Wish

    (Tokyopop, 2002-2003)
™ and © Tokyopop

Clamp has come up with an original twist on the magical-girl-lives-with-a-loser-human romantic comedy. Angel Kohaku, while trapped in her big-headed angel doll form (don’t ask), gets caught in a tree and is rescued by Shuichiro, who, oddly enough, isn’t the hapless, horny student this sort of thing usually happens too. No, he’s a mature, taciturn bachelor who flatly rejects her existence and, when pressed to accept a wish as a reward, says he can make his own dreams come true, thank you very much.

Which is where the humor and romance should start, but nothing much comes from the genre role-reversal setup (she’s the clumsy, sexless one, he’s the patient maternal one). So, of course, still more magical beings arrive to shake things up, including an angel-devil match whose relationship mirrors a subplot from Preacher (it’s a little disconcerting to hear an angel say sex is better than heaven) — but they fail to interest, as well. Which just goes to show you: Original doesn’t always mean “good.”

— S.A. Bennett
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