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uh HUH
OMG Yami no Matsuei is a total rip-off of X/TB!!!!1
...Uh, right. Okay, how Subaru/Seishirou and Hisoka/Muraki meet is similar, but, Christ, people, one similarity and a picture of Tsuzuki with an X in his shoulder do not a total hackjob make. You could draw parallels between practically any two given series if you're really LOOKING for them; I'm not sure how TB (shonen ai tragic love story) and/or X (apocalyptic end times epic) are SO similar to YnM (shonen ai mystery/drama/horror) that the latter could seriously be considered Matsushita plagiarizing CLAMP.
Characters?
Subaru vs. Hisoka: The former is, in his first series, an innocent, an idealist, exceedingly shy and sensitive, polite, and striving to help everyone he possibly can, to the detriment of his own health. Hisoka is cynical, pessimistic, decidedly NOT innocent, introverted, private, and blunt to the point of rudeness. They have in common their empathic nature, their twitchiness about physical contact if not the reasons for it, and... uh... green eyes and a waify uke build.
Seishirou vs. Muraki: Sadistic psychopathic murderers, an abnormal eye each, basket-case mothers with whom they were probably on slightly more intimate terms than is entirely proper, doctors in their lives as seen to the outside world. More and more noticeable similarities there, but what about more personally? We get far more insight into Muraki's thought processes, not to mention more humanizing incidents (who can honestly see Seishirou adopting a kitten and naming it Subaru-neko?) and outside relationships. While Seishirou has no concern for anyone other than Subaru, Muraki is concerned with, at the very least, Tsuzuki (warped, but there) and Ukyou, and almost certainly Oriya as well. Seishirou isn't interested in Subaru's well-being, certainly, while Muraki is desperate to help his fiancee. And really, come on, there are only so many character archetypes in the world; Muraki and Seishirou are hardly the only psychotic murdering bastards in anime.
Hokuto vs. Tsuzuki: (Please don't kill me. Who ELSE is he supposed to be related to; not Seishirou, certainly?) Bright, genki, support system for the uke boy. Optimistic, enthusiastic, outgoing, friendly. While Hokuto has her depths, though, she certainly isn't on anywhere near Tsuzuki's level when he angsts.
Uh... miscellaneous Xs on body parts: Yami has even less in common with X than it does with TB, so I think I can forgive one bloody X carved into skin.
And, really, even if Yami was, for example, inspired by TB, for the love of god, how many of CLAMP's series are really all that 'original'? Shirahime Syo, X, Tokyo Babylon, and Clover are pretty original, and I've never read Gohou Drug, so I couldn't speak for it, but what about the others? Rayearth is off RPGs, RGVeda is off of Babylonian mythology, the CLAMP Campus Detectives is inspired by some specific detectives, 20 Mensou by a certain thief. Duklyon is sentai and Sohryuden is sentai-ish fantasy with hints of the four gods legendry, at least in the color scheme. Chobits of robot girl, Angelic Layer is sort of a different spin on the card/pocket monsters genre, CCS is magical girl, Miyuki is blatantly ripped from Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, XXXHolic is very similar to Petshop of Horrors, and Tsubasa is massive self-referential AU. CLAMP gets its series by taking existing stereotypes or stories and putting a fresh twist on them, not coming up with entirely new stuff.
Oh, about Yami's new style? I admit, I don't like it as much as some of the older artwork, but it's my uninformed, nonartist's opinion that it is NOT hack artwork, because it's more realistic and certainly, at least to me, LOOKS like it's more time-consuming and difficult to draw. And since Matsushita is doing this series with her own effort, inclination, and time, the fans have no right to demand ANYTHING. You don't DEMAND things of series creators; it's their series and they'll do what they damned well please with it, and if you don't like it, well, no one's holding a gun to your head forcing you to buy it.
< /rant>
...Uh, right. Okay, how Subaru/Seishirou and Hisoka/Muraki meet is similar, but, Christ, people, one similarity and a picture of Tsuzuki with an X in his shoulder do not a total hackjob make. You could draw parallels between practically any two given series if you're really LOOKING for them; I'm not sure how TB (shonen ai tragic love story) and/or X (apocalyptic end times epic) are SO similar to YnM (shonen ai mystery/drama/horror) that the latter could seriously be considered Matsushita plagiarizing CLAMP.
Characters?
Subaru vs. Hisoka: The former is, in his first series, an innocent, an idealist, exceedingly shy and sensitive, polite, and striving to help everyone he possibly can, to the detriment of his own health. Hisoka is cynical, pessimistic, decidedly NOT innocent, introverted, private, and blunt to the point of rudeness. They have in common their empathic nature, their twitchiness about physical contact if not the reasons for it, and... uh... green eyes and a waify uke build.
Seishirou vs. Muraki: Sadistic psychopathic murderers, an abnormal eye each, basket-case mothers with whom they were probably on slightly more intimate terms than is entirely proper, doctors in their lives as seen to the outside world. More and more noticeable similarities there, but what about more personally? We get far more insight into Muraki's thought processes, not to mention more humanizing incidents (who can honestly see Seishirou adopting a kitten and naming it Subaru-neko?) and outside relationships. While Seishirou has no concern for anyone other than Subaru, Muraki is concerned with, at the very least, Tsuzuki (warped, but there) and Ukyou, and almost certainly Oriya as well. Seishirou isn't interested in Subaru's well-being, certainly, while Muraki is desperate to help his fiancee. And really, come on, there are only so many character archetypes in the world; Muraki and Seishirou are hardly the only psychotic murdering bastards in anime.
Hokuto vs. Tsuzuki: (Please don't kill me. Who ELSE is he supposed to be related to; not Seishirou, certainly?) Bright, genki, support system for the uke boy. Optimistic, enthusiastic, outgoing, friendly. While Hokuto has her depths, though, she certainly isn't on anywhere near Tsuzuki's level when he angsts.
Uh... miscellaneous Xs on body parts: Yami has even less in common with X than it does with TB, so I think I can forgive one bloody X carved into skin.
And, really, even if Yami was, for example, inspired by TB, for the love of god, how many of CLAMP's series are really all that 'original'? Shirahime Syo, X, Tokyo Babylon, and Clover are pretty original, and I've never read Gohou Drug, so I couldn't speak for it, but what about the others? Rayearth is off RPGs, RGVeda is off of Babylonian mythology, the CLAMP Campus Detectives is inspired by some specific detectives, 20 Mensou by a certain thief. Duklyon is sentai and Sohryuden is sentai-ish fantasy with hints of the four gods legendry, at least in the color scheme. Chobits of robot girl, Angelic Layer is sort of a different spin on the card/pocket monsters genre, CCS is magical girl, Miyuki is blatantly ripped from Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, XXXHolic is very similar to Petshop of Horrors, and Tsubasa is massive self-referential AU. CLAMP gets its series by taking existing stereotypes or stories and putting a fresh twist on them, not coming up with entirely new stuff.
Oh, about Yami's new style? I admit, I don't like it as much as some of the older artwork, but it's my uninformed, nonartist's opinion that it is NOT hack artwork, because it's more realistic and certainly, at least to me, LOOKS like it's more time-consuming and difficult to draw. And since Matsushita is doing this series with her own effort, inclination, and time, the fans have no right to demand ANYTHING. You don't DEMAND things of series creators; it's their series and they'll do what they damned well please with it, and if you don't like it, well, no one's holding a gun to your head forcing you to buy it.
< /rant>
no subject
Oh, yeah...
Actually, they're even represented a little bit in the Sorcerer Hunters anime--at the very end, remember the dead city Zaha summons? The four (maybe five) big pillars of light spring up from four little statuettes--a dragon, a bird, a tiger, and something silhouetted but visible as a tortoise with snakes if you know what you're looking at.
For that matter, it's not exactly four gods related, but in X, the big circle of assorted kanji that's on Hinoto's floor has the seishi symbols in it, all twenty four of the things in proper alignment.