If there's one thing you can say about CLAMP is that they have a certain formula that has worked for them for years without fail. The ladies of CLAMP are some of the most mainstream manga author's working in the business today, and their secret to success is really quite simple: They've got a formula that works and they stick by that formula a good 90% of the time. Much like Ken Akamatsu and Rumiko Takahasi, CLAMP has traits that you expect them to use in every series they create. Threat of the world at hand? Check. Beautiful men that are perfect in every way? Check. Geeky looking female lead characters that exist to show that you don't have to be pretty (or have a buxom body) to be smart and intelligent? Check. Best friend or mentor that has powers that even he/she is not aware of sometimes. Check. A homosexual male relationship hinted at? Check. Questionable ending? Double check. These are the most common traits you'll find in a CLAMP series, and they are all here in full bloom.

"Tokyo Babylon" revolves around Subaru, who is something of a "spirit psychiatrist" for dead spirits who can not find peace in the afterlife. Every time there are stories of a building being haunted (or something to that extent), Subaru is there to find out why dead spirit is causing trouble, how he can help the spirit, and finally get the spirit rest in peace. Aside from his unusual job, Subaru is a perfect gentleman at all times, and you never even so much as see him get even a little frustrated with some of the spirits he has to put with. Again, if no one in CLAMP is married I wouldn't be surprised, as they seem to have extremely high expectations for men...but let's not get into that again. Subaru has a little bit of help though. Helping him with his job is his sister Hokuto, who is the staple geeky CLAMP girl who has short hair, is unattractive, but she is extremely smart (although not smart enough to aim for a higher goal than being "a great housewife," but I digress). Also helping Subaru is Seishiro, who is a great wizard who is in love with Subaru (and takes whatever chance he can to flirt with Subaru). It's also hinted that Seishiro might have some extra powers that no one else knows of, but CLAMP won't be getting to that story twist in about three books, four at the most. If this all sounds too familiar then it should, as this is nothing more then a typical CLAMP series. It's cute, it's got characters that women wish they knew in real life, and this entry on CLAMP's resume is nothing to brag about.

"Tokyo Babylon" is nothing more then CLAMP masturbating with their success and throwing the fans nonsense because they know they'll buy it. There's not a single thing in this series that is original, I didn't care a single bit about the characters because they were so shallow, and this series actually has a double lousy ending. You see, this is apparently (and I emphasize on apparently as I'm still not sure if this is true or not) a prequel to CLAMP's hit manga "X/1999," and as of this writing "X/1999" has still not been finished, and CLAMP seems to have lost all interest in finishing the series. Which means that the bad ending here is a bad ending coupled with the sequels bad ending, and you have to wonder how CLAMP can pull stunts like this on their fans. Do they honestly think we don't notice these things? Even ignoring the whole "X/1999" thing, "Tokyo Babylon" is really a waste of your time and money. Dead spirits lingering in the world have been done to death by now, which is why new series about the subject have to be more daring and sharper to keep the audiences attention. Series like "Bleach" and "Shaman King" prove that there is still some juice left in the genre, but "Tokyo Babylon" proves that the genre can still be easily abused. It may be true that "Tokyo Babylon" came out in 1991 while "Shaman King" came out in 1996, but in my mind five years isn't THAT much of a difference!

What's even more frustrating is that "Tokyo Babylon" was being published at the same time as "Yu Yu Hakusho" was, which was also doing something new and original with the dead spirit genre. Heck, the story about a person with magical power's helping dead spirits find peace in the afterlife has been outdated since the 80's, and now this story only shows up in the occasional chapter of "Inu-Yasha." It also doesn't help that this genre gotten extremely stale these past few years because stories like these are too predictable. How are they predictable? Because there is no way that the main character can actually fail to save a spirit, because if he fails then he or she would have to be replaced with someone else, so failing is never an option in a series like this. "Tokyo Babylon" is 7 books long, and if I assume that you're buying these at retail price each book will cost you $9.95, and you'll end up paying around $70.00 for the whole series. My suggestion is to add another $10 to that price and go pick up the entire series of "Chobits" instead.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -