Special Feature: The Truth Behind X's Hiatus

[Eclipse]

The Truth Behind X's Hiatus

X, or X/1999, is a manga from the popular all-female manga-ka team Clamp. Based on the end of the world, and taking its cast from many of Clamp's other popular series, X has spawned an animated full-length feature film, Anime TV Series, and numerous merchandises. Despite its immense popularity, X the manga was never finished, which left numerous fans in a cliff-hanger, speculating on why the series was put on hiatus, and what kind of ending Clamp is planning, if they are planning to finish it at all.

X first appeared in Kadokawa Shoten's shoujo magazine Asuka in May 1992. With 18 volumes out, and a few chapters (5, to be exact) beyond those contained in the tankoubons, X has been put on hold since its last appearance in Asuka in early 2003. There has been numerous speculations as to why the series stopped. Some say Clamp does not have an clear ending in mind, and is still working on a appropriate ending. Some say Clamp became lazy, and decided to devote their time on some of their new series. One of the most popular theories was that the series was pulled from serialization after a disagreement between Clamp and Asuka Magazine, who thought that X was becoming more and more violent, and asked Clamp to make changes to the series' development. While this is partly true, it is not the complete story.

The main reason for X's hiatus was due to the various societal incidents occurring in Japan at the time of its serialization. With a story centered around the end of humanity, X has numerous scenes depicting earthquakes and the destruction of Tokyo buildings. Many of its cast members met their ends through decapitation and other gruesome death scenes. With events such as the Hanshin earthquake (otherwise know as Kobe earthquake) and the Sakakibara incident, which caused social unrest, many people found it hard to read X, as its contents reminded them of the tragedies they just went through.

After discussing the issues with their editors, it was clear at the time it would be impossible for the magazine to publish the planned ending of X. Deciding not to alter the originally-planned ending, and wanting to avoid the controversy and criticism it may have caused, the decision was made to put the series on hold until it was deemed appropriate to finish it.

It was not the fault of Clamp or Asuka Magazine that X was put on hiatus, but simply a move to accommodate the mood of the society at the time, similar to how some films or games were put on hold after the 9/11 incident. In an interview from the July 2004 issue of PUFF magazine, Clamp discusses the reasons behind the hiatus, and has confirmed that one day they will finish X. See below for a translation of the interview, translated by Neuroretardant:



excerpt from July 2004 issue of PUFF magazine:

－－"X" is your longest-running series, but it's currently on hiatus.

Ookawa: The situation right now is that, due to the graphic nature of our planned ending, getting it published in a magazine is very difficult.

Mokona: Over the 10-odd years that we've been working on "X," we've gone on hiatus several times, and each time, societal incidents and trends have been a major factor.

Igarashi: The biggest ones being the Hanshin Earthquake, and the Sakakibara Incident.

Ookawa: When the Hanshin Earthquake hit and so many peoples' lives were lost, there was a lot of debate, not just within the group but also with our editors, about whether or not we were going to continue using earthquakes as a motif.

Nekoi: I still remember waking up and turning on the TV, and being unable to believe what had just happened. Several people I knew perished in that quake.

Ookawa: We received a letter from a person residing in Kobe at the time, saying that they "couldn't bear to read [X]," which really made us ponder our future.

Mokona: When the Sakakibara incident occurred, the concern was regarding gruesome imagery used in the manga. Regardless of how liberal a manga magazine "ASUKA" was, the multiple beheadings we portrayed in X were going to raise flags.

Ookawa: We had had several discussions with the editorial staff about how perhaps we needed to make changes to the central themes in the manga and how we portrayed them, but we had still managed to gain the understanding of various people and work through them. But, we were then told that it may not be possible for our publisher to serialize the ending we had planned. If that was true, it would mean that we would have to write a different ending to the story in order to have it published. Excluding cases where the magazine we were serialized in folded, we have never quit on a series before (though we may have gone on hiatus), so obviously we definitely want to work on "X" until completion, but currently that's looking very difficult. But, regardless of what form it takes, we want to write up a conclusion to the story.

However, I want to make it very clear that none of what transpired is the publisher's fault; on the contrary, we would like to express our sincere gratitude for being tolerant and willing to publish "X" for all this time. We will continue to search for solutions and hold discussions with our publisher, so I hope that you will grant us a little more time yet.

Translated by Neruretardant

Source 1: Wikipedia
Source 2: Shuffle Aliance
Source 3: xsestugan
Source 4: Southcn

[quethiril]

Great article. Very enlightening. I used to believe the "CLAMP got lazy" theory, and then at Fanime last year the CLAMP panel talked about the disagreement with publishers thing, so I've pretty much believed that until now. (And the theories that CLAMP would sneak the ending into the artbook, X Infinity.)

Only remaining question: one of the pieces of "evidence" supporting the publisher disagreement theory is that Gohou Drug, about which there was supposedly no dispute, also went on hiatus. The explanation was that CLAMP had decided to withold ALL of their series from Kadokawa Shoten until the dispute over X was resolved. So if CLAMP's not really holding out, what happened to Gohou Drug? Maybe the laziness theory still applies...?

[Jason]

Or lack of sales

[Emeryl Tekutsu]

Very enlightening. I wasn't an avid fan of X (too dark for my tastes), but I had been curious why they would put such a popular series on hiatus. I had also heard rumors about Mokona's arthritus (I'm sorry for the possibly butchered spelling, I'm tired and don't want to look it up), but that wouldn't explain why she was drawing other series just fine.

I wonder when they'll decide to continue the project if that's the case.

[Floating_Sakura]

Originally Posted by quethiril

Only remaining question: one of the pieces of "evidence" supporting the publisher disagreement theory is that Gohou Drug, about which there was supposedly no dispute, also went on hiatus. The explanation was that CLAMP had decided to withold ALL of their series from Kadokawa Shoten until the dispute over X was resolved. So if CLAMP's not really holding out, what happened to Gohou Drug? Maybe the laziness theory still applies...?

I dont' think they were lazy.. they were just trying to do too much... at the time x was going, there was gohou drug and chobits too? wish was part of it too, iirc?... they probably just have short attention spans.. >.><.<

[unfoo42]

well currently it's what... X, Gohou Drug, Tsubasa, Kobato... and I think one other?
Regardless of X being withheld, still seems to me that they are drawing themselves a bit thin. Also, I don't think any of them have an ending in sight?

[Floating_Sakura]

you forgot xxxHolic

i think we can say gohou drug is dead... i've been waiting for the next volume for too long...

kobato is serializing in sunday... so it's probably the monthly publishing schedule that makes it seem slow... but tsubasa and holic is going at a decent pace...

[HuhWhat]

Why can't they just move X to... Wait, there really isn't any magazine suitable for shoujo violence.

[quethiril]

Well, according to that ANN article, they're looking for another magazine... I've never thought of X as completely shoujo, so I dunno.

[tonbo]

Tokyo Babylon & X .... hmm , Clamp has come a long way ...

the challenge for all manga creators has always been : " sensitive to the feelings of one's potential readership "

in this respect , Clamp and the Kadokawa grp have fared well . now we wait...