Genre: Comedy, Parody
Publisher: Kadokawa Shoten (JP), Viz (US)
Artist: CLAMP
Serialized in: Comic Genki
Digital Release Date: January 20, 2015
Free Preview: Chapter 1
Summary: In a crisis, a team of justice appears from nowhere. People call them Duklyon, the Clamp School Defenders. To defend our peaceful life, they carry on struggling rain or shine. The enemy, a secret society of evil, is out to conquer the Earth. Go and fight, our Duklyon! Save our Earth!
Those guys sure are Dorks.
What did you know about Duklyon: CLAMP School Defenders before reading it?
Justin: Well, from the title it is clearly a CLAMP work, and I haven’t read a ton of them, unless you want to count me binging on Tsubasa at a no longer existing Barnes & Noble while in high school.
Helen: I actually knew a fair bit about the series before I started! I’ve seen a lot of the Clamp School Detectives anime which crosses over rather prominently with Duklyon (and Man of 20 Faces and apparently X/1999 at one point). You certainly don’t need that outside knowledge to understand the series, it meant that I knew more about the side characters than Justin probably did but other than that it had no benefit.
In one word, describe your reading experience.
Helen: Repetitive.
Justin: Outlandish.
What do you think Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders is all about?
Justin: The story revolves around two kids with extremely long Japanese names who happen to be Duklyon, the protectors of the school. They end up facing against an organization whose name is Imonoyama Shopping District Association. I think that tells you all you need to know there.
Helen: Duklyon is a rather silly story about two boys who turn into Sentai heroes to fight their classmate (who turns into a kabuki character for some reason) at the behest of their friend and a third grader to protect the Clamp School (???) from an invading shopping district. That’s more or less it, in true kid’s story fashion they never really lose, the villain has a crush on the hero’s female comrade, and no one ever figures out each other’s secret identities.
After finishing it, what are your thoughts on the manga?
Helen: Honestly I’m baffled how CLAMP has been able to make so many good series and so many boring series almost concurrently with each other. Duklyon felt repetitive to me in a way that Cardcaptor Sakura didn’t (it really lacked even the low stakes that CCS had) and it was lacking the charm that Clamp School Detectives had as well. The last chapter (of the first volume) made me laugh the most since that one broke up the routine a bit with the play, the extra characters, and all of the misunderstandings. Characters doing the same thing over and over isn’t funny, characters doing something and having it go horribly wrong is!
Justin: Was CLAMP high when they drew this? Because if they were, then they need to spread the magic around to other fellow artists since this is an absolutely astounding manga. This basically parodies all of the Sentai stuff. You have really crazy names (Higashikunimaru is like two names in one), horrible acts of evil (depriving students of proper lunch), continuously repeats the same crack on finishing moves, and 90’s style action drawings. (To be fair, this manga was drawn in the 90’s). It felt sincere, made me laugh, and was a boatload of fun. It will probably be forgotten about two days after you read it, but it’s not bad.
It’s just amazing.