// TAKAMURA SUOH // trying to find a pigment of truth beneath my skin // ELEMENTARY //

Who is Takamura Suoh? Here are a few basic stats, information on the different incarnations of the character and a breakdown of his appearances in English translated manga.

¤ The Basics ¤

I'm going to begin here by quoting Tokyopop's website (linked below many, many times) because they've covered a lot of Suoh's stats and rewriting this would be an exercise in plagiarism. =3

"A 5th grader and Elementary School Board Secretary, Suoh is a martial arts prodigy, with a 3rd degree black belt in Judo, Aikido, Karate and Kendo. (He would have gone higher, but he ran out of competition). He is also trained in various guerilla combat tactics."

As a child of the Takamura family, a ninja clan so legendary members of the family are actually allowed to choose a person to gift with their services, Suoh has been trained from birth to follow a strict code of traditions designed to hone his abilities to perfection. He is an extremely capable bodyguard and a stalwart friend with a deeply ingrained sense of duty both to those he cares about and any job he undertakes (which often makes him the straight man to the others' gags).

If that sounds absurd, it is. This is CLAMP and in the Gakuen series they didn't seem happy unless they were mocking themselves (which just makes it more fun, in my less than humble opinion). The good thing for Suoh is that he spends most of his formative years hanging out with a prodigy actively recruited by NASA and a masked master thief, both of whom make his accomplishments look just about normal.

¤ The 3 Faces of Suoh ¤

Suoh appears in several of CLAMP's manga, at various ages and in various professions. Here are the three most disparate incarnations of Suoh to help you keep track.

Clamp Campus Detectives Suoh

Perhaps the most recognizable incarnation of Suoh is his appearance in the early CLAMP Gakuen series. Here he is one in a triad of incredibly intelligent, inherently talented boys who run the Elementary Division Student Council at the fictional CLAMP School. Suoh is the protector of the group, stalwart and devoted to both his friends and his idea of justice... even when that means chasing Nokoru all over campus to get him to finish up his paperwork.

X/1999 Suoh

Suoh makes another appearance as an adult in CLAMP's master work, X/1999. He doesn't do much more than follow Nokoru around and look intimidating with his newly overdeveloped CLAMP shoulders, but he seems to be working in some kind of advisory capacity at the school. Given his general attitude, it's probably safe to assume that he's still protecting Nokoru as he intended in earlier manga.

Amenosa Suoh

Suoh and his friends also make several cameos in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, notable mostly because they show up as adolescents. In their largest appearance so far as government officials called the Amenosa, they are still trying to protect the helpless. It's a brief but poignant cameo.

¤ Appearances ¤

I'm only recording Suoh's appearances in English translated manga, because chronicling every CLAMP fanclub newsletter and obscure proto-manga he and his cohorts have ever been utilized in would take forever. These are the titles that are more readily available to you.

Suoh and Nokoru both have a brief cameo in The Man of Many Faces (20 Mensou) volume 2, during the chapter where Akira talks to Santa Claus on his birthday. This is the earliest of the CLAMP school series and it shows, as both boys are particularly critical of Akira in a way that seems out of character for the close relationship detailed between the boys in CLAMP Campus Detectives.
Suoh also makes a couple of brief appearances in the second CLAMP school manga, CLAMP School Defenders Duklyon (volume 1), with his cohorts on the Elementary Student Council. He has very few lines, but his relationship with Akira and Nokoru seems about what it is in CLAMP Campus Detectives.
CLAMP Campus Detectives itself spans three volumes.
There is a CLAMP Campus Detectives animated series that was translated on VHS a while back by Bandai, but the tapes are now ridiculously hard to get. The first few episodes are available for download from the fansub group Excalibur, if anyone wants a look. (Though I'd suggest reading the manga first, this is one of those cases in which hacking the manga storyline apart makes some of the major characters, specifically Nokoru, a bit difficult to stomach when every flaw illustrated in the manga seems to be lost in translation.)
Suoh also makes an appearance in X/1999 with Akira and Nokoru as representatives of CLAMP School. They first appear in volume 8 to take Kamui's shinken to its resting place before the final battle, and pop up sporadically throughout subsequent volumes offering help and advice. Not much is said about Suoh or his relationship to the others despite some vague references to he and Akira as associates of Nokoru in his role as acting chairman of the school, but I think it can safely be assumed that he's still acting as Nokoru's bodyguard.
There are also the CLAMP combination art books South Side and North Side which are due to be released by Tokyopop in English. They feature artwork from several CLAMP manga, but the CCD boys make appearances in both. (Under their own heading in South Side and under the CLAMP in Wonderland heading in North Side.) I'd recommend picking them up if you have any aspirations towards web design, my scans off these books have come in handy.
Lastly, Suoh and his friends appear in brief cameos in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, beginning in volume 4 (chapter 22, if you're hunting for scans online). The boys look a bit older than their original incarnations, but that may be due to the new art style CLAMP has adopted in recent manga.

Questions or comments can be aimed here. Just be sure to title the email something like 'Suoh fanlisting' so we know what we're looking at.

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