Clover #3

Rating:
Summary: 90% fluff
Review: Clover 3 follows the story of Ora, a nightclub singer, and Sue, the fairy in the Clover series. Sue (in a cage but able to hear the outside world) hears Ora singing. She can phone Ora and so they talk on the phone and become close friends. Sue is delighted when they compose a duet together. Meanwhile we see Ora and her boyfriend Kazuhiko having warm fuzzy times.

This book is about 90% fluff. The actual story ending and all could be summarized into about a paragraph long story. There are tons of glamor shots of Ora singing on stage wearing fake wings and all sorts of crazy undergarment oriented costumes. Over and over we get to read the words to her repetoir of three songs. So you see some black and white drawings of a pretty girl with sappy poetry written on the same page. Many of these drawings are well done. These are graphic, with power but not much detail. There are also many poorly done drawings with not much detail or graphic element.

This book has a lot of unused space. Usually there will be a drawing in a small box set off center on a white page. There is not a single page in this book that is covered with a picture or with pictures. (Although for maybe 5 pages of the 90 this works and there is a nice flow.) Three 1.5 x 1.5 inch frames per page is about average. Maybe they were trying to set a certain mood and pacing. If so they failed.

Another issue I had with this book is that the lettering is all done by computer and is displayed in computer drawn circles or squares. It comes off as very awkward because often I had no idea who was saying which line in the dialog. This book seems like someone put it together with clip art of the characters and no idea of what they wanted to produce.

I couldn't see anyone actually paying for this. If you are borrowing it from a friend or from the library then it may be worth thumbing through. Even the time to investigate is a bit much of an investment for this story.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent prequel!
Review: Clover 3 is a prequel of sorts to the events that take place in Clover 1 and 2. I think it's set about a year previous, but it may even be 6 months or so. At any rate, it introduces Ora (on the cover), whom we had previously only heard about and never seen. This story shows Ora and her affections for Kazuhiko, but it's mainly about how she and Sue came to know each other.

Clover #3 continues the wonderful CLAMP tradition of intriguing story and breathtakingly beautiful art (Clover really is a pinnacle of graphic design art). Ora's character design is flawless, and she is given a surreal exotic quality by what she says, but especially by how she looks and what she wears. There is no nudity in this, but a little bit of sexual innuendo. The main point, however, is about how love can develop between two people regardless of their situations. It's an excellent manga, a wonderful compliment to Clover 1 and 2, and I absolutely recommend it. It could, in theory, even stand on it's own, but you'd be doing yourself a disservice by only purchasing #3. Go get it!