#sakurazaka seishiro

[ayameyumesaki]

SO LISTEN, MY TOKYO BABYLON CPC VERSION HAS COME HOME 🥺 So I must do this

Tokyo Babylon - CLAMP Premium Collection - Commentary

FIRST OF ALL, THE RED IN VOLUME 1 IS INDEED, MY FAVORITE RED. My camera doesn't do justice. And Subaru here is super cute, and handsome! I really love Subaru's vibes from CLAMP's recent artworks. Also, when he is alone or with Seishiro in CPC cover, he looks pretty much 15/16 y.o. to me, but he gets extra cuter when he is with Hokuto. Anyways, Volume 1 is amazing and even for the sake of collection, please buy it.

(I want to add that CLAMP did say that xxxHOLiC's symbol is pipe's smoke, and they decided that Tokyo Babylon's will be crown. It's kinda strange because it's clear that TB's symbol is a cross, seeing how it appears in original covers and Subaru/Hokuto's clothes, but I think they probably chose cross for X since they also have cross as one of their symbol, a heavier one compared to TB, but maybe also due to other reasons.)

I will comment every chapters and talk about some interesting, cute, or parts I want to highlight! First, I read the chapter 0, T.Y.O and the first thing I noticed is since Subaru used a fedora here, whenever he jumps or evading something, he keeps his hand on his fedora so it doesn't fall, and that's just... so cute of him 🥺 In case you forgot, we have character introduction and two cases in this chapter: the case of cheating entertainment figure, and Chanel suit.

Hokuto and Seishiro: talk about Subaru chose to exorcise (is this even a word in English) because of the girl's sake, not the man.

Subaru: Play with lil (unfortunate) dog

Hokuto: You don't need to hide (your relationship). Sei-chan said he falls in love with at the first sight!

The queen has spoken the truth. This man, indeed, falls in love with Subaru on the first sight and since then, hasn't been able to let him go even after his death. This man!

Subaru really gave the dog a red-bean paste bread 😭 I'm soft

Subaru: I'm just a normal onmyoji

Hokuto: EVEN ONMYOJI ITSELF ISN'T NORMAL AT ALL!

Honestly, the first half of her appearance in this chapter is just her screaming 😭

Subaru evading the lady's attacks and the notes next to him said "the nails of an office lady who did coating when manicure is strong" 😭 I'm dying

And in this panel, finally, we are shown how a normal 16 years old boy would react when he realized that he needs to take off the jacket. Hilariously panicked. Probably the only moment that's normal out of all Subaru's personality burned in my memory. This is so so so cute...

Then this is one panel that I have no recollection at all, and after reading the translation again, I was confused whether it was the translation that decided to exaggerate things or the text is actually changed from original to CPC version. Then again, I don't think CLAMP members said about changing the text, only Mokona-sensei reworked some background drawings. Then again, it doesn't differ that much though.

Hokuto said "That's right! In front of human's power (selfishness), even monsters and ghosts are powerless. Things like environment destruction or riots in Eastern European is like a lullaby for Japanese girls!!". It's funny because this is released in 1990 (the first tankobon is released in 1991 but the chapter is written/released in 1990) and Uni Soviet was still a thing, and now it's being re-released in 2022 and there is another war raging in Eastern Europe. Time is only repeating themselves in a loophole, isn't it?

There is another panel that differs from the translation I read, which is what Seishiro said after Subaru told Hokuto that her thinking is scary. He said "in front of girls, no matter what logic or theory (you said), it will bounce back because they have an invicible barrier (which means girls won't listen to what you said no matter how logical or theoritical it is)". I think this panel is funny, because Seishiro literally described Hokuto in one sentence, and it's funnier because Seishiro is probably defeated due to the very line he said himself (not listening to Hokuto's warning of her curse. And Seishiro isn't even a girl.

And Hokuto's respond is "You understand such thing, Sei-chan!" Oh my. He did.

Additionally, I want to add that you can feel how hard Hokuto ships Seishiro and Subaru better in the Japanese version. She is so excited to that and we can never be her for SeiSub 😞 She just loved these two.

Also, I can't put another picture but, the final line for T.Y.O chapter, and the very tagline for Tokyo Babylon is 「あなたは東京をきらいですか。」, which means "Do you hate "Tokyo"?". Subaru did say he loves Tokyo by the end of this chapter though it's because different reason from Seishiro, but the question is, by the end of Tokyo Babylon, does Subaru's opinion stay still or changed?

EDIT: I’m so genious to link the newest commentary to the first one, but never direct it to the next one, SO click here for the next part!

[curioussmoker]

[diahalation]

That man's a monster.

[ayameyumesaki]

Tokyo Babylon - CLAMP Premium Collection - Commentary Pt. 3

Previous Part First Part Next Part

Let's go to the last chapter of Volume 1. It's called "destiny". Here, we was finally introduced to the main issue of the series---a high school boy Subaru met under a cherry blossom tree.

Anyway, Subaru's collar reminded me of CPC Vol 5's cover ����

FIRST OF ALL, LET'S MEET OUR ADORABLE BABY SUBARU. Oh my God, he is so cute!!! Can I adopt him? I will raise him so he will be able to survive against a certain hunter---

Interesting note here: The boy told Subaru about a dead body buried under the cherry blossoms tree. Not a nice thing to talk to a child, but this man reeks of menace by telling him about this matter so what can we do? That aside, the boy told Subaru about "dead body" with kanji (死体), but Subaru responded with its spelling, written in hiragana, shitai (したい). This is an interesting take, especially when you consider how Subaru reacted after this...

The boy explained why cherry blossoms petals which are originally white turned into pink, and it was because the tree absorbed the blood of dead bodies under the tree. Subaru's response was to cry and ask "wouldn't the people under the tree feel hurt?".

To those who thinks Subaru was just too innocent so he responded like that, please remember that this is Subaru. He was trained to be an onmyoji, a medium who can interact with spirits and helped them to gain salvation aside from the other spiritual works. But in the same time, he was still a child at that time. Children at his age couldn't grasp what "death" means well; and even more for Subaru who was trained to deal with dead spirits too. For him, probably, living and dead spirits aren't different--both are "alive". Which resulted in his "innocent" response: he didn't say it like "wouldn't the body/the dead feel hurt?" but "wouldn't people under the tree feel hurt?", as if those who are under the tree were living so they can feel hurt. It was scary yet sad in the same time.

The boy was surprised by Subaru's response and told him to make a "bet" with him. But Subaru couldn't hear it well and the meeting ended with the boy said "For this time, I will let you go". You dumbass falling in love with a young child.

Then, we get to see a gorgeous Subaru in shikifuku, sleeping while thinking who that person was.

Then after the title page, we got to see Subaru chased a crow shikigami in Ikebukuro Station, and Subaru got to meet Seishiro here. He fell on the platform and you got to see Seishiro (and the crow) was surprised when he fell 😭 then Hokuto laughed at him so hard.

Subaru with pets is always a feast for the eyes ☺️ Look at how he handled the cat in love even when he fell from the chair! Such dedication!

Then we got this one certain triangle man said "That time in Ikebukuro isn't our first time. I met Subaru-kun in the far past, don't you remember it?", all in keigo and it tickles me. Stop the formalities, and stop being so fishy, please.

Subaru was, however, concerned by his words---either hypnotized or reminded of something. Seishiro said it was a joke but uh oh, my boy.

My boy took his words as serious---he got a hunch. And here he said that he couldn't differentiate whether the thing happened undert that cherry blossom tree was a dream or reality. He eventually blurted out, "who is that person again?", as if he was trying to recall his memories.

HOKUTO. MY GIRL. HAS NOTHING OF THAT. Which leads us to this panel...

Hokuto called Subaru a cheater for thinking about another man while he has Seishiro in front of him 🤣🤣 But Seishiro's response was "It's okay, Hokuto-chan. After all, I'm just a part of shadow/shade". This part is interesting because in the next panel, we saw Seishiro talks about him being a vet doesn't suit Subaru who has a bright future ahead, which doesn't make sense.

So, the line Seishiro used here is 僕は日陰の身 (boku wa hikage no mi), which means as I wrote above. Words hikage itself means either shadow/shade, and mi means body. This phrase means "a person who can't appear on the outside world". Don't you get reminded of a certain someone? Interestingly, while searching for the meaning of this phrase, I came across a word hikagesha which means a social outcast or a person with shady past. Befitting this person.

The translation I read translated this line to "Seishiro doesn't have a good body", but that doesn't make sense if we considered the next panel which talks about him as a vet. And since the theme of this chapter was pretty much Seishiro being shady (or if I must say, literally revealing himself to Subaru and Hokuto), the translation was probably also confused about this line as well.

The more I read the original version, the more interesting this manga can get. Oh my.

I hit the 10 pictures limit so check the reblog to see the continuation!

[ayameyumesaki]

Tokyo Babylon - CLAMP Premium Collection - Commentary Pt. 2

Previous Part Next Part

In this part, I will talk about Chapter 1: Babel. But first,

Overall, I didn't find any script differences in the CPC Japanese and translation version like Chapter 0, but some things I noticed so far are:

1) Before, I talked about how Subaru called Hokuto and vice versa, but in this whole volume, Hokuto called Subaru as "Subaru" and Subaru called Hokuto as "Hokuto-chan". Additionally, Hokuto, when her tension is up, she called Seishiro as "Sei-chan" and when she is talking on serious matters, she called Seishiro as "Seishiro-chan".

2) This is pretty much my opinion, but I feel like it's either Subaru is the type to take everyone's good side first before everything else or he is a bit untouch of the world. I felt frustrated reading this chapter because, what vet could interfere his kekkai and burn dead spirits 😩 I was entirely frustrated of this boy as much as I love him, and he has been red-flagged since chapter 1. A story that will never end in happy ending if Subaru keeps acting like this (and he did, until the very end).

3) CLAMP did have fun channeling their love for boys' love and they didn't even shy away from making direct romantic confrontation between the main characters in this series. I understand now why TB is one of the dearest series to them and they did their best with the CPC covers. You can see how much they are having fun with the covers. And to think this series is released in 1990, when same-sex romance wasn't quite accepted in this world. On serious note, they are so amazing that I squealed in panic whenever Seishiro kabedon-ing Subaru and, oh my, the boy didn't even flinch. If only they are that bravery now 👀

ANYWAY let's proceed to the commentary. Chapter 1 is about the lady who took suicide as she felt frustrated with her life and she stayed in Tokyo Tower because this is the only place that makes her love Tokyo, even just a bit.

The chapter cover is 9.9/10. So pretty, so amazing, so beautiful. Subaru and tulips are good friends now.

We started the chapter by the staffs explaining about what happened with Tokyo Tower. Running gag number one: the staffs asking him for signs. I would do the same tho if I can meet Subaru 🤭 On serious note, I noticed Subaru has a sympathethic power (is this even a thing?) to the point he could place himself in the woman's place when she fell down from the tower. Subaru, a medium, could see someone's memories to some extend and talked to their unconsciousness side. He probably could feel their emotions as well, no matter how painful they are. This is why when Hokuto died, he could see what actually immediately though not entirely, thus he could wake up out of trauma right away. As he grew up, he has some better grip of himself and wouldn't let the emotion get him anymore, which is why he could symphatize with Kamui's pain, but doesn't let himself swayed away again like when he was younger. But this is my opinion and has no prove, anyway.

Then Hokuto and Seishiro went to Tokyo Tower too and...

Hokuto: Tokyo Tower is a good spot for date.

Subaru: Whose?

Hokuto: Subaru's.

Subaru: With who?

Hokuto: Sei-chan.

Subaru: WH-WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, HOKUTO-CHAN

This one is way funnier in Japanese because Subaru only changed one particle to ask questions 😭 Damn, supportive sister Hokuto-chan, approving your love life right away.

Then Seishiro told Hokuto to not disturb Subaru in work and then running gag number one happened again. Then the three went on sighseeing in Tokyo Tower and Seishiro bought Subaru ice cream...

Please notice that Subaru touched Seishiro's hand like that (either to support his hand so the ice cream doesn't fall or he is unconsciously attracted to Seishiro, it's yours to decide).

Then Hokuto repeated the explanation we have chapter 0 about Subaru being 13th Head of Sumeragi Clan and Seishiro possibly coming from Sakurazukamori clan. Hokuto also talked about how Subaru was trained by their grandma (she called her grandma obaa-chama, which is so cute 😭) and...

Seishiro's face when Hokuto explained the gloves 👀 sus you man

Then an earthquake happened and Seishiro supported Subaru. Hokuto commented that "it's a good picture". Look at Seishiro's face.

New meme.

Skip skip, the whole thing escalated. Subaru and Seishiro stayed in Tokyo Tower together and talked about it. The woman's spirit appeared as well and after some fights, we had Subaru said he forgot that...

Seishiro is an onmyojutsu user as well.

Okay. So. Subaru. How come you let that man mandhandled you so easily? You damn whipped one little man.

I already vented my frustration above so let me enjoyed the romantic part now.

Then yada yada happened, Subaru talked to the woman and Seishiro literally made her mad again, sigh, while Subaru said he didn't even bothered by that at all and he understood what she felt, but took suicide isn't right. When she asked if Subaru would forgive her for bothering him, Subaru said yes and she is happy. She moved on by saying that actually her days in Tokyo were fun and she came to like Tokyo even for a little.

And after that the two went to the special viewing area, the place that she mentioned in her story. Then they talked why someone loves someone else if that causes them pain, and Seishiro confessed his love towards Subaru again...

HOW DARE YOU KABEDON-ING SUBARU LIKE THAT AND THIS BOY DIDN'T EVEN FLINCHED!!!???

Just when we are getting into the mood 😩 he really said his infamous line here ✋️ hands off my man you one manslaughter for breaking the whole mood.

Me at this panel:

And that's for chapter 1! Chapter 1.5 is probably a bit longer because there are many things I want to comment, and how 🚩 Subaru, and how stressed I was when I read the whole chapter 😩✋️ See you next time.

[me-cap-all-the-things-blog]