CLAMP NEWS !!

I’ve been trying to post this since yesterday but LiveJournal was down for updates for some reason.

First of all, HAPPY CLAMP DAY EVERYONE!! It is safe to congratulate CLAMP for their 23rd Anniversary as professional manga artists this year! Long life to our favorite manga artists!

To celebrate this special day, yesterday CLAMP-NET.COM was redecorated with a new look:

Due to timezone differences, the website is back to is usual look.

There was a special campaign going on at the website to celebrate the “CLAMP Day” that, up until now was celebrated amongst fans on April 1st of every year, now it seems CLAMP themselves will adopt that day as their official day. The campaign is no longer reachable, though, since it’s no longer April 1st in Japan.

The campaign consisted in finding the CLAMP-NET.COM banner spread across different websites related to their works. A similar campaign was held for the promotion of CLAMP IN WONDERLAND 2. The prize for finding all keywords was a wallpaper featuring the CLAMP Festival crossover illustration that was used as the background image of CLAMP’s official website yesterday.

I have uploaded the wallpaper for those who might have missed it:


Click to enlarge it.

– Next scheduled chapters (red means new):

03/02 – Young Ace #04 – Chapter 5 (on sale).
04/04 – Young Ace #05 – Chapter 6.
05/02 – Young Ace #06 – Chapter 7.

– Next scheduled chapters (red means new):

03/02 – Jump SQ #04 – Chapter 13 (on sale).
04/04 – Jump SQ #05 – Chapter 14.
05/02 – Jump SQ #06 – Chapter 15 – Color pages, beginning of tankoubon 4.

• Comics:

The 3rd volume of GATE 7 will be released on May 2 (same day as Jump SQ #06 goes on sale). Additionally, messages of support to CLAMP will be published in Jump SQ.19 Vol. 01, which goes on sale April 19. I’m not sure if these messages are related to the release of the 3rd GATE 7 volume or because of the disease that CLAMP is currently under treatment.

• CLAMP FESTIVAL 2012:

There is going to be two new editions of the CLAMP FESTIVAL in 2012. One in Tokyo and another in Osaka. Both will take place on October 7 and 21, respectively.

Early tickets for CLAMP@MOBiLE members will go on sale in May.

• Featuring CLAMP:

The May issue of Da Vinci magazine will be a special edition about Kyoto and CLAMP were invited to talk about their recommendations for hot pot cuisine, which is typical of Kyoto.

• Featuring CLAMP:

CLAMP has joined Ichirou Mihara from ARIKA in his April Fools’ joke. The official website of ARIKA showed a fake cover of a fake manga magazine (see below) entitled Yearly Shounen ARIKA. The cover features a new illustration of Sakura from Card Captor Sakura in what appears to be a reference to the character Sakura of the Street Fighter game.

Ichirou Mihara informed via his Twitter and Facebook accounts that a wallpaper will be later available for download. A back cover of the fake magazine will also be available.


Click to enlarge it.

• Featuring CLAMP:

CLAMP wrote the text and drew an illustration for the foreword of Junichi Fujisaku’s new mystery novel Tsukareruna! (ツカレルナ!) that will be released on April 25. Junichi Fujisaku is one of the scriptwriters of BLOOD-C.

• CLAMP Shop:

Starting today, the official CLAMP Shop is selling a set of can badges featuring the illustrations used in the valentine’s chocolate that was originally sold at the CLAMP@MOBiLE Fes! 2011 event. Do you remember how much success those chocolates made? They were completely sold out at the event.

Make sure to check them out here and here as they have high-resolution previews of the illustrations featuring very cute SD versions of CLAMP characters!

CLAMP NEWS !!

– Next scheduled chapters (red means new):

12/03 – Young Ace #01 – Chapter 2 (on sale).
12/29 – Young Ace #02 – Chapter 3.
02/03 – Young Ace #03 – Chapter 4.

– Next scheduled chapters (red means new):

12/04 – Jump SQ #01 – Chapter 10 (on sale).
01/04 – Jump SQ #02 – Chapter 11.
02/04 – Jump SQ #03 – Chapter 12.

• Featuring CLAMP:

CLAMP drew the cover of the February issue of Kodansha’s digital magazine Dengeki Comic Japan.

The magazine will be available for free download on December 22 for Smartphone, iPad, iPhone, PC and Android.

In addition, CLAMP’s illustration used for the cover will be available for download for those who answer the survey available in the magazine.

Follow up: GATE 7 #2 sales report

On its second week of sales, GATE 7 #2 actually rose one position in Oricon’s ranking!

11/07~11/13

1st – One Piece #64
2nd – REAL #11
3rd – Naruto #58
7th – GATE 7 #2

During this period, it sold 79.463 copies according to Oricon, making the total number of comics sold so far up to 178.377 copies (4.695 more than GATE 7 #1 in the same period).

Let’s hope it will appear again next week so we can track more data!

Looking good so far =)

GATE 7 #2 sales report

It’s been a week since the release of the second volume of GATE 7, it landed at position 8 in Oricon’s weekly ranking on its first week of sales:

10/31/2011~11/06/2011:

1st – One Piece #64
2nd – Naruto #58
3rd – Gintama #42
8th – GATE 7 #2

According to Oricon, GATE 7 #2 sold 98.914 copies in its first week. In contrast, the first GATE 7 volume sold 93.210 copies. This represents a 6% growth on first week sales.

In Tayosha’s ranking, GATE 7 #2 also appeared on the 8th position:

1st – One Piece #64
2nd – Naruto #58
3rd – To Love #3
8th – GATE 7 #2

GATE 7 is slowly gaining popularity!

GATE 7 #2 cover

Shueisha has the cover of GATE 7 #2:

I LOVE the blueness of it! Can we assume that all GATE 7 covers will feature Hana?

GATE 7 #2 will be on sale November 4.

Now we have all Nov. 4 covers =)

Jump SQ #12 cover feat. GATE 7

Here’s the cover of Jump SQ #12 magazine featuring GATE 7:

Source: Jump SQ.

Apparently this will be the image of the alternative cover for volume 2, which goes on sale on the same day as the magazine, November 4.

CLAMP NEWS !!

• Artbook:

Already posted this over at twitter but in case anyone doesn’t know yet, the Kobato. artbook release date has been postponed to October 19.

– Next scheduled chapters (red means new):

09/04 – Jump SQ #10 – Chapter 7 – Last chapter of tankoubon 2 (on sale).
10/04 – Jump SQ #11 – Chapter 8 – Beginning of tankoubon 3.
11/04 – Jump SQ #12 – Chapter 9 – Color page(s), GATE 7 will feature the front cover.

CLAMP-NET.COM also mentions a “comic cover replacement” (特別付録 コミックス替えカバー) in Jump SQ #12. Maybe an additional cover for volume 1? Not really sure of what that means…

• Comics:

GATE 7 #2 is coming out on November 4.

• BLOOD-C:

The BLOOD-C TV Anime ended its main broadcast on TBS channel with 12 episodes. The movie will be released on June 6, 2012 with the same staff and cast .

I really liked the final episode, in fact the final 2 episodes were good and a lot better than the rest. I wish that instead of dragging the plot for 10 whole episodes they could have worked better in building tension for the big revelations, in other words, I think the series’ composition was flawed (and CLAMP’s Ohkawa was in charge of that). The episodes were too repetitive, always following the same formula. I’m glad the mood changed in the final episode, I hope the movie will follow the same atmosphere. The animation was overall very poor, characters were too shallow and creatures too bizarre. I’ll give a 3/10 rate for this since I wasn’t hooked by most of it.

• The Witch’s Mansion and the Magic Summit::

Here is the cover for The Witch’s Mansion and the Magic Summit, CLAMP drew the cover and inside illustrations.

The book is coming out on October 9. You can play a puzzle with the cover illustration here.

CLAMP NEWS !!

Sorry I’m a bit late, I’ve been traveling around for the past weeks (see location at the end of the post =P) and I have had very little online time. But here are the most important news that have appeared in the past few weeks.

• Artbook:

Here is the cover of the Kobato. Illustrations & Memories artbook:

So pretty, I loved it! The artbook will have a short story drawn by CLAMP and an interview with them. It’ll be released on September 26.

• Blu-Ray:

The Kobato. TV Anime series will be released in Blu-Ray format sometime soon. The information comes from the series’ official website (http://www.kobato.tv). More details will be announced soon.

• Ranking:

After its first week of sales, the final volume of Kobato. debuted in the 16th position in Oricon’s ranking. That’s a very good position considering that it’s only covering 2 days of sales (since it was released on the 26th and the ranking covers up to the 28th).

08/22~08/28

1st – Ao Haru Ride #2
2nd – GANTZ #32
3rd FAIRY TAIL #28
16th – Kobato. #6

This is the first time that a Kobato. volume appears in Oricon’s ranking after volume 2. It is also the highest position reached by a Kobato. volume.

Also according to Oricon, Kobato. #6 sold 43.331 copies in its first week. In comparison, Kobato. #2 sold 32.351 copies in its first week.

Hopefully we will see Kobato. again in next week’s ranking, specially since there is a campaign related to that volume.

– Next scheduled chapters (red means new):

08/04 – Jump SQ #09 – Chapter 6 (on sale).
09/04 – Jump SQ #10 – Chapter 7 – Last chapter of tankoubon 2.
10/04 – Jump SQ #11 – Chapter 8 – Beginning of tankoubon 3.

No new additions for GATE 7.

• Gouhou Drug:

The covers for the new editions of Gouhou Drug #1 and #2 were announced!

Ahhh, so the original design was preserved, I’m so glad! They are even wearing the same outfits, it’s like the same “photoshoot”, but with different poses XD But maaaan, do they look different! I don’t like this new style at all, their trace looks too simple! =( I really hope Nekoi improves her drawing with time.

The new editions of Gouhou Drug #1 and #2 will be released on October 4

• BLOOD-C – Novel:

CLAMP has drawn the cover illustration for the novel version of BLOOD-C:

So nice!

The novel is written by Junichi Fujusaku, who is also one of the writers for the TV Series along with CLAMP’s Nanase Ohkawa. It will be released by Kadokawa Shoten on October 4.

• BLOOD-C – Interview:

Website ANN interviewed the director Tsutomu Mizushima and screenwriter Junichi Fujusaku of the BLOOD-C TV Series. It’s a very interesting reading since they talk about CLAMP’s involvement on the project. You can read it here.

• CLAMP FESTIVAL 2011 TOKYO:

Suga Shikao has been added to the festival’s line up as a special guest! He will make a XXXHOLiC special live performance.

So cool! This festival line up was missing a major name and that name has been filled now by Suga Shikao =)

Here’s a detailed schedule for the festival:

Singer Stage:
– Suga Shikao XXXHOLiC special live performance.
– Duet between Sakura Tange and Junko Iwao (Card Captor Sakura).
– Card Captor Sakura medley featuring 5 songs.

Seiyuu Stage:
– Holitsuba skit (script by CLAMP).
– Maaya Sakamoto will be the narrator for the animation based on the original manga drawn by ClAMP.
– Live performances of the seiyuus are scheduled during the Holitsuba skit as well.

A free event named CLAMP Campus Festival will be held at the back of where CLAMP FESTIVAL will be held. In this event, cosplay contests and sales of original goods will take place. There will be a CLAMP Cafe, where visitors can have Mokona-shaped candies while they check a collection of CLAMP’s art reproductions.

An official Guide Book about the Fetsival will be sold at the event and the cover art will be drawn by CLAMP.

The Japanese video streaming website Nico Nico will cover the event from 10 AM until 10 PM (not sure if they will cover just the CLAMP Campus Festival or the entire CLAMP FESTIVAL event).

And more, there will be merchandise booths for Card Captor Sakura, GATE 7, Kobato., Gouhou Drug and BLOOD-C.

Anyway, there is simply a lot of stuff happening in this event, it will be one hell of an event. I may have missed a few things here and there, or maybe I chose not to post about them, but this is pretty much what’s been confirmed so far =)

CLAMP NEWS !! (just a bit)

– Next scheduled chapters (red means new):

08/04 – Jump SQ #09 – Chapter 6.
09/04 – Jump SQ #10 – Chapter 7 – Color page(s).
10/04 – Jump SQ #11 – Chapter 8.

CLAMP-NET.COM no longer mentions the color page in Chapter 7, so I wonder if it’s still on?

Singer Maaya Sakamoto and voice actor Kenichi Suzumura recently announced their marriage. The ceremony took place on August 8th.

Maaya Sakamoto has sang many songs for the CLAMP anime adapations as well as playing the voice of many characters. More recently, she played Princess Tomoyo in Tsubasa Chronicle. Kenichi Suzumura was the voice of Kamui in the OVA and TV Series of X.

CLAMP member Nanase Ohkawa made a post in her Private Board congratulating the couple, and posted this image saying that if it were their characters, it would have been something like this:

Best wishes to the couple! =)

GATE 7 Chapter 6 (Updated)

Scans of GATE 7 Chapter 6 have leaked here. Source: Raw-Bunko. The filename says chapter 07, but it’s actually chapter 06.

EDIT: File no longer available. Mirror: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8W05KJD5

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