Kobato 2
Posted: June 15, 2010 Filed under: Kobato. 6 Comments »CLAMP – Yen Press – 2010 – 4+ volumes
The second volume does improve on the first, but the first volume was terrible. It was like biting into an onion: it didn’t taste good and ultimately made me cry, and I probably should have known better. This volume does change the story formula from one-shot stories to an ongoing plot, and is significantly better, so that might explain why the first two volumes were released together. Kobato is still nowhere near a strong enough heroine for me to get behind, but an ongoing story is doing the series good. A loan shark plot isn’t necessarily the best fit, and it’s even stranger that a kindergarten is having these problems, but at least I’m not watching Kobato trip all over herself while she tries to figure out appropriate behavior for Christmas.
Well, she still trips all over herself, and characters are constantly pointing this out when it happens, as if the illustration wasn’t enough. But at least it’s mostly the little kindergarten students that are doing the bullying. Kobato is still full of bad jokes that make me angry. And the whole “fill your jar with broken hearts you’ve mended to get your wish” is still a constant reminder that Kobato probably isn’t going anywhere in a hurry. But I did like this volume better. Maybe it can pull off Kobato’s dopey charm over time. I’d love to see if that’s possible, you know?
Also good: the loan shark looks and acts like a dark-haired version of Fai. He would make an excellent loan shark.
Unfortunate: Ioryogi has been relegated to a mascot that spews punchlines. His angry face is wasted on that.
I’m still trying to pick up on any sort of original vibe on the two staff members at the kindergarten. They are so far CLAMP stereotypes, one nice and put-upon, the other gruff but kind. I have no opinion of them, or the rest of the story really, at this time.
Hmm. Let’s see where this goes. It’s CLAMP, so I’m going to keep reading, regardless of whether it gets good or not, but… I mean, there are only so many excuses I have left for CLAMP now that I’m embarking on the end of Tsubasa.
Plus, it makes me cry a little that they are drawing this instead of the end of X, but on the other hand, would I really want CLAMP to finish X if they are… er, in the mood to draw something like this?
I’m just getting tired of Clamp-Sue main characters, I don’t know about you. I guess you could say Kobato is typical fluffy, shoujo-y CLAMP a la Angelic Layer or Cardcaptors, except it isn’t as good as either one of those. I’m always amused that one story can be rot-your-teeth sweet, and another blood-and-guts story could follow right behind it. Since Tsubasa my love for CLAMP has slowly declined, though. Add on the fact they have so many unfinished projects with better premises than their newer stories and you have one pissed off fangirl.
I’m with you on that. I honestly can’t tell if Kobato is intentionally crappy, and I’m supposed to like it as a parody of CLAMP’s early work, or if they honestly don’t know better anymore. I want to like Kobato a little since I can tell they’re trying for a Wish-like story, but I haven’t read Wish in a number of years, so I wonder if I’d still like it if I picked it up. I might, because Wish had that nice romance and characters I remember liking a lot more than these. Also, it didn’t have a terrible sense of humor.
As much as I still like XxXholic, this and Tsubasa will keep me wary of any new CLAMP work from here out that isn’t a continuation of X.
I mean, I don’t HATE Kobato, it’s just,. . . blergh. Why oh why can’t they just finish X? There’d be what, like, two volumes left? End that shit. I think they should just scrap any new projects they were planning after they’re done with Holic/Kobato and dedicate their time to finishing up their older series. Hell, they’re CLAMP, why can’t they send it direct to a publisher, even? No magazine’s gonna pick up X after 18 volumes have already been released.
I wondered if it was going to re-appear in Asuka after all this time if it was to start back up, but I wonder if the content in Asuka has changed over the years that putting it back in would be difficult. It would look dated if they decided to use the same style, and it would be a gigantic tragedy if they resumed it, only to change the style for the last two volumes.
I would make a joke about returning after a six-year absence to face destiny, but it looks like the six year point was last year. Aww.
I’m glad they at least still work for Kodansha, and I really, really hope that they go back to it after xxxHolic. I’d love to see them go back to Legal Drug too, for that matter, but it was cut off so early and so long ago that I don’t remember that much about it. I should re-read it, because it seems to be pretty highly regarded. Unfortunately, I think Tokyopop was forced to give up all its Kodansha licenses, so it might be in English license limbo at the moment. Even so, if it started back up, I’m sure some company would snap it up immediately.
Well that would suck, considering if someone else picked up Legal Drug then the packaging would be different and I HATE when companies (even while in the middle of publishing something) suddenly change the way the volumes look. It’s jarring. But as long as 1.] Clamp finishes it and 2.] it’s released from volume 3 I suppose I can deal.
http://meronichan.livejournal.com/4716.html
Also, I wrote this a while ago. I think you might get a kick out of it.