Reception and Awards
Mystery has surrounded the members of Clamp as, in order to avoid being harassed by overzealous fans, they avoid making public appearances. In polls conducted by marketing research firm Oricon, Clamp was elected ninth most popular manga artist from Japan in 2007, while they were eighth in 2008, sharing the spot with Fujiko F. Fujio.
Gen Fukunaga, the president and CEO of Funimation, has praised Clamp as being "one of the most acclaimed groups of artists in Japan." According to Charles Solomon, a journalist for The New York Times, Clamp "ranks among the most successful creators of manga ... in Japan and the United States." Dallas Middaugh, associate publisher of Del Rey Manga, stated that Clamp was an integral part of "manga explosion" that has been occurring in the United States over the past few years. He also praised the group's artwork and storytelling style as having "struck a strong chord with male and female manga readers." The group was placed third after the winner for the Shogakukan Manga Award in the Children's category in 1999. Their work Cardcaptor Sakura won the Seiun Award for best manga in 2001. Almost 100 million Clamp tankōbon copies have been sold worldwide as of October 2007. Various of their selling series include xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle that have sold over eleven million and twenty million volumes, respectively.
When asked about the universal popularity of Clamp's works, John Oppliger of AnimeNation stated that although it is "not based on originality their artistic skill", they possess a distinct style that "perfectly mesh the conventional attributes of shōnen and shōjo manga". He also pointed out that Clamp often "recycles" characters from their own earlier works, which gave rise to "a loosely defined 'Clamp Universe' that gives much of their work a unifying tone", and creates "absorbing, complex narratives that appeal to both male and female readers". All these factors result in "a cult following devoted to anything and everything the group publishes". The Anime Encyclopedia authors stated that "whatever Clamp are on, we'd like some".
Read more about this topic: Clamp (manga Artists)
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)