Tsubasa #27 appeared again in some of this week's rankings! Check out more details after the cut.

( Tsubasa #27 Sales Report )

On other news, Dark Horse had a panel at Fanime 2009 earlier this week and Carl Horn briefly talked about Mangettes and working with CLAMP. AnimeVice has video streaming from the panel in 6 parts. On Part 3, Carl Horn talks about the CLOVER Omnibus edition released by Dark Horse recently. Mangettes is featured in Part 4.

No new information has been given, but it's still worth checking as he talks about how much of a creative control CLAMP will have over this project.

Maybe the only new information is that new information will be announced at Book Expo America (which starts tomorrow).

• CLAMP-NET.COM

As promised, CLAMP-NET.COM updated again with messages from the CLAMP members. They are mostly welcome messages congratulating the website's renewal. Mokona mentioned that now it looks more like a mangaka website, which is just what I thought too xD

There are brand new SDs too!


So adorable XD

• Tsubasa & XXXHOLiC OADs

The official website for the Tsubasa and XXXHOLiC OADs has a new illustration on its homepage, check it out!



• Mangettes: Gate 7

Amazon.co.jp no longer lists Mangettes: Gate 7 on their website. This is getting a little weird xD

• CLAMP Day

Happy CLAMP Day to you! Happy birthday to all Sakuras out there, all Watanukis and clone Syaoran! Am I forgetting someone? xD

I used to think (based on rumors I heard several years ago) that CLAMP's own birthday was on April 1st, but I was never completely sure of that given that there was no official info to base on. Now, with the new addition on CLAMP-NET.COM that traces their time-line, it's possible to see that the first chapter of RG Veda was published in March, not April. They don't give specific dates, though.

The thing is, I don't think CLAMP themselves know the date xD However, it's very clear that they love this date, April 1st, therefore, I consider it as a very CLAMPy day.

So belated or not,

Happy 20th Anniversary CLAMP! ^__^

• Thank you

Lastly, lastly! I forgot to mention it yesterday because I was so excited with CLAMP-NET.COM's new layout, but I'll say it now.

I would like to deeply thank everyone who voted or somehow gave me support on my cover at the CLAMP Fanbook contest! I won! So I want to share this victory to everybody to helped for it! Thank you all so much, specially to all of you who voted without knowing the cover was mine!

Amazon.co.jp has the cover of CLAMP's upcoming new manga, Mangettes: Gate 7!


Although Amazon reports it'll be released in 2010, the release date remains being August, 2009 (got this confirmed by Dark Horse itself).

Major thanks to clamp_now for pointing this out!

OMG!

First official art!!!!!!! XD

My impressions! It looks SO XXXHOLiC! I'm not sure if that's a good thing. Sure, I love XXXHOLiC's unique style, but I wanted something new? However, it's just one picture, I'm sure it has its own singularities. But it looks very XXXHOLiC, the patterns and the lotus flower, etc.

The girl, Hana! I thought she would be older, the summary said she was a high-schooler but I expected someone like Arashi, but it's fine! I thought she would have dark hair so that I was right about! And her hair is as long as Kobato's, nice! Maybe the lotus flowers are because of her name, that means flower.

The creature! Is it a little calf? If that's so, that's new in CLAMP! It looks so cute xD It's the creature that helps her when she's in the dream world.

The logo! I don't like the typography at first, looks simple to me O.o And what are those symbols? Is that japanese?

The art! Definitely Mokona. At least the girl, the creature might be Nekoi as usual.

Very very much looking forward to this! What do you think? ^^

Amazon Canada is now listing the upcoming new CLAMP manga, Mangettes: Gate 7, and along with it, we have the first official details from the story!

Between our conscious, waking world and the subconscious state of slumber, there is a thinly veiled plane of lucid dreaming. While the conscious state belongs to individuals, the hidden plane of dreams is one shared by all human minds, past, present, and future. Yet only a few have ever possessed the power to enter this secret realm at will - where a war is being waged to control the waking world. For our earthly wishes and desires are not our own, but under the manipulation of these unseen masters of dreams. The heroine of Gate 7 is Hana, a high-school girl hailing from Kyoto, the daughter of a temple caretaker. Her peaceful ways give her the self-control to act in the hidden realm. But Hana can only reach it through the strange beast that acts as her totem in the world of dreams - and her companion on a journey to confront the puppeteers of our reality!

Amazon Canada gives a release date too, Mangettes: Gate 7 is slated for August 15, 2009.

Source: Kuriousity. And thanks a lot to everyone who let me know about it! Love you guys ♥

As for the plot, it sounds so interesting and promising! CLAMP handles really well dream sequences (see X), I'm eagerly looking forward to see their surrealism again. The plot reminded me a lot of their one-chapter-long Yumegari novel: high-school girl who can enter inside dreams. Pieces of it also reminded me of Matrix (the part where the dream world control the waking world). Very very interesting.

As for the title, Gate 7, mysterious at the very least. Is it a gate that leads access to the dream world? Or a gate the heroine will have to pass through at some point? And of course the number 7 had to be there, out of all numbers xD It's too soon for speculations, I better stop xD

More information as they come!

I didn't expect these to be revealed so soon!

Here's a preview from the special cards of CLAMP in CARDLAND Series 5, from this week's official website update:


The one from the left is the Point Card and the one from the right, Secret Card.

I thought Ashura would be grown up, for some reason ^^ And there you have it, Subaru and Seishirou in all their Tokyo Babylon glory *niko*

The 5th Series of CLAMP in CARDLAND will be released in November.

On a quick note, ICv2 interviewed Dark Horse CEO Mike Richardson and you can read the interview here. There isn't anything new about CLAMP, but here's the part where he talks about their future project:

What are you most excited about that's coming from Dark Horse in 2009?

There's a lot of things. Right now we're really focused on bringing Clamp to America in a new way. We're very excited about our relationship with them. When you talk about how to reach new readers, or keep readers in the marketplace--particularly female readers--you try to look for properties and talent that could help keep them interested. Clamp is huge; Clamp is responsible for some of the biggest manga and anime titles of all time. They're very huge, and it's a huge event for our company.

We've come up with a program that is very different from what's out there, and I think is perfect for these economic times and more closely mirrors how material is released in Japan. Not to mention the fact that we're releasing it worldwide, which has never been done. Usually the material comes out and then it's licensed country by country. There are a lot of exciting parts to this, and we're very excited to be working with them.

The Mangettes project will be launched in August, 2009.

chocoshins has sources that tell her that the english translator of the north american version of Tsubasa and XXXHOLiC, William Flanagan, is in negotiations to repeat the translator role for the english version of Mangettes, CLAMP's next manga to be published by Dark Horse.

I haven't checked the Del Rey version of Tsubasa or XXXHOLiC so I can't really judge their translation, but if you have read it, feel free to let me know whether you like it or not =)

Thank you Georgia for the inside scoop!

Mangettes is slated for the first week of August, 2009.

EDITED on September 21, 2008: Confirmed by Dark Horse in this year's Anime Weekend Atlanta, via gia, that William Flanagan will indeed translate the english version of Mangettes (although in her post she calls him Bill Flanagan).

The 7th Series of CLAMP in 3-D LAND figures is already on sale in Japan and here's the biggest version I was able to find of its package:



Kamui does not look pretty enough xD Suu is definitely my favorite in this one.

The 8th and final series of CLAMP in 3-D LAND will be released in September, characters to be featured in it have yet to be announced.

Moving to Mangettes now, the new CLAMP project in joint with Dark Horse. It was mentioned in Dark Horse's panel at San Diego Comic-Con that the release has been postponed to summer of 2009 (it was previously aimed for the spring).

The summer release was first announced earlier this month at AnimeExpo 2008, so it's pretty much official.

The change most likely was made so that CLAMP can finish Tsubasa and XXXHOLiC safely.

...or so they say.

This year's edition of the New York Comic Con fair is taking place since yesterday. At Dark Horse's panel they announced that they'll release an omnibus edition of CLOVER.

This edition will feature all 4 volumes in a single 512 pages long book. The release is planned for 2009.

CLOVER was originally licensed and published by TokyoPop but became out of print since 2006. The license has been now transferred to Dark Horse.

Very little was said about Mangettes, CLAMP's upcoming 2009 project with Dark Horse. My friend Kethylia is there and she reports that the project is so secretive that not even the editorial department knows the details about it (or so they say xD).

CBR News is covering the event too and reports that,

"Mangettes" will be the first manga project to be released in English, Japanese, and Korean simultaneously. They will be 80 page issues, and come out with greater frequency than most manga.

So I think 80 pages is a lock (sounds yummy), and they will come out with greater frequency than most manga? Do they mean Dark Horse's manga or japanese manga in general? Does that mean less breaks? It's such a monstrous project, with such a pace, it would take only 2 months to compile a volume, and for a monthly manga, that's just wow! Did I mention how excited I am for this project?

About CLOVER, I'm am very glad for you North Americans, of course, but unless this omnibus edition could be somehow related to a possible return of the manga, is not a big thing for me. I think "CLOVER" and "Mangettes" are two separate projects, and that Dark Horse might want to introduce CLAMP to their readers with CLOVER before launching Mangettes. If the Mangettes were the continuation of CLOVER, it would be over in 4 months given that there's only 2 volumes left for CLOVER. Besides that, the press release for Mangettes stated it would be a brand new story.

It's still a great opportunity to support CLOVER, show that there are people interested in it, and perhaps contribute for its return. It is intriguing, though, why CLOVER? Out of all CLAMP works?

EDIT: According to Kethylia, about Dark Horse representatives not knowing details about Mangettes, "their marketing director sounded exasperated, not coy, when I asked about it, which means that this is the truth".

Sakura-Con is an annual convention of anime and manga that is currently being held in Seattle, USA. In their panels, Dark Horse and TokyoPop revealed some foreshadowing (or not) news about the possibility of a Mangettes movie adaptation and Gouhou Drug's return, respectively.

( Mangettes movie adaptation: an 'exciting possibility' )

( Gouhou Drug allegedly being worked on? )

Dark Horse representatives came to Powell’s Bookstore in Seattle recently to talk about their future projects, among them CLAMP's Mangettes.

Still untitled, they revealed that publication is scheduled for Spring 2009. This date will coincide with CLAMP's 20th Anniversary as well as Dark Horse's 20th Anniversary of manga publishing.

Read more.

The article also claims that apart from the already announced Japan, USA and Korea, Dark Horse revealed that the manga will be simultaneously published in the UK and Taiwan as well (and possibly other countries).

They know but can’t say what anthology it will be serialized in Japan

I was REALLY wondering that... because Dark Horse doesn't run any manga magazines in the japanese market, or does it? And I was wondering if the Mangettes would be published individually or sharing its pages with other manga titles. The latter seems to be the case. So, which will be, which will be? Is it from Kodansha or Kadokawa? Or maybe neither?

Source: clamp_now

Dark Horse's founder, Mike Richardson, was recently interviewed by website ICv2. In the interview, he makes an overview on Dark Horse's manga publishing history and future plans for 2008.

He briefly mentions CLAMP and the deal they signed last year to produce a shoujo under Dark Horse due to 2009:

What are Dark Horse's big initiatives or major events for 2008?

We're very excited about seeing Clamp's first work for Dark Horse late in the year. That's a huge step for us internationally.  It is a significant partnership for us, if you know the mark Clamp's made on manga and anime.

Even though he says "late in the year", the press release informs that the manga is due 2009. Dark Horse managers will most likely check its content earlier than us for obvious reasons. So unless they change the release date, I think we can expect an early 2009 release.

Still not huge news, but it's the first time we hear something about it since the press release ^^

EDIT: By the way, completely unrelated, but 2 months later Newtype has their article up on Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations premiere. Not exactly what I would call "right on time" but, this is for CLAMP's pictures admirers (like me xD).

The American comics publisher Dark Horse announced today in a Press Release that, after 2 years of negotiations, they have signed a deal with CLAMP to produce a shoujo manga series beginning on 2009.

The manga will be serialized in small magazines of about 80 pages each, known as Mangettes. The name is a new term created by Dark Horse and CLAMP (more information on the press release).

The magazine will run monthly and will be simultaneously published on the United States, Japan and Korea. Just like a normal japanese manga, the Mangettes will be compiled into tankoubon format once it reaches a certain number of pages.

More information such as the story are yet to be announced.

Thank you clamp_now for this information!

Excellent news! One more CLAMP shoujo on the way! This is definitely going to be their next project after they're done with Tsubasa and XXXHOLiC. I just hope it's a dark shoujo to contrast with Kobato.

2009 looks far, but it'll coincide with CLAMP's 20th Anniversary.

And well-done for CLAMP for experiencing new formats and tasting from different waters. Good luck with this new exciting project! ^__^