Wednesday, March 17, 2010

CLAMP's New Kimono Book: Okimono Kimono

CLAMP is a hugely popular and influential force in the manga/anime world, the creators behind a ton of titles like xxxHolic, Tsubasa Reservior Chronicle, Chobits, Cardcaptor Sakura, RG Veda, Tokyo Babylon, X/1999, Magic Knight Rayearth and more.

Member Mokona is also a fan of kimono, and so "Okimono Kimono" was born. A mixture of kimono-themed illustrations, interviews and more from CLAMP, this book has been available in Japanese for awhile but is due out later this month in English. The English-version release date seems to vary from site to site, but Barnes and Noble has a member-price special running right now where you can preorder it for $8.76, a nice chunk off the regular $12.99 price, with a release date of March 24.



Along with Yoshitaka Amano, CLAMP was one of my biggest artistic influences as a teen, so it's pretty cool to see them doing a kimono book. I'm pre-ordering my copy today and will do a review once I've finished it. In the meantime, here's the official description from Borders' site:

"Here's an exciting and charming addition to the CLAMP collection of works! CLAMP artist Mokona loves the art of traditional Japanese kimono. In fact, she designs kimono and kimono accessories herself and shares her love in Okimono Kimono, a fun and lavishly illustrated book full of drawings and illustrations, interviews (including an interview with Ami of the J-pop duo Puffy AmiYumi!), and even short manga stories from the CLAMP artists."

And here's a shot of CLAMP at Anime Expo 2006, courtesy of John (Phoenix) Brown, with Mokona in kimono on the right. Very cute!



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