Clamp

CLAMP is a Japanese manga collective founded in the 1980s, consisting of four women — Satsuki Igarashi, Ageha Ohkawa, Mokona, and Tsubaki Nekoi — whose prolific output has made them one of the most celebrated and beloved creative teams in the history of the medium. Their work spans an extraordinary range of genres, from the shōnen action of X/1999 to the shōjo romance of Cardcaptor Sakura to the metafictional complexity of xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.

What distinguishes CLAMP across genres is a distinctive visual aesthetic — elongated figures, intricate costuming, and a taste for emotional excess — and a gift for constructing narratives that reward close attention over many volumes. Cardcaptor Sakura, in particular, has become one of the defining works of magical girl manga, and its influence on subsequent creators has been immense.