20面相におねがい!!

20 MENSOU NI ONEGAI!!

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
2
RELEASE
Invalid Date
CHAPTERS
11

DESCRIPTION

Akira Ijyuin lives a double life. By day, he's a top student at the elite CLAMP School, but by night he's the infamous thief 20 Faces. A master of disguise and stealth, the masked thief steals the most unusual objects at the whim of a pair of devious crime-lords...his two mothers! One starlit night, his routine is changed forever when he meets the lovely young Utako while hiding from the police. This time, Akira finds something was stolen from him--his heart.

(Source: VIZ)

CAST

Akira Ijuuin
Utako Ookawa
Nokoru Imonoyama
Suou Takamura

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO 20 MENSOU NI ONEGAI!!

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SPECIAL ComedyAru Hibi no CLAMP Gakuen Tanteidan

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REVIEWS

RoseFaerie
50/100
CLAMP's gonna CLAMP I guess... Just your average story about a 9-year-old phantom thief with two identical moms.
CLAMP stories tend to be very... unique. And Man of Many Faces is no exception. The protagonist has two identical mothers who encourage him to lead a life of crime, for goodness' sake. I've heard this was intended to be a gag manga, and it's definitely aimed at a younger audience, which explains all the over-the-top silliness. And yet it has a lot to offer in terms of relationship advice. Does all the advice make sense? Not in the slightest. But its heart is in the right place, and that's what matters.

Akira Ijuuin is the phantom thief known as the Man of 20 Faces. However, he's also just an ordinary 4th grader who attends the Clamp school. He may have two identical mothers and an absent father and was trained as both a gourmet chef and acrobat, but he's a completely average child moonlighting as a phantom thief. And as his mothers lead him on his life of crime and thievery, he steals something else, the heart of kindergartener Utako Ookawa.

As I said, this manga is ridiculous. It begins as a story of a young phantom thief going on capers, but it becomes a love story about a 9-year-old and a 5-year-old. As someone who has a 5-year-old sister, Utako is not an accurate representation of a child that age. She and by extension the other children in this manga are as wise and mature as adults. In stark contrast, Akira's moms (who are named Mom A and Mom B) are easily the least mature characters in the series, as they do not do much parenting and beg Akira to steal the valuables they want. I think Akira takes care of them more than they take care of him since he does all the housework, I’m pretty sure.

Akira himself was rather bland. He's just your average nice boy who sometimes steals things. Utako is more complex having fallen in love with Akira for his kind appearance. She knows what she wants out of life, and she knows what she wants out of her relationship with Akira. She is incredibly wise and bright for her age, showing a lot of emotional maturity. Her sister Mako is the same.

The age gap in this series is weird, but they both have the minds of 20-year-olds and mature discussions about the meaning of love and relationships. Utako is concerned with remaining distinct people despite being in a relationship. In CLAMP-land I guess the two have similar maturity levels, despite their age gap being ridiculously weird. Though if Utako were an actual 5-year-old she'd be like my sister who can't even grasp the idea of romantic love. It's a weird but strangely healthy relationship, even if it's 100% unrealistic. It would have made more sense if they made the characters their mental ages, since 5-year-olds and 9-year-olds don't have philosophical conversations about love and what it means to be in a romantic relationship. I'm not even going to go any further about this just because it's weird and only makes sense in CLAMP-land where children are wise, and teachers are creepy. I’m not going to try and defend this since it’s just plain weird. Nothing makes sense in CLAMP-land, especially early CLAMP-land.

And since I mentioned creepy teachers, I'm going to go on a tangent about some minor parts of the story that really scream early CLAMP. It's not early CLAMP without the pedophile teachers, am I right? (I'm sorry. I know there are some early works that do not include weird age gaps, but this isn't one of them.) I'm talking about this panel:

And this line: >I'm fond of you Utako. But our age difference is too large.

Which the grown man says to his 5-year-old student after she confesses her love to him. He could have just turned her down normally, but he had to go and make it weird. Unfortunately, this is the golden standard for CLAMP teachers from what I've gathered. The only one I've found who wasn't creepy was the kindergarten teacher from Kobato, and she had a husband already. Fortunately, that isn't dwelt on thank goodness. I'm glad I didn't have to watch Utako's intelligent older sister be groomed by her first-grade teacher.

I also feel obligated to talk about Akira's family situation. He has two identical mothers. Whether they're sisters or clones is up to interpretation since CLAMP refuses to explain any of this, just teasing that there's something mysterious going on. His dad is alive, but he's never at home, and I think he's also a thief and trained in the art of cooking. They also never explain his dad and why he's always gone and doesn't live with them, even though it doesn't seem like it's marriage problems with his identical wives... They're all terrible people who take advantage of this kid and behave childishly, and I don't like them. They do care about him since they ran around in bunny outfits to lure the police away from Akira, and I'm not even going to try to explain that because I don't know what was up with that scene.

The art was super cute. The kids' character designs were all very adorable with the big eyes and Utako's puffy dresses. It also has a certain type of elegance and charm. I'm certain that the bright colors used on the colored pages drew in the elementary school audience that CLAMP was aiming for. I will say that the proportions for the characters were a bit weird, but that would only be off-putting if you aren't familiar with CLAMP beforehand.

Man of Many Faces was very weird, but it could also be super cute. While Akira was bland and didn't have much going for him, Utako and her intelligence made up for it. It's unapologetic in its weirdness, but it also succeeds in creating an adorable and weirdly wholesome story, despite being problematic. I had my issues with it, but it wasn't horrible by any means.
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