Wish (manga)
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Wish is a shojo manga series created by CLAMP. It is published in English by TOKYOPOP, and it retains its right to left format. The American translation is imported to Australia by Madman Entertainment. Despite technicalities (see below) it is usually cited as a shounen-ai story.
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Manga (Books)
| Name | Publisher | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| Wish Volume 1 (English) | Tokyopop (http://www.tokyopop.com) | ISBN 1591820340 |
| Wish Volume 1 (Japanese) | 講談社 (Kōdansha) (http://www.kodansha.co.jp) | ISBN 4048527711 |
| Wish Volume 2 (English) | Tokyopop (http://www.tokyopop.com) | ISBN 159182060X |
| Wish Volume 2 (Japanese) | 講談社 (Kōdansha) (http://www.kodansha.co.jp) | ISBN 4048527711 |
| Wish Volume 3 (English) | Tokyopop (http://www.tokyopop.com) | ISBN 1591820618 |
| Wish Volume 3 (Japanese) | 講談社 (Kōdansha) (http://www.kodansha.co.jp) | ISBN 4048528599 |
| Wish Volume 4 (English) | Tokyopop (http://www.tokyopop.com) | ISBN 1591820804 |
| Wish Volume 4 (Japanese) | 講談社 (Kōdansha) (http://www.kodansha.co.jp) | ISBN 404852948X |
| Wish Memorial Illustration
Collection (Japanese) | 講談社 (Kōdansha) (http://www.kodansha.co.jp) | ISBN 404853386X |
Story
The story centres around the lives of Kohaku, an angel, and Shuichiro Kudo, a mortal doctor. One day while walking home from work, Shuichiro notices Kohaku stuck on a tree and being attacked by a crow. He gets rid of the crow and pulls Kohaku free of the tree.
In return, Kohaku offers to grant Shuichiro a wish. However, Shuichiro is pretty happy with things as they are (he has a decent home, money, looks and job), so he doesn't want anything. However, Kohaku is honour-bound to grant the wish, so she stays with him.
The story then charts on how their relationship develops with the help or hindrance of other angelic/demonic/mortal characters subsequently met.
The story runs for four volumes, and by the end Shuichiro wishes for Kohaku to be with him. However, he dies shortly after making this wish (the cause is unknown) so Kohaku goes into a deep sleep for 100 years to wait for his reincarnation, and she and the new Shuichiro live happily ever after.
Characters
Although most resemble sterotypical bishounen, the angels in Wish are asexual, being neither male nor female. However, in the English trasnlation, they are assigned male or female genders, to avoid calling them "it". In the original Japanese, the demons refer to themselves using gender-specific personal pronouns and physically resemble one sex or the other.
Kohaku
Kohaku is a trainee angel. Being only a trainee, she can only maintain a full-size form during daylight - at night she shrinks and is only about a foot tall, looking rather like a chibi character.
Kohaku can't eat or drink anything except for milk, because as an angel, she is not allowed to consume anything that came directly from something living. (i.e. meat, vegetables, bread.)
She is also quite accident prone, both because she got trapped in the tree Shuichiro saved her from and because she usually gets her subsequent attempts to repay Shuichiro wrong in some way.
As stated above, Shuichiro's kindness in saving her requires that she grant him a wish, but he isn't interested, so she must stay with him until he makes a wish.
Later on in the story God requires that Kohaku come back to heaven despite her continuing debt to Shuichiro, as Kohaku has the job of singing to the tree of life which new angels come from, so that the new angels hatch.
However, so strong is her affection for him by then that she goes back to Earth without God's permission. For this, he appears to punish her by stripping away her powers for 100 years.
This is not a punishment, however, as Shuichiro dies shortly afterwards, and her loss of powers means she can sleep for the 100 years it will take for Shuichiro to be reborn.
At the end of these 100 years she reawakens and live happily ever after with the new Shuichiro.
Shuichiro Kudo I
The first Shuichiro Kudo is the one who rescues Kohaku from the tree where she is trapped. For this he is granted a wish, but isn't interested as he has everything he wants.
This Shuichiro is a doctor/surgeon and is generally kind and trusting, but isn't one to seek other people's company - something that is remedied throughout the course of the story by the two angels, two demons and two assistant demons who all move into his house.
However, when Kohaku is called back to Heaven he realises how much he is in love with her, and when she comes back he makes his wish - for her to be with him.
Shortly afterward, however, he dies unexpectedly (cause unknown).
Shuichiro Kudo II
The other Shuichiro Kudo is born 100 years after the last one was, and has the same soul as the previous one.
This Shuichiro is a student at the time he appears in the story, and comes across the house where his previous self lived. Kohaku then appears, offers to grant him a wish in place of the one she couldn't fulfil for his past self, and asks to be with him.
Despite having no memory of his old self and hence no memory of Kohaku, he quickly gets back into the swing of things and asks to be with Kohaku. And so they live happily ever after.
Hisui
Hisui is an angel master - one of the four angels who each control one of the four elements - earth, air, fire and water. Hisui is the wind angel master.
Hisui is the reason Kohaku came to Earth the first time, as she disappeared during a meeting at the bridge between Heaven and Hell. Kohaku asked for permission to look for her.
She eventually reveals herself to Kohaku, and also reveals that she has made love with Kokuyo and states that she and Kokuyo cannot return to heaven or hell because of it.
Shuichiro offers to let Hisui and Kokuyo stay in his house, and this is where they stay for the next 100 years after pledging to look after the sleeping Kohaku.
Koryu
Koryu is the demon equivalent of Kohaku - he can only maintain a full-size form at night, and at daytime is only about a foot tall.
Koryu's attitude toward Kohaku is a bit of a mystery, as he/she (it is not clear which) in turns helps and hinders Kohaku.
Kokuyo
Kokuyo is one of the sons of Satan, and falls in love with Hisui.
As stated in Hisui's entry, he and Hisui start living at Shuichiro's house, and watch over Kohaku when she sleeps.
Kokuyo is also aware of the first Shuichiro's impending death, but God keeps stopping him from telling anyone else so as to make sure things go as they should.
Ruri and Hari
Ruri and Hari are identical twin cat-demon underlings of Koryu. They can transform into ordinary housecats to hide from the world, and will do anything he asks of them.fr:Wish