Clamp School Detectives

Clamp School Detectives (CLAMP学園探偵団) is a manga series by Clamp, which was adapted into a 26-episode anime series, produced by Bandai Visual and Pierrot. The manga series was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Asuka manga magazine between January 1992 and October 1993, spanning three tankōbon , while the anime premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo between May 3, 1997 and October 25, 1997.

An early work of the all-female manga artist group Clamp, the series outlines the adventures of the Elementary School Student Board in their attempt to better the lives of the female population of Clamp School.

Tokyopop have released the manga in English across North America in three volumes. The anime series has been translated and dubbed into English by the anime television network, Animax, who have broadcast the series across its respective English-language networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia. It is distributed in North America by Bandai Entertainment, which first released it in 1998 through now out-of-print subtitled VHS videotapes, and in 2008 re-released DVDs of the series with a new English dub by Coastal Studios.

The Clamp School
The Clamp School is the brainchild of the Imonoyama zaibatsu. It is placed in a sprawling estate as big as a small city. Each of the five corners houses one of the five school divisions, which range from kindergarten through college, even graduate school. It also is a self-contained campus in Tokyo, it having its own city, complete with banks, shopping arcades, public utilities, as well as its own mass rapid transit system. The Clamp School's mission is to cater to all talented students, rich or poor.

The institution is featured in other Clamp works such as Magic Knight Rayearth, Man of Many Faces and X/1999. X/1999 expands the reasoning behind the campus's unique layout by revealing that part-way through the campus's construction, a request came from Tohru Magami to have the site act as a sanctuary for the Sacred Sword to be wielded by her son, Kamui Shirou, during an apocalyptic battle to occur in 1999. The director agreed and changed the layout to form a pentagram at Tohru Magami's request, resulting in having to move half-completed or even entire buildings to fulfill this.

CLAMP School's physical plant configuration is partly replicated in an unrelated anime, Alice Academy.

Main cast

 * Nokoru Imonoyama (妹之山 残) age 9. A 6th grade student and the Elementary School Board Chairman. The youngest son of the Imonoyama zaibatsu, the founders of Clamp School, he has inherited the family fondness of doing absurd things just for the sake of doing them.  Nokoru has one of the top IQs in a school full of geniuses and NASA has been vying for the mind of the elementary schooler.  He also has the unique ability to detect a lady in distress from two kilometers away.  For this reason, he established the Clamp School Detective Agency, although this was also an incentive to get out of his Chairman duties. He is also the only one out of the three young detectives that doesn't play a sport.  Nokoru also appears in Clamp's Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders, Man of Many Faces, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and X/1999.


 * Suoh Takamura (鷹村 蘇芳) age 9. A 5th grader and the Elementary School Board Secretary. Suoh is a martial arts expert, with a 3rd dan blackbelt in Karate, Judo, Aikido, and Kendo (he would have gone higher, but he ran out of competition), he's also good in kyūdō. He is also the descendant of a Japanese ninja clan, and has sworn to protect Nokoru through anything.  He is also responsible for making sure the chairman does all of his paperwork on time.  Suoh also appears in Clamp School Paranormal Investigators, Man of Many Faces, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and X/1999.


 * Akira Ijyuin (伊集院 玲) age 9. A 4th grader and the Elementary School Board Treasurer. Akira is a first-class chef, a trait he inherited from his father. He lives with his two mothers and has also inherited his father's legacy as the notorious thief 20 Masks. Akira also appears in Clamp's Man of Many Faces, Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle and X/1999.

Supporting characters

 * Nagisa Azuya (梓夜 凪砂) age 5. A kindergarten student and friend of the President of the Kindergarten Student Division Council, she plays the flute very beautifully. At first, Suoh thought that she was a wisteria fairy and an illusion; after hearing Utako Ookawa talk about her, however, he knew she was real. Her mother is a famous traditional Japanese dancer and her father is well known for playing for royalty. She has enough talent to surpass her parents. Suoh has a crush on her and vice versa.


 * Utako Ohkawa (大川 詠心) age 5. A kindergarten student and president of the Kindergarten Student Division Council. At first, she thought that her friend, Nagisa, was being attacked by people who are jealous of her. Akira has a crush on her and she has a crush on him. She believes they will get married someday. She also appears in Clamp's Man of Many Faces and makes a cameo appearance in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.

Plot summary
The Clamp School Detectives is a series of episodic cases. Background is also given of Nokoru and Suoh's relationship, although this is not essential to the series.

Media
The series was re-released on April 3, 1997.

Music

 * Opening Theme "Peony Pink" Performed by Ali Project
 * Ending Theme "Welcome to Metallic Party" Performed by Marble Berry
 * Ending Theme "Gift" Performed by Maaya Sakamoto

Japanese Voice Actors

 * Nokoru Imonoyama — Akemi Okamura
 * Suoh Takamura — Shiho Niiyama
 * Akira Ijyuin — Omi Minami
 * Nagisa Azuya — Haruna Ikezawa
 * Utako Ohkawa — Yuko Miyamura
 * Idomu Yudaiji — Akira Ishida

English Voice Actors

 * Nokoru Imonoyama — Juliet Cesario
 * Suoh Takamura — Ashley Knight
 * Akira Ijyuin — Shannon Hemeon
 * Nagisa Azuya — Pamela Weidner Houle
 * Utako Ohkawa — Rachael Moser
 * Shukaido Takeshi — Jason Hatfield

Crossovers

 * Miyuki from the manga Miyuki-chan in Wonderland appears in the episode 17.


 * The Clamp school is a setting that appears in several of Clamp's other manga works including Man of Many Faces, Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders, Clamp School Paranormal Investigators, and X/1999.


 * Nokoru is the enigmatic Chief in the series Duklyon: CLAMP School Defenders.


 * Akira stars in his own two-part series, Man of Many Faces as well as appearing as Twenty Masks in Duklyon: CLAMP School Defenders.


 * Suoh starred in a short lived four chapter series called Hagun Seisenki. The series was never finished by CLAMP.


 * The three main characters cameo in X/1999 as adult versions of themselves. In this incarnation, Nokoru is the Board Chairman (also translated as "Director") of CLAMP School. They also appear as alternate versions of themselves in CLAMP's massive crossover Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.


 * In Tsubasa Chronicle season 2 episode 2 Nokoru Imonoyama, Suoh Takamura, and Akira Ijyuin (grown up more though) are shown as some of the contestants.

Trivia

 * The name of "Nokoru" originates in the Ryūdō brothers of Sohryuden. The names of Ryūdō brothers are Hajime (start), Tsuzuku (continue), Owaru (end), and Amaru (remain).  According to fans, the author of Sohryuden, Yoshiki Tanaka, hesitated in deciding whether to name the youngest brother "Amaru" or "Nokoru", which happen to be different pronunciations of the same character.  Clamp, who had dōjinshi of Tanaka's works, used the name "Nokoru" (the name not chosen by Tanaka) for their own works.  The names of "Tsuzuku Imonoyama" and "Owaru Imonoyama" are given as elder brothers of Nokoru if one carefully examines the corners of the scenes in this work and Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders.