CLAMP, CLAMP, CLAMP! It seems that Japan is going crazy over this four-woman group of mangaka. X is already in its ninth tankoubon volume. The X anime movie was released last March on video and LD, and fans now look forward to the premiere of the animated version of CARD CAPTOR SAKURA in the fall. So what's a CLAMP fan to do until then? Watch CLAMP SCHOOL DETECTIVES.
Almost a parody on the name of the group that created it, CSD is a tale of three schoolboys who form a detective agency, specializing in damsels-in-distress. Based on CLAMP's manga of the same name, the series takes place at the prestigious school called, quite originally, the CLAMP School. Housing students from as early as pre-school all the way up to university level, the school is located just outside Tokyo (and has other CLAMP characters in attendance. Crossovers are something of a CLAMP trademark).
The leader of this investigative trio is sixth grader Imonoyama Nokoru, a wispy-haired blond who is also president of the elementary student body. Highly intelligent (NASA once tried to recruit him) and obviously the brains of the outfit, Nokoru epitomizes what a gentleman should be and sets a pristine example for his two cohorts. Fifth grader Takamura Suoh, an accomplished martial-artist, is the serious side to the CLAMP School Detectives and keeps the others from getting too out of line. And finally, fourth grader Ijyuin Akira (formerly from CLAMP's manga story, 20-MENSOU NI ONEGAI!) is definitely the light-hearted member; he is a renown chef (Akira teaches cooking classes to housewives) and is always chipper in even the darkest of moments.
The first four episodes of CSD follow the manga stories quite faithfully. The pace and action to the show is fanciful (the boys tour around Tokyo in their own blimp and go hang-gliding) and tries to be melodramatic (There are lots of women in "danger," one per episode actually). The first episode, FILE 1: "Forever from the Ground," sets the tone for the rest of the show: Nokoru and company come to the aid of an elderly woman who's being forced from her home by her nasty brother-in-law. The show sort of seems kind of mindless at times and if you're expecting something along the serious lines of either TOKYO BABYLON or X just because it's a CLAMP work, think again. However, the third episode, "My Fair Lady," is somewhat heartwarming, as a brazen girl, Kyougoku Midoriko, challenges Nokoru to a game of hide-and-seek with his presidency of the elementary student body at stake.
It will be interesting to see how long CLAMP SCHOOL DETECTIVES will last in the season, having started later than the other shows during the spring season. With the first four episodes quite faithful to their manga counterparts, and with the manga only covering what could amount to the first nine or ten episodes, how far will CSD go and will they develop original stories?

CLAMP SCHOOL DETECTIVES (CLAMP GAKUEN TANTEIDAN) © 1997 CLAMP, Kadokawa Shoten/Bandai Visual, Studio Pierrot, TV Tokyo Television Tokyo, Saturday 7:30 to 8:00 a.m.