Otaku USA Magazine
Tokyo Babylon Fans Lament the Loss of Impossibly Wide ’90s Shoulders
by Joseph Luster October 27, 2020

tokyo babylon

A lot has changed since CLAMP’s Tokyo Babylon was first brought to the world of anime in the 1992 and 1994 OVA episodes. A new adaptation was recently announced with anime production house GoHands (Hand Shakers) behind the project, and fans in Japan were quick to notice a certain wide something missing from the newly updated character designs.

That something in question belongs to Tokyo Babylon character Seishiro Sakarazuka, known for his impossibly broad shoulders in both the original manga and the ’90s anime adaptation. It wasn’t just an issue of outdated shoulder pads being removed either, because images of Seishiro outside of his business attire retained those colossal, five-heads-wide shoulders in all their glory.

For a comparison, here’s a side-by-side of how Seishiro used to look (left) and how he looks in the 2021 anime (right):

Fans drove the point home with a superimposed comparison:

Here’s what some of the other fans had to say, as translated by SoraNews24:

“Seishiro, did you leave your airport runway-width shoulders back in the Heisei era?”

“In the 2021 trailer, I almost thought the sakura flowers were hiding the rest of his shoulders.”

“It just doesn’t feel right to see his shoulders so narrow.”

“So that’s really how Seishiro is going to look now? Isn’t his build too delicate? He really needs those five-head-width shoulders.”

And here’s the new trailer:

What do you think about the new design? Are you confident in GoHands taking on Tokyo Babylon for a new generation? Let us know in the comments!

Via SoraNews24

CLAMP 23tokyo babylon 3

Comments