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CLAMP School Detectives

Title: CLAMP School Detectives
Volume(s): 3
Creator(s): CLAMP
Format: Unflipped; Right-to-Left
Publisher: Tokyopop
MSRP: $9.95
Genre(s): Action/Comedy
Rated: All Ages


CONSUMER ADVICE

Parents have nothing to worry about, "CLAMP School Detectives" is a VERY safe series for kids! There is no violence, no language, no adult themes, even the conflict is minor.

People who love mystery stories are going to want to look elsewhere, as the mysteries in this series are pretty dull for the most part. For mystery fans I 'd recommend "Zodiac P.I." over this title any day of the week.

Anyone who's over the age of seven will most likely be EXTREMELY bored with this title!

If you want a manga that will have great mysteries, smart detectives, and lots of suspense you may want to give up on "CLAMP School Detectives," because this won't feed your needs. As I sat and read "CLAMP School Detectives" I was torn with the thought of whether or not I liked it or not. I mean it was cute in its own right, and there were a couple of funny moments that take place in this series, but the whole experience was just too...sugary for me. This is the type of series I would have loved if I was a seven year old girl, but as a grown adult I find my tolerance of sweets going away little by little every day, to the point where I may not care for anything overly sweet one day. This series is about three (Rather young) boys named Nokoru Imonoyama, Suoh Takamura, and Akira Ijyuin. Together these three have formed the CLAMP School Detectives Agency, where they have dedicated themselves to helping out all damsels in distress, and being honorable while they do it!

They solve such cases as finding someone's lost peacock, or finding a way to stop an evil landlord from running an old lady out of her house, and other, things like...that! All of the boys look and act like perfect angels, every single girl in the school loves the boys, every single adult respects the boys (Many of the adults believing that the kids are superior to some adults), and all the boys are super smart and perfect gentlemen. I'm all for good guys in comics, but what I can't stand is absolutely perfect hero's that you just can't find any fault in no matter what you do (And trust me, there is definetly NO fault to be found in any of these boys)! If the women for CLAMP never get married, it will be because they expect too much out of men. Teasing aside though the biggest problem I have with "CLAMP School Detectives" is that everything in this is so perfect it's painful. These boys are so perfect that all that's missing from them are halo's. With those over their heads they'd be set for life. Also none of the mysteries are ever very complicated or good, and most of the cases they take involve finding something (Which in a comic is not very exciting to say the least).

The art is good (As should be exspected of CLAMP), but even the school looks too perfect for my tastes, without any sign of graffiti, no people with weird haircuts, heck, there isn't even anyone here that needs braces! This school honestly feels like it was ripped right out of "Leave It To Beaver" or some other 60's show. When you add all of this together, all you have is a cute but extremely safe series. "CLAMP School Detectives" is not likely to be looked back on fondly for years to come, but if your under ten chances are you'll get something out of this. Everyone above the age of ten should purchase with caution though.

Review Update:

A couple months after I wrote the above review I bought discounted copies of the last two volumes of "CLAMP School Detectives." The last two volumes of the series are just as standard, cheesy, and down right boring as the first volume. After reading the last two books I decided the my original C+ rating was being far too generous, and I have since made my decision on whether or not I liked this series. I don't like this series. So as of now I am changing the grade from C+ to C-.

C-

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -