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Posts Tagged Gate 7

Review: Gate 7 (Vol. 01)

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, October 20, 2011

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Manga-ka: CLAMP
Publisher: Dark Horse
Rating: Teen (13+)
Release Date: October 2011

Synopsis: “An innocent sightseeing trip to Kyoto opens up a magical realm to shy high schooler Chikahito Takamoto! Visiting a legendary shrine, Chikahito finds himself in the mystical world of Hana and her comrades–and his immunity to their powers leads them to believe that he’s no ordinary, awkward teenager! Protecting our world from violent elemental beasts, Hana and her team welcomes the confused Chikahito–who isn’t quite sure that he wants to be caught in the middle of their war! One’s thing’s certain, though, since he’s smitten with aloof, childlike warrior Hana, he’s along for the ride, for better or worse!”

Buying the first volume of a new CLAMP series is a treat and I’ve been so excited to get a hold of this book for quite some time. I know next to nothing about Gate 7 (I made sure it was so!), excluding my constant following of Dark Horse’s bumpy release attempts. But now it’s finally here and at last I can share my thoughts extending past a disappointed sigh. Gate 7‘s opening volume takes off fast while simultaneously trudging along slowly. None the less, CLAMP’s skill at gripping your eyes with their great artwork and tugging at your heart with their likeable characters still makes Gate 7 an effective opening instalment to their newest series.

CLAMP’s Gate 7 Manga Coming From Dark Horse in 2011

By Lissa Pattillo on Saturday, April 23, 2011

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The CLAMP fan-community, clamp_now, has translated new information from the manga team’s website about the international release schedule for their new series, Gate 7.

Gate 7 has already been serialized for a few issues in Japan and France, with tankouban (graphic novel length) editions set to come out in a number of countries around the world, including in North America from Dark Horse. The release date for this edition is summer 2011 – not too far away!

Originally Dark Horse comics had said that they’d be simultaneously releasing Gate 7 in small single-issue format. That was a few years ago and there’s been little news from Dark Horse since about it – granted they haven’t let up on the CLAMP releases with a bunch of omnibus editions of the group’s titles. While it seems safe to say we’re not going to get the serialized edition as originally thought, it’s still nice to see the series itself remains on the agenda one way or another.

I’m really excited to have this book in hand. I’m a huge CLAMP fan and must own everything they’ve done, for one, and the art looks gorgeous. Though Dark Horse has yet to comment on this news, hearing it come directly from CLAMP seems like a pretty good sign. Fingers crossed!

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Categories: Licensing, News
Tags: CLAMP, Dark Horse, Gate 7, Manga

Signs of Life, CLAMP’s Gate 7 Project Short Coming Out in Japan

By Lissa Pattillo on Friday, October 1, 2010

3 Comments »

It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything about CLAMP’s Gate 7 project hasn’t it? Over at the clamp_now community, news was posted that an ad for a Gate 7 short was spotted in the Japanese magazine, Jump Square, and with an actual street date no less. It will be a one-shot story, the plot of which isn’t known, though it does have another pretty piece of artwork to further whet appetites. The story is set to be published on November 4th. A one-page promo site has been posted for it as well.

Originally announced back in July 2007 (PR via MangaBlog), CLAMP was set to create a series of short manga stories (called ‘mangettes’) which were to released simulatenously in both Japan and North America. We got a glimpse of the plot in December 2008, a peek at the artwork in March 2009 and now perhaps an actual sign of life in September 2010. Dark Horse hasn’t said anything about whether they are or aren’t still in the game for a simultaneous release, or for this new short specifically, but we’ll assume they’re still in the game – they’re just waiting for it to actually start.

It’s too bad it’s taking as long as it has really, almost four years since the original announcement and we’ve yet to see even see a single page. But, I suppose it was hard to predict how their currently running series were going to play out at the time. Originally I believe they’d planned to end XXXHolic and Tsubasa at the same time – now popularity of the first has prompted an entire new ‘season’. Since it’s more XXXHolic, I think some CLAMP fans (or at least I?) can forgive the delays of newer work a while at least.

As a bonus piece of positive CLAMP news, it was announced earlier in the week that the 4-woman manga team would be providing the illustrations for a Japanese-released edition of Peter Pan. That’s two of my absolute favourite things mixed together! I smell a must-have collectible import…

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Categories: News
Tags: CLAMP, Dark Horse, Gate 7, Manga

CLAMP’s First Mangettes Cover Surfaces

By Lissa Pattillo on Thursday, March 26, 2009

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Thanks to the sharp-eyed CLAMP fan nokiirat at the fan community, CLAMP_Now, we now have our first glimpse of CLAMP’s mangette artwork. The image was originally posted along with the Mangettes: Gate 7 listing on Amazon.jp.

Personally I’m happy to see that the art style still has a look distinctly similar to that of XXXHolic, one of CLAMP’s currently running series, which means CLAMP fans can likely assume that it’s Mokona, one of the four-woman team, who’ll be head artist. Though it’s always fun seeing if CLAMP will take a different artistic style with their new series’, I don’t think I’m ready to give up the sleek visuals of XXXHolic and Tsubasa just yet.

Back in December, Amazon.ca gave fans their first real glimpse of the new mini-series, being simultaneously published in North America, Japan and Korea in 2009, with a description for this first installment, Gate 7.

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Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: CLAMP, Dark Horse, Gate 7, Manga

Mangettes: Gate 7

By Lissa Pattillo on Monday, December 15, 2008

6 Comments »

So soon to have my holiday shopping bumped from the top! Guess this means I should upgrade my WP for that handy sticky feature… In the meantime, this is CLAMP news so I’ll let the bumping pass!

Back in July 2007, Dark Horse announced their plans for a joint project with the popular manga-group, CLAMP, to create a series of releases called mangettes. Little else has been told about the stories CLAMP would be doing for these small 80-page digests, or when we’ll be seeing these simultaneous releases… until now! Dun dun dun… All dramatics aside (as a big geeky CLAMP fan, yes I consider this semi-dramatic), Amazon has yet again provided manga fans with a glimpse into the future:

Mangettes: Gate 7
CLAMP

“Between our conscious, waking world and the subconscious state of slumber, there is a thinly veiled plane of lucid dreaming. While the conscious state belongs to individuals, the hidden plane of dreams is one shared by all human minds, past, present, and future. Yet only a few have ever possessed the power to enter this secret realm at will – where a war is being waged to control the waking world. For our earthly wishes and desires are not our own, but under the manipulation of these unseen masters of dreams. The heroine of Gate 7 is Hana, a high-school girl hailing from Kyoto, the daughter of a temple caretaker. Her peaceful ways give her the self-control to act in the hidden realm. But Hana can only reach it through the strange beast that acts as her totem in the world of dreams – and her companion on a journey to confront the puppeteers of our reality!”

Doesn’t sound like CLAMP is going far from their current bubble but I’ve no complaints and of course look forward to the first release of these mangettes (with Gate 7 scheduled for August 2009 according to Amazon). I also look forward to seeing which of the group will be lead artist this time around; Mokona? Nekoi? Looking forward to the shiny either way.

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Categories: Misc
Tags: CLAMP, Gate 7