Kazuhiko, a former government agent, is roped into doing one last job for General Ko, one of the heads of the government. She tells him he must deliver a package, which he soon learns is actually a young girl named Sue. In the first two volumes of Clover, Kazuhiko does his best to take Sue to her destination despite opposition from multiple sources. He gradually learns who Sue is, why people don't want her going free, and how she's connected to him. The third volume of Clover is a flashback to the time when Sue and a beautiful singer named Ora first met, the beginnings of Sue's desire to leave her cage. The fourth volume of Clover is yet another flashback, even further back in time, to the days when Ran escaped his own cage and met Gingetsu, a friend of Kazuhiko's.

Clover's biggest strength was that it was very beautiful. It came across like an art experiment on CLAMP's part - lots of negative space, interesting things done with panel placement and usage, etc. And since this is one of those tragic CLAMP series, there are lots of beautiful people looking sad. A few of them get to be happy for a little bit, but it fades into bittersweetness at best.

Unfortunately, this series is style over clarity. Scenes felt disjointed and didn't always transition in ways I could easily follow. The first couple volumes technically had quite a bit of action in them, but it didn't always feel like action because of the way CLAMP drew things. It was weird, and I struggled to follow everything that was going on. The end of the amusement park portion was especially confusing, and instead of giving me more of that story, volumes 3 and 4 turned out to be flashbacks. The story never returned to its present.

One thing I didn't know until after I started reading was that this series was originally intended to be longer. I don't know why it was halted, but it was, which explains why, after two volumes of flashbacks, the story just...stopped. It was immensely frustrating.

The story had song lyrics repeated frequently throughout, at least two or three different songs. I did my best to pay attention to any lyrics the first time they showed up, but I generally found them difficult to read (in a fancy font, often white text on black backgrounds). Also, song lyrics are just disjointed text to me - I can't even vaguely imagine them put to music unless I've actually heard that music before. After a while, I just skimmed any lyrics that came up, which was probably not what CLAMP was aiming for.

I was left with so many questions. On the one hand, the government acted like Clover power was a simple matter of math (a two-leaf plus a three-leaf would equal five and therefore be too powerful to oppose). On the other hand, it was clear that some Clovers' powers wouldn't be a problem not matter how many of them got together, so it really wasn't just a matter of adding up the total number of leaves. And did people like General Ko technically count as Clovers? The world-building didn't make much sense to me.

All in all, this is one of those series that I'd probably only recommend to CLAMP completists or comics creators. As much as I liked the visuals, the story itself was more difficult to follow than it needed to be and didn't have a proper ending.

Additional Comments:

Supposedly each of the different levels of Clovers got a different tattoo, but the one character who was a one-leaf Clover had a four-leaf tattoo. Was that a mistake on CLAMP's part? It confused me.

Extras:

A few pages of full-color images at the beginning of each volume in the omnibus, as well as a full-color bonus gallery.

Rating Note:

I struggled with rating this. The story is probably more 1.5 stars - it's unfinished, will likely never be finished, and is structured oddly for something that stops at the point it does. The artwork, however, is lovely, more in the 4-star range (the clarity issues make me reluctant to rate it higher).

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

I'd read the first novella in Kitchen before, but embarrassingly, I'd never read the second! I love the first one so much, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't love the second. Honestly, I don't love the second as much, but I loved it anyway. It has some of the most wonderful lines I've ever read.

This book is very personal to me - it hits me in exactly the right spot. It's come to be one of my comfort reads. I've been sick lately, and this book is thin enough to hold up while laying down, simple enough to not require anything beyond reading to get through it. (I looked up the one word I didn't know the first time.) It's a great read for illness because the women in it are grieving, longing, hurting, confused, exhausted, feeling helpless and hopeless and sometimes even sick. Sounds great, eh?

Despite the despair, they're comforting books about growing, getting through and going on even when it feels impossible. They are infused with so many kinds of women - each an individual in her own way. Now that I've read them both, it's still one of my favorites, but I can't tell you why beyond saying they make me feel far less alone. (And I don't even cook, which is a theme as you may be able to tell from the title.)

Also, how can you not love someone who renames herself "Banana"?

Ancora una volta, Banana Yoshimoto riesce a descrivere la natura umana nella sua interezza in pochissime pagine che scorrono in modo velocissimo senza risultare mai ridondanti.

Leggi la recensione completa su The History Temple: clicca qui!

Im Rahmen meiner Autorinnenchallenge bin ich beim Buchstaben Y zufällig auf Banana Yoshimoto gestossen und sehr positiv überrascht. Ich möchte unbedingt baldigst einen Roman oder eine Novelle von dieser Autorin lesen, denn ihr Schreibstil hat mich sehr begeistert. Komisch dass mich bisher alle Japaner an Murakami erinnern, typisch mysteriöse Vorgänge im Plot und in sich sehr zerrissene Figuren zu skizzieren, hat auch Frau Yoshimoto extrem meisterhaft drauf. Das dürfte wirklich typisch japanisch sein und ich stelle mir mittlerweile die Frage, ob es da irgendwo eine Schreibschule gibt, in der man das lernt, oder ob die japanische Gesellschaft prinzipiell so tickt?

Dass ich trotzdem nur drei Sterne gebe ist ganz einfach erklärt. Ich mag prinzipiell keine Kurzgeschichten, sie sind mir schlicht und ergreifend zu kurz unter einer Novelle lese ich ungern etwas, da auch die Möglichkeiten Plot und Figuren zu entwickeln, in dieser Schreibform extrem beschränkt sind. Trotz dieser Rahmenbedingungen schafft es Banana Yoshimoto außerordentlich gut, das Wesen ihrer Figuren punktgenau einzufangen, zu skizzieren und dem Leser zu vermitteln. Irgendwie muss sie jedoch Kompromisse an die Kurzgeschichte machen, was eben dann im Plot passiert und was deutlich zeigt, warum ich so gut wie nie (Nur zweimal bei Philip K. Dick und bei Stanislaws Lem) Kurzgeschichten für gut befinden kann. So steht ansatzlos nach dem ersten Treffen und dem Anruf danach schon der Heiratsantrag auf dem Programm.

"Als es Zeit wurde zu gehen, konnte ich mich nur schwer losreißen und nickte ihm zum Abschied kurz zu. Wenn ich ihn doch wiedersehen könnte, wünschte ich mir von ganzem Herzen. Ich würde ihn bestimmt wiedersehen. Und so war es auch kurze Zeit später rief er mich an. "Würdest Du mich heiraten?" fragte er mich eines Abends nach dem Essen in der Wohnung."

Fazit: Ein sehr gute Autorin ich würde Euch aber statt dieses Buches eher eine Novelle wie Kitchen oder Tsugumi empfehlen