa Chronicle TV Anime) is part of the cast. They really enjoyed the play.

Next, they talked about an amusing incident concerning Satsuki-sensei. She almost lost her wallet (or belongings) but they were later found.

Lastly, they briefly mentioned the return of XXXHOLiC Rei. Nekoi-sensei talked about paying attention to the extent of Watanuki’s limbs while Mokona-sensei is paying attention to the girl that looks like Zashiski Warashi’s hair length. They said they are constantly checking the tankoubons that have been published to make sure they are not missing any detail. They talked about the font size for Young Magazine being smaller and less round than Nakayoshi. Ohkawa-sensei remarked that they are still adjusting their style and asked everyone to look forward to it.

Before wrapping up, they quickly talked about the Sapporo and Nagoya legs of CLAMP Exhibition -SELECTION- and how there will be new goods for them (“even though there were so many of them already!”).

Thank you for reading this post!

Although I am not positive about this, it felt to me like they went to Okinawa again to do some research (while also having a good time, of course). Could they be collecting data for their next project?

Episode ex04 of CLAMP’s podcast, CLAMP Kanbukai, is out! You can listen to it on YouTube and all major podcast platforms.

This episode’s theme is “Mokona (the person) talk”.

They started the episode talking about how this is the first episode that they do without all four of them present. It seems that Mokona-sensei was sick at the time of the recording, which is why she couldn’t join them. Each of them also made a brief update about their health status given that all four of them had some kind of cold since the beginning of this year.

Due to Mokona-sensei’s absence, this episode will be centered around her. Ohkawa-sensei advises that they might repeat things that they have said about her in past interviews, podcasts or spaces, so there might be some overlapping but she asks for everyone’s comprehension.

To kick things off, they talked about their first impressions of Mokona-sensei. Satsuki-sensei met her first, they were in the same school club (later they became school classmates). Nekoi-sensei met her later and Ohkawa-sensei met her last, on different occasions. Satsuki-sensei and Nekoi-sensei both thought she had very “sharp” eyes and was extremely polite. They all mentioned that she was really small — Ohkawa-sensei is 10cm taller than her and the other two are about the same height as Ohkawa-sensei. They compared the height difference to Kamui and Kotori’s (Kamui is 10cm taller than Kotori and Kamui has Ohkawa-sensei’s height). Eventually, Mokona-sensei and Nekoi-sensei attended the same university, but they were not classmates so they barely saw each other in campus apart from the doujinshi activities that they were already doing at that time.

In the past, they have talked about that each one of them is represented by a color (even though they are not idols, Ohkawa-sensei joked) and Mokona-sensei’s color is yellow. Despite that, they all said that she doesn’t wear a lot of yellow clothes.

Next, Ohkawa-sensei asked the other two if they had any fun or interesting stories about Mokona-sensei to share. Satsuki-sensei started by saying that she gets sick easily and it usually happens in her days off. Ohkawa-sensei said that she has lost counts of how many times she had to accompany her to the emergency room (!) They mentioned one time she hurt her finger when using the sewing machine (!) and Ohkawa-sensei mentioned one episode where she was involved in an accident while riding a taxi — but she was quickly to assure all listeners that it was nothing serious, everyone is safe and there is nothing to worry about.

Nekoi-sensei shared a funny story from the time they were in the USA for Anime Expo (2006) and Mokona-sensei accidentally forgot her room key inside her room and got locked out. She went to the front desk by herself but she couldn’t express herself properly in English so she tried to draw a picture explaining the problem! Unfortunately, the staff were not able to understand the drawing (and Ohkawa-sensei joked that being a mangaka did not help and that drawing is supposed to be a universal language but not this time!) Eventually someone who spoke Japanese managed to help her get inside her room again.

Ohkawa-sensei said that Mokona-sensei is very considerate whenever they are walking together, always making sure they are going to the right direction, checking Google Maps and stuff, but they said that even though she means well, she is usually wrong and has a bad sense of direction xD

Next, they talked about what Mokona-sensei is like at work. Ohkawa-sensei said that even thought she might not always show up at the studio on time, she is very serious about finishing her work and pushing herself further and further every time, exceeding her own outputs. It was also mentioned that when she finds something interesting, she shares it with the others on their LINE group early in the morning and she would talk about that same thing 8 hours later even though the subject has already changed many times throughout the day. It seems she often goes back to the topics that interest her regardless if they are still talking about it or not.

They also talked about Mokona-sensei’s sewing skills (they mentioned the doll dresses that were on display at the Sakura Exhibition and how those were handmade by Mokona-sensei). She is always working on something and her house looks more like an atelier than a house (particularly her bedroom). It is full of fabrics, threads, cloths, beads, accessories etc. She loves making clothes and stuffed characters of the things she likes. Ohkawa-sensei is very impressed about this. Mokona-sensei also collects stones, going to auctions to bid on stones whenever she can. It seems that she often looses her phone inside her place (and she resorts to Siri in order to find it!)

Lastly, each of them mentioned something that they would like Mokona-sensei to fix about herself. Satsuki-sensei went first and mentioned something about using less white for fixing things (I guess she means using less whiteout when fixing the manuscripts). Nekoi-sensei said she would like Mokona-sensei to stop forgetting her phone around — she finds it curious because Mokona-sensei is always grasping her phone around really tightly but, at the same time, leaving it on the table whenever they are at a cafe or restaurant. Ohkawa-sensei went last and mentioned that she would like Mokona-sensei to read LINE messages in a more timely fashion. It seems that Mokona-sensei has the tendency of not reading the most important messages (for instance, she might be chatting normally but then whenever she receives a message regarding a time change for a meeting or something else important, she goes away and doesn’t read the message). Ohkawa-sensei, who claims to be among the top 10 fastest responders out there, seems a tad annoyed by this xD

Before wrapping up, Ohkawa-sensei mentioned that they will do this again next time one of them is absent of the recordin, except when she herself is absent because since she is MC, the recording cannot happen without her. Satsuki-sensei added that they might as well just say everything about her to her face, or play the initial opening text and record the episode without Ohkawa-sensei xD

Thank you for reading this post!

This summary was particular challenging given that a lot of the topics I’m not familiar with. Apologies if it’s a bit lacking, I tried my best! 🙂

Episode 23 of CLAMP’s podcast, CLAMP Kanbukai, is out! You can listen to it on YouTube and all major podcast platforms.

This episode’s theme is “Let’s talk about our favorites”.

They started the episode explaining the difference between “favorite” and “recommendation”. There is a little nuance to them. “Recommendation” are things that they want people to know about, use, watch, wear etc, while “favorite” are things that they support/are fans of.

Firstly, all four of them started by saying they are a fan of the movie Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. They had done an X space recently where they talked about this movie and they informed that they would like to spend a few more minutes talking about it (they really liked it). Sure enough, they spent some good minutes talking about the movie, their favorite characters and scenes.

Next, Mokona-sensei said that she is a fan of figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, to whom they collaborated on the GIFT picture book. As we know, she was already a big fan of his before working with him so she couldn’t really believe that they would be working together. She says that while she was working on GIFT, it was difficult to behave like a fan since she was wearing her professional artist “hat” but now that the work is over, she is able to once again root for him like the big fan she is. His “Danny Boy” performance is her favorite as of recently.

Next, Satsuki-sensei said she is a fan of Shibata Kyouhei, a Japanese actor and singer who is known from his roles in police and detective TV Dramas. They mentioned that back when they had their old newspaper subscription system (CLAMP NEWS) they did a short gag comic where he appears.

Next, Nekoi-sensei mentioned she is a fan of musicians Yuji Ohno (Lupin and others) and Kenji Kawai (Patlabor and others). Kenji Kawai did the music for the RG Veda Drama Compilation CD and around the time he was working on it, Nekoi-sensei had a chance of bumping into him by chance and saying hello to him.

Lastly, Ohkawa-sensei said she is a fan of actress and voice actress Masako Ikeda, whom is famously known for voicing several characters, including being the Japanese voice of Audrey Hepburn. Ohkawa-sensei believes that she first heard her voice while she caught Roman Holiday airing on TV when she was a kid and thought she had a lovely voice. Satsuki-sensei reminds them they had the opportunity of working with Masako Ikeda in several times: she played Kamui’s mother on the X movie, the CLAMP Gakuen chairwoman on the CLAMP Gakuen Tanteidan TV Anime and Chunyan’s mother on the Shin Shunkaden Drama CD. They said that once the cast of X was announced, they were all very giddy in knowing that Masako Ikeda was among it. Ohkawa-sensei said she met her only once during the time of the recording sessions for the X movie. She said Masako Ikeda looked very petite and was about the same size as Mokona-sensei. Ohkawa-sensei still looks up to her and every time she hears her voice as a narrator on the TV she is able to recognize her voice immediately “ah, that’s Ikeda-san!” She finished saying she is a fan of Masako Ikeda.

On the last part of the episode, they talked about being fans of Lunlun, a virtual YouTuber affiliated to NIJISANJI. They said that all of them have Lunlun plush toys and will be sharing pictures later on the CLAMP Kanbukai official instagram account.

Thank you for reading this post!

This summary was particular challenging given that a lot of the topics I’m not familiar with. Apologies if it’s a bit lacking, I tried my best! 🙂