Episode 30 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 “So, how have you been?”

They began the episode pointing out that they are using the lapel microphone (notice the green color theme), which means they are outside the recording studio — are they not in Kyoto? Another data collection trip? Or maybe just a leisure trip. Anyhow, they didn’t mention where they were…

After toasting with some sparkling wine, they started to share some movies that they watched recently, starting with the Japanese movie Exit 8, which is based on a game of (almost) the same name (the game is called The Exit 8). They spent the next 5 minutes or so talking about the movie and the differences and similarities with the game (some of them have played it). They really enjoyed this movie.

Next, they talked about Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle. They spent a few minutes talking about it, but not that much. I haven’t watched all of Demon Slayer myself so I couldn’t understand most of what they were talking about. But they are fans of the series, they have talked about it in several other occasions.

Then, they talked about a Japanese movie called Kinki Chihou no Aru Basho ni Tsuite, based on a horror novel of the same title about an editor of an occult magazine that suddenly goes missing. Ohkawa-sensei said she had been wanting to watch it for a long time (she also read the novel) — of course. They also talked about Superman.

Next, they talked about Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc. All of them are familiar with the story except for Satsuki-sensei. Nekoi-sensei said that the Ending Theme song (performed by Hikaru Utada and Kenshi Yonezu) was stuck in her head. It seems both the movie and the theme song made them feel very emotional (to the point of crying). Since she is not familiar with the manga, they kept asking stuff to Satsuki-sensei like what was her favorite scene (to which she responded it was the pool scene). They spent some good 5 minutes talking about this movie.

Moving on, they talked about two Japanese movies that they watched on streaming services: the horror movie Kisaragi Eki Re: and Battle Royale. For Battle Royale, they said that at the time it came out (2000) they were busy working so they couldn’t watch it. Ohkawa-sensei watched it first and then invited the other three to watch with her. She thinks it’s a stylish movie. They all praised the movie a lot in many of its technical aspects (director, soundtrack, actors) and they mentioned the fast pacing of the movie. Ohkawa-sensei said that a lot of actors are still in the industry and she mentioned Ko Shibasaki who would later play Yuuko in the XXXHOLiC live action movie by Mika Ninagawa. It’s a truly violent movie so Ohkawa-sensei understands that it might not be for everyone. Overall, they really enjoyed the movie (personally I am impressed that they had never seen it! It’s a great movie indeed).

Next, each of them talked about a work with “female villain” that has caught their attention. I couldn’t get the titles since they are all in Japanese and unknown to me but Satsuki-sensei is reading a supernatural novel with new chapters coming out daily that seems very interesting and Mokona-sensei is reading a manga with that theme. It’s kind of intriguing why they picked that theme precisely (are we getting a CLAMP manga with a female villain soon?)

Lastly, they spent the final minutes talking about the Japanese movie Kokuho.

Thank you for reading this post!

Episode 29 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 “#MyCLAMPExhibition” (#わたしのCLAMP展).

This episode was almost entirely dedicated to reading messages from people who attended the CLAMP Exhibition and its installments. CLAMP previously asked everyone to share on their social networks about their impressions using the hashtag #わたしのCLAMP展 (#MyCLAMPExhibition).

They read several messages shared on X, instagram, threads and Bluesky (I was really happy that they even picked one from Bluesky!)

Ohkawa-sensei also revealed the outcome of her handkerchief. She had been wanting to hand out the handkerchief to someone crying seeing the exhibition, but she never managed to find anyone crying in any of the times she went in person. They went again on the very last day of the Nagoya leg and she found a young girl who was not crying but looked a lot like Subaru (it seems even her clothes were similar). She approached her and began talking to her. It seems her favorite CLAMP work was Cardcaptor Sakura (and not Tokyo Babylon, to their surprise) and she did not recognize her as the original author at all (she had to introduce herself). She asked if she could keep the handkerchief and she did, although she had no idea what it was all about. It seems like the whole situation was a bit awkward, but they were courteous with each other. Apparently the other 3 joined Ohkawa-sensei and the girl eventually.

Ohkawa-sensei finally completed her mission of handing her handkerchief to someone at the CLAMP Exhibition!

Sadly, they did not take pictures of the handkerchief before giving it away to the guy… (lucky guy!)

Thank you for reading this post!

Episode 28 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 “CLAMP Exhibition Original Illustrations and Collaboration Items”.

As indicated by the green color of the episode, this means that they recorded this outside of their usual recording studio. It seems they were at the Okura Hotel (not sure which one, but it could be the one in Tokyo).

They started the episode talking about the trip they did to Nagoya in order to leave their signatures. Apparently, they all had to return to Kyoto quickly so they literally just signed and rushed back to Kyoto on the Shinkansen. It seems like they stayed for only 10 minutes. They were sorry that they couldn’t have any of the food they were looking forward to (they even wrote in Young Magazine a comment in which they were wondering what kind of food they should eat while in Nagoya, but alas, they were unable to do it).

Next, they talked about the signatures in Nagoya being their biggest ones yet. They take turns in whoever writes the “CLAMP” part of the signatures and it seems like this time it was Satsuki-sensei.

The last time the 4 of them went to Nagoya was for CLAMP FESTIVAL (in 2012) and at that time they couldn’t stay either and had to go back to Kyoto after the end of their participation due to a deadline they had to meet. The artists were having an after party but they couldn’t stay.

Before meeting the other two, Mokona-sensei and Satsuki-sensei visited the Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya. They tried to go to the museum cafe but it was too crowded and the line was too big, so they met the other two and everyone came back to Kyoto, as mentioned earlier, and they all ended up eating Okonomiyaki in Kyoto.

Ohkawa-sensei said she would like to “revenge” that and eat something delicious in Nagoya sometime.

Next, they went into the main topic: the shikishi (signed drawing board) they did for each of the CLAMP Exhibition -SELECTION- cities.

For Osaka, because it was the first city, they went with the same concept used for the new illustration they did for the Exhibition: their debut work and their latest work, which is why it has Ashura and Sakura. Ohkawa-sensei asked to have flowers in it. They said that people often think that they like to draw flowers but in fact, they don’t (love it). They quickly added that of course they love flowers (but drawing them is more complicated, I guess). It seems that Mokona-sensei realized she had drawn a lot of different kinds of flowers when they made different stickers with flowers only drawn by her for the “Flower Room” in the Cardcaptor Sakura Exhibition.

For Fukuoka, it was Hikaru and Kamui. Here, Mokona-sensei said it was very easy drawing them both, and that they look like siblings. Ohkawa-sensei asked if it was because they are both from the same “period” (meaning X and Magic Knight Rayearth were drawn around the same time), to which Mokona-sensei agreed. Ohkawa-sensei then said that their eyes are similar, but Mokona-sensei said their eyes are not so similar, but somehow these two make “sense” together.

For Sapporo, it was Kobato, Subaru and Chii. Ohkawa-sensei expressed some concerns that having three characters for a small shikishi might feel too “crowded”. They talked about that, unlike the covers that they are drawing for the CLAMP PREMIUM COLLECTION series, in which they are consciously unifying all their different styles in one single style, for this shikishi the styles were not unified (meaning they respected the different styles from each work) and still somehow the final result looks coherent.

And finally, for Nagoya, it was Syaoran and Watanuki. They didn’t say anything relevant about this one, only that it is Watanuki from XXXHOLiC Rei, which is currently being serialized.

Next, they talked about the process of making all four shikishi. Since the beginning, the organizing committee had suggested to sell miniature versions of the shikishi as goods and that made them think of a specific method to make sure the final product would turn out well. Apparently they didn’t draw directly on the shikishi board, but rather on regular paper and then transferred it to the shikishi board using a carbon copy method, then traced it with pigma pen. Finally, the coloring was made using Copic markers. Coloring the flowers is what took most of the time.

Since there are four shikishi, they also took turns in writing the “CLAMP Exhibition -SELECTION-” portion in each shikishi (meaning a different member wrote it for each shikishi). Ohkawa-sensei ranted a little that since it’s such a small, but very detailed drawing, perhaps there was no need to have all their four signatures, perhaps having only “CLAMP” would have been enough (I disagree xD).

They did not reveal which member wrote which one. Maybe soon they will reveal it?

If you look at the shikishi, indeed the way “CLAMP Exhibition -SELECTION-” is written looks different in each one:

After that, they briefly mentioned the more recent collaborations with CONVERSE TOKYO and GODIVA. They are very honored and happy to collaborate with GODIVA since they have memories when they were kids of GODIVA being a high-class brand. Nekoi-sensei and Satsuki-sensei really like their chocolate ice cream. They confirmed that the chibis were drawn by Mokona-sensei.

Lastly, they spent the remaining minutes of the episode talking about yukata and kimono dress code. Both Ohkawa-sensei and Nekoi-sensei recently wore yukata after a long time and the other two helped them by lending accessories and giving them tips/recommendations.

Thank you for reading this post!

Episode 27 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 “Places we visited from early summer to summer”.

They started the episode explaining that they were not recording this episode at their usual recording studio and their usual microphones. Instead, they were using lapel microphones. It was raining heavily during the recording and they wondered whether the rain could be heard (indeed, they sound a little muffled, maybe the audio was filtered a little to erase any noise, plus these lapel microphones are not as good as the big ones). They explained that when the episode image on YouTube is green, it means that it’s an episode where they are using lapel microphones. Indeed I had noticed that green was used for when the recordings were made outside their recording studio (for example, the ones they did in Okinawa).

Then, they talked about a collaboration cafe that is now open at Sweets Paradise. It was a bit hard for me to understand since I am not familiar with the characters, but they all really enjoyed it. Ohkawa-sensei pointed out that they don’t usually go to collaboration cafes themselves. Mokona-sensei mentioned a Resident Evil and a BASARA one she/they went to but that seems to be about it. Ohkawa-sensei recalled that sometime ago there was a XXXHOLiC one in Shibuya. Satsuki-sensei says that Ohkawa-sensei was the only one that went to that one, the others didn’t. Ohkawa-sensei says she would like to be able to visit collaboration cafes based on CLAMP’s works more often. They said that even during the Cardcaptor Sakura Exhibition in Roppongi, while they did try the collaboration menu that was served to them, they never actually went to the cafe itself.

Next, they talked about their trip to Hokkaido for the Sapporo leg of CLAMP Exhibition -SELECTION-. This time, they were able to make their signatures about 10x bigger than last time!

They were really big xD

They spent the rest of the episode talking about the things they did in Hokkaido. It was a bit hard for me to translate, again due to me not being entirely familiar with the names and places, but Ohkawa-sensei mentioned an Italian restaurant they went to with the exhibition crew called Orizzonte that she really enjoyed.

Hokkaido is the land of the Ainu people and it seems like all of them except Ohkawa-sensei took some sort of Ainu embroidery workshop while Ohkawa-sensei went to a cafe because she had some work to be done. However, Ohkawa-sensei realized she had left her wallet and iPhone on her room so she had to ask for some money to the other three in order to pay for her latte xD

Ah, yes, Mokona-sensei visited some local shrines. She wanted to take pictures but the weather was not very good. She said she will upload pictures of her Goshuin on the podcast’s instagram account.

It seems like the next episode will also be centered around their summer activities.

Thank you for reading this post!

Episode 26 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 “Summer essentials and solo activities”.

At the beginning of the episode, Ohkawa-sensei asked each member to recommend one “summer item” that they have been into lately. They made two rounds of recommendations.

On the first round, Satsuki-sensei recommended Jakuchi Konnyaku, which seems to be a konnyaku-based cold noodles. Nekoi-sensei recommended a sunscreen by SteamCream. Mokona-sensei recommended an organic cold-brewed Gyokuro tea by Kotoshina. Lastly, Ohkawa-sensei recommended a skincare powder named “Snow Beauty” by Shiseido.

For the second round, Nekoi-sensei recommended a natural insect repellent (Katori Senko). They talked about wanting a Black Mokona incense holder they drew for the Haruka LINE wallpaper. Mokona-sensei recommended a sugar candy called MIO by Nanasan. She said it goes well with champagne. Ohkawa-sensei recommended Fujiko’s Aburatori Water Powder Neo (she emphasized it is the Neo version). Lastly, Satsuki-sensei recommended something called. “Cool Shirt Shower Strong”, which is like a spray that you put on your clothes and it makes them feel cool and refreshing. They said that “cool mint” is a very popular scent during summer. Mokona-sensei recommends applying it on the vests that go underneath the kimono. All members use it except Ohkawa-sensei.

Next, each of them talked about summer activities they do individually. First, Satsuki-sensei mentioned a Monet exhibition she went to at the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art. The exhibition is called “Monet: The Late Waterscapes” and she said she was listening to water sounds on YouTube while seeing the paintings. Next, Nekoi-sensei said although she doesn’t enjoy eating at restaurants by herself, she went to a Vietnamese restaurant in Kyoto and felt really comfortable doing so. Ohkawa-sensei said she is been playing web mahjong (she even downloaded an app!). She said she plays mostly with NPCs while she is taking a break between work or waiting for an email. She also said the game made a collaboration with Code Geass and would like to see something similar being done for a CLAMP work — she said XXXHOLiC has a mahjong “feeling” to it, and for Tsubasa she said Sakura-hime could be a character/piece with a lot of luck. Finally, Mokona-sensei went last and said she likes to pray at nearby shrines as early as 8:00 in the morning. After that, she enjoys buying souvenirs and discovering new bakeries on her way to the studio.

Thank you for reading this post!

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! 🙂

Episode 22 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 “Various things we did and XXXHOLiC Rei“.

They started the episode explaining that the reason why this episode came out a little later than usual is because they all took turns in catching a cold. First it was Mokona-sensei (and she recommended a very interesting homemade medicine using a solution made of radish and honey), then it was Nekoi-sensei, Ohkawa-sensei and finally Satsuki-sensei. Ohkawa-sensei said catching a cold is a rare thing for her and that the last time was probably around 10 years ago (!!). They ended this segment wishing everyone to take care of themselves.

Next, they changed to the main topic: the XXXHOLiC Zoku Sai stage play. They were able to attend the opening day performance (January 24th) and they shared their impressions. They pointed out that the entire cast is back with the exception of Maru and Moro because the previous actors aged a little in the past two years so they had to be replaced. Ohkawa-sensei was surprised when she saw one of them in a Kamen Rider thing while she was browsing X and she pointed out that he looked older.

Nekoi-sensei was impressed that the cast came together and they were all able to perform despite the two years hiatus that the play took, that they were as involved and committed as they were two years ago. When asked which character left a strong impression, Nekoi-sensei answered Neko Musume, whom according to her looked “sharper”. They mentioned that her abs looked toned (it was possible to see because the actor was wearing clothes that showed his belly).

For Mokona-sensei, the character that left the biggest impression on her was Yuuko, played by Motohiro Ohta. She mentioned she also enjoyed Shougo Sakamoto as Watanuki, even though his Watanuki was more “composed” than the one in the manga and anime.

For Satsuki-sensei, the character that left the biggest impression on her was Haruka, played by Yuunosuke Matsushima (who also plays Doumeki).

They also mentioned Ryotaro Akazawa’s Himawari performance as one of the play’s highlights. In particular, the moment where she cries, the audience lifted their opera glasses to see her tears from up close.

Ohkawa-sensei mentioned that she would like to do a live commentary session with one of the play’s online streamings, but she said it might be tricky to coordinate all the technical aspects and having the four of them commenting. She hopes it will come to fruition and she asks us to participate if they manage to do it.

Next, while they were still in Tokyo to see the XXXHOLiC stage play, they also went to see another play called Spoon no Tate, a musical reading drama featuring several voice actors as cast members, such as Nakai Kazuya (Doumeki and Haruka in XXXHOLiC) and Kikoku Inoue (Yelan in Cardcaptor Sakura).

Before going back to Kyoto, they also went to see a Monet exhibition. They mentioned it was very crowed so they barely could see the bottom part of the paintings (specially Mokona-sensei, being the smallest of them). Nekoi-sensei mentioned that while she doesn’t dislike Monet, she’s not particularly interested in his work. On the other hand, Satsuki-sensei likes his work a lot.

Before moving to the next topic, Ohkawa-sensei mentioned she would like to visit Mika Ninagawa’s NINAGAWA Mika with EiM: Lights of the beyond, Shadows of this world exhibition at Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art.

Finally, they talked a little about resuming XXXHOLiC Rei. They are working hard on bringing back XXXHOLiC‘s art style. Mokona-sensei briefly told Ohkawa-sensei “I know you’re going to tell me Yuuko looks younger”, to which Ohkawa-sensei replied back “that means you’ll just have to keep drawing then” xD

Mokona-sensei mentioned that Yuuko’s gaze, joints and fingertips are very particular and she’s doing her best to bring them back (she mentioned that she keeps forgetting about making Yuuko’s arms look like “noodles” like they used to xD) Nekoi-sensei said she’s paying extra attention to Watanuki’s bangs and on his facial expressions, since now that he is the shop owner, he cannot keep doing the same facial expressions as when he was a student, so she’s trying to express the difference through the facial expressions.

Ohkawa-sensei said that final touches are done digitally now, but everything else is done manually, including the straight lines used to fill backgrounds, which are done by Satsuki-sensei, scanned and then placed digitally.

The colored title page has been already submitted to the Young Magazine editorial department. They asked everyone to look forward to seeing a new XXXHOLiC colored illustration after a long time.

They said that given that several years have passed, it’s likely that some art style changes will be noticeable, but they are trying their best to bring the original XXXHOLiC style back. They also mentioned they have to practice the “smoke” that appears in the manga.

All in all, although the hiatus started in the middle of volume 5, they assured everyone that by the time we read the compiled volume 5, the reading experience will be seamless, because they are picking from where the story left off, but they also hope readers will be able to follow the installments as they are published in Young Magazine.

Thank you for reading this post!

Special thanks to Claudio for helping me proof checking this translation! ♡