Tokyo Babylon

If you're one of those people who likes balanced reviews, you should click the back button right now.

...have they left?

Okay, now those losers are gone, let me take this opportunity to wax lyrical about Teh Bestest Manga Ever(tm). (For those of you who weren't paying attention when they clicked the link to this page, that would be Tokyo Babylon.)

It's difficult to know where to start, because this series really brings out the inner fangirl, and I'm fighting quite desperately not to lapse into enthusiastic shrieks, which, while emphatic, are uninformative. Perhaps it's best to begin with a summary; and yes, I'll be very polite and try to avoid spoilers.

Sumeragi Subaru is sixteen, and head of the Sumeragi Clan of onmyouji (spiritual mediums). He's one of, if not the most, talented Clan Heads in Japan's history, and his job essentially consists of laying the dead to rest. He's helped out along the way by his twin sister Hokuto, the definitive fangirl herself, whose favourite hobbies are designing outrageously stylish clothes for her brother, and (God bless her) slashing him with the twenty-five-year-old Sakurazuka Seishirou, a friendly veterinarian who Subaru met at Ikebukuro train station. Seishirou is quite enthusiastic about Hokuto's dastardly yaoi plans for poor Subaru, and Subaru spends a large percentage of the manga being unexpectedly hugged, backed into the wall or just bombarded with comments that make him blush.

However, it seems that Seishirou might not be as amiable as he first appears. With connections to the deadly Sakurazukamori Clan, who protect Japan from the shadows, his intentions towards Subaru are gradually revealed to be something much more complicated and dark than winning the boy's love. To give any more away would ruin the story; suffice to say that, while the earlier books will have you in tears of laughter at the antics of the terrible trio, the last two or three volumes will have you crying for exactly the opposite reasons. I haven't found a shounen-ai or yaoi fan alive who wasn't moved to tears by the ending, which is a warning for those of you who like your love stories to be fluffy.

I happen to own the kanji versions (with an unofficial translation stored on my computer, as I sadly know very little Japanese) as well as the English translations. From what I can make out, TokyoPop have outdone themselves, keeping the right-to-left format, suffixes and cultural references, and providing a sound-effects guide at the back, so that the original art is altered as little as possible. The storyline is unaltered, and the shounen-ai aspect of the plot is entirely preserved e.g. Seishirou actually says 'I love you'. However, don't expect anything more than some smouldering looks, adorable blushes and surprise hugs. CLAMP like to torture their readers, so if you're looking for smut then you should probably try elsewhere. The beauty of the sexuality in the manga is its understatement; seeing Seishirou whisper something in Subaru's ear is a thousand times more erotic than any graphic PWP.

The art is gorgeous, with lots of shading that adds to the elegantly tragic atmosphere. The characters are easily distinguishable from each other, and their expressions and movements are rendered with exquisite detail. The outfits Hokuto designs, while outlandish, are very beautiful, and it's fascinating in and of itself just to see what the twins are going to be wearing from scene to scene. Each volume of the manga also has a pull-out colour picture of Subaru, Seishirou and Hokuto in different outfits, from the Alice in Wonderland theme of volume three to the umbrella theme of volume five.

For anyone who happens to fall for Subaru and Seishirou, they both appear in CLAMP's later work, X (or X/1999), which stands at eighteen volumes and is currently on hiatus. Once again, warnings for unmitigated angst that will make any fangirl go ow in all the right ways. An alternate-reality Seishirou also shows up in CLAMP's ongoing project Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, with the possibility of an alternate-reality Subaru in later volumes.

So if you haven't already read Tokyo Babylon (and if you have, what the hell are you doing here?) and you're a fan of shounen-ai or just manga in general, this series is one of the few actual must-haves. CLAMP's most beautiful and emotive work, as a standalone piece it's superb, but can also be read alongside multiple other series such as X and Tsubasa to give ever more meaning and depth. Tokyo Babylon is a manga that's a fantastic first read, and just as good with hindsight. You'll never stop finding new layers and meanings and things to love, and it's still a living part of the CLAMP mythology, which continues to expand and improve with time.

It'll never let you go, and you won't want it to, either.