She-Geeks discussion

Kazuhiko is a young, but already deeply wounded black ops agent of a baroque, retro-tech future - pulled out of retirement to escort Sue, a mysterious waif, to a destination she alone knows. Sue and Kazuhiko have never met, yet she knows him, having grown up since the age of four with her only human contact, two distant voices: that of her elderly "grandma," General Ko, and of Kazuhiko's dead girlfriend, Ora. And Sue has been kept in that cage all these years because of what she is, and what the Clover Leaf Project found her to be - a military top secret, and the most dangerous person in the world.

- This is a new one for me but it looks great! I'm looking forward to everyone's comments.

Gorgeous cover too. And I can't believe it's Dec already!

I read Clover over the last two nights. My overall opinion was "meh". The story itself was interesting, but I had a few problems with the art. First, it is very sparse. For a futuristic society and the very cool ideas behind the plot, I wanted to see so much more of the world. We are really limited to the cage and the stage.
Almost all of the characters have levels of personality, but Oma (who I felt came off as self-centered and really insecure). Sue was wiser in the second section than in the first.
I am not a fan of song lyrics dragging along a plot. It annoyed me to read (over and over again) what are, essentially, lackluster song lyrics.
Overall, I do not think Clover brings anything new or daring to the genre. The art (what little there is of it) is gorgeous, but I can see why CLAMP scrapped it. It seemed like a collection of possible sketches for other series all jumbled together. I don't need the story spelled out for me, but I would have liked much more explanation of what was going on.

I wonder if I would have liked it better if I had read the chapters in reverse and started with Ran?

I am still feeling a little cheated that the only real glimpses we get of the future involve a nightclub styled like the 20's and a bunch of 80's looking sunglasses. I read somewhere that the sparseness of the illustrations is supposed to emulate a movie- like they are frames. I get it, I just didn't enjoy it.
Why does Sue get wings? What does that have to do with her super psychic ability?
Also, I wonder, do I want to live in a future with a government run by wizards who experiment on children?
Just some more thoughts after a few days of digesting the books....
Also, is it just me, or do level 2 clovers get screwed with tattoos that look like ass cheeks?

Sorry, I'm slow to get on the ball with this. Just started reading Clover, and I can see what you're saying Chimney. On the whole, while very interesting (and I am enjoying the unique style of the artwork), this work is rather scanty. I'll give it some more time and see it through to the end anyway.

Finally finished. I thought it was very interesting, and definitely different from any of the other Mangas I've read. But it left me with so many questions.
I wish there was more, I guess. I could see what Chimney was saying about focusing solely on Sue and Kazuhiko's story instead of adding the back story of Kazuhiko and Ora, or Gingetsu and Ran. But personally I just think this story should have been longer and more fleshed out.
I thought all the characters deserved more development. And I could do with less singing, too. I think I got the point of the verses of the song with only one or two recitations. But this felt like the author was beating me over the head with it.
I think there were some good ideas here: the isolated cage and window feeling of each frame, the retro-futuristic setting, the poetry of the songs, the theme that love is more important than life itself. However the author got too carried away with trying to bring the story to an elevated place and ended up just seeming presumptuous. In short, I think Clamp was just trying too hard.

I read this manga (after meaning to for a long time) a few months ago, and while what artwork there is is almost always beautiful, it is definitely not Clamp's best work.

I didn't mind the song lyrics at first, but they got really old after the first volume.

I am sure it is supposed to be really artistic, but i felt that Clamp's attempt took it a little too far and the work ultimately suffered. It feels kind of like some modern abstract art, really beautiful to look at, you can make out some things, but overall it makes you scratch your head if you think too hard about it.

Being the major CLAMP fan that I am, I read CLOVER ages ago. I even did an in-depth analysis of it for a "symbols in literature" class in my undergrad. So keep that in mind while I gush about what the authors did with this series.
Yes the story seems somewhat unfinished and it does make a lot more sense when one reads it from end to beginning like Chimney suggests. However, what makes this a must-read for me is the way the art and the development of the story go hand in hand in creating a lush world full of symbolism. Every aspect of the world, from the cage Sue lives in to the crazy curls Ora sports, adds a bit of depth to a story that would otherwise (as many of you suggest) be left lacking.
I understand why many people would (and often do) find this series to not be up to par with other CLAMP works, but when it was published and the magazine that published it were all about experimenting with the art form that is manga. Maybe I'm overvaluing the story, which even I admit is a bit lacking, but I credit the authors for they attempted and what they achieved.

@Chimney. I did tons of papers on really geeky stuff all thru my undergrad. I guess that's the luck you have when you get an art degree from geeky professors ^_^

Adriana wrote: "@Chimney. I did tons of papers on really geeky stuff all thru my undergrad. I guess that's the luck you have when you get an art degree from geeky professors ^_^"

Sounds to me like you lucked out. The only fun thing I got to do for my undergrad was write a paper on The Lord of the Rings for our study of Heroic Mythology. And that was because I had a professor who was also a fan. Otherwise my experience was much like Chimney's.

I wished I would've read it in chronological order. It would've add some clarity to an already lacking story. I read somewhere that Clamp intended to have two more volumes for Clover, but the magazine in which it was published went out of business. That somewhat explains why the plot and character backstory feels so sparse; leaving less to be desired. Clover is all eye candy and lack of content. I thought they had a good pitch for a story but it desperately needed to be fleshed out. There's definitely something special somewhere in there, but lack of character development watered down the emotional highlights for me. Also, it could really use some vivid imagery of this seemingly awesome, futuristic cyberpunk world.

I agree that the song lyrics were overly distracting. Too many blank pages with few words or imagery on them. I felt like many trees were wasted just to take this "minimal" approach to being stylistically artistic lol. I did appreciate how the dialogue weren't placed in traditional manga panels, and it read more like a film strip which is really neat. It's innovative in that sense.