CLUSTER Preview

As expected from something so old, the artwork is very “old school,” but true CLAMP fans will seriously appreciate it not only as a symbol of CLAMP’s “development” (there are many CLAMPish qualities to this book) but also an example of CLAMP work done by an artist who is now longer part of the CLAMP team.
Yes indeed, CLUSTER was illustrated by the manga-ka Akiyama Tamayo, then a member of CLAMP who went solo in 1992, and would eventually released a continuity to the CLUSTER series as well as other manga including ‘Cyber planet 1999 HYPER Run,’ ‘Mouryoukiden’ and ‘Zyword.’

The Cluster artbook is in itself an example of the ‘style’ of artbooks released at the time. Almost doujinshi-esque, most of the colour illustrations span the entire length/breath of the page (no white space whatsoever) and while the print quality is high, it’s not as good as what you could get today.
The art style has strong CLAMP tones, but is very different too, which may put newer fans off. The story told in the manga tells you how the two main characters (the preview part of this book I guess.) The cute gag manga looks funny, but I can’t really appreciate it since it’s in Japanese.
At the very back of the book are cel like images, which makes me think that Cluster was animated in some way? If anyone has further info on this, please advise me?

While it is a nice artbook, and I really like how it comes with a protective plastic see through dust jacket, I have to give this book an average rating. Not because it’s old school CLAMP, but because of it’s illustration to manga content.
This is a definite must for fans of CLAMP