Clamp School Detectives

Clamp School Detectives (Kuranpu Gakuen Tanteidan) is a manga that was created by a well-known group of women called Clamp. Clamp is one of the few all-female mangaka groups that exist. The group of four women are responsible for creating quite a few very popular mangas. Clamp School Detectives was one of the group’s early works. It was released in Monthly Asuka magazine in 1992 and finished in 1993. An anime was created from the popular series and ran for five months in 1997. The manga has been translated into English and the anime has been dubbed, becoming available to the American public in 1998 on VHS. A dubbed DVD version is in the works.

Characters

• Nokoru Imonoyama – Nokoru is the Elementary School board Chairman at the Clamp School. He is in sixth grade and is the youngest son of one of the founders of the school. Even though he is one of the most intelligent people in the school, he is often found doing silly things. NASA wants the Elementary schooler to come and work for them and has been attempting to get him to work for them for a long time.

• Suoh Takamura – Suoh is a fifth grader and is the secretary of the board. He has advanced black belts in Karate, Aikido, Kendo and Judo. His ancestors were Ninjas and he has made a vow to protect Nokoru, as well as to make sure he gets his homework done and in on time.

• Akira Ijyuin – This fourth grader is the treasurer and is an amazing chef. His father is also a chef, which is where Akira has learned most of his trade. Akira, however, lives with his two mothers, not his father. He did inherit his father’s legacy, though, and became a thief known as 20 Masks.

• Nagisa Azuya – Nagisa is a kindergartener and is a close friend of Utako’s. She has a crush on Suoh and he returns her affections.

• Utako Ohkawa – Utako is the president of the Kindergarten Student Division Council and has a crush on Akira.

Clamp School

Clamp school is more than just a school, it is a series of educational opportunities. There are classes from kindergarten to university and takes only those who are exceptionally intelligent and are overachievers. Students do not have to be wealthy to go there, just extremely smart. The entire school area is self-sufficient, having banks, hospitals, fields, rivers and tons of room to play. The students rarely leave the campus. There is a tie-in from other Clamp mangas, such as Tokyo Babylon, to the Clamp campus.

The three main characters, Noroku, Takamura and Ijuuin, form the Clamp School Detectives in order to help those who need help, and to solve what crimes they can. The first episode of the anime shows how they came together to form the Clamp School Detectives when Noroku struggles to help an elderly woman who is being evicted from her home. He is determined to find a way to help her stay in her home, and his two friends help him.