Bit random
I give Clamp a lot of crap in my mind, basically for the Tsubasa clone/timey whimey clusterfuck and the hiatuses of X, Drug & Drop, Gate 7 (and Clover, they can deny it all they want, but it’s easy to see that they had planned at least a Kazuhiko centered volume if not more) but I go to to other fandom tags and see that even in this day and age people still have to fight for LGTBQIA representation and inclusion, they still get queerbaited, and the bury your gays trope is in still full effect Clamp on the other hand:
-Had a non-binary protagonist in their very 1st manga (along with a lesbian couple and a gay one)
-Had three LGTBQUIA view point protagonists in a story that deconstructs/reconstructs modern society, parenthood, gender roles, rape culture, abuse, mental health etch.
-Had massive LGTBQUIA representation in their all ages magical shojou mega hit.
-Ended another massive commercial hit story with the main character pretty much stating she’s pan. And making an OT3 with a two men that were previously in a relationship.
And all this and more even before we entered the millennium.
When a CLAMP character is confirmed as non-straight, nobody in story raises an eyebrow. Clamp canonical non-straight characters are so frequent that are considered the norm by the fandom.
Their sexuality is hardly if ever a source of angst, CLAMP characters suffer, die and get stuffed in the fridge all the time but it has more to do with CLAMP BEING EVILTM than anything else.
A Clamp charcter is viable to be gay, lesbian, non-binary, evil, good, happy,sad, asexual, pansexual, male,female or non of the above. Or pretty much all of the above.
Your sexuality doesn’t exclude you from getting a happy ending, the four evil mangaka ladies do cause they’re actually demons that feed in tears and innocent souls.
Have they done everything right? NO.
Have they included some pretty squicky or even vomit inducing stuff in their work over the years? To put it mildly yes.
But after it’s all said and done Clamp have been mainstream manga mega hits with their works published across the globe for approximately 30 years now and have been pioneering inclusion from day one.
I just take a glimpse at other media and fandoms sometimes and I smirk to myself defiantly.
“Well, this wouldn’t have happened in a CLAMP manga.”
And that just makes the world better.
