2005 was the year I began dipping my entire being into the anime and manga scene. I had discovered a whole world of stories and fantasies that were completely different from the Western cartoons I was watching growing up. I was amazed at how bold anime and manga could be and devoured whatever I could watch or read. Among them Wish was one of the manga that stuck with me the most. I remember blindbuying one of the volumes at a little convention called AnimeNEXT and the final volume at MangaNEXT. I own all four volumes and have had them for sixteen years with no intention of getting rid of them any time soon. Even now reading it still tugs at my heart and the themes resonate with me unlike any other. I was only just starting to get into reading manga at the time so I didnt own many back then. Over the years though I wondered if Wish could still hold up. After I reread it my answer is yes it still holds up wonderfully. The story is very basic. Shuichiro Kudo a 28yearold doctor and bachelor is perfectly happy with his life though he doesnt look it. Hes satisfied with his job content with living alone and has no need for unnecessary drama. One day he finds a tiny angel stuck in a tree and saves her from being attacked by a crow. The angel Kohaku is grateful to him and wants to grant him a wish. But Shuichiro says he doesnt need any wishes to be granted even though Kohaku begs to try and grant him a wish to express her gratitude. But the more Kohaku stays with him the more Shuichiro winds up getting entangled in Heaven and Hells affairs. Two angels two devils and two servant devils wind up living with him under mysterious circumstances and Shuichiro and Kohaku learn that there are some wishes that cannot be fulfilled alone. Clamp has been very famous for their beautiful artwork especially when they first started out. After reading a lot of their manga I can say that Wishs artwork is quite beautiful even by 90s standards. I mean whats there to say about Clamp that hasnt been said already? Everything is filled to the brim with elegance and dignity from the way the angels and devils are designed to the work that was put into the world the characters live in. The backgrounds are highly detailed enough to make the world feel lived in with good usage of shading and shadows when needed and since the characters are adults theyre all deliberately designed to look like adults. Angels are drawn with lots of frills the devils are drawn with sharp angles and darker color palettes and so on. There is one thing that might make people raise their eyebrows though: In volume 2 theres a chapter where Kohaku sings but the song isnt given any lyrics and CLAMP makes use of a lot of imagery to convey its beauty like Kohakus wings spheres of light and birds commenting on how great the song is. Drawing characters singing and not having audio and music to back it up may come across as awkward for some. It does help that all the characters are pretty likeable with a wide variety of personalities that are different from those seen in modern anime/manga nowadays. Shuichiro is stoic and mature behaving like any adult would his grandfather becomes a prominent character Koryu starts off as a little shit but gets better as the series goes on etc. The cast has both idiots and smart people brash people and calm people and all of them bounce off of each other wonderfully. The manga is fairly short only clocking in at four volumes but that wound up being the perfect length to flesh the main cast out. Its a breeze to pick up and read through and it has enough content to both flesh out the story and find time to let the characters breathe and develop letting the audience get to know them better. That being said the manga does have some side characters that are rather onedimensional rely heavily on their gimmick or dont get utilized much. For example theres a side story about a cat with a split personality that doesnt really go anywhere. But the main cast and their eclectic fun personalities more than make up for this. So yeah while Wish isnt necessarily one of CLAMPs best manga nor its most popular it does have a lot of sentimental value to me. More so than the more obvious one people tend to think of CardCaptor Sakura. Sometimes I often wonder how my descent into anime fandom would have turned out had I not read Wish or whether I would even go deeper into anime/manga at all. I remember being very disappointed that it never got a full anime adaptation just an animestyle music video. Kohaku does appear in the anime Kobato but its been a long time since Ive seen that And I need to rectify that as I like Kobato as well. If youre looking for a manga thats short sweet but no less poignant and meaningful feel free to give Wish a try. It was one of several gateway manga for me. Maybe it can be one of yours.