May 4, 2012
I'm likely one of the few people in the world that own all of the Kiseki and when I saw their were no reviews for Kieseki I decided to write my own.
To start off with I would like to say DO NOT buy Kiseki unless you are familiar with Clamp's work. Why? Because the Kiseki series was made for fans of Clamp-not people that having read all there works (I know I haven't) but for people that have a fondness for Clamp's characters, art and story lines. In addition, Kiseki doesn't cover a large portion of Kobato., xxxHolic,Tsubasa and Legal Drug and has no mention
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of Gate 7 because Kiseki was released before its publication. Most of the grading rule brick which myanimelists provide does not work for this series so I will be, to an extent breaking away from the standard format.
Story-4
Each book addresses one or more of Clamp's numerous series. Each comes with a fair amount of summary of the stories. Again, this is only summary material to help you to understand the premise of the series if you are not familiar with the series. Each book comes with a mini comic made especially for kiseki. They are nothing special-just gag comics for the most part but it is a nice touch of originality in comparison to most of the book which is a compilation of work over the years. Since there really isn't a concentration on storyline in Kiseki I gave it a harsher grade than the other catagories.
Art-9
Clamp makes beautiful art and is able to vary the art style greatly from series to series (though this is largely a result to the amount of time between the series) the only reason I don't give the art a 10 is because some of the older art has a rough feel to it-especially RG Veda's art. This is not to say the art isn't good but it could have been better. Each picture comes with a caption describing the history of the art piece which is wonderful to see.
Character-7
I love the diversity of characters in Clamp's stories so the character profiles are a wonderful touch in the book. However, the gag comics at the end seem to lack the flair of character personalities. I am not sure if I should grade the comics or the profiles so I decided to try and split the score.
Enjoyment: Along with the art, profiles, and summaries each book has an interview with Clamp and someone Clamp has worked with like a manga editor, anime producer, or chess piece designer. This is very entertaining to say the least. The book also comes with a list of products relating to the featured serie(s) which is wonderful to look at.
Overall-9
Kiseki is one of those series that you read over an expanse of time. It gives a lot of eye candy and food for thought but doesn't give off the air that you must have all 12 books. The chess pieces are a nice touch and are beautifully made. I recommend finding a kiseki book of a series you like or a series you are interested in from Clamp and read.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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