The CLAMP Project: Episode 17: Tokyo Babylon volume 5

I'll be honest: when I finished reading volume 5 of Tokyo Babylon I immediately had to read volumes 6 and 7, despite my goal of writing about each volume separately. It's just that good. Without the overarching story between Subaru, Seishiro, and Hokuto, Tokyo Babylon would only have been an interesting set of standalone tales. But with the overarching story added, you have a real classic manga.

It's difficult for me to reconcile exactly how good Tokyo Babylon is compared to the concurrently-running RG Veda. How could the same people be responsible for both series? I think that it comes down to the simplicity of the story in Tokyo Babylon. At the end, there are only three characters whose interactions matter. In RG Veda, there were quite a few more characters and a more epic scope to the story. At this point, CLAMP was still starting out, and they hadn't quite developed the ability to tell a story as ambitious as RG Veda. By focusing on a smaller story in Tokyo Babylon, they were able to play to their strengths: angsty drama and surprise endings.

Volume 5 starts out with two final standalone stories. In the first one, "Old", Subaru befriends an old man whose family has begun to resent his presence. The old man wishes for nothing but to fulfill a promise he made to his late wife and make his daughter happy, but the daughter is so caught up in her financial hardships and stress that she doesn't recognize that. Finally, the old man is struck by a car and killed while delivering one final gift to the daughter. It's a story made doubly tragic by the man's connection with Subaru. Finally Subaru has found someone aside from Hokuto and Seishiro who he feels comfortable speaking with, and too soon he's lost. Subaru gets along so much better with the dead that I wonder if his connection with the old man was made easier by the fact that the man was so near death.

The second story, "Box", has Subaru, Seishiro, and Hokuto visiting a karaoke box. When a bet about whether Subaru can sing a random song goes poorly, Seishiro sends Subaru away so that he doesn't have to fulfill his end of the bet. Subaru leaves, wondering what kind of person Seishiro really is. He seems kind, but Subaru wants to know more. Subaru meets a woman who is singing by herself. She tells a story of how she had an affair with and was dumped by her boss, with the reveal at the end that she committed suicide after the breakup and is now a ghost. That should have been expected based on how easily Subaru spoke with her.

Finally, the last story, "Rebirth", is the start of the finish to the overall plot. Subaru meets with a small boy who is undergoing dialysis treatment. They bond quickly, perhaps due to how sickly the boy is, and Subaru continues to visit the boy in the hospital. The boy has an even more tragic story than simply having kidney failure: both he and his sister suffered from the same disease. Their mother, with only one kidney to donate, chose to give her kidney to her daughter, but the transplant was rejected and the daughter died. Stricken by guilt and grief, the mother snaps and comes after Subaru with a knife, demanding his kidney - an ultimately ironic gesture, for Subaru would have given up his kidney willingly. Seishiro steps in and protects Subaru from the madwoman, but he is slashed in the face in the process. As Seishiro is wheeled into an operating room, Subaru breaks down in grief.