Clamp School Detectives

    (Tokyopop, 2002-2003)
™ and © Tokyopop

The “school story” has always been more of a British literary tradition than an American one, but stories about heroic boy detectives have been staples on both sides of the Atlantic, so there could actually be an untapped audience for an English version of Clamp School Detectives.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt its chances that, along with being morally exemplary in every way, our trio of protectors in short pants are just dreamy, with huge Bill Keane–sized orbs. Indicative of their slight fantasy “mysteries” is their first case, where the chivalrous–to–a–fault boys meet a crying woman on Tokyo Tower (the real mystery here is why the Japanese hold a knockoff of the Eiffel Tower in such high regard) who turns out to be a poor widow who’s about to be thrown out of her home.

But it’s the concept of the mythical, all–ages Clamp University (a combination of Boys Town and Harvard) that’s really intriguing—if only it weren’t laid out in the shape of a pentagram. With a color poster and page after page of easy–to-–swallow lessons in Japanese culture, [each volume] is quite a bargain.

— S.A. Bennett
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