Tokyo Babylon Book One

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.

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.

Most of the people buying this manga will already be aware of the story, so in this review I wanted to focus more on the quality of the omnibus than the story of Tokyo Babylon. For those who are new to the series, here is a little blurb taken from wikipedia to give you a taste of the story.The plot is told in a series of substories, published monthly or as 2-3 per volume. While it begins with a monster of the week approach, with somewhat independent running chapters, the plot gradually becomes continuous and backstory is introduced. It focuses on the development of the characters and the relationships between them.Sixteen-year-old Subaru Sumeragi, the main character, is a very powerful magician, the thirteenth head of the foremost family of onmyōji in Japan, which has served the Emperor for centuries. As such, he is called upon to solve various occult mysteries, or stumbles himself on people whom his kind nature compels him to help. These occurrences form the main plot of most chapters. He lives in Tokyo with his twin sister Hokuto, an exuberant girl whose chief occupations are to design eccentric clothing for herself and her brother, and to egg on their mutual friend Seishirō Sakurazuka, a kindly, 25-year-old veterinarian, when he declares his love for Subaru.Tokyo Babylon was first serialized in 1990 with a run that lasted until sometime in 1993, and released in 7 volumes. The original (English) manga have a fluctuating price-point online; one volume might cost you 10 dollars online while another 50-60. Sometimes you can find lots for the entire 7 volume set around 100 or so unless you are lucky enough to find them at a local used bookstore.That being said, the value of this omnibus cannot be beat. With the series being split into a set of two, you can own the entirety of Tokyo Babylon for under $30. However if you're like me and a cover snob, the price point won't hold much weight in your decision between collecting the original print or the the two new omnibus. I spent a lot of time hunting down picture and even videos of what the book looked like before ordering it on Amazon, and am beyond pleased to say it looks even better in person.Darkhorse did, in my opinion, a ridiculously good job with this book.When you compare the cover of the omnibus with the original first volume cover, you can instantly see how they have cleaned up the artwork. The colors are cleaner, sharper and the pages are smooth to the touch. Dialogue and other text have been cleaned up in appearance, while the translation remains (from what I can tell) mostly identical to the original English print. The manga seems more vibrant in the omnibus when I compare it to the tokyopop print.The tokyopop print has a sort of grey cast over the pages, which might have something to do with the paper its printed on, which is grainy in texture. Its not something that particularly noticeable until you compare it with the omnibus print. The Darkhorse edition is much sharper, with the white appearing very clear and clean- without the greyish hue of the Tokyopop version.The book itself is slightly shorter than other omnibus' I've collected, specifically Darkhorses' Cardcaptor Sakura. Personally I prefer this, it just seems to feel better in my hand. Its a more of a weight to it as well, or rather a different, more 'hardy' sort of weight than my CCS omnibus. Its absolutely exquisite, and makes me wish Darkhorse had the license for other manga I enjoy.For splitting the 7 volumes into two omnibus, they chose arguably the perfect place to leave this first volume off as well. I will be buying the second volume the day its available in full faith that it will be as wonderful an edition as the first.If you are a Tokyo Babylon fan, looking to start collecting the books I would HIGHLY recommend picking this Omnibus. I myself have around half the series collected in its Tokyopop format, and will be selling those after being so pleased with what Darkhorse has done with this edition.It will not only save you money, but its a beautiful book, I really get the feeling the team in charge of this Omnibus put a lot of care into it. For those of you looking into picking up the series for the first time, you cannot beat this deal. Its a charming occult mystery that grows darker as it nears the end, with wonderful characters and interesting one-shot stories.This is happiest I have been with purchase of any Omnibus, and I could not recommend it more.

This is the best omnibus I've come across in terms of quality. Fantastic cover art, good binding (no creases after reading it), lots of color pages, and a really good print quality on the actual manga. I can't express how beautiful the cover of this omnibus looks in person it's absolutely fantastic.This was my first time reading Tokyo Babylon, so I didn't know what to expect aside from something good (it is CLAMP after all). The story starts out fairly weak using a "Monster of the Week" formula for the first two volumes, but as soon as the third volume hits the plot starts picking up really quickly and you'll hit the end of the omnibus before you know it. While the beginning is very weak I can't knock it down a star for it as it still sets up the characters and the universe really well before the plot starts developing.If you're planning on getting this I highly recommend picking the final volumes up in the 2nd Omnibus or else you'll be left begging for the next part by the end.

Man, I miss when CLAMP wrote stories like this! The omnibus collection is a perfect way to collect the series. The graphics are crisp, the paper is high quality, and the translation is spot on. I also love the addition of the color gallery pages (even if I already own the artbook, it's a nice touch.) Don't pass this series up, it's fantastic.

This is a great manga, but prepare to be emotionally WRECKED by the ending, and then go relive that pain in the sequel series X.

great manga