Wish (manga)
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| Wish | |
 Volume 1 of Wish, as released by Tokyopop. |
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| ウィッシュ (Wisshu) |
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| Genre | Fantasy |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Clamp |
| Published by | Kadokawa Shoten |
| English publisher |   Madman Entertainment  Tokyopop |
| Demographic | Shōjo |
| Magazine | Asuka Comics DX |
| Original run | June 1, 1996 – August 1, 1998 |
| Volumes | 4 |
Wish (ウィッシュ Wisshu) is a Japanese shōjo manga series created by Clamp. It is published in English by Tokyopop. The American translation was imported to Australia by Madman Entertainment.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
While walking home from work one day, a doctor named Shuichiro notices an angel, Kohaku, stuck on a tree while being attacked by a crow. He rescues Kohaku and, in return, Kohaku offers to grant him a wish. However, Shuichiro does not WANT one. His life is OK, his work is going well, he has no money problems and he believes in fulfilling his own dreams! What can an angel do? Kohaku decides that the best thing to do is hang around and help him till he DOES think of a wish she can grant.
During her stay, the angel Hisui, and two demons, Koryuu and Kokuyo, also begin living in the house, along with the Koryuu's servants Ruri and Hari. Kokuyo is the son of Satan and is in love with Hisui, who is one of the four Angel Masters controlling the four elements: earth, wind, fire, and water; with wind being her element. Kokuyo admits that he made love to Hisui and that is how they ended up together. This relationship, however, is forbidden in both Heaven and Hell, so the two sought refuge on Earth. Kohaku originally came to Earth to find Hisui, who had been a mentor and parental figure to her.
Despite his new housemates, Shuichiro remains as stoic as ever. Although he persists in not making a wish, without realizing it, he grows attached to Kohaku.
Eventually Kohaku is forced back to heaven against her will by God, because she has the important task of hatching the eggs from the Tree of Life by singing to them. However, Kohaku deeply misses Shuichiro and realizes she had developed feelings for him. Likewise, Shuichiro misses her and continues to hold on to one of her earrings to try to prevent her from staying in heaven. Unable to bear the separation, Kohaku returns without God's permission, and the couple is happily reunited. Their reunion is short-lived as the three remaining Angel Masters come to Earth to punish both Kohaku, and Hisui for being in love with a demon. Hisui is stripped of her Angel Master status and is banished from heaven, to her and Kokuyo's delight. Kohaku, in turn, is stripped of her powers and forced to remain in a small form for the next one-hundred years. She is devastated that she could not grant Shuichiro's wish, but as Shuichiro's wish was for Kohaku to stay with him forever, it was one he could not have fulfilled himself.
Shortly afterward, Shuichiro suddenly dies while on a walk with Kohaku. Kohaku is put into a hundred years sleep, so that Shuichiro will have been reincarnated by the time Kohaku awakens. Kokuyo and Hisui are sentenced to look after her sleeping form. One hundred years later, the reincarnation of Shuichiro, now 17, passes by his old house which awakens Kohaku. He has no memory of her, so their relationship starts anew.
Can some wishes be fulfilled alone or do you sometimes need help? If you didn't need help...why bother to fall in love?
[edit] Characters
The authors and the translators state both in the text and in the sidebars that there is no gender in either Heaven or Hell. They have adopted the convention of referring to angels by feminine pronouns and demons by masculine pronouns.
- Shuichiro Kudo (栩堂 琇一郎 Kudō Shūichirō) – The doctor who saves the angel Kohaku from a crow in the beginning of the story. He is sceptical of the fact Kohaku is indeed an angel (believing her at first to be a small child or even a talking doll), and is a bit slow to warm up to the truth, but she soon makes enough of an impact on his life for him to truly miss her when she is forced to return to Heaven. He is a very no-nonsense sort of man who seems stoic and unfriendly, and he insists he has no wishes for Kohaku to grant for him. However, this doctor hides quite a few secrets of his own.
- Kohaku (琥珀) – An angel from Heaven and the main protagonist of the tale. She has been sent to Earth to find her missing teacher; Hisui, the Angel Master of the Wind. However, since she is only an angel in training, she loses the majority of her powers on Earth when the sun sets, which turns her into a chibi form of herself. It is in this vulnerable state that she falls under attack by a crow, and meets Shuichiro, with whom she is almost immediately taken. Though he insists he wants for nothing in his quiet life, she is bound by duty to pay off her debt to him. When Shinichiro Kudo comes to visit his grandson he addresses Kohaku as a woman. Kohaku corrects him, and also tells him that she isn't a man either. The topic is left at that.
- Koryu (紅榴) – A demon of Hell, he can be considered Kohaku's demon equivalent; he too is only in training, and while on Earth he is forced to turn into a chibi version of himself during the daytime. He loves to cause trouble for the little angel, and toward the end of the series it is implied that he merely teases her because he has a crush on her. He is the one who sent the crow to attack Kohaku in the beginning of the story.
- Hari (破璃) and Ruri (瑠璃) – Twin cat girls only distinguishable from each other by their jewellery. They are servants of Koryu, and both of them adore him to the point of bickering with each other on occasion. They change to black cats when their master is in his smaller form.
- Hisui (翡翠) – The Angel Master of Wind, and Kohaku's mentor, who disappeared after a meeting at the bridge between Heaven and Hell. When she finally reveals herself to Kohaku, she reveals that she and Kokuyo, a Prince of Hell, had fallen in love and consummated their relationship, making it impossible for either of them to return to Heaven or Hell as a result.
- Kokuyo (黒燿) – One of the princes of Hell, who fell in love with Hisui, and now lives in exile on Earth with her. Out of consideration for Hisui he restrains his dietary cravings. Kokuyo is aware of Shuichiro's impending death, but God stops him from telling anyone else so as to make sure things go as they should.
- Touki (透輝 Tōki) – The Master Angel of Water in Heaven. Touki has a reputation for being cold-hearted, mostly because of the hardened look that's always on her face. She first appears to see why Usagi hasn't returned to Heaven and ends up bringing Kohaku back with her. She is very fond of Kohaku and protective of her in her own silent way. She has a very discreet relationship with Ransho and though she is very shy with her feelings for him, she does genuinely care about him.
- Ranshou (藍晶 Ranshō) – The Master Angel of Earth in Heaven. He comes off as one of the most easy-going Angels in all of Heaven despite his status. He loves to tease Kohaku and he's open with his affection for Touki. Like Touki, he's very discreet about their relationship but he can admit he loves her. But his loyalty to God is unwavering and he's not hesitant in delivering punishments handed out (as with the cases of Hisui and Kohaku).
- Ryuuki (榴輝 Ryūki) – The Master Angel of Fire in Heaven. He has got a very hotheaded personality and is quick to act before thinking. He is madly in love with Hisui and is convinced she was kidnapped out of Heaven, often ranting about Hisui in the presence of the other Angel Masters, such that Ranshou often leaves Touki to deal with it. When he finds out Hisui left of her own volition and is deeply in love with Kokuyo, he's very hurt by it, but he wants Hisui to be happy and lets her go, though he vows to hate Kokuyo forever.
- Usagi (うしゃぎさん Ushagi-san) – Usagi is a small white rabbit with wings that relays messages from God. The messages it delivers look like flowers, that dissolve and automatically implant themselves in the receiver's mind. Usagi relays messages from Kohaku to God and back throughout the series. The messenger also appears in the same capacity in Kobato.
- Shinichiro Kudo (Kudō Shinichiro) – Shuichiro Kudo's grandfather. He lives in Canada. He comes to visit Shuichiro. While visiting he tells Kohaku about some of Shuichiro's background.
- Hotaru Kudo (Kudō Hotaru) – Shuichiro Kudo's mother, seen in a time travel to the past segment. She is blind and paraplegic. All the same she notices Kohaku and Koryu spying on the past. She is actually a wisteria tree fairy. She can see enough of the future to know that Shuichiro's father will soon die. She says goodbye to Shuichiro and wishes him a good future, then reverts back to her true form as a wisteria tree. It seems doubtful that Shuichiro or Shinichiro know that Hotaru was really a wisteria tree fairy. To them Hotaru disappeared.
[edit] Media
[edit] Manga
All four volumes feature Kohaku as the cover character. Chapters are called contacts.
[edit] Volume list
| No. | Japanese | English | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Release date | ISBN | Release date | ISBN | ||
| 1 | June 1, 1996[1] | ISBN 4-04-852771-1 | August 27, 2002[2] | ISBN 978-1-59182-034-5 | |
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| 2 | January 8, 1997[1] | ISBN 4-04-852771-1 | October 15, 2002[2] | ISBN 978-1-59182-060-4 | |
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| 3 | September 1, 1997[1] | ISBN 4-04-852859-9 | December 10, 2002[2] | ISBN 978-1-59182-061-1 | |
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| 4 | August 1, 1998[1] | ISBN 4-04-852948-X | February 11, 2003[2] | ISBN 978-1-59182-080-2 | |
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[edit] Drama CD
Voice cast for the drama CD:
- Kohaku: Hiroko Konishi
- Shūichirō Kudō : Kazuya Ichijō
- Kōryū: Yuka Imai
- Hisui: Kikuko Inoue
- Kokuyō: Jūrōta Kosugi
- Ruri: Ikue Ōtani
- Hari: Chinami Nishimura
[edit] Appearances
Kohaku has made appearances in CLAMP in Wonderland 2 and also in the manga and anime of Kobato.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d "CLAMP公式ウェブサイト" (in Japanese). Clamp. http://www.clamp-net.com/manga/wish. Retrieved August 20, 2009.
- ^ a b c d "Manga+Comics: Book Catalog". Tokyopop. http://www.tokyopop.com/manga/book_catalog/browse?sort=title&alphabet=W&hide_adult=Y&p=3. Retrieved August 18, 2009.
[edit] External links
- Wish (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
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