Wish

Publisher
Tokyopop
Writer
CLAMP
Artist
CLAMP
Country of origin
Japan
Length
4 volumes
Year
1995

Wish volume 3

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
25th Mar 05

This review will contain spoilers for past volumes of Wish, you have been warned.

Wish volume three is actually the penultimate volume in the series. A fact that came as quite a shock to me, as I was hoping for a lot more from the title as the first two volumes left me feeling dissatisfied. The third volume brings a lot more to the story, but is it too little too late?

Shuichiro and Kohaku have become a lot closer during the past few months. Kohaku is too nervous to tell Shuichiro how she feels as she believes that he is still in love with Hotaru and there is very little indication of how Shuichiro feels for anyone never mind Kohaku. A visit to a theme park is disrupted by Koryu, and then is told to return to heaven as she has failed to find madam Hisui (Kohaku never told God she found Hisui as she would have to tell him about Hisui’s involvement with Kokuyo, and she now lives with Kokuyo in Shuichiro’s house). Kohaku returns to heaven and Koryu returns to hell, only to find that both sides are getting edgy about their missing important people. Shuichiro’s grandfather, Shinichiro, returns shocked that Kohaku has left. It seems both sides are getting ready to admit to the other about the AWOL angel/devil, and when they do the sides will figure out what has happened and a war may break out.

This story picks up as we are introduced to a number of other angels. Each of these has fairly different personalities but they only appear rather briefly. The change in the storyline isn’t new; it’s been used before in other works, and even in some of Clamp’s past work. However it is a welcome change as it gives the feel that Wish is going to be more than just a romance story (although with only one volume left it’s highly unlikely). Again the artwork is lovely top stuff from Clamp but I still find the mixture of styles in the same frame very distracting.

The volume contains five chapters that continue the story we’ve had so far, however there’s also two chapters that act as a bit of a prologue to the story, one featuring on Koryu and the other on Kokuyo and Hisui. Both of these chapters give a bit more insight into the characters personalities, and tells how Kokuyo and Hisui became lovers.

The third volume of CLAMP’s Wish is an enjoyable read but is by no means their best work.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 25th Mar 05