Blood-C (CLAMP x Production IG)

[MeisterBabylon]

Saya in Saya's mom...

Those who know TRC will no doubt shudder at the significance of those words...

[YuriEcchiGirl]

OMG this amazing new series by Clamp totally rocks & then some! Am really loving it so much!

[Shiroth]

It's only a matter of time now before TRC Syaoran/Sakura or Miyuki-chan appear on screen. My mind would then officially be blown.

[Forsaken_Infinity]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Watched, and enjoyed, much of Card Captor Sakura. Also liked (and finished) Magic Knight Rayearth, and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles. Tried xxxHolic, but never really got into it.

I haven't seen everything CLAMP's done though. My familiarity with CLAMP is pretty much due to my fondness for magical girl properties in general.

Spoiler for CLAMP gossip:

Well, TRC and xxxHolic are so inter-weaved that you didn't really finish one if you didn't finish the other. You would need to have followed xxxHolic to the end to know the whole deal but having followed TRC should have been enough for you to recognize the dog as Watanuki and not get QBesque vibes from it D:

CLAMP does much more than mahou shoujo (although most their work has magic involved one way or the other) and you should really check out some of their older work as some of them are really great. Stuff like Clover, Angelic Layer, Tokyo Babylon, X/1999, Chobits etc. And I am surprised you didn't watch Kobato considering it was recent and more or less hyped.

And the reason you didn't get into xxxHolic as much as the rest of them might be because it's a more mature title (seinen and all) and doesn't really get into all that magic stuff nearly as much as TRC, CCS or MKR does. But imho, it's the better of the duet between TRC and itself. Much better, in fact.

I agree with Kanon in that I really and I mean REALLY hate the involvement of magic - especially from CLAMP's previous works - in this show. Hopefully it doesn't change the details much but I really really want a show that would continue with the feel of TLV. Mature, dark and gritty. I didn't expect Blood C to be it but I hope they don't turn it into just another CLAMP work with Saya in it.

[Dop]

Yay, Watanuki as a dog!

I wasn't expecting that, but hey, it's the CLAMPverse, and EVERYTHING is connected!

[Anh_Minh]

Why the hell did Watanuki wait till he became a talking animal mascot character to stop being a big spaz?

[Reikatan]

Originally Posted by Dop

Yay, Watanuki as a dog!

I wasn't expecting that, but hey, it's the CLAMPverse, and EVERYTHING is connected!

I wasn't either. It was an odd, but interesting twist, but at the same time I'm kind of disappointed by it because I was hoping it would be an independent work for the BLOOD series on its own. Whatever though. Production I.G. owns the rights to the BLOOD franchise and the anime version of xxxHolic, so they can pick whoever they want to write for them and a crossover would legally be plausible without much problem or fuss over copyright and jurisdiction.

Spoiler for BLOOD-C theories:

Also, if Watanuki is the dog, judging by how Tokizane appears to regard Saya and how he acts similar to Syaoran, I'm kind of actually speculating that some how he might be the BLOOD universe's representation of Syaoran and Saya may be a representation of Sakura. There are some other native details to the BLOOD franchise like what happened/what's the connection to the previous Saya and the nature of the experiment, but if Syaoran is dimension hopping per TRC and supposedly refinds Sakura repeatedly every time, it's entirely plausible that the bubble of the town they're in is somehow connected to that scheme. Like maybe something happened to the original Saya and they wanted to help or something and the experiment was created to do that.

Syaoran may have even wished for an end to his endless travels and to be at peace with Sakura, so it maybe possible that BLOOD-C(LAMP) is a means for that to play out.

CLAMP had said that TRC Syaoran and Sakura have to try to make their own happy end through the course of the story, but TRC never truly ended with a real happy end. If they get introduced in BLOOD-C, it would mean closure for TRC and even xxxHolic.

Also, I submit this picture for your own interpretation:
http://tatsuhisasuzuki.sakura.ne.jp/...7/DVC00031.jpg

It was taken by the voice actor for Tokizane when the cast and production staff went out on an outing together. They went to a pizza place downstairs from the location they went to and signed the wall. CLAMP evidently wasn't with them considering the date they signed was in March whereas the cast signed in July, but my first reaction in seeing this was "Why's Yuuko and Mokona there and what does she have to do with BLOOD-C?" I'm supposing the staff might have gone their with CLAMP earlier in the year for the planning of the series, so maybe that's how that picture happened, but who knows. It'll be interesting to see if there is a connection.

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Why the hell did Watanuki wait till he became a talking animal mascot character to stop being a big spaz?

Spoiler for xxxHolic stuff:

I'm guessing the time he spent in Yuuko's stead running the shop might have made him calm the crap down.

[MeisterBabylon]

You guys make papa so proud. @_@

[Xagzan]

If knowledge of other Clamp series is gonna be a requirement for following the plot here, or they make it a crossover, I'm out. I have zero idea what you guys are talking about Watanuki, Yuuko, etc and don't feel like finding a bunch of other series just to watch this one.

[wandering-dreamer]

@Xagzan: Just look up a basic summary of xxxHolic, basically the story revolves around a shop that grants people's wishes at a price.

And, since several people have mentioned it, does anyone have a translation for the opening song? Since NicoNico doesn't sub it I think it's safe to ask, especially since apparently it's rather important here.....

[Reticia]

Originally Posted by wandering-dreamer

And, since several people have mentioned it, does anyone have a translation for the opening song? Since NicoNico doesn't sub it I think it's safe to ask, especially since apparently it's rather important here.....

You should try Doki, even though they misunderstand the second french part of the song (they put "Apocalypse for me to know" where the singer says "L'apocalypse maintenant", which means "The apocalypse right now")

[User165949]

Originally Posted by wandering-dreamer

@Xagzan: Just look up a basic summary of xxxHolic, basically the story revolves around a shop that grants people's wishes at a price.

and the tone of the show manages to be both bittersweet and eerie and funny and warm, all of the leads are basically respectable people,

that's why the involvement of Watanuki Kimihiro,

and possibly a certain tall and very beautiful dark haired woman with an attitude similar to the teacher (indeed, several aspects of her role resemble Yuuko's),

are regarded by some of us as very good news to the show, if they manage to influence the mood.

To people that don't know about XXXHolic and don't have time to watch it:

I'd suggest to watch Xxxholic and Xxxholic Kei OPs can get the gist of the mood of that show.

It'll take 3 minutes only.


btw, indeed (someone else pointed that out before me) the simlarly haired Himawarichaaaaaan! is vaguely reminiscent of this Saya "role", with her always suffering

-------

TRC, well, I'm going to be not accurate, in order to say only what could be relevant to blood-c:

Syaoran and Sakura are deeply in love with each other since - well - forever, they trust each other in an absolute way, and they need each other presence as if they were a vital part of each other.

And "of course" they seem destined to just "somewhat meet" and never stay together in an accomplished way.

Their story cross dimensions, parallel worlds in which "same-soul" people can be found (e.g. some character in dimension A could be "basically the same thing" as another character in dimension B).


TRC and Xxxholic are very strongly bound together, but I won't go into the details.

I'll just mention one side fact that might pop up in Blood-C : Yuuko - how can I say it, she's been a mentor to Watanuki for a very long time - is often called the Dimensional Witch.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by wxyz

and the tone of the show manages to be both bittersweet and eerie and funny and warm, all of the leads are basically respectable people, that's why the involvement of Watanuki Kimihiro, and possibly a certain tall and very beautiful dark haired woman with an attitude similar to the teacher (indeed, several aspects of her role resemble Yuuko's), are regarded by some of us as very good news to the show, if they manage to influence the mood.

I fail to see how the involvement of xxxholic's characters in this series could be a good thing. For instance, the involvement of magical elements is already a concern, since a signature feature of the Blood franchise has always been the lack of mysticism; everything preternatural was always explained trough science. Going the fantasy rote now is baffling for me.

More than that so, I just would hate to see them using Blood as an excuse to showcase Clamp's usual set of characters. I understand this is Clamp, but is Blood first and foremost, or so it should be. If I wanted to see Watanuki I'd go watch xxxholic.

[User165949]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

For instance, the involvement of magical elements is already a concern, since a signature feature of the Blood franchise has always been the lack of mysticism

I definitely agree.

But personally I can't consider Blood-C a "true" Blood series anymore.

If it is, then it looks as an almost complete and unrecoverable failure.


Therefore, we could pretend this is not Blood, and enjoy the show for what delivers weekly, and hope that some kind of blood transfusion (sic) from other series might revive it where it's lacking.

I understand this is Clamp, but is Blood first and foremost, or so it should be.

This should have been it, but it's not.

As I said elsewhere, I fear that not only it's a severely flawed Blood show, but ultimately could impair the Blood franchise. I'd like to see more Blood renditions in future, but if this one sinks commercially and damage the franchise, we can forget our hopes about it.


As a series, it's not that unbearable, but calling it "Blood" was probably - in retrospect - possibly a horribly wrong choice.

[Endrance]

Like the new blood series and all but gotta say miss the vampires all though i guess those elder whatevers..? are ok too

[YuriEcchiGirl]

Just like X, Blood-C is definately a lot more graphic in it's violent content this time around

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

More than that so, I just would hate to see them using Blood as an excuse to showcase Clamp's usual set of characters. I understand this is Clamp, but is Blood first and foremost, or so it should be. If I wanted to see Watanuki I'd go watch xxxholic.

At the end of the day this is CLAMP's Blood C, so they can do what they want with it.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

At the end of the day this is CLAMP's Blood C, so they can do what they want with it.

That wasn't the point.

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

That wasn't the point.

You're saying Blood should come first, though the point i'm making is that it always depends on the creator behind the project. CLAMP should be allowed to do what they want.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

You're saying Blood should come first, though the point i'm making is that it always depends on the creator behind the project. CLAMP should be allowed to do what they want.

You don't understand what I'm getting at. Blood is already an established franchise, known for certain kind of characters and storylines. No matter who you are, if you want to do a Blood series, instead of an original work, you got to keep that in mind. For instance, Blood+ was pretty different from the original BTLV but still presented the main characteristics that makes a Blood series Blood. Right now Blood-C, on the other hand, is a Blood series in name only. It has nothing to do with anything Blood.

That said, I agree with wxyz that it's probably a good thing for this series to become TRC or Holic 2, or whatever, since it already failed as a Blood series.