title: Hell House LLC

text: "Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel" was released on Shudder on September 20, 2018. The film's plot centers around a group of journalists who have gathered to explore the Abaddon Hotel, which has once again been abandoned following the events of the prior film. The movie further fleshes out the character of Andrew Tully, a character introduced in the first film, and his goal of opening a gate to hell. None of the journalists leave the abandoned hotel alive. The sole survivor found by the police is revealed to have been dead all along and sent out to intrigue people into visiting the hotel.


title: Hell House LLC

text: "Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire" was released as a Shudder exclusive on September 19, 2019. The film is styled as a documentary following Russell Wynn, a wealthy and mysterious entrepreneur who wants the Abaddon Hotel to serve as the location for an immersive theater experience called "Insomnia" based on "Faust". Although aware of the location's history, he is keen to proceed with the venture despite others warning him of ongoing and frightening supernatural events. This prompts the documentary team to investigate Russell's past and the prior two events, uncovering new footage that implies Russell was involved with or was monitoring events. When opening night arrives chaos ensues, however Russell manages to wrestle Tully and overcome him before he can kill or take any other innocent lives. The following day one of the documentary crew muses that Russell was likely an angel sent back to defeat Tully and bring an end to his evil plans. Before the film ends, Russell manages to bring back the spirits of the original crew who died in the house, telling them that they are free from the evil but that the house still holds them captive. The song "Running Away" by the Pittsburgh based band "Post Traumatik" was used during the bar scene.


title: Hell House LLC

text: Film School Rejects was critical of the movie, stating that it was "an ambitious stab at closing out a horror trilogy, but as much as that’s an accomplishment worth celebrating the end result is an unfortunate disappointment. Still, fans of the first two — or even the first one — might find some worthwhile closure in the final swan song of the Abaddon Hotel." The film holds a rating of 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 7 reviews.


title: Metz

text: Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Est region. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany and Luxembourg, the city forms a central place of the European Greater Region and the SaarLorLux euroregion.


title: Metz

text: Metz has a rich 3,000-year history, having variously been a Celtic "oppidum", an important Gallo-Roman city, the Merovingian capital of Austrasia, the birthplace of the Carolingian dynasty, a cradle of the Gregorian chant, and one of the oldest republics in Europe. The city has been steeped in French culture, but has been strongly influenced by German culture due to its location and history.


title: Metz

text: Because of its historical, cultural and architectural background, Metz has been submitted on France's UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. The city features noteworthy buildings such as the Gothic Saint-Stephen Cathedral with its largest expanse of stained-glass windows in the world, the Basilica of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains being the oldest church in France, its Imperial Station Palace displaying the apartment of the German Kaiser, or its Opera House, the oldest one working in France. Metz is home to some world-class venues including the Arsenal Concert Hall and the Centre Pompidou-Metz museum.


title: Metz

text: A basin of urban ecology, Metz gained its nickname of The Green City (), as it has extensive open grounds and public gardens. The historic city centre is one of the largest commercial pedestrian areas in France.


title: Metz

text: A historic garrison town, Metz is the economic heart of the Lorraine region, specialising in information technology and automotive industries. Metz is home to the University of Lorraine, Georgia Tech Lorraine, and a centre for applied research and development in the materials sector, notably in metallurgy and metallography, the heritage of the Lorraine region's past in the iron and steel industry.


title: Metz

text: In ancient times, the town was known as "city of Mediomatrici", being inhabited by the tribe of the same name. After its integration into the Roman Empire, the city was called "Divodurum Mediomatricum", meaning Holy Village or Holy Fortress of the Mediomatrici, then it was known as "Mediomatrix". During the 5th century AD, the name evolved to "Mettis", which gave rise to the current spelling, Metz, but also spellings such as "Mès", which are no longer used, but reflect its actual pronunciation in French (like "mess").


title: Metz

text: Metz has a recorded history dating back over 2,000 years. Before the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, it was the oppidum of the Celtic Mediomatrici tribe. Integrated into the Roman Empire, Metz became quickly one of the principal towns of Gaul with a population of 40,000, until the barbarian depredations and its transfer to the Franks about the end of the 5th century. Between the 6th and 8th centuries, the city was the residence of the Merovingian kings of Austrasia. After the Treaty of Verdun in 843, Metz became the capital of the Kingdom of Lotharingia and was ultimately integrated into the Holy Roman Empire, being granted semi-independent status. During the 12th century, Metz became a republic and the Republic of Metz stood until the 15th century.


title: Metz

text: With the signature of the Treaty of Chambord in 1552, Metz passed into the hands of the Kings of France. As the German Protestant Princes who traded Metz (alongside Toul and Verdun) for the promise of French military assistance, had no authority to cede territory of the Holy Roman Empire, the change of jurisdiction was not recognised by the Holy Roman Empire until the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. Under French rule, Metz was selected as capital of the Three Bishoprics and became a strategic fortified town. With creation of the departments by the Estates-General of 1789, Metz was chosen as capital of the Department of Moselle.


title: Metz

text: Although largely French-speaking, after the Franco-Prussian War and according to the Treaty of Frankfurt of 1871, the city became part of the German Empire, being part of the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine and serving as capital of the Bezirk Lothringen.


title: Metz

text: Metz remained German until the end of the First World War, when it reverted to France. However, after the Battle of France during the Second World War, the city was annexed by Nazi Germany. In 1944, the attack on the city by the U.S. Third Army removed the city from German rule and Metz reverted one more time to France after World War II.


title: Metz

text: During the 1950s, Metz was chosen to be the capital of the newly created Lorraine region. With the creation of the European Community and the later European Union, the city has become central to the Greater Region and the SaarLorLux Euroregion.


title: Metz

text: Metz is located on the banks of the Moselle and the Seille rivers, from the Schengen tripoint where the borders of France, Germany and Luxembourg meet. The city was built in a place where many branches of the Moselle river creates several islands, which are encompassed within the urban planning.


title: Metz

text: The terrain of Metz forms part of the Paris Basin and presents a plateau relief cut by river valleys presenting cuestas in the north–south direction. Metz and its surrounding countryside are included in the forest and crop Lorraine Regional Natural Park, covering a total area of .


title: Metz

text: The climate of Lorraine is a oceanic climate. The summers are warm and humid, sometimes stormy, and the warmest month of the year is July, when daytime temperatures average approximately . The winters are cold and snowy with temperature dropping to an average low of in January. Lows can be much colder through the night and early morning and the snowy period extends from November to February.


title: Metz

text: The length of the day varies significantly over the course of the year. The shortest day is 21 December with 7:30 hours of sunlight; the longest day is 20 June with 16:30 hours of sunlight. The median cloud cover is 93% and does not vary substantially over the course of the year.


title: Metz

text: The inhabitants of Metz are called "Messin(e)s". Statistics on the ethnic and religious make up of the population of Metz are haphazard, as the French Republic prohibits making distinctions between citizens regarding race, beliefs, and political and philosophic opinions in the process of census taking.


title: Metz

text: The French national census of 2018 estimated the population of Metz to be 116,581, while the population of Metz metropolitan area was about 368,000. Through history, Metz's population has been impacted by the vicissitudes of the wars and annexations involving the city, which have prevented continuous population growth. More recently, the city has suffered from the restructuring of the military and the metallurgy industry. The historical population for the current area of Metz municipality is as follows:


title: Metz

text: Several well-known figures have been linked to the city of Metz throughout its history. Renowned "Messins" include poet Paul Verlaine, composer Ambroise Thomas and mathematician Jean-Victor Poncelet; numerous well-known German figures were also born in Metz notably during the annexation periods. Moreover, the city has been the residence of people such as writer François Rabelais, Cardinal Mazarin, political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville, artist and the inventor of the motion picture camera Louis Le Prince, French patriot and American Revolutionary War hero Marquis Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, and Luxembourg-born German-French statesman Robert Schuman.


title: Metz

text: The "local law" () applied in Metz is a legal system that operates in parallel with French law. Created in 1919, it preserves the French laws applied in France before 1870 and maintained by the Germans during the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, but repealed in the rest of France after 1871. It also maintains German laws enacted by the German Empire between 1871 and 1918, specific provisions adopted by the local authorities, and French laws that have been enacted after 1919 to be applicable only in Alsace-Lorraine. This specific local legislation encompasses different areas including religion, social work and finance.


title: Metz

text: The most striking of the legal differences between France and Alsace-Lorraine is the absence in Alsace-Lorraine of strict secularism, even though a constitutional right of freedom of religion is guaranteed by the French government. Alsace-Lorraine is still governed by a pre-1905 law established by the Concordat of 1801, which provides for the public subsidy of the Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist churches and the Jewish religion.


title: Metz

text: Like every commune of the present French Republic, Metz is managed by a mayor () and a municipal council (), democratically elected by two-round proportional voting for six years. The mayor is assisted by 54 municipal councillors, and the municipal council is held on the last Thursday of every month. Since 2008, the mayor of Metz has been socialist Dominique Gros.


title: Metz

text: The city belongs to the Metz Metropole union of cities, which includes the 40 cities of the Metz urban agglomeration. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle based in the former Intendant Palace. In addition, Metz is the seat of the parliament of the Grand Est region, hosted in the former Saint-Clement Abbey.


title: Metz

text: Metz contains a mishmash of architectural layers, bearing witness to centuries of history at the crossroads of different cultures, and features a number of architectural landmarks. The city possesses one of the largest Urban Conservation Areas in France, and more than 100 of the city's buildings are classified on the Monument Historique list. Because of its historical and cultural background, Metz is designated as French Town of Art and History, and has been submitted on to France's UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List.


title: Metz

text: The city is famous for its yellow limestone architecture, a result of the extensive use of Jaumont stone. The historic district has kept part of the Gallo-Roman city with Divodurum's Cardo Maximus, then called Via Scarponensis (today the Trinitaires, Taison and Serpenoise streets), and the Decumanus Maximus (today En Fournirue and d'Estrées streets). At the Cardo and Decumanus intersection was situated the Roman forum, today the Saint-Jacques Square.


title: Metz

text: From its Gallo-Roman past, the city preserves vestiges of the thermae (in the basement of the Golden Courtyard museum), parts of the aqueduct, and the Basilica of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains.


title: Metz

text: Saint Louis' square with its vaulted arcades and a Knights Templar chapel remains a major symbol of the city's High Medieval heritage. The Gothic Saint-Stephen Cathedral, several churches and Hôtels, and two remarkable municipal granaries reflect the Late Middle Ages. Examples of Renaissance architecture can be seen in Hôtels from the 16th century, such as the House of Heads ().


title: Metz

text: The city hall and the buildings surrounding the town square are by French architect Jacques-François Blondel, who was awarded the task of redesigning and modernizing the centre of Metz by the Royal Academy of Architecture in 1755 the context of the Enlightenment. Neoclassical buildings from the 18th century, such as the Opera House, the Intendant Palace (the present-day prefecture), and the Royal Governor's Palace (the present-day courthouse) built by Charles-Louis Clérisseau, are also found in the city.


title: Metz

text: The Imperial District was built during the first annexation of Metz by the German Empire. In order to "germanise" the city, Emperor Wilhelm II decided to create a new district shaped by a distinctive blend of Germanic architecture, including Renaissance, neo-Romanesque and neo-Classical, mixed with elements of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Alsatian and mock-Bavarian styles. Instead of Jaumont stone, commonly used everywhere else in the city, stone used in the Rhineland, such as pink and grey sandstone, granite and basalt were used. The district features noteworthy buildings including the rail station and the Central Post Office by German architect Jürgen Kröger.


title: Metz

text: Modern architecture can also be seen in the town with works of French architects Roger-Henri Expert (Sainte-Thérèse-de-l'Enfant-Jésus church, 1934), Georges-Henri Pingusson (Fire Station, 1960) and Jean Dubuisson (subdivisions, 1960s). The refurbishment of the former Ney Arsenal as a Concert Hall in 1989 and the erection of the Metz Arena in 2002, by Spanish and French architects Ricardo Bofill and French Paul Chemetov represent the Postmodern movement.


title: Metz

text: The Centre Pompidou-Metz museum in the Amphitheatre District represents a strong architectural initiative to mark the entrance of Metz into the 21st century. Designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, the building is remarkable for the complex, innovative carpentry of its roof, and integrates concepts of sustainable architecture. The project encompasses the architecture of two recipients of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, Shigeru Ban (2014) and French Christian de Portzamparc (1994). The Amphitheatre District is also conceived by French architects Nicolas Michelin, Jean-Paul Viguier and Jean-Michel Wilmotte, and designer Philippe Starck. The urban project is expected to be completed by 2023. Further, a contemporary music venue designed by contextualist French architect Rudy Ricciotti stands in the Borny District.


title: Metz

text: Under the leadership of such people as botanist Jean-Marie Pelt, Metz pioneered a policy of urban ecology during the early 1970s. Because of the failure of post-war urban planning and housing estate development in Europe during the 1960s, mostly based on the concepts of CIAM, Jean-Marie Pelt, then municipal councillor of Metz, initiated a new approach to the urban environment.


title: Metz

text: Based initially on the ideas of the Chicago School, Pelt's theories pleaded for better integration of humans into their environment and developed a concept centered on the relationship between "stone and water". His policy was realized in Metz by the establishment of extensive open areas surrounding the Moselle and the Seille rivers and the development of large pedestrian areas. As a result, Metz has over of open areas per inhabitant in the form of numerous public gardens in the city.


title: Metz

text: The principles of urban ecology are still applied in Metz with the implementation of a local Agenda 21 action plan. The municipal ecological policy encompasses the sustainable refurbishment of ancient buildings, the erection of sustainable districts and buildings, green public transport, and the creation of public gardens by means of landscape architecture.


title: Metz

text: Additionally, the city has developed its own combined heat and power station, using waste wood biomass from the surrounding forests as a renewable energy source. With a thermal efficiency above 80%, the 45MW boiler of the plant provides electricity and heat for 44,000 dwellings. The Metz power station is the first local producer and distributor of energy in France.


title: Metz

text: As a historic Garrison town, Metz has been heavily influenced by military architecture throughout its history. From ancient history to the present, the city has been successively fortified and modified to accommodate the troops stationed there. Defensive walls from classical antiquity to the 20th century are still visible today, incorporated into the design of public gardens along the Moselle and Seille rivers. A medieval bridge castle from the 13th century, named Germans' Gate (), today converted into a convention and exhibition centre, has become one of the landmarks of the city. It is still possible to see parts of the 16th century citadel, as well as fortifications built in the 1740s by Louis de Cormontaigne but based on designs by Vauban. Important barracks, mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries, are spread around the city: some, which are of architectural interest, have been converted to civilian use, such as the Arsenal Concert Hall by Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill.


title: Metz

text: The extensive fortifications of Metz, which ring the city, include early examples of Séré de Rivières system forts. Other forts were incorporated into the Maginot Line. A hiking trail on the Saint-Quentin plateau passes through a former military training zone and ends at the now abandoned military forts, providing a vantage point from which to survey the city.


title: Metz

text: Although the steel industry has historically dominated Moselle's economy, Metz's efforts at economic diversification have created a base in the sectors of commerce, tourism, information technology and the automotive industry. The city is the economic heart of the Lorraine region and around 73,000 people work daily within the urban agglomeration. The transport facilities found in the conurbation, including the international high-speed railway, motorway, inland connections and the local bus rapid transit system, have made the city a transport hub in the heart of the European Union. Metz is home to the biggest harbour handling cereals in France with over 4,000,000 tons/year.


title: Metz

text: Metz is home to the Moselle Chamber of Commerce. International companies such as PSA Peugeot Citroën, ArcelorMittal, SFR and TDF have established plants and centres in the Metz conurbation. Metz is also the regional headquarters of the Caisse d'Epargne and Banque Populaire banking groups.


title: Metz

text: Metz is an important commercial centre of northern France with France's biggest retailer federation, consisting of around 2,000 retailers. Important retail companies are found in the city, such as the Galeries Lafayette, the Printemps department store and the Fnac entertainment retail chain. The historic city centre displays one of the largest commercial pedestrian areas in France and a mall, the Saint-Jacques centre. In addition there are several multiplex movie theatres and malls found in the urban agglomeration.


title: Metz

text: In recent years, Metz municipality have promoted an ambitious policy of tourism development, including urban revitalization and refurbishment of buildings and public squares. This policy has been spurred by the creation of the Centre Pompidou-Metz in 2010. Since its inauguration, the institution has become the most popular cultural venue in France outside Paris, with 550,000 visitors per year. Meanwhile, Saint-Stephen Cathedral is the most visited building in the city, accommodating 652,000 visitors per year.


title: Metz

text: Metz has several venues for the performing arts. The Opera House of Metz, the oldest working opera house in France, features plays, dance and lyric poetry. The Arsenal Concert Hall, dedicated to art music, is widely renowned for its excellent acoustics. The Trinitarians Club is a multi-media arts complex housed in the vaulted cellar and chapel of an ancient convent, the city's prime venue for jazz music. The Music Box (), familiarly known as BAM, is the concert venue dedicated to rock and electronic music. The Braun Hall and the Koltès Theater feature plays, and the city has two movie theaters specializing in Auteur cinema. The Saint-Jacques Square, surrounded by busy bars and pubs whose open-air tables fill the centre of the square.


title: Metz

text: Since 2014, the former bus garage has been converted to accommodate over thirty artists in residence, in a space where they can create and rehearse artworks and even build set decorations. The artistic complex, called Metz Network of All Cultures () and familiarly known as TCRM-Blida, encompasses a large hall of while theater and dance companies benefit from a studio of with backstages.


title: Metz

text: Metz was an important cultural centre during the Carolingian Renaissance. For instance, Gregorian chant was created in Metz during the 8th century as a fusion of Gallican and ancient Roman repertory. Then called Messin Chant, it remains the oldest form of music still in use in Western Europe. The bishops of Metz, notably Saint-Chrodegang promoted its use for the Roman liturgy in Gallic lands under the favorable influence of the Carolingian monarchs. Messin chant made two major contributions to the body of chant: it fitted the chant into the ancient Greek octoechos system, and invented an innovative musical notation, using neumes to show the shape of a remembered melody. Metz was also an important centre of illumination of Carolingian manuscripts, producing such monuments of Carolingian book illumination as the Drogo Sacramentary.


title: Metz

text: The Metz School () was an art movement in Metz and the region between 1834 and 1870, centred on Charles-Laurent Maréchal. The term was originally proposed in 1845 by the poet Charles Baudelaire, who appreciated the works of the artists. They were influenced by Eugène Delacroix and inspired by the medieval heritage of Metz and its romantic surroundings. The Franco-Prussian War and the annexation of the territory by the Germans resulted in the dismantling of the movement. The main figures of the Metz School were Charles-Laurent Maréchal, Auguste Migette, , Louis-Théodore Devilly, Christophe Fratin and . Their works include paintings, engravings, drawings, stained-glass windows and sculptures.


title: Metz

text: The Graoully is depicted as a fearsome dragon, vanquished by the sacred powers of Saint Clement of Metz, the first Bishop of the city. The Graoully quickly became a symbol of Metz and can be seen in numerous insignia of the city, from the 10th century on. Writers from Metz tend to present the legend as an allegory of Christianity's victory over paganism, represented by the harmful dragon.


title: Metz

text: Local specialties include the quiche, the potée, the Lorrain pâté and also suckling pig. Different recipes, such as jam, tart, charcuterie and fruit brandy, are made from the Mirabelle and Damson plums. Also, Metz is the cradle of some pastries like the Metz cheese pie and the Metz Balls (), a ganache-stuffed biscuit coated with marzipan, caramel and dark chocolate. Local beverages include Moselle wine and Amos beer.


title: Metz

text: The Covered Market of Metz is one of the oldest, most grandiose in France and is home to traditional local food producers and retailers. Originally built as the bishop's palace, the French Revolution broke out before the Bishop of Metz could move in and the citizens decided to turn it into a food market. The adjacent Chamber's Square () is surrounded by numerous local food restaurants.


title: Metz

text: Many events are celebrated in Metz throughout the year. The city of Metz dedicates two weeks to the Mirabelle plum during the popular Mirabelle Festival held in August. During the festival, in addition to open markets selling fresh plums, mirabelle tarts and mirabelle liquor, there are live music, fireworks, parties, art exhibits, a parade with floral floats, a competition, the crowning of the Mirabelle Queen and a gala of celebration.


title: Metz

text: A literature festival is held in June. The Montgolfiades hot air balloon festival is organized in September. The second most popular Christmas Market in France is held in November and December. Finally, a Saint Nicholas parade honors the patron saint of the Lorraine region in December.


title: Metz

text: Metz is home to the Football Club of Metz (FC Metz), a football association club in Ligue 1, the highest division of French football (as of 2019–2020 season). FC Metz has won three times the Ligue 2 (1935, 2007 and 2014), twice the Coupe de France (in 1984 and 1988) and the French League Cup (in 1986 and 1996), and was French championship runner-up in 1998. FC Metz has also gained recognition in France and Europe for its successful youth academy, winning the Gambardella Cup 3 times in 1981, 2001 and 2010. The Saint-Symphorien stadium has been the home of FC Metz since the creation of the club.


title: Metz

text: Metz Handball is a Handball club. Metz Handball has won the French Women's First League championship 23 times, the Women's France Cup nine times, and the French Women's League Cup eight times. The Metz Arena has been the home of Metz Handball since 2002.


title: Metz

text: Since 2003, Metz has been home to the Moselle Open, an ATP World Tour 250 tournament played on indoor hard courts, which usually takes place in September.


title: Metz

text: Metz has numerous high schools, including the Fabert High School and the Lycée of Communication. Some of these institutions offer higher education programs such as classes préparatoires (undergraduate school) or BTS (technician certificate).


title: Metz

text: The university is divided into two university centers, one in Metz (material sciences, technology and management) and one in Nancy (biological sciences, health care, administration and management). The University of Lorraine, which ranks in 2016 among the top 15 of French universities and among the top 300 of universities in the world according to the 2016 Academic Ranking of World Universities, has a student body of over 55,000 and offers 101 accredited research centers organized in 9 research areas and 8 doctoral colleges.


title: Metz

text: At the end of the 1990s, the city expanded and the Metz Science Park was created in the southern area. Along with this expansion, several graduate schools took the opportunity to establish campuses in the park. At first, facilities were grouped around the lake Symphony, like Supélec in 1985 and Georgia Tech Lorraine in 1990. In 1996, the engineering school Arts et Métiers ParisTech (ENSAM) built a research and learning center next to the golf course. This opened the way to the development of a new area, where the Franco-German university (ISFATES) and the ENIM moved in 2010. These graduate schools often cooperate with the University of Lorraine. For instance, the university and ENSAM share research teams, laboratories, equipments and doctoral programs. The École supérieure d'ingénieurs des travaux de la construction de Metz is also located in the city.


title: Metz

text: Public transport includes a bus rapid transit system, called Mettis. Mettis vehicles are high-capacity hybrid bi-articulated buses built by Van Hool, and stop at designated elevated tubes, complete with disability access. Mettis has its own planned and integrated transportation system, which includes two dedicated lines that spread out into the Metz conurbation. Mettis lanes A and B serve the city's major facilities (e.g., city centre, university campus and hospitals), and a transport hub is located next to the railway station.


title: Metz

text: Metz Railway Station is connected to the French high speed train (TGV) network, which provides a direct rail service to Paris and Luxembourg. The time from Paris (Gare de l'Est) to Metz is 82 minutes. Additionally, Metz is served by the Lorraine TGV railway station, located at Louvigny, to the south of Metz, for high speed trains going to Nantes, Rennes, Lille and Bordeaux (without stopping in Paris). Also, Metz is one of the main stations of the regional express trains system, Métrolor.


title: Metz

text: Metz is located at the intersection of two major road axes: the Eastern Motorway, itself a part of the European route E50 connecting Paris to Prague, and the A31 Motorway, which goes north to Luxembourg and south to the Mediterranean Sea towards Nancy, Dijon and Lyon.


title: Metz

text: The Luxembourg International Airport is the nearest international airport, connected to Metz by Métrolor train. The Lorraine TGV Station is 75 minutes by train from France international Charles de Gaulle Airport. Finally, Metz–Nancy–Lorraine Airport is located in Goin, southeast of Metz.


title: Metz

text: Metz is located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers, both navigable waterways. The marina connects Metz to the cities of the Moselle valley (i.e. Trier, Schengen and Koblenz) via the Moselle river.


title: Metz

text: Metz is a member of the QuattroPole union of cities, along with Luxembourg, Saarbrücken and Trier (neighbouring countries: Luxembourg, France, and Germany). Metz has a central place in the Greater Region and of the economic SaarLorLux Euroregion. Metz is also twin town with:


title: Lightsaber

text: A lightsaber is a fictional energy sword featured throughout the "Star Wars" franchise. A typical lightsaber is depicted as a luminescent plasma blade about in length emitted from a metal hilt around in length. First introduced in the original "Star Wars" film, it has since appeared in most "Star Wars" films, with at least one lightsaber duel occurring in each installment of the "Skywalker saga". The lightsaber's distinct appearance was created using rotoscoping for the original films, and with digital effects for the prequel and sequel trilogies.


title: Lightsaber

text: In the "Star Wars" universe, the lightsaber is the signature weapon of the light side-wielding Jedi Order and the dark side-wielding Sith Order and the Knights of Ren. However, the lightsaber can also be wielded by non-Force-sensitive characters as an ordinary weapon or tool. The Jedi use different colored lightsabers (predominantly blue and green, though purple and yellow have also appeared in canon media), while the Sith wield exclusively red-bladed sabers to distinguish themselves from the Jedi. The color of a lightsaber's blade is given by its power source, the kyber crystal, which is influenced by the wielder and the Force as they connect with and tune the crystal. A lightsaber's hilt is built by its wielder and is, therefore, unique in design. There are several variations outside of the traditional single-bladed lightsaber, such as the double-bladed lightsaber (most famously wielded by Darth Maul), crossguard lightsabers (used by Kylo Ren), and the Darksaber, primarily wielded by the non-Force-sensitive Mandalorian rulers of Mandalore (including Maul, Bo-Katan Kryze, and the Mandalorian).


title: Lightsaber

text: As presented in the films, a lightsaber's energy blade can cut, burn, and melt through most substances with little resistance. It leaves cauterized wounds in flesh, but can be deflected by another lightsaber blade, by energy shields, or by the metal beskar. The blade has even been used as a tool to weld metal. Other times, the lightsaber has been shown to cause bleeding wounds in the flesh, sometimes accompanied by burns. Some exotic saber-proof melee weapons have been introduced in the Expanded Universe as well as later episodic films. An active lightsaber gives off a distinctive hum, which rises in pitch and volume as the blade is moved rapidly through the air. Bringing the blade into contact with another lightsaber's blade produces a loud crackle.


title: Lightsaber

text: The lightsaber has become one of the most widely recognized elements of the "Star Wars" franchise. In 2008, a survey of approximately 2,000 film fans found it to be the most popular weapon in film history.


title: Lightsaber

text: For the original "Star Wars" film, the film prop hilts were constructed by John Stears from old Graflex press camera flash battery packs and other pieces of hardware. The full-sized sword props were designed to appear ignited onscreen, by later creating an "in-camera" glowing effect in post-production. The blade is a three-sided rod which was coated with a Scotchlite retroreflector array, the same sort used for highway signs. A lamp was positioned to the side of the taking camera and reflected towards the subject through 45-degree angled glass so that the sword would appear to glow from the camera's point of view.


title: Lightsaber

text: Set decorator Roger Christian found the handles for the Graflex Flash Gun in a photography shop in Great Marlborough Street, in London's West End. He then added cabinet T-track to the handles, securely attaching them with cyanoacrylate glue. Adding a few "greebles" (surface details), Christian managed to hand-make the first prototype of a lightsaber prop for Luke before production began. George Lucas decided he wanted to add a clip to the handle, so that Luke could hang it on his belt. Once Lucas felt the handle was up to his standards, it went to John Stears to create the wooden dowel rod with front-projection paint so that the animators would have a glow of light to enhance later on in post production. Due to lack of preparation time, Christian's prototype and a second spare were used for the shooting in Tunisia, where filming on "Star Wars" began. It was discovered, however, that the glowing effect was greatly dependent on the rod's orientation to the camera, and during the Obi-Wan Kenobi/Darth Vader duel, they could clearly be seen as rods. Because of this, the glow would be added in post-production through rotoscoping, which also allowed for diffusion to be employed to enhance the glow.


title: Lightsaber

text: While original trilogy hilts were typically constructed using found parts, during the prequel and sequel trilogies a different process was sometimes used. Hilts were first machined out of metal materials. Then casts would be made using the metal hilts to create resin copies that were used on screen. The resin was often molded over a metal rod that a dueling blade could be attached to for fight sequences.


title: Lightsaber

text: Korean animator Nelson Shin, who was working for DePatie–Freleng Enterprises at the time, was asked by his manager if he could animate the lightsaber in the live-action scenes of a film. After Shin accepted the assignment, the live-action footage was given to him. He drew the lightsabers with a rotoscope, an animation which was superimposed onto the footage of the physical lightsaber blade prop. Shin explained to the people from Lucasfilm that since a lightsaber is made of light, the sword should look "a little shaky" like a fluorescent tube. He suggested inserting one frame that was much lighter than the others while printing the film on an optical printer, making the light seem to vibrate. Shin also recommended adding a degausser sound on top of the other sounds for the weapon since the sound would be reminiscent of a magnetic field. The whole process took one week, surprising his company. Lucasfilm showed Shin the finished product, having followed his suggestions to use an X-Acto knife to give the lightsaber a very sharp look, and to have sound accompany the weapon's movements.


title: Lightsaber

text: The lightsaber sound effect was developed by sound designer Ben Burtt as a combination of the hum of idling interlock motors in aged movie projectors and interference caused by a television set on a shieldless microphone. Burtt discovered the latter accidentally as he was looking for a buzzing, sparking sound to add to the projector-motor hum.


title: Lightsaber

text: The pitch changes of lightsaber movement were produced by playing the basic lightsaber tone on a loudspeaker and recording it on a moving microphone, generating Doppler shift to mimic a moving sound source.


title: Lightsaber

text: Lightsabers were present in the earliest drafts as mundane plasma weapons that were used alongside laser guns. The introduction of the Force in a later revision made the Jedi and the Sith supernaturally skilled; initially they were only portrayed as swordsmen. The lightsaber became the Force-user's tool, described in "A New Hope" by Obi-Wan Kenobi as "not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age." The source of a lightsaber's power is a kyber crystal. These crystals are also the power source of the Death Star's superlaser.


title: Lightsaber

text: In films such as "Revenge of the Sith" and "The Last Jedi", melee weapons such as the electrostaff and plasma-lined blades deflect lightsabers.


title: Lightsaber

text: Lightsabers are depicted as hand-built as part of a Jedi's or Sith's training regimen. Each lightsaber is unique, though some may bear resemblance to others, especially if there is a connection between the builders. The hilt of most lightsabers are straight and predominantly cylindrical, however there are other lightsaber hilt types. The first film appearance of a dual-bladed lightsaber (first depicted in the comic series "Tales of the Jedi") was in "The Phantom Menace", wielded by Darth Maul; it consists of two regular lightsabers joined at their butt ends each producing a blade independently. Count Dooku, beginning with the character's first appearance in "Attack of the Clones", is shown to have a lightsaber with a curved hilt. The video game "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" introduced two other variants: a lightsaber pike (a lightsaber with a shorter blade but a long handle, resembling a spear) and a Tonfa-style lightsaber with right-angle hilt.


title: Lightsaber

text: The "Star Wars" expanded universe adds several lightsaber types, including short and dual-phase (adjustable length) weapons. In "Star Wars Rebels", Ezra Bridger's original lightsaber is a hybrid that features a fully functional blaster pistol built into the handle. Kylo Ren, introduced in "The Force Awakens", uses a lightsaber that features two crosshilt blades, giving it the appearance of a greatsword. His blade also has an unstable, fiery appearance, explained in canon reference books as stemming from a cracked kyber crystal. The Inquisitors of the Galactic Empire are depicted as wielding a unique variation of a double-bladed saber, mounted on a rotating ring enabling the blades 360 degrees of rotation and short-term flight capability. More obscure lightsaber variations, such as the "lightwhip", an elongated flexible blade used in a matter akin to a whip, the "lightclub", an enlarged standard lightsaber, and the "shoto", a dramatically smaller variation often paired with a standard sized saber have also made appearances.


title: Lightsaber

text: Lightsabers in the first two released films, "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back", had blades that were either blue (for the Jedi) or red (for the Sith). Luke Skywalker's new lightsaber in "Return of the Jedi" was colored blue during the initial editing of the film, and appears so in both an early movie trailer and the official theatrical posters. However, it was changed to green in the film's final edit after initial viewings by the filmmakers, who felt that it would better stand out against the blue sky of Tatooine in outdoor scenes, and this color change is also reflected in the film's re-release posters. Mace Windu's purple-bladed lightsaber, as first seen in "Attack of the Clones", was requested by the actor Samuel L. Jackson because purple is his favorite color, and the purple blade would make his character stand out among other Jedi. Jackson is known to frequently request that the characters he plays use an item that is purple in color. showed the guardians of the Jedi Temple wielding yellow-bladed lightsabers, and, at the end of "The Rise of Skywalker", Rey is shown to have built a yellow-bladed lightsaber using part of her staff as the hilt.


title: Lightsaber

text: As depicted in "The Clone Wars" and "Rebels", the builder of a lightsaber chooses a kyber crystal and meditates with it until the crystal acquires a color. The color of this crystal becomes the blade's color when installed into a lightsaber hilt. In the book "" and the comic series "Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith", it is shown that dark side users remove the crystal from a defeated Jedi's lightsaber and concentrate Force energy on it to break its connection to the light side, a process known as "bleeding" to create a red crystal. The process can also be reversed, as shown in "Ahsoka", when the titular character does so to a pair of crystals taken from an Inquisitor. She uses them in the pair of white-bladed lightsabers she builds at the end of the novel.


title: Lightsaber

text: Other colors have appeared in various expanded media projects, including many video games where the player can select their character's lightsaber color.


title: Lightsaber

text: The technical lightsaber choreography for the original "Star Wars" trilogy was developed by Hollywood sword-master Bob Anderson. Anderson personally trained Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and, in "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi", performed all the stunts as Darth Vader during the lightsaber duels wearing Vader's costume. Anderson's role in the trilogy was highlighted in the film "Reclaiming the Blade" where he shared his experiences as a fencer developing the lightsaber techniques for the three original movies.


title: Lightsaber

text: The lightsaber duels in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy were specifically choreographed by stunt-coordinator Nick Gillard to be miniature "stories". For these films, Gillard was the primary sword instructor for Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon Jinn), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Ray Park (Darth Maul) and Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader) among other actors. His goal in choreographing the action for "The Phantom Menace" was to create stunts that flow from the story; "You can't just think, 'I'm a stunt coordinator, I'm going to make a big stunt happen'," Gillard said. "It's all about making it tie in nicely with the film so that you don't notice the stunts."


title: Lightsaber

text: In writing the prequel trilogy, George Lucas said he wanted the lightsaber combat to be "reminiscent of what had been done in the previous films but also something that was more energized. We'd seen old men, young boys, and characters who were half-droid, but we'd never seen a Jedi in his prime. I wanted to do that with a fight that was faster and more dynamic—and we were able to pull that off."


title: Lightsaber

text: According to Gillard, various lightsaber combat styles were devised for the prequels and intended to further characterize their practitioners.


title: Lightsaber

text: For "The Phantom Menace", Gillard set out certain styles and faults for the saber-wielding characters. He added that the Jedi's use of such "a short-range weapon" meant "they would have to be very good at it"; combining a variety of disciplines from various sword fighting styles to martial arts "with a touch of tennis and tree chopping", he created the style seen in the "Episode I" lightsaber battles.


title: Lightsaber

text: For "The Force Awakens", director J. J. Abrams decided to approach the choreography similarly to how it was done in the original trilogy. Abrams stated that the prequel trilogy choreography was "increasingly spectacular and stylized, almost like dance choreography", but that was not what they really wanted to go for in the new films. He told "Empire" magazine, "When you look at "Star Wars" and "Empire", they are very different lightsaber battles, but for me they felt more powerful because they were not quite as slick. I was hoping to go for something much more primitive, aggressive and rougher, a throwback to the kind of heart-stopping lightsaber fights I remembered being so enthralled by as a kid."


title: Lightsaber

text: Since the release of the first film, replicas of lightsabers have been a popular piece of "Star Wars" merchandise, ranging from inexpensive plastic toys to the "Force FX" series from Master Replicas, deluxe replicas which use LED-lighted tubes and sound effects to create a close audio-visual representation of what is seen on screen.


title: Lightsaber

text: Disneyland and Disney World (Hollywood Studios) also sell legacy lightsabers which are replicas of the lightsabers seen used by the Jedi and Sith in the movies such as Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Rey Skywalker, Count Dooku, and Kylo Ren.


title: Lightsaber

text: Disneyland and Hollywood Studios also offer Savi's Workshop, a place where guests can build their own lightsaber and choose their own kyber crystal, thereby changing the blade color of their own unique lightsaber.


title: Lightsaber

text: Besides Savi's Workshop, there is another custom lightsaber experience. The Star Trader at Disneyland offers guests a chance to build their own lightsabers, without first paying 200 dollars for the experience.


title: Lightsaber

text: The "" is a live show where children are selected to learn the teachings of the Jedi Knights, the Force, and the basics of Lightsaber combat to become Padawan learners. The show is present at the Rebels stage next to Star Tours – The Adventures Continue attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios and at the Tomorrowland Terrace at Disneyland.


title: Lightsaber

text: Additionally, has incorporated lightsaber training for each guest aboard the spacecraft during their stay. The training is led by the Saja cast members and teaches the fourth form of lightsaber combat, Ataru to the guests. Both lightsabers and shields are used during training since the guests learn to use Ataru to deflect incoming projectiles. There is no lightsaber-to-lightsaber combat in this attraction and guests must be at least seven years old to participate.


title: Lightsaber

text: The virtual reality rhythm game Beat Saber involves the player using two lightsabers in order to slash a series of oncoming squares.


title: Lightsaber

text: In the 1987 film "Spaceballs" by Mel Brooks, "the Schwartz" is a play on "the Force", from "Star Wars". The lightsabers emanating from the Schwartz-rings held in front of the crotch are phallic symbols. The cartoon series "Futurama" features many lightsaber-style weapons, notably expanding batons used by police. The batons glow and "whoosh" with a lightsaber's distinctive hum, but merely slap victims when used, as if they are plastic toys. In Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" novel series, medical examiner and "Star Wars" fan Waldo Butters wields one of the three holy Swords of the Cross, which re-fashions itself into a lightsaber upon accepting him as its owner. In Yuya Sato's "Danganronpa Togami" light novel trilogy, main antagonist Orvin Elevator / Kazuya Togami wields a lightsaber built into their prosthetic arm, to which they are berated for copyright infringement by Genocider Syo / Genocide Jack; in the anime "", this same lightsaber is instead depicted as a flaming mechanical "katana" wielded by Kyosuke Munakata.


title: Lightsaber

text: With the advent of motion-controlled video games, players were given the opportunity to wield an in-game lightsaber with their own hands. In the seventh generation of video game consoles, there were several "Star Wars" video games available on the Wii ("", "", "", "" and "") and one on the Xbox 360 ("Kinect Star Wars") that utilized motion controls to wield a lightsaber through arm gestures. "Unleashed" and "Duels", both developed by Krome Studios, have more precise control of the lightsaber, allowing players to swing it in any of five different directions (up, down, left, right or forward) with the Wii Remote, while "Kinect" takes advantage of the eponymous, camera-based motion controller to grant the player a more fluid, one-to-one control method of swinging the lightsaber.


title: Lightsaber

text: Prior to the seventh generation, there were also a few earlier "Star Wars" games that used gesture-based control to simulate lightsaber combat, such as the two bonus levels of the arcade game "Star Wars Trilogy", where the player controls Luke Skywalker as he wields his lightsaber against Boba Fett and Darth Vader in "Return of the Jedi" by pushing a joystick in one of eight directions to follow on-screen offensive and defensive cues, and a TV game released around the time "Revenge of the Sith" came to theaters, titled "Star Wars: Saga Edition – Lightsaber Battle Game", in which the player swings a lightsaber-shaped controller to deflect blaster bolts from infantry (such as battle droids and clone troopers) and duel against characters from across the saga.


title: Lightsaber

text: By the time Disney purchased Lucasfilm, new technological advances made augmented reality possible, leading to the creation of some more notable motion-controlled lightsaber video games that took advantage of that feature. One of them came in the form of a special activity mode in the official "Star Wars" fan app on iOS and Android in which players use their smartphone's motion sensors to practice and master blaster deflection with a training droid (which appears on the phone's rear camera), similar to the deflection training exercises featured aboard the "Millennium Falcon" in "A New Hope", while progressing through the ranks of the Jedi or Sith order. Another is in "Star Wars: Jedi Challenges", which works with a Lenovo Mirage AR headset, a tracking sensor and a dedicated lightsaber controller that launched in December 2017. One of the multiple game modes available in "Challenges", which was jointly developed by Disney and Lenovo, enables players to confront "Star Wars" villains in lightsaber duels, such as Darth Maul and Kylo Ren.


title: Frame rate

text: Frame rate (expressed in ' or FPS) is the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (frames) are captured or displayed. The term applies equally to film and video cameras, computer graphics, and motion capture systems. Frame rate may also be called the ', and be expressed in hertz. Frame rate in electronic camera specifications may refer to the maximal possible rate, where, in practice, other settings (such as exposure time) may reduce the frequency to a lower number.


title: Frame rate

text: The temporal sensitivity and resolution of human vision varies depending on the type and characteristics of visual stimulus, and it differs between individuals. The human visual system can process 10 to 12 images per second and perceive them individually, while higher rates are perceived as motion. Modulated light (such as a computer display) is perceived as stable by the majority of participants in studies when the rate is higher than 50 Hz. This perception of modulated light as steady is known as the flicker fusion threshold. However, when the modulated light is non-uniform and contains an image, the flicker fusion threshold can be much higher, in the hundreds of hertz. With regard to image recognition, people have been found to recognize a specific image in an unbroken series of different images, each of which lasts as little as 13 milliseconds. Persistence of vision sometimes accounts for very short single-millisecond visual stimulus having a perceived duration of between 100 ms and 400 ms. Multiple stimuli that are very short are sometimes perceived as a single stimulus, such as a 10 ms green flash of light immediately followed by a 10 ms red flash of light perceived as a single yellow flash of light.


title: Frame rate

text: Early silent films had stated frame rates anywhere from 16 to 24 frames per second (fps), but since the cameras were hand-cranked, the rate often changed during the scene to fit the mood. Projectionists could also change the frame rate in the theater by adjusting a rheostat controlling the voltage powering the film-carrying mechanism in the projector. Film companies often intended that theaters show their silent films at higher frame rates than they were filmed at. These frame rates were enough for the sense of motion, but it was perceived as jerky motion. To minimize the perceived flicker, projectors employed dual- and triple-blade shutters, so each frame was displayed two or three times, increasing the flicker rate to 48 or 72 hertz and reducing eye strain. Thomas Edison said that 46 frames per second was the minimum needed for the eye to perceive motion: "Anything less will strain the eye." In the mid to late 1920s, the frame rate for silent films increased to between 20 and 26 FPS.


title: Frame rate

text: When sound film was introduced in 1926, variations in film speed were no longer tolerated, as the human ear is more sensitive than the eye to changes in frequency. Many theaters had shown silent films at 22 to 26 FPS, which is why the industry chose 24 FPS for sound films as a compromise. From 1927 to 1930, as various studios updated equipment, the rate of 24 FPS became standard for 35 mm sound film. At 24 FPS, the film travels through the projector at a rate of per second. This allowed simple two-blade shutters to give a projected series of images at 48 per second, satisfying Edison's recommendation. Many modern 35 mm film projectors use three-blade shutters to give 72 images per second—each frame is flashed on screen three times.


title: Frame rate

text: In drawn animation, moving characters are often shot "on twos", that is to say, one drawing is shown for every two frames of film (which usually runs at 24 frame per second), meaning there are only 12 drawings per second. Even though the image update rate is low, the fluidity is satisfactory for most subjects. However, when a character is required to perform a quick movement, it is usually necessary to revert to animating "on ones", as "twos" are too slow to convey the motion adequately. A blend of the two techniques keeps the eye fooled without unnecessary production cost.


title: Frame rate

text: Animation for most "Saturday morning cartoons" was produced as cheaply as possible and was most often shot on "threes" or even "fours", i.e. three or four frames per drawing. This translates to only 8 or 6 drawings per second respectively. Anime is also usually drawn on threes or twos.


title: Frame rate

text: Due to the mains frequency of electric grids, analog television broadcast was developed with frame rates of 50 Hz (most of the world) or 60 Hz (Canada, US, Japan, South Korea). The frequency of the electricity grid was extremely stable and therefore it was logical to use for synchronization.


title: Frame rate

text: The introduction of color television technology made it necessary to lower that 60 FPS frequency by 0.1% to avoid "dot crawl", a display artifact appearing on legacy black-and-white displays, showing up on highly-color-saturated surfaces. It was found that by lowering the frame rate by 0.1%, the undesirable effect was minimized.


title: Frame rate

text: , video transmission standards in North America, Japan, and South Korea are still based on 60  / 1.001 ≈ 59.94 images per second. Two sizes of images are typically used: 1920×1080 ("1080i/p") and 1280×720 ("720p"). Confusingly, "interlaced" formats are customarily stated at 1/2 their image rate, 29.97/25 FPS, and "double" their image height, but these statements are purely custom; in each format, 60 images per second are produced. A resolution of 1080i produces 59.94 or 50 1920×540 images, each squashed to half-height in the photographic process and stretched back to fill the screen on playback in a television set. The 720p format produces 59.94/50 or 29.97/25 1280×720p images, not squeezed, so that no expansion or squeezing of the image is necessary. This confusion was industry-wide in the early days of digital video software, with much software being written incorrectly, the developers believing that only 29.97 images were expected each second, which was incorrect. While it was true that each picture element was polled and sent only 29.97 times per second, the pixel location immediately below that one was polled 1/60 of a second later, part of a completely separate image for the next 1/60-second frame.


title: Frame rate

text: Film, at its native 24 FPS rate could not be displayed without the necessary pulldown process, often leading to "judder": To convert 24 frames per second into 60 frames per second, every odd frame is repeated, playing twice, while every even frame is tripled. This creates uneven motion, appearing stroboscopic. Other conversions have similar uneven frame doubling. Newer video standards support 120, 240, or 300 frames per second, so frames can be evenly sampled for standard frame rates such as 24, 48 and 60 FPS film or 25, 30, 50 or 60 FPS video. Of course these higher frame rates may also be displayed at their native rates.


title: Frame rate

text: Frame rate in electronic camera specifications may refer to the maximal possible rate, where, in practice, other settings (such as exposure time) may reduce the frequency to a lower number.


title: Frame rate

text: Frame rate up-conversion is the process of increasing the temporal resolution of a video sequence by synthesizing one or more intermediate frames between two consecutive frames. A low frame rate causes aliasing, yields abrupt motion artifacts, and degrades the video quality. Consequently, the temporal resolution is an important factor affecting video quality. Algorithms for FRC are widely used in applications, including visual quality enhancement, video compression and slow-motion video generation.


title: Frame rate

text: Most FRC methods can be categorized into optical flow or kernel-based and pixel hallucination-based methods.


title: Frame rate

text: Flow-based methods linearly combines predicted optical flows between two input frames to approximate flows from the target intermediate frame to the input frames. They also propose flow reversal (projection) for more accurate image warping. Moreover, there are algorithms that gives different weights of overlapped flow vectors depending on the object depth of the scene via a flow projection layer.


title: Frame rate

text: Pixel Hallucination-based methods use deformable convolution to the center frame generator by replacing optical flows with offset vectors. There are algorithms that also interpolates middle frames with the help of deformable convolution in the feature domain. However, since these methods directly hallucinate pixels unlike the flow-based FRC methods, the predicted frames tend to be blurry when fast-moving objects are present.


title: First Barbary War

text: The First Barbary War (1801–1805), also known as the Tripolitan War and the Barbary Coast War, was a conflict during the Barbary Wars, in which the United States and Sweden fought against Tripolitania. Tripolitania had declared war against Sweden and the United States over disputes regarding tributary payments made by both states in exchange for a cessation of Tripolitatian commerce raiding at sea. United States President Thomas Jefferson refused to pay this tribute. Sweden had been at war with the Tripolitans since 1800.


title: First Barbary War

text: Barbary corsairs and crews from the quasi-independent North African Ottoman provinces of Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and the independent Sultanate of Morocco under the Alaouite dynasty (the Barbary Coast) were the scourge of the Mediterranean. Capturing merchant ships and enslaving or ransoming their crews provided the rulers of these nations with wealth and naval power. The Trinitarian Order, or order of "Mathurins", had operated from France for centuries with the special mission of collecting and disbursing funds for the relief and ransom of prisoners of Mediterranean pirates. According to Robert Davis, between 1 and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by Barbary pirates and sold as slaves between the 16th and 19th centuries.


title: First Barbary War

text: Barbary corsairs led attacks upon American merchant shipping in an attempt to extort ransom for the lives of captured sailors, and ultimately tribute from the United States to avoid further attacks, as they had with the various European states. Before the Treaty of Paris, which formalized the United States' independence from Great Britain, United States shipping was protected by France during the revolutionary years under the Treaty of Alliance (1778–83). Although the treaty does not mention the Barbary States in name, it refers to common enemies between both the United States and France. As such, piracy against United States shipping only began to occur after the end of the American Revolution, when the United States government lost its protection under the Treaty of Alliance.


title: First Barbary War

text: This lapse of protection by a European power led to the first American merchant ship being seized after the Treaty of Paris. On 11 October 1784, Moroccan pirates seized the brigantine "Betsey". The Spanish government negotiated the freedom of the captured ship and crew; however, Spain advised the United States to offer tribute to prevent further attacks against merchant ships. The United States Minister to France, Thomas Jefferson, decided to send envoys to Morocco and Algeria to try to purchase treaties and the freedom of the captured sailors held by Algeria. Morocco was the first Barbary Coast State to sign a treaty with the United States, on 23 June 1786. This treaty formally ended all Moroccan piracy against American shipping interests. Specifically, article six of the treaty states that if any Americans captured by Moroccans or other Barbary Coast States docked at a Moroccan city, they would be set free and come under the protection of the Moroccan State.


title: First Barbary War

text: American diplomatic action with Algeria, the other major Barbary Coast State, was much less productive than with Morocco. Algeria began piracy against the United States on 25 July 1785 with the capture of the schooner "Maria", and "Dauphin" a week later. All four Barbary Coast states demanded $660,000 each. However, the envoys were given only an allocated budget of $40,000 to achieve peace. Diplomatic talks to reach a reasonable sum for tribute or for the ransom of the captured sailors struggled to make any headway. The crews of "Maria" and "Dauphin" remained enslaved for over a decade, and soon were joined by crews of other ships captured by the Barbary States.


title: First Barbary War

text: In March 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to London to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy, ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman (or Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). When they enquired "concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury", the ambassador replied:


title: First Barbary War

text: It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.


title: First Barbary War

text: Jefferson reported the conversation to Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay, who submitted the ambassador's comments and offer to Congress. Jefferson argued that paying tribute would encourage more attacks. Although John Adams agreed with Jefferson, he believed that circumstances forced the United States to pay tribute until an adequate navy could be built. The United States had just fought an exhausting war, which put the nation deep in debt.


title: First Barbary War

text: Various letters and testimonies by captured sailors describe their captivity as a form of slavery, even though Barbary Coast imprisonment was different from that practiced by the United States and the European powers of the time. Barbary Coast prisoners were able to obtain wealth and property, along with achieving status beyond that of a slave. One such example was James Leander Cathcart, who rose to the highest position a Christian slave could achieve in Algeria, becoming an adviser to the "dey" (governor). Even so, most captives were pressed into hard labor in the service of the Barbary pirates, and struggled under extremely poor conditions that exposed them to vermin and disease. As word of their treatment reached the United States, through freed captives' narratives and letters, Americans pushed for direct government action to stop the piracy against American ships.


title: First Barbary War

text: On July 19, 1794, Congress appropriated $800,000 for the release of American prisoners and for a peace treaty with Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. On September 5, 1795, American negotiator Joseph Donaldson signed a peace treaty with the Dey of Algiers, that included an upfront payment of $642,500 in specie ("silver coinage") for peace, the release of American captives, expenses, and various gifts for the Dey's royal court and family. An additional indefinite yearly tribute of $21,600 in shipbuilding supplies and ammunition would be given to the Dey. The treaty, designed to prevent further piracy, resulted in the release of 115 American sailors held captive by the Dey.


title: First Barbary War

text: Jefferson continued to argue for cessation of the tribute, with rising support from George Washington and others. With the recommissioning of the American Navy in 1794 and the resulting increased firepower on the seas, it became increasingly possible for America to refuse paying tribute, although by now the long-standing habit was difficult to change. The continuing demand for tribute ultimately led to the formation of the United States Department of the Navy, founded in 1798 to prevent further attacks upon American shipping and to end the demands for extremely large tributes from the Barbary States. Federalist and Anti-Federalist forces argued over the needs of the country and the burden of taxation. Jefferson's own Democratic-Republicans and anti-navalists believed that the future of the country lay in westward expansion, with Atlantic trade threatening to siphon money and energy away from the new nation, to be spent on wars in the Old World. During the divisive 1800 presidential election, Thomas Jefferson defeated incumbent President John Adams. Jefferson was sworn into office on March 4, 1801. The third President believed military force, rather than endless tributes, would be needed to resolve the Tripoli crisis.


title: First Barbary War

text: Just before Jefferson's inauguration in 1801, Congress passed naval legislation that, among other things, provided for six frigates that "shall be officered and manned as the President of the United States may direct." In the event of a declaration of war on the United States by the Barbary powers, these ships were to "protect our commerce and chastise their insolence—by sinking, burning or destroying their ships and vessels wherever you shall find them." On Jefferson's inauguration as president in 1801, Yusuf Karamanli, the "Pasha" (or "Bashaw") of Tripoli, demanded $225,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) from the new administration. It was a long-standing tradition that, if a government was changed or the consular was changed, said government would have to pay 'consular' gifts, in either gold or in goods, usually military and naval stores. (In 1800, federal revenues totaled a little over $10 million.) Putting his long-held beliefs into practice, Jefferson refused the demand. Consequently, because of this, along with the Americans not paying the money nor the gifts as stated in the treaty signed in 1796 between Tripoli and America, on 10 May 1801, the Pasha declared war on the United States, not through any formal written documents but in the customary Barbary manner of cutting down the flagstaff in front of the United States Consulate. Algiers and Tunis did not follow their ally in Tripoli.


title: First Barbary War

text: Before learning that Tripoli had declared war on the United States, Jefferson sent a small squadron, consisting of three frigates and one schooner, under the command of Commodore Richard Dale with gifts and letters to attempt to maintain peace with the Barbary powers. However, if war had been declared, then Dale was instructed to "protect American ships and citizens against potential aggression," but Jefferson insisted that he was "unauthorized by the constitution, without the sanction of Congress, to go beyond the line of defense." He told Congress: "I communicate [to you] all material information on this subject, that in the exercise of this important function confided by the constitution to the legislature exclusively their judgment may form itself on a knowledge and consideration of every circumstance of weight." Although Congress never voted on a formal declaration of war, it authorized the President to instruct the commanders of armed American vessels to seize all vessels and goods of the Pasha of Tripoli "and also to cause to be done all such other acts of precaution or hostility as the state of war will justify." The American squadron joined a Swedish flotilla under Rudolf Cederström in blockading Tripoli, with the Swedes having been at war with the Tripolitans since 1800.


title: First Barbary War

text: On 31 May 1801, Commodore Edward Preble traveled to Messina, Sicily, to the court of King Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples. The kingdom was at war with Napoleon, but Ferdinand supplied the Americans with manpower, craftsmen, supplies, gunboats, mortar boats, and the ports of Messina, Syracuse, and Palermo to be used as naval bases for launching operations against Tripoli, a port walled fortress city protected by 150 pieces of heavy artillery and manned by 25,000 soldiers, assisted by a fleet of 10 ten-gunned brigs, 2 eight-gun schooners, two large galleys, and 19 gunboats. The schooner (commanded by Lieutenant Andrew Sterret) defeated the 14-gun Tripolitan corsair "Tripoli" after a one-sided battle on 1 August 1801.


title: First Barbary War

text: In 1802, in response to Jefferson's request for authority to deal with the pirates, Congress passed "An act for the protection of commerce and seamen of the United States against the Tripolitan cruisers", authorizing the President to "employ such of the armed vessels of the United States as may be judged requisite... for protecting effectually the commerce and seamen thereof on the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean and adjoining seas." The statute authorized American ships to seize vessels belonging to the Bey of Tripoli, with the captured property distributed to those who brought the vessels into port.


title: First Barbary War

text: The United States Navy went unchallenged on the sea, but still, the question remained undecided. Jefferson pressed the issue the following year, with an increase in military force and deployment of many of the navy's best ships to the region throughout 1802. , , , , , , , , , , , , , USS "Scourge", , and (joined in 1805) all saw service during the war, under the overall command of Preble. Throughout 1803, Preble set up and maintained a blockade of the Barbary ports and executed a campaign of raids and attacks against the cities' fleets.


title: First Barbary War

text: In October 1803, Tripoli's fleet captured USS "Philadelphia" intact after the frigate ran aground on a reef while patrolling Tripoli harbor. Efforts by the Americans to float the ship while under fire from shore batteries and Tripolitan Naval units failed. The ship, her captain, William Bainbridge, and all officers and crew were taken ashore and held as hostages. "Philadelphia" was turned against the Americans and anchored in the harbor as a gun battery.


title: First Barbary War

text: On the night of 16 February 1804, Captain Stephen Decatur led a small detachment of United States Marines aboard the captured Tripolitan ketch rechristened USS "Intrepid, thus deceiving the guards on "Philadelphia" to float close enough to board her. Decatur's men stormed the ship and overpowered the Tripolitan sailors. With fire support from the American warships, the Marines set fire to "Philadelphia", denying her use by the enemy.


title: First Barbary War

text: Preble attacked Tripoli on 14 July 1804, in a series of inconclusive battles, including an unsuccessful attack attempting to use "Intrepid" under Captain Richard Somers as a fire ship, packed with explosives and sent to enter Tripoli harbor, where she would destroy herself and the enemy fleet. However, "Intrepid" was destroyed, possibly by enemy gunfire, before she achieved her goal, killing Somers and his entire crew.


title: First Barbary War

text: The turning point in the war was the Battle of Derna (April–May 1805). Ex-consul William Eaton, a former Army captain who used the title of "general", and United States Marine Corps 1st Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon led a force of eight U.S. Marines and five hundred mercenaries—Greeks from Crete, Arabs, and Berbers—on a march across the desert from Alexandria, Egypt, to capture the Tripolitan city of Derna. This was the first time the United States flag was raised in victory on foreign soil. The action is memorialized in a line of the Marines' Hymn—"the shores of Tripoli". The capturing of the city gave American negotiators leverage in securing the return of hostages and the end of the war.


title: First Barbary War

text: Wearied of the blockade and raids, and now under threat of a continued advance on Tripoli proper and a scheme to restore his deposed older brother Hamet Karamanli as ruler, Yusuf Karamanli signed a treaty ending hostilities on 10 June 1805. Article 2 of the treaty reads:


title: First Barbary War

text: The Bashaw of Tripoli shall deliver up to the American squadron now off Tripoli, all the Americans in his possession; and all the subjects of the Bashaw of Tripoli now in the power of the United States of America shall be delivered up to him; and as the number of Americans in possession of the Bashaw of Tripoli amounts to three hundred persons, more or less; and the number of Tripolino subjects in the power of the Americans to about, one hundred more or less; The Bashaw of Tripoli shall receive from the United States of America, the sum of sixty thousand dollars, as a payment for the difference between the prisoners herein mentioned.


title: First Barbary War

text: In agreeing to pay a ransom of $60,000 for the American prisoners, the Jefferson administration drew a distinction between paying "tribute" and paying "ransom". At the time, some argued that buying sailors out of slavery was a fair exchange to end the war. William Eaton, however, remained bitter for the rest of his life about the treaty, feeling that his efforts had been squandered by the American emissary from the United States Department of State, diplomat Tobias Lear. Eaton and others felt that the capture of Derna should have been used as a bargaining chip to obtain the release of all American prisoners without having to pay ransom. Furthermore, Eaton believed the honor of the United States had been compromised when it abandoned Hamet Karamanli after promising to restore him as leader of Tripoli. Eaton's complaints generally went unheard, especially as attention turned to the strained international relations which would ultimately lead to the withdrawal of the United States Navy from the area in 1807 and to the War of 1812.


title: First Barbary War

text: The First Barbary War was beneficial to the reputation of the United States' military command and war mechanism, which had been up to that time relatively untested. The First Barbary War showed that the United States could execute a war far from home, and that American forces had the cohesion to fight together as Americans rather than separately as Georgians, New Yorkers, etc. The United States Navy and United States Marine Corps became a permanent part of the United States government and United States history, and Decatur returned to the United States as its first post-revolutionary war hero.


title: First Barbary War

text: However, the more immediate problem of Barbary piracy was not fully settled. By 1807, Algiers had gone back to taking American ships and seamen hostage. Distracted by the preludes to the War of 1812, the United States was unable to respond to the provocation until 1815, with the Second Barbary War, in which naval victories by Commodores William Bainbridge and Stephen Decatur led to treaties ending all tribute payments by the US.


title: First Barbary War

text: The "Tripoli Monument", the oldest military monument in the United States, honors the American heroes of the First Barbary War: Master Commandant Richard Somers, Lieutenant James Caldwell, James Decatur (brother of Stephen Decatur), Henry Wadsworth, Joseph Israel and John Dorsey. Originally known as the "Naval Monument", it was carved of Carrara marble in Italy in 1806 and brought to the United States on board ("Old Ironsides"). From its original location in the Washington Navy Yard, it was moved to the west terrace of the national Capitol and finally, in 1860, to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Clamp (stylized as CLAMP) is an all-female Japanese manga artist group, consisting of leader and writer Nanase Ohkawa (born in Osaka), and three artists whose roles shift for each series: Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi (all born in Kyoto).


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Clamp was first formed in the mid-1980s as an eleven-member group creating "dōjinshi" (self-published fan works), and began creating original manga in 1987. By the time the group made its mainstream publishing debut with "RG Veda" in 1989, it was reduced to seven members; three more members left in 1993, leaving the four current members of the group.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Notable works by Clamp include "X" (1992), "Magic Knight Rayearth" (1993), "Cardcaptor Sakura" (1996) and its sequel "" (2016), "Chobits" (2000), and "xxxHolic" and "" (both 2003). Various series by the group cross-reference each other, and characters reappear in multiple works by the group, with "Tsubasa", a series set across multiple dimensions, featuring multiple alternative versions of characters from past works. Clamp are noted as among the most critically and commercially acclaimed manga artists in Japan, and as of 2007, have sold nearly 100 million books worldwide.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: The name "Clamp" refers to a storage clamp, in the sense of "a bunch of potatoes". This is referenced in "", where a teacher is observed saying: "The name 'Clamp' incorporates the words 'hinge,' as well as 'potato mountain,' within its definition."


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Clamp originally began in the mid-1980s as an eleven-member dōjinshi circle. This included , , , , , , and . Three of Clamp's artists—Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi—first began drawing manga when they were teenagers, inspired by friends. The three artists were good friends in the same school. They met and befriended Nanase Ohkawa through one of her friends who had bought comics from Mokona. The original group of twelve members began to meet at every event held in Osaka and Kobe, which usually occurred once a month. Before they began creating original work, the group produced dōjinshi of "Captain Tsubasa", and yaoi dōjinshi of "Saint Seiya". However, in 1987 the group stopped dōjinshi and began creating original work; it was at this time they began working on "RG Veda", a loose adaptation of the "Rigveda". Their first collaborative work was entitled "Clamp", which they continued to work on until shortly after their debut.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: The group debuted as professional manga artists when they decided to print the manga "RG Veda", which they had first started as a fan comic. After seeing the comic digest of the manga series that Clamp had published, an editor for Shinshokan's "Wings" manga magazine asked the group to work for them. They submitted an approximately sixty-page story as a sample, but the work was rejected. Ohkawa later lambasted the draft, stating that "everything was bad" and attributing the quality to the group's lack of experience, since they had never before completed a story as a cohesive group. The group was given another chance at publication should they submit a new story that Shinshokan liked; this time, they submitted "RG Veda", which was serialized in "Wings" magazine.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: During the time before their official debut, the group moved to Tokyo and rented a small, two-bedroom apartment. Ohkawa stated that she thought she was "gonna die there". Nekoi stated that "the only private space [they] had was under [their] desk."


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: By the time "RG Veda" debuted, its members had gone down to seven. During the production of the manga "RG Veda", O-Kyon had left the group. In June 1990, Sei Nanao officially left the group (last mentioned in "Shōten 6"), , , and officially left in March 1993 (as mentioned in the Shōten 3). In October 1992, Tamayo Akiyama and Leeza Sei officially left the group.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: "RG Veda" was originally planned to be a single story rather than a series, although because of good reader response and higher-than-expected sales for its first volume Shinshokan permitted the group to create more volumes, however after each chapter of the manga was released, Shinshokan threatened that it would cease serialization should its popularity fall.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: "Genki Comics" began serializing "" in August 1991, which became the work that the three artists Mokona, Nekoi, and Igarashi enjoyed working on most. In March 1990, "Wings" began serializing "Tokyo Babylon". In December 1990, "Monthly Asuka" ran "Clamp School Detectives", and in May 1992, it began serializing "X".


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Clamp was serialized by many other magazines and publishers including Kobunsha publishing "" on June 10, 1992. In 1993, Clamp released two different manga: in March, "Miyuki-chan in Wonderland", which began serializing in "Newtype", and in November, "Magic Knight Rayearth" which was serialized in "Nakayoshi". "Nakayoshi" also began to serialize "Cardcaptor Sakura" in May 1996; Ohkawa, Clamp's leader and storyboarder, particularly enjoyed working on "Cardcaptor Sakura" because unlike many of her previous works, it wasn't tragic. Kadokawa Shoten published "The One I Love" on July 17, 1995. "Wish" first began serializing in "Asuka Comics DX" in October 1996. In December 1998, "" began first serializing in Asuka Comics DX, and in January 1999, "Angelic Layer" first began serializing in "Monthly Shōnen Ace".


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: In 2001, "Young Magazine" began serializing Clamp's "Chobits" which completed its run in 2002. Although their previous works are targeted at a female audience, "Chobits" marked the first time Clamp wrote for an older teen male audience. Clamp began writing the two works that tell separate parts of the same overarching plot, "xxxHolic" serialized in "Young Magazine" beginning in 2003 followed by "" serialized in the "Weekly Shōnen Magazine" beginning in the same year. "Tsubasa" marked the first time Clamp had ever tried writing for a younger male audience, although their first work published in the Shōnen demography was "Angelic Layer".


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: In 2004, Clamp's 15th anniversary as a manga artist group, the members changed their names from Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona Apapa, Mick Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi to Ageha Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi (her name is pronounced the same, but written with different characters) respectively. To celebrate Clamp's 15th anniversary, Tokyopop released a twelve-part magazine series entitled "Clamp no Kiseki" that contained a plethora of information for fans. The August 2004 issue of "Newtype USA", a magazine specializing in events of the anime and manga subcultures, reported that the members of Clamp simply wanted to try out new names. In a later interview with Ohkawa, it was revealed that initially Mokona wanted to drop her surname because it sounded too immature for her liking, while Nekoi disliked people mistakenly commenting on her as a Rolling Stones member. Ohkawa and Igarashi, wanting to go with the flow of Nekoi's and Mokona's name changes, changed their names as well.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: In 2006, Clamp provided the character designs for "Code Geass". This came into fruition after producer Yoshitaka Kawaguchi called them. This also marked Clamp's first time being requested to provide a character design for an anime series.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Ohkawa made her first appearance overseas at the Taipei International Book Exhibition sponsored by Production I.G that same year. During an interview there, she announced that Clamp would be making its first United States public debut at "Anime Expo" in July in Anaheim, California co-sponsored by Anime Expo, Del Rey Manga, Funimation and Tokyopop. They were well received at the convention as fans completely filled all 6,000 seats present in the auditorium of the focus panel in addition to more on the waiting list. By 2006, Clamp had reportedly sold in excess of 90 million copies of their manga internationally.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: While "" ended in October 2009, "xxxHolic" ended in early 2011. The authors were satisfied with the two manga ending commenting it was difficult to serialize the two interconnected manga at the same time due to "Tsubasa"s focus on action which required them to write side stories for "xxxHolic".


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Clamp collaborated in the "" spin off anime, "Blood-C", as they are responsible for designing the characters and providing the story. Ohkawa wrote the scripts with series supervisor, Junichi Fujisaku for both anime series and the sequel movie, "".


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: "Legal Drug" restarted serialization in the same year in Kadokawa Shoten's "Young Ace" under the new title of "Drug and Drop". A new "xxxHolic" manga titled "XXXHOLiC Rei" also started serialization in Kodansha's "Young Magazine" in March 2013.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Clamp also provided character design for Studio Deen's the anime adaptation of "Kabukibu!", which aired in April 2017.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: On October 19, 2020, the official Clamp fans website posted a link to a YouTube video due to start on October 25, 2020. These daily links are each accompanied by a graphic displaying the number of days to go until the announcement, and a single word. Each word relates to a chapter of "Tokyo Babylon" from the respectively numbered tankobon volume. This has caused speculation among Clamp's fans that a new "Tokyo Babylon" related work is due to be announced. On October 25, 2020, at 15:00 UTC (October 26, 2020 at midnight Japan Standard Time), a trailer was released for a new anime adaptation of "Tokyo Babylon". The new series, "Tokyo Babylon 2021", will be released and set the story in the year 2021. It was to be made by the studio GoHands. The series was to debut in April 2021, but was postponed due to the production team's plagiarism incident. On March 28, 2021, the production committee announced that the series's production was discontinued, and Clamp and the production committee will restart the anime series with a different studio.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: In January 2021, it was announced that a new series in the "Cardfight!! Vanguard" franchise will begin on April 3, 2021, and will feature character designs by Clamp. The new series will be called "Vanguard overDress".


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: In June 2021, it was announced that Clamp will collaborate with Netflix to produce an original anime series based on the "Grimms' Fairy Tales", with Wit Studio handling the animation.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: The members of Clamp all share a single workplace and as such do not need to arrange specific meetings. Nanase Ohkawa acts as the group's spokesperson, producer-director, and storyboarder. Mokona is the chief character designer, while Igarashi and Nekoi work for the background; however, the three often shuffle their roles. Sometimes, they may split the work of the characters and backgrounds or have one person draw all the art depending on the story. The three artists try to stay as "close as possible" to Ohkawa's original designs. Ohkawa advises the artists on what colors to use. Although Ohkawa chooses which projects they decide to decline or accept, Satsuki Igarashi decides on the actual time and order the group works on each project, creating the schedules for time allotted to each individual work. They do not have any assistants, stating that assistants would slow them down because they would not understand the "years worth of jargon" they created among themselves.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Once Ohkawa has conceived a story, the four members of the group gather "to discuss the purpose of the story and its main characters". After the group members become familiar with the story, Ohkawa drafts an outline for the story and determines the story's setting. The ending for each story is predetermined. Ohkawa designs many of the characters early in the story's development; frequently appearing guest characters are designed from the beginning whereas minor characters are designed early on. As Ohkawa drafts the outline, the other three members formulate character designs by creating character profile sheets so as to avoid confusion. After drawing a sample story and sketch for their editor and receiving approval, Ohkawa assigns the roles to each group member and then chooses the visual styles depending on factors such as the complexity of the story, the chosen art style, and its relationship to the group's other works. Ohkawa provides a rough draft for each chapter detailing things such as dialogue, panel size, props, movement, and character's emotions.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: On average for each chapter that they produce (for Clamp, an average of 20 pages of artwork in a magazine), storyboarding takes twelve hours, the script takes eight hours to write, and the artwork depends on the story. For example, a chapter of "xxxHolic" takes two days, whereas a chapter of "X" took four to five days.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: In general, Ohkawa gets her inspiration for the group from everyday events such as dreams or the news. Unlike most manga artists who specialize in a single genre, Clamp has created a diverse body of work. Clamp's genres vary widely, from childish and comedic ("Cardcaptor Sakura", "Chobits", "Clamp School Detectives") to more dramatic and teen-rated ("xxxHolic", "X") series. Furthermore, drawing from the idea of Osamu Tezuka's Star System as they did in "", Clamp often crossover characters from their own series into their other works, which gives rise to a loosely defined "Clamp Universe".


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Although most of their manga are female-oriented, Clamp has also attracted male readers in their early works through their handling of fight scenes in "X" and "Tokyo Babylon". "Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle" is a male-oriented manga but Clamp still added multiple motifs to attracts readers such as Syaoran's romantic journey. "xxxHolic" is an adult-oriented manga but it uses Kimihiro Watanuki as a protagonist that would attract a female demographic.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: The current members of Clamp took art-focused classes during their high school. However, Tsubaki Nekoi feels that, aside from basic art skills, drawing manga requires a different skill set; however, none of the group members has worked as an assistant for already established manga artists, and most of their ability is self-taught. Clamp's manga is distinguished by its diverse visual styles. Their work "Clover", for example, is remarkable for its heavy use of negative space.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Clamp's works span a wide variety of themes. As opposed to keeping consistent themes across their works or having individual themes for each work, Nanase Ohkawa stated "we come up with a new theme for each story. One thing to say each time." Their works often deal with the theme of human fate that relates to Ohkawa's view on life; Ohkawa believes that "fate is something you choose", not a "mystical force manipulating your destiny", and that with determination and resolve, "you can change your fate".


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Also common is the idea of soulmates, or couples tied together by fate. Syaoran and Sakura (featured in both "Cardcaptor Sakura" and "") are among Clamp's signature couples that best fits this representation. As also seen in "Magic Knight Rayearth", three girls are bound together by fate to save Cephiro. Fate is also the reason the three girls consider each other "sisters"; another idea that elaborates people being tied together (family cannot be chosen). Clamp also explores the idea of chaste or pure love (as in the manga "Chobits"). Clamp's disregard for sex or gender (or at times biological age) in these couples has led them to write same-sex couples into many of their manga in contrast to many other manga artists (for example, Tōya and Yukito in "Cardcaptor Sakura"). A number of such couples have been shown together across parallel dimensions in the Clamp multiverse. Although Clamp often writes romantic works, Ohkawa has mentioned that she feels that it is more putting one's life on the line than love that causes women to grow or change. Clamp never features love as a central theme; Ohkawa stated in an interview with Takeshi Oshiguchi in 1997 for "Animerica" that she is not "good at love stories" since her "idea of a relationship is different from that of a lot of other people".


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Perhaps drawing inspiration from Ohkawa's own poor right-eye vision, Clamp frequently features one-eyed characters or characters that lose their sight in one eye as means to express the feeling of loneliness (for example, Subaru and Seishirō in "Tokyo Babylon" and "X" and Fay in "Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle"). However, there is always something later on that comes to supplement the loss in vision.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Mystery has surrounded the members of Clamp as, in order to avoid being harassed by overzealous fans, they avoid making public appearances. In polls conducted by marketing research firm Oricon, Clamp was elected ninth most popular manga artist from Japan in 2007, while they were eighth in 2008, sharing the spot with Fujiko F. Fujio.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Gen Fukunaga, the president and CEO of Funimation, has praised Clamp as being "one of the most acclaimed groups of artists in Japan". According to Charles Solomon, a journalist for "The New York Times", Clamp "ranks among the most successful creators of manga ... in Japan and the United States". Dallas Middaugh, associate publisher of Del Rey Manga, stated that Clamp was an integral part of "manga explosion" that has been occurring in the United States over the past few years. He also praised the group's artwork and storytelling style as having "struck a strong chord with male and female manga readers". The group was placed third after the winner for the Shogakukan Manga Award in the Children's category in 1999. Their work "Cardcaptor Sakura" won the Seiun Award for best manga in 2001. Almost 100 million Clamp "tankōbon" copies have been sold worldwide as of October 2007. Various of their selling series include "xxxHolic" and "Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle" that have sold over eleven million and twenty million volumes, respectively.


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: When asked about the universal popularity of Clamp's works, John Oppliger of AnimeNation stated that although it is "not based on originality [or] their artistic skill", they possess a distinct style that "perfectly mesh[es] the conventional attributes of shōnen and shōjo manga". He also pointed out that Clamp often "recycles" characters from their own earlier works, which gave rise to "a loosely defined 'Clamp Universe' that gives much of their work a unifying tone", and creates "absorbing, complex narratives that appeal to both male and female readers". All these factors result in "a cult following devoted to anything and everything the group publishes". "" authors stated that "whatever Clamp are on, we'd like some".


title: Clamp (manga artists)

text: Helen McCarthy in "500 Essential Anime Movies" stated that Clamp's works "are among the most successful manga and anime with Western fans".


title: Salar de Uyuni

text: Salar de Uyuni (or "Salar de Tunupa") is the world's largest salt flat, or playa, at over in area. It is in the Daniel Campos Province in Potosí in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes at an elevation of above sea level.