Tokyo Babylon Book One Paperback – 26 Mar. 2013

This manga is truly one of CLAMP's most underrated works and one of the best subtle works of manga art out there. I'm incredibly pleased with this omnibus edition and the coloured art inside is truly beautiful. The story is engrossing and ultimately rather tragic, but it's filled with touches of humour and sweetness, and despite the fantastical themes, it is a very real sort of story.

Beautiful artwork as always from CLAMP. This is one of their classics. It's dark, and a realistic depiction of psychopaths! Be warned, there's a bit of gore. Value-for-money too as it's basically half the series in one.

Loving Clamp work, I'm absolutely happy to add this book in my collection. I recommend reading Tokyo Babylon then X.

Good read. The book arrived on time and was well wrapped. Recommended.

I loved the story, but the book looked second hand despite being supposedly new

Mild spoilage ahead, you've been warned, yaddida yaddida. Let's go!This is the first volume of two that contain all the manga chapters for Tokyo Babylon. Why that name? Well, once mankind raised a tower to prove how wonderful we all are, but God took a No-No to the vanity of humanity and slammed it down. But in 1991, Tokyo wasn't a lot different (so says the story), full of excess and vanity and lotsa folks. So...Subaru Sumeragi is the thirteenth head of the Sumeragi clan, and he has wicked skills in spiritual matters and magic. At the start of the story, he is exorcising a nasty ghost from a place... But she was really a young girl who had been seduced by a celebrity and committed suicide when he dumped her. That's kind of the point in these stories. Even though these ghosts are causing damage and scaring people and so on, they are often damaged people who need someone's compassion so they can move on. They move on, hauntings stop, all good.Subaru has a twin sister, Hokuto. Although they look a lot a like (Subaru can look pretty girly), Hokuto is more happy and living life large, and also isn't as magically skilled as Subaru. But they are living with a guy-- a 25 year old veterinarian who keeps saying he's in love with Subaru, despite their nine year age gap. Seishiro Sakurazuka is also heir to his family line-- a line of assassins. Subaru can't reconcile the difference between the kindly vet he deals with and the idea of his family business, and Hokuto keeps encouraging Seishiro to seduce Subaru.Why is a 25 year old man chasing after a girly 16 year old boy? Because this is CLAMP's manga, where there's lots of...stuff, so to speak. Open any CLAMP manga and there's usually at least one guy couple somewhere.Anyway, being CLAMP, it isn't just yaoi. Seishiro also has strong magic power, which he uses sometimes to help Subaru or even protect him. But Seishiro keeps talking about a wager that he has with Subaru, while Subaru keeps remembering meeting a teenage boy years ago, and a sinister conversation. But before he can clearly recall it, something always interrupts and distracts him.The stories are interesting, and teach us about judging others and how casually cruelty can blight another person's life. Volume two gets much darker than this one, so be ready for it. The differences between Subaru and Seishiro, or even between Subaru and Hokuto, are what will drive this story to a truly painful conclusion.And yet, being CLAMP, it's a pretty, cherry blossom strewn story with very attractive scenes and some insightful moments, too. Make yer choice, and if you want, buy it.