Never have creatures fascinated me more than angels have and CLAMP had definitely made these beings more interesting with Wish. Its basic premise, that of the angel Kohaku wanting to grant a very successful Shuichiro one wish, sort of reminds me of Ah! Megami-sama. Except I find Wish more adorable despite the equal amounts of saccharine in both titles. Kohaku helps out in the house and basically does everything to make life easier for Shuichiro, not that the latter needed it since he was perfectly fine to begin with. Shuichiro and Kohaku are at two opposite ends of a pole. Shuichiro is calm, complacent, and very distinguished. Kohaku, on the other hand, is completely naïve and almost always helpless. Then again, he turns into SD mode by day, which gets him into trouble nearly every time.

Of course, life isn’t always rosy for our lovely duo. To maintain balance in the universe, angels, are of course, at odds with demons. And one particular demon, Kouryuu, in fact, seems to have made it his lifelong mission to torture Kohaku. The series has its ups and downs, and while most of it is light-hearted fun, there’s a sob story near the end. What makes Wish quite interesting are their mix of characters from the worlds of Angels and Demons alike; plus a few felines and humans on the sidelines. What really piqued my curiosity are these two star-crossed lovers who happen to be from opposing factions. Furthermore, the fact that angels and demons oddly turn Shuichiro’s home into their personal refuge (for various supernatural reasons) just tickles me pink. The key word here is “bizarre”. Expect typical CLAMP humor.

At the end of the actual plot, the reader is also introduced to the supporting characters’ side stories. If there are certain characters that you had found appealing, then you just might enjoy this part.

Take note that being angels, Kohaku made it clear that he (She? It?) is neither male nor female. Though that doesn’t remove the shonen-ai atmosphere throughout the volumes, I suppose it gave my male friends a bit of comfort. After all, I borrowed this from a perfectly straight guy friend and he told me that he liked it despite the yaoi factors and despite hating CLAMP in general.

The artwork is CLAMP, although the lines are cleaner and softer. I think this style is more appropriate for the fluffy piece, so you don’t get distracted from all that cuteness and the grand search for true love.

Individual Rating: Art 9; Story 9; Characters 9

This entry was posted on Monday, August 1st, 2005 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Wish, Manga. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.