Shining Seal

Happy CLAMP Day 2026!

My work made as a part of collab event hosted by @shining-seal.

The theme is “maid-café”. And though I didn’t exactly plan to showcase maid outfits, I wanted to commit to the theme in details.

«Suki. Dakara Suki», meaning «I love because I love» (or «Suki: A Like Story» in official translation), is a semi-obscure manga by CLAMP, and it’s centered on upbeat optimistic high school girl Hinata, who’s living alone and one day encounters her new neighbor, strict yet helpful man, who also turns to be her new substitute teacher. This being an old school shoujo manga (and also by CLAMP), you probably can figure where it goes, but the story and relationships between the characters remain fairly innocent and pure through the story, though it eventually doesn’t shy away from touching rather heavy topics, in relation to the mysteries of both Hinata and Asou-sensei’s past and context surrounding the latter.

Recurring visual motif of manga is stuffed bear toys, being a part of entourage of Hinata and playing roles of characters in her favorite picture books. Also, one of the settings is a café under the brand (presenting through the story) “Piffle Princess”, so, in my interpretation central pair is working as waiters in such establishment, themed around stuffed bears! Though I also included little hints at the other animals assigned to main characters – a small puppy for Hinata and, slightly less direct, a cat for Shirou Asou, try to find them!

here's my postcard! I drew it as part of an event organized by @shining-seal ! Thank you so much for organizing and bringing us all together. ☺️💖

The gist of the event: we randomly assigned CLAMP characters to each other and drew them in a maid café style for CLAMP Day! I got the Magic Knight Rayearth trio. Our hashtag #1aprilCLAMPcafe

My contribution for #CLAMPTarot event, hosted by @shining-seal