CLAMP + Tekken = Heaven
While sifting through all the gaming news that comes out over the course of a week, I couldn't help but stop and check out the article entitled "CLAMP Collaberates With Tekken 6 Team" . . . Uso! If you know what Manga is, I'm sure you've heard CLAMP mentioned before. The reigning queens of Manga, CLAMP is a four women manga-ka, known for such great titles as Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits, X/1999, as well as their most recent hit Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE.
After reading the article and finding out that CLAMP was going to design some costumes for the next Tekken game, I was estatic. I have always loved CLAMP and their designs, I couldn't help but wonder how the rest of the gaming community would take this news though. I've known my share of video gamers that are Anime and Manga Otakus as well. There are also those gamers who absolutely hate Anime and Manga and anything associated with them. After reading the comments, it was definitely a mixed reaction. A lot of people mentioned that CLAMP is completely Shojo, that their works are geared towards girls and that Tekken didn't need any "pretty" and "girly" costumes.
It's true that a lot of their work can be catagorized as Shojo. CLAMP is known for their detailed and ostentacious designs that can be loud and a bit unrealistic. But isn't that what Tekken is all about too? Highly stylized fights with crazy characters who battle it out in all kinds of locales. Mix in a bit of fantasy clothing and it completely changes the look of Tekken. It's not like CLAMP is revamping the whole entire wardrobe, just designing a few set pieces for the biggest characters.
I'm definitely interested to see how everything turns out. Getting Japan's (and the world's) greatest Manga-ka to work on one of Japan's best selling fighting games, Tekken 6 might get the extra boost of publicity that they needed, after loosing momentum caused by the release delay. I do hope that this doesn't turn out to be a habit of CLAMP's though. I like seeing them exploring different media to showcase their work and expand into new territory but at the same time, I wish they would just focus on their current Manga series and finish them already! Plus, with CLAMP designing the characters for Code Geass, which was written and produced by another Manga-ka, I can't help but wonder if they are moving away from creating their own original works. Maybe their next project will be designing characters for the next Final Fantasy game.
