laceblade

I hope it's okay that I don't worry about spoilers here. The series is only 2 volumes long, and it's so silly that I don't think any of you are going to be reading it anyway.

Clamp School Defenders Duklyon is another 2-volume series by CLAMP that (surprise!) takes place at the Clamp School. As CLAMP reiterates from previous series, the school is home to students from kindergarten through graduate school. But now, CLAMP has more to say in its description of the school:
However, where that many people gather, trouble usually follows....
Given the volume of brilliant and eccentric minds housed in this community, security is of utmost importance. As a result, the school founders established a secret organization. A unit to solve all problems quickly, and to maintain peace - a do-it-all unit, if you will. (Here, two armored, masked men with a gun and a sword appear). This, in short, is the CLAMP School Defenders. Or more commonly known as DUKLYON!

( Notes on plot and characters )

This series is meant for the humor. When the Sukiyabashi/Eri storyline takes over, CLAMP makes fun of Kentaro and Takeshi for no longer being the main characters. Also, the dialogue is often just ridiculous:
(The enemy is in the cafeteria)
Takeshi: Can't we just seal off the cafeteria?
General: We don't have the right to deprive students of nutrition. Plus, lunch is the happiest time of day. CLAMP SCHOOL DEFENDERS DUKLYON! COMMENCE!
Takeshi and Kentaro: YES, SIR!!

My recommended order for reading these 3 series is Clamp School Detectives, Man of Many Faces, and then Clamp School Defenders Duklyon. I think that MoMF might come before CSD, but CSD gives a nice explanation of Clamp School, etc. Definitely save CSDD until after the other two.

Really, though, I recommend the three series only for people looking to read all of CLAMP's stuff. They're pretty silly, and don't offer much in the way of plot. Because they're so inter-connected, I kind of view them as a 7-volume series, instead of 3 separate ones.

The Internet tells me that Kentarou, Takeshi, and Eri will appear in CLAMP's current series, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.

I'm feeling quite cynical tonight. It's annoying. Makes it hard to get shit done. My room is a mess, and I don't care. Some bastard egged my car yesterday, so I got to enjoy that at 10pm when I went out for gas. Also, my paper is still terrible, but it's complete enough that I'll be able to tidy it up and print it in the morning. Too bad my thesis sucks. At least it's done. I should have taken tomorrow off from work so that I could actually have time to clean, pack, and tie up loose ends before going home. :/ Hopefully I'll at least get some homework done at work tomorrow.

~Complete shift in mood is due to having written the rest of this entry hours ago~

Holy crap, it's almost time for Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving Day will be pretty lol. Antoine (a native of Flint, MI) has told me that he intends to cheer for the Detroit Lions. My family lives in Green Bay. Antoine thinks that this will be hilarious. I think that Antoine really doesn't understand what he's doing. I hope my boyfriend will survive this holiday!

Manga inspires scholarship
I'm now working on volume 2 of the Cantarella manga, and I am so in love! The main character is Cesare Borgia, the subject of Machiavelli's "The Prince." In fact, Machiavelli is a character in the manga! So awesome! So far, I am a fan of Cesare and his sister, Lucrezia. Today, I stopped at Memorial Library and picked up 3 books on the two of them. Not that I'll have any time to read them, but....I'll probably do it anyway, forgoing homework.

Clamp School Detectives, vol. 1-3 (no spoilers)
But today is not the day to blog about Cantarella! Instead, I will blog about the 3-volume manga series, "Clamp School Detectives," by (you guessed it!) CLAMP. Nokoru, Souh, and Akira are elementary school kids at Clamp School, a virtual self-sufficient city of itself. Students at the school range from kindergarten all the way through graduate school. Our heroes make up the Student Board for the elementary school. Each student board has complete control over its students, trumping the PTA, teachers, and the headmaster. What kind of boys does it take to have so much responsibility? Well, I'm glad you asked! Take Nokoru - he is only in fifth grade, but he is so intelligent that he has already been scouted by NASA! Not only that, but he is so attractive that girls at every age level are in love with him and his two cohorts. Not only THAT, but he is filthy rich.

Nokoru's fangirls: Can we take a picture of you?!
Random Girl: I want to put it in my locker!
Random Girl 2: I want to frame mine for my bedroom wall!
Random Girl 3: Me, too!
Random Girl 4: And Me!
Nokoru (surrounded by shojo bubbles and flower petals): Of course. *poses*
Random Girl 3: I'm so happy! I'll treasure this forever, Nokoru-sama!
Nokoru: I'm happy to be of service.
Random Girl 4: Who'd have thought a third grader could be such a gentleman?

Who'd have thought, indeed. Yes, welcome to shojo manga. In addition to their student government duties, the three boys form a detective agency, given that Nokoru has the ability to locate any "damsel in distress" in a two-kilometer radius. Together, the boys work to solve the mysteries that crop up, while also managing to get their student government paperwork finished (and, of course, give lectures in university classes, because hey, did I mention they were smart yet?!). The series is fluffy fun, and amusing because of how ridiculous it is. In the last volume, two of the boys get a little bit more characterization, but even that is so absurd that it's still funny. Somehow, a 26-episode anime series was made out of this. It might be nice for kids, but I think it'd be pretty boring. I might check it out some day, just to see what the voice actors are like. I look forward to seeing the boys in other CLAMP series, and discovering how they grow up.