Just a heads up that the official website of the Kobato. TV Anime added a report from the Kobato. Museum that is being held at the Ikebukuro Animate store until November 1st.

Check it out here. I like that new anime illustration right at the museum's entrance with Kobato and Ushagi =)

Update: Jun Fukuyama updated his blog to include some pictures of his upcoming album Romantic World 31.

Among the pictures, it's possible to see a new illustration drawn by CLAMP:


Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them.
So XXXHOLiC-ish! I like it =D

Romantic World 31 will be released on November 26.

Special thanks to clstmk-san for letting me know about this!!

As I reported previously, CLAMP would draw the art for voice actor Jun Fukuyama's original album called Romantic World 31. The cover would be a collage between CLAMP's art and Jun Fukuyama's picture.

Today Jun Fukuyama posted on his official blog the album covers, check them out:


Click on the thumbnails to enlarge them.
The first cover is for the regular edition and the second one for the special limited edition.

I really like them! But my favorite is the second. I loved the flying fishes *loves CLAMP's flying fishes xD*

This album will be released on November 26.

Amazon.co.jp has the front and back cover of the ALL ABOUT CLAMP book:


This is the book version of the CLAMP Newtype [PLATINUM] and [PASTEL] special magazines originally published in 2006, it carries information about all CLAMP works and also X 18.5.

This will be released on October 26.

What a disappointment. Not only the illustrations aren't new, but the typography is also hideous xD

Changing to Kobato. now, NHK has a video from the Kobato. TV Anime press conference that was held earlier this month. Check it out here.

Kana Hanazawa is so adorable it hurts!

A new illustration drawn by CLAMP of the "Happy Ko" character was broadcast today in NHK's kids show, Ten TV-kun MAX (or whatever it's called xD):


The illustration above was taken from the show's official website. There's also a message from CLAMP, they said that this time the clothes are matching the arrival of the Autumn.

"Happy Ko" is a character played by one of the show's young hostesses, Fujii Chiho, she presents the "Girls Corner" of the show.

So cute! I'm glad it was a new drawing after all =)

The Kobato. anime starts today and has already aired in Japan! Who else is excited? \o/\o/\o/

Here is the cover (drawn by CLAMP) of the book version of Kamigami no Utatane, the fantasy novel by Atsuko Asano serialized in Animedia magazine:


I think it's beautiful! Just a reminder that the final two chapters of the book also have illustrations by CLAMP.

The book will be released on September 29.

Voice actor Jun Fukuyama (who voices Watanuki in XXXHOLiC) will release an original album on November 26 called Romantic World 31 (浪漫的世界31).

The CD's jacket will feature a collage of CLAMP's original drawing and a picture of Jun Fukuyama.


Click to enlarge it.

Looking forward to this collage thing xD

Also, for the wallpaper lovers, the official website of the Kobato. TV Anime has a few of them =)

Update: Check out the album's official hotsite.

Here is the drawing that Mokona did for the 30th Anniversary celebrations of Gundam that was published in this month's Newtype magazine:


Click to enlarge it.
A little disappointing, isn't it? XD I somehow expected a full page xD It's adorably cute, though xD

If you are interested, you can download this month's Newtype magazine via this link. The magazine includes the most recent Kobato. chapter and the TV Anime article, the Code Geass illustration that CLAMP drew for Newtype's pin-up calendar and a report from CLAMP's visit to Paris.

CLAMP-NET.COM updated today to include two news!

The first bit of news is that CLAMP will draw the cover for the book release of Kamigami no Utatane (神々の午睡（かみがみのうたたね）). The fantasy novel was written by Atsuko Asano and its chapters were serialized in Animedia magazine.

During its serialization, various artists were invited to draw illustrations for the novel, including CLAMP, who drew for the final two chapters. Those illustrations are also going to be included in the book release.

The novel was originally published in Animage under the title 神々たちの午睡, which I translated as Kamigami-tachi no Gosui. Apparently for the book release the title has been changed.

You can check the illustrations that CLAMP draw for the novel here and here.

Yay for CLAMP being picked to draw the cover, out of all artists who have drawn for the book! =)

The 272-pages book will be released on September 29.

---------------------------
The second news is that Kobato. will have a 2010 calendar!

It will feature 13 illustrations, 12 previously released and 1 new illustration. It'll be a desktop calendar, B5-sized with a special case.

Reservations will start on September 30 for a November 20 official release.

Very much looking forward to the new illustration =D But desktop calendar and B5 size sounds small =/

Here is a first look at the new Code Geass R2 illustration drawn by CLAMP which will be featured in the Newtype pin-up calendar as the month of October:


Click for slightly bigger version.

The illustration will be published in this month's Newtype magazine, out on August 10.

I really like the chess motif =D

Thanks Aurelia for letting me know about this! =D

I honestly don't know when I'll stop talking about CLAMP in Paris xD Probably when the news stop coming ^^;

First let's start with a new article published in ParisMatch.com featuring a very nice new picture of the CLAMP members. The interview was conceived just before going to the opening party of the CLAMP exposition in Paris.


The article reveals that more than 110 million copies of CLAMP mangas have been sold worldwide so far. Also, Ohkawa tells ParisMatch that CLAMP works 12 hours per day and 25 days per month.

Thanks clamp_now for the tip!

Next, this video provided by HachetteVideos in shows some footage of CLAMP in Japan Expo from July 4.


The video is available in HD quality and I have ripped and uploaded the HD version (72 MB) in MegaUpload for anyone interested in keeping the video.

Lastly, gettyimages has 3 videos from the interview that CLAMP gave to the AFP press agency on July 3. This is the raw version of the interview, all in japanese, no french translation. There are other 2 videos (a raw version and an english version) about shoujo manga with some new CLAMP footage as well.



To download the videos, click on the Download 4:3 preview clip link at the sidebar. Since they are preview clips, all videos are watermarked.

Interview (raw) / Shoujo manga + CLAMP (raw) / Shoujo manga + CLAMP (english)

I love when Ohkawa says "It wasn't as if we decided that we didn't want men, but it just ended up that we were all women" xD

Second day of Japan Expo, first day of CLAMP activities.

Today there was a sign session and the CLAMP Cosplay contest. I left after the contest so I don't know if there was a second sign session. I heard a rumor that it got canceled but I have to confirm that. The Cosplay Contest did end much later than planned so maybe it's true. Anyone can confirm that?

The signing rooms at Japan Expo are in an open area, basically anyone can watch the artists doing the signs, even if they haven't won any tickets, which is pretty cool.

I think the first session had around 50 to 100 people, and CLAMP greeted each one of them and the fans were able to talk to them and ask questions. If anyone here won a ticket or knows someone who has, and if they asked any questions, please let me know the question and answer! ^^

Unlike the signing sessions from the USA and Korea, CLAMP did not give a special signing board do sign on, you could bring anything for CLAMP to sign on.

They were very generous with the fans, Mokona took pictures from two girls with her cellphone camera because of the way they looked.

Later there was the CLAMP Cosplay contest where CLAMP were the judges. Each member chose a winner individually and CLAMP as a group chose another winner.

Satsuki Igarashi chose a CLOVER group with Suu, Kazuhiko and Oruha.
Mokona picked a Code Geass duo with Cornelia and Euphie.
Tsubaki Nekoi chose a Blck and White Mokona duo.
Nanase Ohkawa picked a Sakura Kinomoto.

CLAMP as a group chose a Card Captor Sakura duo made of a Sakura and a Syaoran. I really liked that duo, the performance was so funny and the music was great, it was one of my favorites.

The winners got CLAMP's autographs and other official goodies such as clearfiles and shitajikis.

However, originally there should have been only one winner picked by CLAMP as a group, but there was a duo from Tsubasa made of a Syaoran and a Sakura that CLAMP liked so much, that they decided to give them a priwe too.

They promised to draw something to them and they also gave to them their Ioryogi plush toy that used to be in CLAMP's studio and that Nekoi carried around everywhere in their events.

I have a few pictures and videos, but I'm not allowed to share them until monday but please look forward to them!

On other news, CLAMP was featured in today's edition of the french newspaper Le parisien. They were interviewed in their hotel room just before leaving for the opening of their art exhibition that I mentioned yesterday. There's a very cool nez picture of CLAMP members sitting on a bed.


Click to enlarge it.
Special thanks goes to flowright for scanning the article!

MyCom and GameSpot have articles about the upcoming release of Tekken 6, in the MyCom one it's possible to see the extra costume designed by CLAMP for the character Jin Kazama:


It's also possible to check how the costume will look like in the video game itself (extremely faithful if you ask me!).

Also, by the way, I sort of have an announcement to make! Tomorrow I'll be flying to Paris, France, where I'll be attending to Japan Expo! No need to say that I will do as much as I possibly can to bring as much info as I possibly can! Also, I would like to meet as much people as I possibly can too xD If you're going, make sure to meet me (how? I've no idea, but just do it xD)

My trip also implies that there might be some delay of posting the possible news that might come up during the period while I'm there, and while I would like to apologize in advance, I honestly hope that you can understand that =)

I'm very excited and hoping to meet some of you there!

CLAMP is involved in yet another collaboration project.

This time they were invited to design an extra costume for the character Kazuma Jin of Namco's game Tekken 6, from the popular Tekken series.

The game will be relased for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and it's scheduled for Autumn 2009.

Here's a preview of the costume designed by CLAMP:


According to CLAMP-NET.COM, more details along with CLAMP's comments will be published in this week's Shonen Magazine.

This is the first time CLAMP draws for a game.

I used to play Tekken 3 so much xD I really love this series, I'm very glad CLAMP is involved in this project.

For those who were curious about it, here is the paper message that comes as a bonus for those who purchase Satsuki Igarashi's Shimarisu no Hoobukuro book in one of the 10 selected Animate stores:


On other news, CLAMP made a slight participation in NHK's show TV Senshi, sort of.

TV Senshi is a show aimed at children and young teenagers. In today's episode, one of the young hostesses, Fujii Chiho, asked her favorite mangaka (CLAMP) to draw her character "Happy Ko" from one of the show's corners, Girls Communication.

CLAMP members themselves didn't appear on the show, only the illustration they did of "Happy Ko":


Click to enlarge it.

Here's a picture of Fujii Chiho:


I thought CLAMP's drawing was adorably similar xD Also quite a lot like Tomoyo.

Update: I thought that was the full illustration, but no! Here is the same illustration in a wider view:


Click to enlarge it.

Update 2: The show's official website has the illustration in its full extent!

CLAMP joined with Mihara Ichirou and Shinji Hosoe, both from the game developer company ARIKA, to create an original music video using the popular japanese software Vocaloid.

Quoting Wikipedia,

Vocaloid is a singing synthesizer application software developed by the Yamaha Corporation that enables users to synthesize singing by just typing in lyrics and melody.

Basically it's a software that anyone can buy and make music. It has become really popular in Japan as of recently and people are uploading both covers of famous musicians and original materials on video-sharing websites such as NicoNico Douga and YouTube.

And it seems like CLAMP decided to make, or participate in, one of their own! The song is called Mugen no Yami(Infinite Darkness)―echo of the past[original] (無限の闇―echo of the past【オリジナル 】) and as the title says, it's an original song.

CLAMP did the illustrations for the video, Mihara Ichirou from ARIKA did the animation and the music composition was in charge of Shinji Hosoe, who works with music composition for games. Nanase Ohkawa posted a message yesterday about the video on CLAMP-NET.COM.

The video originally appeared on Nico Nico Douga, but you can also watch it on YouTube:

You can download the video in MP4 format here.

I really liked this collaboration thing. The illustrations are gorgeous, I wish we could see them in their raw version. I really hope they do more of those, even if it apparently it was made just for fun ^^

Update: Reading the messages posted by CLAMP, they all said to be really happy about the video, that they had a great time "playing serious" (even though for that they said they had to reduce sleep time xD). Nanase Ohkawa and Mokona both said they wanted to do it again.

Here's the illustration that CLAMP drew for this month's issue of VOGUE NIPPON magazine, scanned by flowright.


Click to go to a photo album with enlarged versions.
The illustration features fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. That same illustration became a T-shirt that is currently being sold at the VOGUE NIPPON × Comme des Garçons MAGAZINE ALIVE store (seen in one of the pics above).

The store is a collaboration between VOGUE NIPPON and the label Comme des Garçons to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the magazine. The store officially opened on May 28 in Tokyo and will run for 6 months. The T-shirt will be sold as long as the store lasts.

This is part of a collaboration project between 7 manga artists and 7 fashion personalities:

Karl Lagerfeld × CLAMP
Marc Jacobs × Egawa Tatsuya
John Gagliano × Moto Hagio
Donatella Versace × Monkey Punch
Hedi Slimane × Yamato Waki
Gisele Bündchen × Makimura Satoru
Coco Rocha × Peach-Pit

Mainichi has pictures of all the T-shirts.

kitsune_no_ame has previews of this month's anime magazines Newtype and Animedia over here.

In Animedia, CLAMP drew the illustrations for the final chapter of the novel Kamigami-tachi no Gosui.



So pretty! But this time we got less pages =/

In Newtype, there's an advertisement for Satsuki Igarashi's book, Shimarisu no Hoobukuro (しまりすのほおぶくろ, translated by Newtype USA as Chipmunk Cheeks), where it's possible to check its cover:



Satsuki Igarashi's Shimarisu no Hoobukuro goes on sale June 10.