meganbmoore | X/1999 Vol 9-10

People kept saying “there can be only one.” It made me think of Highlander.

So…uhm…somewhere in volume 9, I think the book crossed from “melodramatic, but pretty genuinely tragic and angsty” and into “so angsty it’s almost unintentionally funny.” I blame the endless spreads with feathers and clockwork gears. Pretty, but also a little on the pretentious side.

I finally got to the head hugging and screaming. It no doubt says concerning things about me that I’ve been anticipating that, despite being very fond of Kotori. (Actually, I think things are slightly less interesting with her gone.) It remains a fine moment of screaming romantic angst, but thanks to Tsubasa (for the angst) and Claymore (for the head hugging) it doesn’t have quite the “oomph” that it did when I first saw it in the anime.

Kotori’s wings and the scene where she says goodbye to Kakyo were as gorgeous as the dreamworld spreads in previous volumes, but the other dreamworld spreads weren’t as pretty. Did I mention that they started getting a bit pretentious at about that time?

And why did they let Kamui keep Kotori’s head after bandaging him up? (Not that I’m complaining about the angst there…) And for that matter, how did Kamui survive getting stabbed with so much glass?

Karen is still lurking around, sitting on tree branches and showing off her garters. I do love Karen. I love Sorata saying that hiding the sword in a fountain is silly almost as much. Though even better was Arashi facepalming in the background when Yuzuhira said the secret chamber looked like a super-robot launching bay.

And the flashbacks! Kusanagi and Yuzuhira bonding over Inuki was cute, but I suspect it will result in my being scandalized by Clamp’s age-inappropriate pairing tendencies again. And there was wee!Arashi! So cute!

Oh, and wee!Fuma picked up his mother’s head and licked her blood off his fingers. I’ll get to work on banishing that one from my head now.

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Did they ever finish this series? I remember reading it and getting upset that they never ended it due to the earthquake at the time it was published. I liked the idea for the story though there were some squick moments as you mentioned. Very angsty and dark.

Nope, never finished it. I live in fear that they'll just drop Tsubasa and xxxHolic, too.

*sigh* That is why I am so careful about reading their work anymore. What's the point if they never finish a story. Did you like Chobits? At least they finished that one.

I found Chobits on the offensive side, actually.

They finished Wish, Tokyo Babylon, RG Veda, Magic Knight Rayearth and Cardcaptor Sakura, off the top of my head.

I find this a strangely prevalent opinion among my friends, that CLAMP never finishes anything, but really all they mean is that CLAMP never finished X. (I know, Legal Drug and Chun Hyang too, but people don't usually mention those two).

Yes. When I was preparing to dive into Clamp earlier this year (after bingeing on Tsubasa and xxxHolic) I asked what they hadn't finished, and was surprised at how few there were. Chun-Hyang, sadly, I suspect was sales or something. Legal Drug, though I haven't read yet, I wonder if they just thought of a way to do it that they liked more, resulting in xxxHolic. One theory I've heard about X/1999 is that they just got tired of it. Since all their other series are shorter, I wonder if that's true. Which makes me even more worried about xxxHolic and Tsubasa, but they also have regularly changing casts and (in Tsubasa's case) worlds, so I hope that helps if that was the problem.

I think CLAMP had a falling out with Asuka. At the same time X "went on hiatus" CLAMP's other series running in Asuka, Gohou Drug, also ceased publication. (I was subscribed to Asuka at the time and greatly miffed by both of them disappearing).

Nekoi still loves GD though, she often laments on her personal board about not being able to draw the manga, and draws the characters often on CLAMP's oekaki (http://kasumitodo.altervista.org/downloadarea_site/mangaka_clamp_album.htm).

I didn't realize X stopped publication that relatively recently.

It was 2003. You're gonna hate where it stops.

GD ran for a few more issues but stopped shortly after X did.

I liked the art and some of the concepts (same for X/1999), but I agree, it was offensive on MANY areas. Any of theirs you would recommend? I see these at the library all the time, but I am not a big Magic Knight Rayearth fan (seen some of the cartoons). Any recommendations for good art, story and not so squickish would be appreciated.

I haven't seen the MKR anime, but a lot of the manga's fans tell me it isn't as good, especially season 2.

Pretty much all of Clamps works have some sort of Wrong to them, but none like Chobits. CCS has a minor pairing that's squicky, but we thankfully don't see it a lot, and RG Veda made me want to bash a few people over the head at the end, but they're all pretty good, and none give me the "eeeew" of Chobits.

Karen is love and Sorata is win ♥

I do like Kotori, but I actually think the manga starts kicking after her death ^_^ sloooooow starting manga.

And for that matter, how did Kamui survive getting stabbed with so much glass?
Magical powers of Kamui-ness.

I'm pretty certain they never finished X due to problems with their publisher - who wanted them to tone down the gore and angst - not because they got lazy or didn't want to.

I heard part of it was due to the earthquake in Japan at the time and the publishers and artists being afraid of offending as there were some similarities on building and deaths of groups of people or something like that.

It was a VERY slow starting manga, but when it kicked in, there was a bit of shock at all the gore. I don't mind a bit of gore, but sometimes it went over the top. Some things can be left to the imagination.

Yes, I think the earthquake played a part, too, although that was ten years ago, and that was one of the reasons the publishers wanted them to tone in down

I never minded the gore, but I'm not surprised some people found it to be too much for them. It's a very violent manga.

The gore doesn't bother me, but there's so much emphasis on men hugging women's decapitated heads (we're up to 3 cases now?) that they end up emphasizing it too much.

Kamui hugs men's people head, too! He's bisexual that way :D

Are they decapitated heads accompanied by screaming angst?

Lemme look...

okay, he doesn't exactly craddle it, just a caress it, but there is screaming angst :)

I haven't heard "lazy" put forth except in whining, really, but I've heard conflicting bits on other parts.

I think that part of the thing with Kotori is that I don't actually like Kamui a lot (I don't dislike him, and he's a good lead, but...) but I like him more when he's being protective of or nice to or behaving for Kotori.

well, when people complain by saying that they didn't bother finishing it, I get a bit touchy I guess :)

Oh, but Kamui's personnality changes totally when Kotori dies. He's this total brat at the beginning, except sometimes with Kotori, then he becomes a weeping wuss. It's one of the funny thing about him... yeah, I don't like Kamui a lot either XD

X/1999 Vol 9-10

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