Like a whirlwind sweeping across the desert, disaster will come from a terrifying land. I have seen a vision of cruel events, a vision of betrayal and destruction. - Isaiah, 21:1-2

Tokyo Babylon owes its name to the biblical story of Babylon, the ancient capital of Mesopotamia that suffered the wrath of God. Chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis tells of the city's history: In the beginning, all the people on Earth only had one language. As they wandered about in the East, they came to a plain in Babylonia and decided to build a city there. God saw them at work and decided to mix up their language and scattered them all over the earth. As time goes by, Babylon prospered and became a cultural and economic hub. But the Babylonians were haughty and constructed a tower called Babel in an attempt to reach the heavens. God, the absolute being, could not tolerate the act and decided to punish them by destroying their language and bringing the city to ruin. The punishment, destruction and a vision of the fall of Babylon are all chronicled in the Book of Isaiah of the Old Testament.

CLAMP must have felt a striking parallel between Babylon and Tokyo. The sordidness and reckless indulgence of the Babylonians clearly resonates with the depravity of modern Japan. During the 80s, Japan experienced a postwar boomed and prospered into a modern and advanced society. Landmarks such as the Tokyo Tower were built as a symbol of its ascendancy into the ranks of economic powerhouses. People enjoyed a high standard of living, which has been upheld to this day. As Japan became increasing modernized, moral standards sunk. More and more people lived a self-centered and decadent life. The villains and bizarre events encountered by Subaru in the story are just an example of how greed and vanity can lurk beneath a surface of social harmony.

Today, Tokyo is the economic hub of the East as Babylon was more than a thousand years ago, and CLAMP is envisioning its corruption and downfall, just as the fall of Babylon was foretold in the Book of Isaiah. Even Tokyo Tower seems like a modern equivalent of the heaven-kissing Babel, a tower that's symbolic of the rise and rise of man. But Tokyo may have a better fate, because there are people like Subaru Sumeragi who live to save the city from itself...

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