More wood to the fire

[taotrooper]

I had to wait some time to post it, because my first reaction to the January picture of the TRC/HOLiC calendar 2005 was on the lines of "squee! OMGWTFBBQ so hawt!!1one", honestly. Because he *does* look gorgeous. The face, the pose, the clothes. And the atmosphere is great. And kitsune-chan is with him, in colour! I should've known it would be white and red. It's a CLAMP trend anyway. And nine-tailed kitsunes can be silver, I've read somewhere.

But! After a lot of drooling and hyperventilating, I noticed. I hate it when I notice. Nekoi is helping Ohkawa on killing my brain. Curse them! My brain is sensitive this week, you bitches. Hagaren finale, first week of term, Bleach and Tactics anime, Jo Rowling updating her FAQ section... it seems they're all teamed up together to destroy my neurones.

Anyway, see it for yourselves. You'll say I'm annoying and obsessive, but I swear this is a rather valid point, that CLAMP is doing this on purpose and I won't resort to more theories on crack -this time-. Just pointing facts. Warning: graphic heavy.

Remember the infamous mirror illustration? Shame on you! Especially since is my favorite CCS illust and used it as an icon until I drove everyone crazy. So, I'll refresh your memory:



Now check this out:



...

I know it's not the same kind of tree and blossoms, but they look similar and that's what it counts.

I don't think it's a coincidence we keep seeing Kimihiro with Chinese silk outfits or old-fashioned, dandy western suits on illustrations. It's the only clothes I've seen on him, apart of the uniforms and yukatas. So bizarre...

Now I want that calendar picture on high quality scans! ;_____;

Edit: butterflydrming shared an interesting idea about the blossoms at the background, which seem to be Japanese magnolias. I made a query and I found this.
Edit 2: I misspelled a word. Comparation does not exist >_

Comments

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

OK, here's what I found:

First meaning: "Magnolia, meaning - 'dignity' and also 'nobility'."
My thoughts: "don't tell me... Watanuki is the Half-Blood Prince?! I knew it!"

Second meaning: "The magnolia flower, which has decorated Chinese porcelain and featured in paintings and tapestries throughout the centuries, is regarded as a symbol of purity."
My thoughts: "Purity? *snorts* If Clow is pure, I'm a penguin..."

Third thought: "The magnolia has immense flowers and has been selected as the emblem of sweetness and beauty. The name in Chinese means 'secretly smiling,' and to the Chinese it suggests the lovely smile of a sweet maiden. Where in designs on porcelain beautiful women are drawn this flower usually accompanies them."
My thoughts: "Ohohohoho, secretly smiling! XD Amusing indeed. Yeah, I'd say they'd artistically base on the Chinese porcelain thing, but instead of sweet girls they opted for hot bispectacle guys... No complains from me, really... :3"

That explains a couple of things ^_^ Thank you for the data on the flower and the idea!

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

Watanuki is the Half-Blood Prince?
XD!!! And to finish off everybody's brains (including mine): If they're so nasty in Harry's time, I bet a couple of centuries ago the English wizarding world would have considered that someone part Asian was half-blood... *hears sounds of braincells frying*

Really, though, Clow's reincarnations/relatives/whatever need to stop. They show up as often as illegal Animagi.

The magnolia is yet another similarity to The Neverending Story!!! *_* The Childlike Empress lived there, and now it makes a lot more sense that we reach it through a Chinese-looking dragon.

(And thanks for the 2004 scans... One of these days I'll learn to Google properly, I promise!)

[elihice.livejournal.com]

You two, CLAMP and JKR are killing me in a good way. And yes! These people MUST be reading Ende!

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Are you sure it's a good way to be killed? XD

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

I haven't thought about the magnolia at the Ivory Tower! That reminds me, I must do the MKR/TNES comparison, I keep forgetting about it.

But... here's a brain-killer thought. The Empress never grows up. Eriol stopped his growth. Yet more magnolia symbolisms. God, my ideas scare me...

And if British wizards have prejudices against Asians, shouldn't Slytherins be teasing Cho "whore" Chang? Now I wonder if every Slytherin in the books is white. I mean, we know there are black people (Dean, Lee Jordan) and Asian people (Chang, Patil twins [Hindi heritage]) at Hogwarts, so the school is not racist, but... none of them are in Slytherin! We see them in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. So far, every Slytherin portraited in Harry's story is (or seems to be) Caucasic. Like we needed more Nazi paralellisms...

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

You know, I had never noticed that about the Slytherins (Yay! Stupid spur-of-the-moment crossover theories are useful!). I wonder if JKR is doing it on purpose, or it just sort of happened? I mean, she did say she wasn't *trying* to make a Nazi parallelism, but then she made Dumbledore defeat Grindelwald in 1945. That lady contradicts herself a lot.

Anyway, that was just a silly first reaction thing. ^_^U But I do like the stuff about the magnolia symbolism, and I hadn't thought about relating it to Eriol. It kind of makes sense. (That reminds me I have to write something about Sakura = Childlike Empress and Clow = Old Man from the Wandering Mountain, but I have another rant scheduled for today...)

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

No, thank you! Secretly smiling... how perfect.