Customer Reviews

CLAMP North Side

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am in love. I'd give it 6 out of 5 stars if I could.

My friend had preordered this artbook and showed it to me when it arrived yesterday. I gushed over every single page of it. The artwork was exquisite - pages after pages of beautiful lineart with superior coloring (I can now understand why this had to be printed in Japan). I am ordering it right now!

The first major category was Clover, and the illustrations were even more beautiful than in the manga - the coloring definitely boosted the beauty.

The next section was Magic Knight Rayearth, including a few pieces of artwork drawn for the OVA (Princess Emeraude looked stunning). A minor complaint I have for this section is that the little strips of MKR mini-manga dialogues were already in print in the Magic Knight Rayearth I Box Set Memorial Book. Then again, the box set was limited edition so it could be considered a plus.

As you might've already read from the artbook descriptions, this artbook also includes Legend of Chun Hyang and CLAMP in Wonderland as well as many little extras (I love the index of the artwork in the back with small explanations of each), so I won't make myself redundant.

Just one thing that might slightly turn some people away from this artwork is that in the CLAMP in Wonderland section, one (and only one that I've noticed) page portrayed explicit nudity (specificially: realistic coloring & shading of the female topless body). I doubt any long-time anime/manga fan would mind this very much, but I'm mentioning this here just the same in case it matters to some people for any reason.

A note about North Side versus South Side is their major difference: The artwork in North Side is from mangas published by Kodansha, while South Side includes artwork from mangas published by Kadokawa Shoten. I personally love the series from North Side a whole lot more, but make sure you check out both artbooks if you're interested!

With that said, if you are a CLAMP fan, this is a MUST have for your collection. Even if you are not familiar with CLAMP, I feel that this artbook is in many ways superior to others due to the high quality of print and artwork. What can I say? This is worth the $30 - and as I am typing this, Amazon has it on sale for $20. It'll be worth every penny! I strongly recommend "CLAMP North Side"!!

I absolutely love this book! It's amazing! Don't think you can just get the pics off the net, because it's so much better seeing the pics in real life, and it really makes a difference. It's worth every penny, and Amazon seems to have it on a permanent sale of twenty rather than thirty dollars. You can't get it any cheaper. Believe me, I looked everywhere. Great quality book, beautiful art and lots of it. The full-spread pics that cover two pages are the only setback, and a minor one.
Now for the contents:

1. Clover: the biggest section. Clover, like fine wine, needs an acquired taste. (I always wanted to say something like that) The art may not hit you at first, but once you get used to the art, you realize how beautiful it is. Clover is so beautiful, and I love the way they draw her hair blowing all over the place. I also love the futuristic mechanical theme and gorgeous, brilliant colors. And Kazuhiko and Suu are the cutest together. Not to mention Ai and Gingetsu. And there are a few stunning pics of Oruha, who I love! Plus all the cover art pics of the four Clover volumes. And a boxed set of Clover should be coming out this August (2005) so I'll finally be able to read another CLAMP masterpiece.
2. Magic Knight Rayearth: Well, I have to say I was disappointed. Of course, there already were two volumes of artwork, so you can't expect to have that much left in this book. Most of the pics were the characters drawn chibi-form. I'm not that crazy about CLAMP's chibi guys anyway, so I wasn't so happy. Magic Knight Rayearth is one of my favorite CLAMP titles so far, so I was expecting more. The good thing was the full-color manga that wasn't included with the tankoban I got and had some crucial info in it. Where do they sleep? What do they eat? And what are there families like? The only problem was that the four pages of each section were squishd together in one page, making some small letters kind of hard to read. Still, there were some gorgeous pics, like the two posters with Emeraude-hime, Lantis and Zagato.
3. Legend of the Dragon Kings: Love the art!! The four boys are so cute. There are the four of them as kings, and a napping series, and a tuxedo series and everything! Kawaii!!!!
4. The Legend of Chun Hyang: Exuberant, energetic and colorful artwork. Chun and her hottie Yumeryu are the stars of this section, with one pic of Chun's mom and one of Chun as the cutest little girl y'ever saw! The full-page spreads of Chun on yellow and the other on red are so beautiful. I've been studying all the pictures of this book for ideas and tips to incorporate in my own drawings, the reason why I bought this book in the first place!
5. CLAMP in Wonderland, CLAMP Campus Web Subschool, Others: the final art section. This section has group pics combining characters from all different series together, from Tokyo Babylon to x/1999 to RG Veda, plus pics with characters you have never seen before. This section also had the only nude picture of the book, a girl taking off her shirt and not wearing anything underneath. Nipples and breasts drawn explicitly, with full color. But it's only the one, so you can rip the page out if you like. Actually, there are a few not-quite nude pics in Clover and MKR, where the breast is not seen clearly, and no nipples are drawn. But don't worry; they're PG rated.
6. Princess Mokona in CLAMP Country: A cute, short manga, very silly, drawn entirely in chibi-mode.
7. Interview: The interview wasn't very personal; it was more facts than anything. The handwriting wasn't really THAT small, like other interviews say. There are also little pictures and footnotes that are useful and fun. But it was fun to read, especially the part on Chobits, the CLAMP series with the best artwork and cutest character!!
8. Comments: Thumbnails of the pictures with comments. Unlike Naoko Takeuchi's comments on her artwork, CLAMP never really personalized the comments. Naoko-sensei (who created Sailor Moon) is a lot like me; she had problems drawing, disliked work after she made it and really loved her stuff. Anyway, the comments were fun.

This book is great! I loved every page of it. Well, some of the pics at the end were ugly to me, but anyway...buy it now!!! If you want series like Legal Drug (ahhh....I just love Kazahaya-who doesn't??) Shirahime-syo and others, check out CLAMP South Side, which has a how to draw section, less extras, but more pics. BUY IT NOW!!!! (Highly recommended)

Clamp North Side is a beautiful collection of art from some of clamps most beloved works. It also contains short manga strips you won't find anywhere else and a very interesting interview with the creators. I'd say this is a must have for any CLAMP fan.

It's mostly pictures and there is an interview.
Contents:
Clover
Magic Knight RayEarth
Sohryuden
Legend of Chun Hyang/Shin Shunkaden
Clamp Newsletter(laboratory,News)
CLAMP in wonderland
Early CLAMP works in some publishers, now discontinued.
CLAMP interviews
Interviews are about CLAMP's experiences, I recommend you to buy this with MKR and RG Veda artbooks.

CLAMP NORTHSIDE FEATURES RAYEARTH OVA,MKR,MKR2,SSD/LEGEND OF CHYUNYANG,CLAMP IN WONDERLAND,CLOVER,SOHRYUDEN however,this artbook has an interview of CLAMP and has descriptions of every image featured