CLAMP's Other Stuff

Ohkawa & Okazaki

Their (Love) Stories (?)

Last updated on Feb 3, 1999.

hits since October, 1998.

Nanase Ohkawa, female... Takeshi Okazaki, male... What kind of story/chemistry will they produce? Other than poking our noses into the artists' private lives, I would like to direct your attention to some drawings and stories done by CLAMP members which you will never find under CLAMP's own logo. One place to look for such stuff is from the works of another manga artists Takeshi Okazaki, who was said to be Nanase Ohkawa's "special male friend" in the early 90s. I know many of you might have already learnt that the manga Koi is a joint effort of the two--story by Ohkawa while art work by Okazaki--but do you know that CLAMP had made a commentary art page in an earlier work by Okazaki called Elementalors?

**ELEMENTALORS by Takeshi Okazaki**
**published in 1990 by Kadokawa Shoten**
**(Chinese version 1994 by Tong Li)**
		Currently, I only have Elementalor 1 and 2 in Chinese version, and the series is still far from complete at that point. Yet, it now has an anime version by the same mangaka. I won't cover the story here since it is Okazaki's work, not CLAMP's, and that will make my page way out of topic. However, I can tell you that the story is not about angels... I think "elfs" or "gargoyles" will be closer. In their commentary, CLAMP said that they got acquainted with Okazaki in a hot-pot dinner through their common New-Type COMIC Enki editor. Then they went on expressing their admiration about Okazaki and his works. Remember, this happened in 1990 when CLAMP was still the "new kids on the block". However, in my opinion, their imitations of the female characters in Okazaki's manga are better looking than his own originals...
CLAMP's commentary at the end of Elementalors 1 Pictures and short comics drawn by CLAMP

**Koi**
**Original Work by Nanase Ohkawa**
**Art Work by Takeshi Okazaki**
**published in 1993 by Shinshokan**

Koi jacket cover (279 KB)	The credits page (88 KB)
Finally, we come to Koi (which means "Love"), which Okazaki claimed to be "his true story". Notice on the credit page that not only Ohkawa did the story and binding design, but also Setsuki Igarashi was the design assistant, and Okazaki thanked Mike and Mokona too, making the whole CLAMP crew involved. We do not know if this manga imply anything between him and Ohkawa. Yet, Ohkawa was then having similar hair style as the girl on the cover, and the special publication of the "Love Speeches" of the two at the end of the manga sure makes us ponder. I won't attempt to translate the Love Speeches here (but you could view them by clicking the links below). Since you and I are human beings, why should we need to bother with how other love-blinded individuals talking about love, especially the passion between Okazaki and Ohkawa died down not long after the publication of this manga? (Ohkawa didn't attend the Newtype 10th Anniversary Final Event in 1995, in which Okazaki was one of the guest and he was promoting his anime Elementalers. Coincidence?)

Okazaki's "Love Speech" (283 KB)	Ohkawa's "Love Speech" (165 KB)

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