Wish

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

Wish Volume 1

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
29th Oct 04

Wish created by Clamp the people behind X/1999 and Chobits is a new romantic story involving angels and demons somewhat a cross between the two previously mentioned titles.

It starts simply with Shuichiro Kudo a human surgeon who lives unsurprisingly on Earth. Walking home from the hospital late one night Shuichiro encounters a strange chibi girl in a tree being attacked by a crow. He rescues the strange girl and she tells him that she is in fact an angel named Kohaku, and that she is bound to grant Shuichiro a wish for helping her. Shuichiro believes he is dreaming and says that he has no wish as he is quite happy with his life. Kohaku says she will ask again in the morning. The following morning Kohaku changes from her chibi form into a beautiful woman and ask again; however Shuichiro still says he has no need for a wish. Kohaku asks if she may stay with Shuichiro until he has a wish as she also would need somewhere to stay to carry out her mission on Earth.

The artwork in Wish is odd, while when in normal human for and humans appear just as nicely as they do in all CLAMP’s work, Kohaku and Kory (a devil) appear as chibi versions, which are strangely cute but sickly, during the night (or in Kory’s case during the day) and as a normal human bar some wings which can be hidden in the opposite time slot. When they transform or cast spells the art takes a very detailed change as opposed to normal. However these changes in art are somewhat distracting as is the use of the chibi characters, animals such as birds and cats and normal characters.

Story wise this volume contains six parts to the main story and a bonus section containing the CLAMP girls discussing the creation of “Wish”. The six parts introduces us to what appear to be characters that will play important roles in the series. It also sets up a potential plotline which will run along the main romantic storyline, by the end something that leaves you wanting to check if this will happen. There isn’t as much humour in this as there is in Chobits for example however unlike Chobits which is just a romantic story Wish seems to be concern in haven and hell.

For a starting volume Whish shows promise for later volumes however it leaves you feeling somewhat unsatisfied.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 29th Oct 04