#derayd

The One I Love:

TLDR: A collection of short stories about love.

Plot: I wasn't expecting a lot out of this but the first story nearly brought me to tears and the rest have been pretty good! The stories are extremely short so don't expect an overarching plot out of this. 7/10

Characters: It's a collection of stories in each chapter so I'm not too sure how fair it is to rank characters especially because I believe it's autobiographical.

Art: The art is fully colored and absolutely gorgeous for each chapter being so short, the people are drawn nicely and the colors suit it very well. It's not the most beautiful thing that's come out of Clamp in my opinion (although I really like the very sweeping and dramatic art like in X) but it's very pretty! 9/10

Ending: With it being a collection of short stories there wasn't a really cohesive ending that wrapped it all up so I'm really not sure how to rate it.

Other things: I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would!

Overall: 8/10

Derayd:

TLDR: Moon breaks in half, high schooler is sent to another world to fix the problem

Plot: The plot is much better than I can explain it but it's really good! It's very fantasy oriented but has a lot of interesting plot elements and the world building is similar to Magic Knight Rayearth where there's not a lot but I wish there was more there but it's also a very short manga so I'm lenient with the plot being fast paced. 8/10

Characters: With it being so short there wasn't any character development really, but the characters were really charming and I would have loved to see more of them in the future! 7/10

Art: The art is a lot less polished than their later works but it's really nice! It's pretty ambitious with the dragon and other character design but it's ultimately just very charming! It's really nice how expressive the characters are! 8.5/10

Ending: The ending was perfect with a twist and just wrapping things up so well! 9/10

Other things: It's very short but that just makes the pacing a lot quicker. It's also never been officially translated into English, so you'll have to find a fan translation if you want to read it. It feels overall a bit more clunky than their other works but there truly is something so special about how Clamp does these fantasy stories that always leaves me wanting more out of it. Don’t expect anything to the complexity of TRC with it being so short, but it was very much an enjoyable quick read!

Overall: This is such a good manga, it was really enjoyable and short, I'd definitely read it again!! 8/10

Jojo’s Bizarre Married Life:

TLDR: The Jotaro x Kakyoin egg comic I really don’t want to elaborate on this

Plot: I genuinely do not know how to explain my feelings on this other than I respect the wish fulfillment because after part 3 I too needed to cope in some way. I think my favorite thing in it is how you do actually get to see Kakyoin and Holly interact more and I think that’s really sweet. Despite this being… well, how this is, it’s neat to see how the people behind these amazing stories reinterpreted Jojo. Not to say this is the original “everybody lives and they’re all domestic” but it is very much an early reimagining of that. 5/10 Its surreal and interesting but also very domestic.

Characters: The characters are not as out of character as you might expect, other than Kakyoin who is a fair bit ooc, Joseph, Avdol, and Polnareff are all oddly in character and it’s nice! Jouta is the only original character in this and he’s interesting to say the least. I have no clue how to rate this because of the amount of characters that they didn't make, but points for keeping most of them in character and making a cursed character, I guess? 4/10

Art: On one hand I hate it on the other hand I don’t. Jotaro and Kakyoin look very weird in their artstyle (and don’t get me started on Jouta) but I also am a sucker for this style from Clamp. I do think they really did nail Kakyoin’s expressions (as weird as that sounds knowing the actual content of this) and a lot of how the characters look, as well as the general Jojo-ness of the source material. They really kept a lot of the really dramatic feel of Jojo while making a manga about two characters getting married and having a baby in an unconventional way. They really did succeed at making the stands look really good which wasn’t what I was expecting when reading this. Their part 4 Kakyoin design is definitely one of my favorite things about this. Also Dio in this looks really really goofy and I do really like that. I hate how high this is on the list but 7/10

Ending: It’s more a collection of short vignettes into their married life and Jouta growing up. The ending wasn’t really conclusive but it wasn’t bad in the same way. 4/10

Other things: It’s a doujinshi but I felt I’d do a disservice to the friends that only know Clamp through this if I didn’t include my thoughts on it. My favorite fun fact about this and Clamp is in the xxxholic guide book, Clamp actually did an interview with Araki and he is fully aware of this manga’s existence. I don't necessarily love how they refer to Kakyoin as wife, but that’s something that is slightly recurring throughout Clamp and they didn’t make him as “UwU cinnamon roll” than I expected. I can fully understand why they made this, and minus the whole egg birth thing and how surreal it is, it’s not a bad read for if you want the characters to be domestic with a kid. The funny things about this include how there is a part 4 Kakyoin design that’s honestly kinda close to what I’ve seen fans create, and that Jouta’s stand is somewhat similar to Jolyne’s in power, when I believe this came out before or around when part 6 was first being released (might be wrong).

Overall: 5/10 it could be worse.