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Title: Tokyo Babylon Vol. 5
ISBN: 1595320490
Author:
Publicate Date: 2005-01-11
Publish: 2005-01-11
List Price: $9.99
Average Customer Rating: 5.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $4.99
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $2.85
Amazon Merchant Price: $9.99
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1: TB
Ahh, how I love Tokyo Babylon. Its probably my favorite work by CLAMP (and one of their oldest). The story, the characters, its all just so wonderful. A bit bittersweet though, and some of the stories will bring a tear to your eye while others will turn your stomach..or maybe both. =) I find it to be an endearing story.......but maybe I'm just an evil tokyo babylon fangirl.
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2: Supernatural Shojo
A tale of good and evil, light and darkness, innocence and corruption, Tokyo Babylon is a powerful drama.
Subaru Sumeragi is a deeply compassionate sixteen year old medium/exorcist who uses his gift to aid lost spirits and the possessed. After a hard day or night's work, he comes home to his devoted, vivacious twin sister Hokuto, whose favorite hobby seems to be trying to hook Subaru up with their friend Seishirou - a veterinarian nine years their senior - in spite of reservations due to the fact that he belongs to a family with a reputation of being in the assassination business that they both choose to ignore.
The interaction between the three reaches it's climax in the final volume, with hints throughout the series about how things might ultimately turn out, but Subaru's interaction with the people he tries to help is interesting in itself. The series handles such topics as gang rape, child abuse, treatment of the elderly, and the ethics of organ transplantation - pretty heavy subject matter.
Subaru himself is a highly unique hero. Professional and competent but without a shred of conceit, he would prefer to lead a quiet life but cannot turn his back on the suffering. Not arrogant enough to believe he can change the world, all he knows how to do is unconditionally love everyone who comes his way, and he's one of those special people who make the world a better place just by being in it. But no one can fix everything, and the underlying question of the series is whether or not Subaru will break if and when he finally faces an evil that might be more than he can handle...
At a relatively short seven volumes, Tokyo Babylon is a manga any fan of either angst or the supernatural should have in their collection.
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3: "A save Tokyo City Story"
....but it really isn't. Actually, that is the last thing I would call this master work from the four woman powerhouse with the awesome stories and the drool-worthy men that is CLAMP. "A save Tokyo City Story" denotes that this would be a story full of giant robots and superheroes, rather than delicate men with supernatural powers and the secrets they hide. I'll summarize for you: Subaru is a naive(ish) sixteen year old boy who follows his family's profession as the Onmyouji (literally yin-yang magician)for Tokyo, where he sorts out the spirits of the dead and their (often multiple) problems. Along the way he is accompanied by sometimes shallow twin sister Hokuto and his crush, the older, mysterious Seishirou. And that's all I'm gonna say! Heh heh. Buy it, rent it from the library, borrow it from a friend or read it in the store, you won't be dissapointed by the fabulous artwork and dark atmosphere of this "Save Tokyo City Story".
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4: My absolute favorite CLAMP manga
As the title says, this is my absolute favorite CLAMP manga, and i have the utmost faith that anyone who reads it will love at the very least one scene. me, i love it all....
From start to finish, this is an amazing and gripping manga. CLAMP does an amazing job with the illustrations, every character and scene thoroughly CLAMP. The story and characters are amazingly complex and human, making this very worth reading.
The summary on the back of Tokyopop's cover doesn't do it nearly justice. I love it thoroughly, but if I had just picked the first volume up and read the back cover, I probably wouldn't have read it. The back cover makes it seem slightly horror creepy-ish, and while that element is there, it is by no means the main focus of the manga. It's the story of Sumeragi Subaru, the 13th head of the Sumeragi clan, an onmyoji who does exorcise spirits, but it is his relationships with the rest of the characters that really make the story. These relationships range from sibling bonds, friendship, love, and everything inbetween. The manga is filled with almost every human emotion, especially CLAMP's early favorite, angst, which is very apparent in the last two volumes. *cries over vol. 7*
Tokyopop does an actually pretty good job with the translations. They leave in the oh-so-important honorifics, and leave the characters intact, with Subaru-kun's 16-year-old uber-cuteness, naivete, with all his blushing and stammering, and the adorable pull-the-hat-over-the-eyes trick *squee!!*, Hokuto-chan's "Ohohoho"'s, her attempts to set up Sei-chan and Subaru-kun, her outrageous outfits, and the ability to be goofy and seemingly shallow one scene and sweet and deeep the next, and Seishirou-san's seductions of Subaru-kun, the feeling that underneath the kind vetrinarian exterior, there's more....(*alter ego hits w/ fan to prevent spoilers*), and his speeches. All of the trio are as complex characters as to make them completely unforgettable, and all three of them have made a permananet spot in my heart. You really should go out and at the VERY least read the first volume.
It's an amazing series, and a lot of fun to read.
OH! and the sakura petals!!! ^_^ ...the sakurazukamori.....read and you'll find out...^_~
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5: I didn't know what I was getting into
I absolutely loved this manga. It was the first time I'd read anything by Clamp, and I can't say that I was disappointed! Don't let the somewhat bland covers or common "Save Tokyo City" summary fool you - inside is an absolutely brilliant work of art.
You've read the summary already, so I won't bore you with the details on that. I will tell you, though, that it is definitely worth the read - and that shounen-ai, or boy love, plays a fairly large role in this. I would still recommend this to almost everyone, even if you're uncertain on whether to pick up a manga in which men love men.
Anyway.
The artwork is absolutely, positively beautiful - the characters are distinctive and wonderfully done, and the backgrounds and scenery are startlingly realistic. Some may not like the blacks, but I personally rather like the high contrast. It was quite a surprise to see that the twins were so similar in appearance but you could still tell them apart easily - something that can't be easy. And Subaru may be distinctly feminine, but Seishiro is definitely not - something that isn't extremely common in this type of manga. Panels with artwork in colour are on the inside of the front cover and are absolutely wonderful.
The plot is very nice. Subaru is an onmyoji who seeks to aid souls of the dead and the living. Doesn't seem too exciting yet? Throw in his overly exuberant twin sister, Hokuto, and his suitor, Seishiro (who happens to be the heir of the rival Sakurazuka Clan), and events in his past that he can't quite remember, and you've got quite an interesting story going on!
The characters are wonderful. Subaru is the innocent, almost na??ve protagonist who is willing to do anything to help others; Hokuto is wonderfully different, loud and enthusiastic; and Seishiro is the one you can't be too certain about, for his family - for the Sakurazuka Clan is one of assassins - belies is kindly and amicable nature. When you take Seishiro's romantic advances, Hokuto's consistent attempts to get her brother and Seishiro together, and Subaru's embarrassment at the whole ordeal into consideration, you've got plenty of comic relief. And yet, the main plot - Subaru's attempts to ease wounded souls - overshadows a more serious and sinister secondary plot involving Subaru and Seishiro, their onmyoji powers, and that mysterious event that Subaru can't remember all too clearly and that is hinted at from volume to volume....
Left in its original, unflipped format, Tokyo Babylon is definitely quite a read. The translation doesn't seem to be all to bad, and suffixes and name order are left untouched, each of which is a definite plus. This series has, so far, gotten progressively darker, so be careful what you get into. The rating of 13+ is deserved, warranted by some violence, blood and gore, minor sexual references and dark themes, and while the first volume never gets too serious, these do show up in later volumes. You have been warned.
This is a manga that you definitely get into and can read over and over again; it's worth the money to buy it. Tokyo Babylon is definitely a manga to read.
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