YMMV / Tokyo Babylon

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Seishirou, especially after his actions in X1999. Is he really evil, or just a result of his Sakurazukamori upbringing? Was he in denial of his love for Subaru when he did all his horrible deeds or was he completely aware of it and did them anyways? Why did he let Subaru live after the boy witnessed his murder and made the bet over if he could learn to love him?
  • Subaru also is a close contestant, similarly after X/1999. Him becoming a Dragon of Earth after inheriting Seishirou's position as the Sakurazukamori only makes it worse.
• Angel/Devil Shipping: Seishirou and Subaru are set up to be this way, both physically and mentally. And in the end, it isn't deconstructed - just made even MORE apparent!
• Base-Breaking Character: Seishirou, both in his real self and his Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- incarnation. You can't help but Love to Hate him.
• Cry for the Devil: Most of the "bad" people Subaru encounters are just normal people that were very, very broken to the point of lashing out, and the main lesson Tokyo Babylon teaches is that nobody should judge people's suffering but instead try to understand them and their reasons. The "Start" annex provides the quintessential quote.
  "Maybe people who do bad things...are just really lonely."
  • And yeah, it does include Seishirou.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Many fanfics downplay Seishirou's flaws and turn him into a possesive yet loving Fetishized Abuser, instead of a downright possesive, evil bastard with more than one conflict.
• Growing the Beard: The first chapter barely touches social themes and comes across as a comedy. However, the beard appears next chapter.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • We have a pair of Half Identical Polar Opposite Twins who come from a family heavily connected to the supernatural. The boy is calm, introverted, selflessly kind and compassionate and much more connected to and knowledgeable of the paranormal than the girl, who is extroverted, energetic, flirtatious, (mostly) selfish and has a knack for eccentric artistic fashion. 22 years later...
  • Our protagonist is a young man with an extraordinary sense of empathy (including a strong affinity for animals) who investigates criminal cases. Accompanying him is an older man (older than the other guy, anyway) in a medical profession, who often wears suits and provides philosophical commentary and insight, and has a deep psychological obsession with the protagonist. He's also secretly a serial killer and tries and fails to kill the protagonist, but does succeed in murdering a girl very important in him. In spite of this, the protagonist ends up developing romantic feelings for him in return. And the ship between these two men is hugely influential on the Slash Fic scene. 23 years later...
• Ho Yay: See CLAMP for details.
• It Was His Sled: Seishirou is the Sakurazukamori, the man Subaru met nine years ago, a murderous sociopath, and Hokuto's killer. The first two aren't much of a twist, but the last two make for one hell of a Wham Episode.
• Memetic Molester: Seishirou, thanks to a certain annex and his tendency to be... well, Seishirou.
• Memetic Mutation: "Love is what makes a Subaru, a Subaru".
• Mind Game Ship: An one-sided one. Or so it seems.
• Narm: You either laugh or facepalm with the OVA theme song "Kiss Kiss." It repeats the same Engrish words over and over.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • When the teaser trailer for the 2021 anime adaptation was released, there were a lot of mixed reactions such as the character designs looking too different from CLAMP's original designs. There's also GoHands being in charge of the show's animation which made many people very skeptical since two of their most infamous anime, Hand Shakers and its sequel W'z, are notorious for their bizarre animation style (to the point of actually giving people nausea and headaches from watching them).
  • It gets worse when the studio was caught for plagiarizing the costume designs from other sources instead of using CLAMP's costume designs which they were famously known for. As a result, GoHands postponed the anime's broadcast so they could redesign the costumes, but eventually it was discovered that there were even more instances of plagiarism in their other works over the years. This lead the anime to be cancelled altogether so CLAMP and the production committee could start from scratch.
• The Woobie: Subaru goes through hell in this manga alone.

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