9 CLAMP Series Every Queer Manga & Anime Fan Should Know

Never heard of CLAMP?

If you’re a big anime fan, then chances are you have, and you might not have even known it! With their hands in projects such as the character designs for Code Geass, to heavy-hitters of their own like Cardcaptor Sakura and Chobits, the all-female, 4-member, Japanese artist collective are responsible for some of the most popular and iconic titles in all of manga and anime!

And a lot of their material is queer as hell!

Notorious for their complicated and layered relationships, we have handpicked some of CLAMP’s queerest titles! (Keep in mind many of these are older fandoms, and from a very different culture, so some assumptions are made.) So find your special someone, keep your right eyeball safe, and let’s dive in!

Tokyo Babylon

Set in '90s Tokyo, this paranormal adventure takes a sharp left turn into a heartbreaking gay love story.  Like many of CLAMP’s series, what starts out innocent enough becomes a complicated web of emotions and promises, dark magic and mythology. The manga is about a working omniyouji named Subaru who has come from his traditional home in Kyoto to live with his twin sister in Tokyo. They befriend a goofy vet named Seishirou, who is far more than meet the eye...

X/1999

The sequel to Tokyo Babylon, X/1999 (also referred to as X-TV or simply X) doesn’t offer a happy ending for its predecessor (or, depending on what version you pick up, any ending at all). The series finds Earth in a bitter battle for survival that happens outside of humanity's view. Among those battling for survival are Tokyo Babylon’s Subaru and Seishirou (continuing their twisted dance), Nataku (an agender character given an arc dealing little with their gender; it’s complicated), and the main characters Fuuma and Kamui, who have a very intimate (if also very dark) subtext between them. No one seems terribly limited in who they flirt with (the end of the world must put things in context).

If you dug Netflix’s recent show DEVILMAN crybaby, X is heavily influenced by the show. Heavily. 

CLAMP Campus

At the heart of CLAMP’s universe is the CLAMP Campus, a massive school that shows up in many of their series. While the time spent there in series like X may not be the happiest, in its own various series (including CLAMP School Detectives, Duklyon: CLAMP School Defenders, and CLAMP School Paranormal Investigators) not only is there tons of same-sex flirting all over the place, but the novels also include Yuki, a transgender girl hoping to become a famous actress (once she gets rid of all these ghosts!).

xxxHolic

Much like Tokyo Babylon, xxxHolic (also called simply Holic) starts a lot lighter than it ends (and it doesn’t start terribly lightly). Watanuki finds himself followed everywhere by a ghost and offers himself up as an indentured servant to the time witch Yuuko. He ends up spending more time then he’d like with classmate Doumeki, the only person who can make the ghosts go away. The only person that’s always there. The only person ready to dedicate his life to Watanuki, no matter what that means. (And that means some pretty intense stuff.)

Amoung the "story of the week" plot lines, you'll also find bisexual spider demons and gender-neutral, Lolita-garbed rain spirits. And let’s be real here: Yuuko isn’t exactly the most heterosexual person herself. 

RG Veda

An epic tale based on the Vedic texts, this manga explores deep themes of death, rebirth, and sacrifice, with some of CLAMP's most lovely and detailed art. It is also their first work, setting many of these themes up to be explored in later series. The manga features the queer romance of Souma and Kendappa, as well as a gender-neutral main character Ashura, who shares a deeply strong bond between the character Yasha (it's less romantic here for reasons in the story, but much more overt in their appearance in Tsubasa, CLAMP’s massive crossover series).

Cardcaptor Sakura

While Sailor Moon may dominate the magical girl scene, Cardcaptor Sakura is not far behind as a classic '90s, girl power show that is also currently having a revival. The show follows 4th grader Sakura Kinomoto as she tracks down a series of magical cards she accidentally released. The series treats homosexuality as no big deal, and according to CLAMP themselves, all three main characters (Sakura, Syaoran, and Tomoyo) are non-heterosexual, showing affection for both genders freely and across multiple universes (more on that later). Tomoyo’s crush on Sakura is quite obvious, and both Sakura and Sayoran find themselves crushing on those who their powers line up with, no matter the gender. Plus, Sakura’s older brother Touya and her crush Yukito are an adorable couple throughout.

Cardcaptor Sakura is also a wonderful example of young love and growing past heart break. Despite her bisexuality, Sakura’s love for Tomoyo is platonic. Sakura’s crush on her brother’s boyfriend is a dead end for several reasons. None of this is treated as bad, and none of the relationships are any less loving for it.  

Clover

Clover is a complicated, beautiful series and making trying to make complete sense of it is a lost cause. The reoccurring theme of finding your "special someone" who you will do anything for (a favorite theme of many CLAMP series) is looked at from many angles here. Beautiful people in complicated relationships cover the pages as the series explores the sad story of Suu, a strange magic girl kept in a giant cage in a collapsing city.  Explaining it all here would spoil many things (and wouldn’t help you understand it much anyway...).

Wish

Wish finds a normal man who, after rescuing an angel and being offered a wish by them, becomes completely swamped in the world of angels and demons. Besides the main character, just about everyone is an angel or demon in this manga, and as such, none of them have gender. While the angels lean towards femme and the demons masculine, they are treated throughout the series as agender. 

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle

Tsubasa is probably CLAMP’s biggest series and features many alternate versions of their most popular characters. While many of the characters on this list who got caught up in tragic circumstances don't necessarily get happy endings in Tsubasa, the series is much less dark and has a much lower body count than other CLAMP titles like X or RG Veda.

Tsubasa centers around Sakura (an alternate universe version of the aforementioned Cardcaptor) who loses all her memories in a mysterious temple unearthed in her kingdom. Unconscious and fading, her friend Syaoran​ pays a visit to Yuuko, the time-space witch (xxxHolic is hopelessly entangled with Tsubasa), and earns them transport from universe to universe to find the missing feathers. They are joined by Fai and Kurogane, a mischievous wizard and grumpy samurai. Although Tsubasa is a shōnen title (manga for a primarily male, teen audience), and getting explicitly gay storylines and themes past the editor is a big no-go, CLAMP doesn’t play coy at all as to what kind of relationship the two have. (No spoilers, but they’re really gay!)