COLOR Kuro & COLOR Shiro Review • UK Anime News

Book reviews can be complicated when you’re dealing with different publishers, and they’re no more complicated than dealing with the work of a group of people who have been creating manga for over 35 years for different companies in their home country, resulting in two different collections of their art being released by two different companies at the same time.

That said, it’s the legacy of CLAMP, an all-female manga collective making its official debut R. G. Vedstarted in 1989, which are still working, having recently been revived xxxHOLiC: Ray after a long break (still waiting for it X although the hiatus will be lifted after 20 years). These artbooks, COLOR Kuro (black) and COLOR Broad (white) were originally released as part of last year’s CLAMP Art Show and have managed to make it to an official English release – not that many languages ​​are translated as the books are mostly pictures, but we’ll get to that later.

Of course, many artbooks about CLAMP’s work have been released before. Almost every title they’ve made has had at least one, and there are larger collections like 2009’s All about CLAMP by Kadokawa Shoten, which contains numerous extras, including unpublished remaining chapters X which were recently reissued in Japan as volume 18.5. However, none of these books have been translated into English, so these two COLOR books are first of all.

go away is published by Yen Press, who recently provided us with a new edition of an early CLAMP title Tokyo Babylonas well as Kobato when he first debuted. Shiro comes from Kodansha, who went to town with a few special editions of CLAMP favorites like Cardcaptor Sakura and Magic Knight Reiort. They also printed xxxHOLiC but we haven’t heard any news yet that they are releasing a new one xxxHOLiC: Ray manga

Obviously, the two books are very similar. Both are rated Teen, and Yen says part of the reason for that is the nudity. Both cost around £40, are A4 in size, 144 pages and printed on high quality glossy paper. Each book ends with brief descriptions of where each piece of artwork debuted, and both showcase works from nearly every series in the CLAMP canon, with the only works not appearing being recently revived xxxHOLiC: Ray and, unfortunately, a neglected and never translated one-off You are a manufacturer. As a result, if you buy just one of these books, you’ll still be able to see art from (almost) every CLAMP title, big and small. No single series is limited to a specific artbook.

Then we move on to the differences. First, there is no artwork in either book, so both Shiro and go away these are completely different works. in go awaythere is a short translation note on one of the photos, namely one of Seishiro with X where he translates some graffiti from Japanese to English. ShiroThe final page features two artworks from last year’s CLAMP exhibition, one of which depicts Sakura in a modern Clear the card era, and the other Ashura from R. G. Ved. Given that one image has the word “Shiro” above it and the other has “Kuro” above it, I don’t see why both images had to be in the same book when it would have made more sense to separate them.

As for the art itself, it’s hard to say anything that hasn’t already been said about CLAMP art. For many, it’s the art that makes their work stand out, and in these two books you’ll see a wide range of their work, from fantastic series themes like Rayearth to a science fiction setting Cloverand from the wild fashion to be seen in Tokyo Babylon to slightly more risky adventures Miyuki-chan in Wonderlandso I think these books are rated for teens (this includes the bath scene and the scene where Miyuki-chan’s school uniform is so wet that her bra is visible underneath).

One of the advantages of printing these books as they are is that you can get a much more detailed look at these images, and thus not only appreciate the quality of the work they have done, but also the little details that you might have missed before when you could only see black and white images in print manga or a lower resolution computer image. It’s great to be introduced to so many illustrations and to witness the different techniques, motifs and variety of characters and styles that CLAMP has used over his long career.

In addition to the aforementioned note about Seishiro’s photo in go awaythe only major translation is in the First Appearance section, which provides brief notes on where each artwork first debuted. As a result, there wasn’t much work for Yen’s Amanda Healy and Codanza’s Greg Moore, although Moore also Shiroeditor, while Jacqueline Lee does it for go away. The book covers were created in Japan by Miyuki Yamaguchi, aka Veiya, and the deceptively simple use of the word “COLOR” to place the images is wonderful.

I wouldn’t say either book is perfect: adding a note over the image in the Kiro when it might be on the First Appearance pages, it’s a bit annoying; using two original images from the CLAMP exhibition at Shiro instead of dividing them seems unfair; and at £40 each, both books are expensive, although the quality of each book explains the prices. Still, as a CLAMP fan, they’re both a pleasure to own, and it’s still nice to look back at their work after all these years and still admire the high standard.

Our review copy of Kuro was provided by Yen Press and our review copy of Kodansha’s Shiro was provided by Diamond Book Distributors UK.