Chobits
"Chobits" began as a manga written and illustrated by Clamp, a collective of four Japanese manga artists. It appeared as a serial in "Weekly Young Magazine" from the 43rd issue for 2000 to the 48th issue for 2002. Kodansha compiled the eighty-eight chapters into eight bound volumes and published them from February 14, 2001, to November 29, 2002.
In 2002, Tokyopop licensed "Chobits" for an English-language translation in North America and marketed it as part of its new unflipped manga line, which reads from right-to-left. Previously, translated manga was typically flipped from its original reading order to a left-to-right one to better suit Western readers. Tokyopop published the series from April 23, 2002, to October 7, 2003, and its translation was distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment. Tokyopop's license concluded in 2009. At San Diego Comic-Con International 2009, Dark Horse Manga announced an omnibus edition of the series in celebration of Clamp's 20th anniversary. In 2010, it published the two volumes on March 24, and September 29, respectively.
"Chobits" is also published in Hong Kong in Traditional Chinese by Jonesky, in Singapore in Simplified Chinese by Chuang Yi, in South Korea by Daiwon C.I., in France by Pika Édition, in Spain by Norma Editorial, in Mexico by Grupo Editorial Vid, in Italy by Star Comics (which serialized it in "Express"), in Germany by Egmont Manga & Anime (which serialized it in "Manga Power"), in Poland by Japonica Polonica Fantastica, in Brazil by JBC, and in Sweden by Carlsen Verlag.
Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales
The all-female manga artist group Clamp began "Shirahime-Syo" after the editor of Kobunsha's manga magazine "Bar Pretty" requested that the group to make a manga for the company. Prior to that, the group had watched an episode of the television show "Manga Japanese Legends", which had "impressed" them. A preview poster for the manga appeared in the March 1992 issue of "Bar Pretty", the magazine's final one, depicting Shirahime. At that point, the characters and story type were undecided, although the concept had been determined. Shirahime's character design had been used earlier on a postcard in the group's newsletter; at the time, they had considered using the character in a future story dealing with folklore. They considered Shirahime not quite a "yuki-onna", but more similar to the eponymous character of Osama Tezuka's manga "Phoenix" in that she was a vital supporting character "who exists separately outside the individual stories". Although the group lacked the time to research a time period for the costumes of the characters, the costume "trends" differed from chapter to chapter to evoke the sense that each chapter occurred in a different time period.