Tokyo Babylon

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Japanese: 東京 BABYLON

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 7

Chapters: 18

Status: Finished

Published: 1990 to 1993

Genres: Drama, Fantasy, Supernatural

Demographic: Shoujo

Serialization: Wings

Authors: CLAMP (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.99¹ (scored by 7,399 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #772²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #872

Members: 20,686

Favorites: 814

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7.99

Ranked #772Popularity #872Members 20,686

MangaWingsCLAMP (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /7

Chapters: /18

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Synopsis

Subaru Sumeragi is the thirteenth head of his powerful onmyouji clan. Until the time comes when he must succeed his grandmother fully, Subaru is allowed to live in Tokyo with his fraternal twin Hokuto. While Subaru is kind and shy, Hokuto has exuberance to spare, and her favorite pastime is designing bold matching outfits for the two of them to wear. Her next favorite thing to do is try to set up Subaru with their veterinarian friend Seishirou Sakurazuka who, oddly enough, is always readily available to accompany the Sumeragis throughout the city.

Subaru has to resolve a variety of spiritual conflicts in Tokyo: some are cases formally brought to him by clients, and others are matters in which he decides to involve himself. A selfless teenager, he empathizes with others to the point that their pain may as well be his own. This leaves him vulnerable in a city where nearly everyone makes decisions that only benefit themselves as individuals. Hokuto hopes that if Subaru develops feelings for Seishirou, their relationship will be the one thing that he never gives up for the sake of anyone else. However, is Seishirou the best candidate for her brother's love, or is he hiding sinister secrets?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Tokyo Babylon was published in English by Tokyopop from May 11, 2004 to May 10, 2005. Dark Horse gained publishing rights to the series after Tokyopop was dissolved and republished the series in two omnibus volumes published on March 26 and July 23, 2013, respectively. A new edition, CLAMP Premium Collection Tokyo Babylon, has been published by Yen Press since October 17, 2023. It has also been published in Spanish in Aizoban format by Editorial Kamite since September 23, 2016.

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Related Manga

Sequel:	X
Adaptation:	Tokyo Babylon 2021, Tokyo Babylon

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Characters

Sumeragi, Subaru

Main

Sakurazuka, Seishirou

Main

Sumeragi, Hokuto

Main

Kaburagi, Mitsuki

Supporting

Sachiyo's Father

Supporting

Yuuya

Supporting

Yuuya's Mother

Supporting

Sachiyo

Supporting

Blind Man

Supporting

Nagi, Kumiko

Supporting

Reviews

Aug 11, 2023

ionelHeredia

Recommended

Review en Español and English
Tokyo Babylon esta creado por CLAMP: Tiene una historia interesante con tematica paranormal y ocultismo pero explora/muestra mas que esto a traves de los diferentes personajes que van apareciendo durante la trama (mayormente problematicas japonesas).

Recomendado si buscas algo de esta tematica y que sea un manga corto (por lo menos para mi), tambien posee un anime (cancelado) y un live-action (no se nada sobre este).
PD: Me hubiera gustado que exploraran mas la relacion entre 2 personajes y otros detalles que no voy a mencionar por Spoilers.

Tokyo Babylon is created by CLAMP: It has an interesting story with paranormal and occult ...

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Feb 24, 2024

breddie_sucks

Recommended

I am not a big sucker for supernatural stories. I wasn't just amused by the genre, where it is about dragging in totally abstract and practically impossible elements and constructing a story over those foundations. But Tokyo Babylon does something the other way; it constructs the appropriate supernatural scenarios over the urban tragedies which happens in dense-populated settlements of humankind, often being the subject of amusement for the layman.

Tokyo Babylon is the story of a young exorcist Sumeragi Subaru who treats appropriate supernatural phenomenons, and in his act of doing so, he encounters a number of such morally complicated tragedies which often end up manifesting ... as the supernatural events he exorcises. The people he meets, the sorts of matters the people get entangled in, the morally complicated nature of such matters and the perception with which the supernatural event is getting resolved is an experience which pushes the reader into a roller-coaster of emotions and momentary reasoning. The premises are pretty grounded and realistic, the sub-plot characters having good character depth and premise. The solutions to some of such cases are bitter, painful and feels unjust, but that's the point, the puny insignificant lives we humans lead aren't destined like such in fairy tales, and this manga makes this point clear in the most dramatic yet rational point of view.

As for the over-arching plotline, its pretty clear that CLAMP was grooming it for the sequel "X" (which I am yet to read), leaving numerous untied knots for the reader here and there across the story, much of which is resolved in the climax, yet the remainders are indicating the sequel will explain the untied knots along with unraveling an even bigger and elaborate storyline. As for the main characters, Subaru, Sumeragi Hokuto and Sakurazuka Seishirou, as the plot goes on, the reader will realize the three characters reside in the three corners of the triangular character plane, each of them being unique in a fundamental level. Some character, and subsequent plot inconsistencies could be observed, but the sub-plots does a good job over-weighing them.

As for the art, of course, I jumped right in for the CLAMP art, and unsurprising enough, I wasn't dissatisfied. In fact, it over-weighs your expectations for a manga art style from the early 90's. But on the same lines, the art style fits the shoujo premise much better; it fits so good that I could hear Yukiko Okada and Iyo Matsumoto playing in my head as I admire the city aesthetics (which there isn't a lot, but for the ones available, you will damn have your jaw drop).

The only big issue I faced is the inability to get hold of a high quality edition of it to read online, and its paperbacks aren't as easy to get hold of either. For instance, each of the volumes in my region (3rd world) costs around $150 apiece. But if you are able to get hold of them, beat me not, the aesthetics are great enough to soothe your financial wounds.

In conclusion, if you are planning to read a cool shoujo set in Tokyo with surprisingly good premise and plot with great art, this is a no-brainer, and this manga would remain as one of the favorite things I read (which on retrospection, I don't read a lot, but whatever).

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Jun 4, 2020

abystoma2

Mixed Feelings

Tokyo Babylon is mainly a collection of few stories about an exorcist protagonist and encounters he has during his works - both regular jobs and random confrontations.

Now, right from the start I felt like I was missing some chunk of the story, like I accidentally started reading the wrong volume and skipping the introduction. The characters aren't exactly properly introduced and thanks to their status as twins might even be easily confused for each other for first few chapters (though this might also be fault of the very low quality scanlations which are pretty much your only choice for this manga as the official ...

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Poll: Tokyo Babylon Chapter 18 Discussion Trequartista - Nov 20, 2014	6 replies	by swirlydragonfly »» Feb 10, 6:04 AM
Poll: Tokyo Babylon Chapter 11 Discussion linkjoker - Jul 9, 2016	2 replies	by UfolyCloud »» Oct 4, 2021 2:27 AM
Poll: Tokyo Babylon Chapter 16 Discussion Trequartista - Nov 20, 2014	2 replies	by JeremiahOrange »» Aug 9, 2018 10:57 AM
Poll: Tokyo Babylon Chapter 15 Discussion linkjoker - Jul 10, 2016	1 replies	by JeremiahOrange »» Aug 9, 2018 10:51 AM
Poll: Tokyo Babylon Chapter 13 Discussion linkjoker - Jul 9, 2016	1 replies	by JeremiahOrange »» Aug 9, 2018 10:48 AM

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