If you could have any wish granted, what would it be and how hard would you work for it?
Creative Staff
Story/Art: CLAMP
Translation/Adaptation: William Flanagan
What They Say
Meet Kobato Hanato, a sweet and rather simple young girl on a quest to have her single, dearest wish granted. But first, she must learn the ways of the world from Ioryogi-san, a gruff blue dog whose bark is just as bad as his bite! Under his “tutelage” (read: constant verbal abuse), Kobato puts her efforts into passing various trials of common sense so that she may obtain the key to getting her wish – a magic bottle which must be filled with the suffering of wounded hearts that Kobato herself has healed. But with Kobato’s common sense sorely lacking, she keeps flunking Ioryogi-san’s trials left and right! It looks like the road that lies ahead of Kobato will be a long one indeed!
Technical
The first volume of Kobato is released in the standard manga size format and uses a bright pastel colored cover to attract the eye. The cover features an image of the titular character Kobato wearing a bright and frilly dress and a dazzling smile as she is posed against a picturesque blue sky with white clouds. Also present on the cover in the bottom right as he is peering out of her hand basket is the other main character of the series, the small blue plush dog looking Ioryogi who contrasts Kobato’s cheerful mood with his eyes a fiery red and his mouth open displaying his sharp teeth. The left side of the cover has a wavy pink boarder with the title written in hot pink just under half way down the cover with a branch and bird sitting on it sprouting off the title and the line “Presented by CLAMP” in black below that. The spine uses a pink color with the title and bird in yellow, a crop of Kobato from the cover in a rectangle and the volume number and author team in black below that. The back cover is primarily white with a pink boarder that includes little leaves on the right as the copy is written in pink at the top. Almost a third of the space on the back is dedicated to white space and an image of Ioryogi standing with left arm held out as if pointing at the reader and he is wearing a small silver crown on his head.
The book contains four glossy pages though only the two interior pages are in color which is used for a wonderful image of Kobato wearing a Christmas themed outfit. The page quality for the rest of the book is of acceptable quality though it is a little on the rough side and contains more flecks of stuff in the paper than paper used by some other companies. Comparing the art from some pages to that on the glossy ones it really doesn’t suffer very much from this choice of paper though light doesn’t reflect as well off the page making the pages look a bit darker looking when reading than it probably should. The text itself is well translated as it flows smoothly and the Japanese effects are left alone with the effect translated into English beneath them and honorifics are also present. Signs are translated in the margins near where they appear which may be a bit on the small side for some readers but it isn’t horribly small contract print sized. The volume also includes two pages of translator notes at the end of the book though the text used for this is also considerable smaller than the text displayed in the book’s main material.
The art itself is a wonderful example of CLAMP doing what perhaps they do better than almost everyone else-drawing cute girls wearing frilly outfits and carrying cute mascots going about their day to day interactions. Kobato uses a good deal more of the SD style humor than some of CLAMP’s more recent titles but it carries this presentation in a way that really emphasizes the nature of the characters, particularly the main two. Those familiar with CLAMP’s other works will recognize a number of faces that pop up during the story as well as the frequent use of either a blank or shaded background that helps draw attention to the characters though when it appears surrounding elements are also wonderfully drawn with care and attention to detail paid. Also of note is that each story is only around 14 pages long so they fly by fast and the book in its entirety is a bit small with fewer pages than a good number of other manga series on the market.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Kobato Hanato is a young woman with a deep wish who has a lot of heart and is very dedicated to working toward getting her wish fulfilled. Sadly the old idea of one person only getting so many talents holds up in her case as for all her positives she strikes out hard in both the common sense department as well as when it comes to actually thinking through the consequences of her actions. To balance her out whoever dispatched her on her mission also assigns her someone to try to help guide her in her progress. Instead of getting the kind and wise sage like Jiminy Cricket guide she gets Ioryogi-a small blue dog looking advisor who has a short fuse on his fiery temper-which is less a metaphor in his case since he actually can spew flames when enraged.
Somehow this strange pair will have to work together to help Kobato go about her mission of healing people’s wounded hearts which will fill up a bottle she must first earn, and once it is filled her wish will be fulfilled. Kobato really, really tries to be helpful- it’s just that her lack of common sense really gets in the way. Whether it is thinking that giving trash to some mean crows will reduce the impact of the garbage on the environment, putting all her favorite foods in a cooking pot to make a better meal or going up to people and asking if she can heal their hearts in her earnest way her endeavors lead to more misunderstandings than successes. It also leads to more verbal and fiery abuse from the small advisor trying to lead her on the right path.
Eventually after no small amount of trial-along with a large amount of error- Kobato earns her bottle and will start her task of healing hearts. Of course the challenge begins there as how exactly does one go about completing such a task? As she goes about her attempts she will almost cross paths a number of times with a young man named Fujimoto who spends a good deal of his time doing odd jobs to help out a woman named Sayaka who runs a kindergarten and has a lot of troubles. Kobato decides she will work at the school after encountering Sayaka and runs into Fujimoto again, though a previous encounter has given him a very wrong opinion of her. Now with employment procured, her bottle in hand and having recently found a roof to go over her head Kobato will set out to get her wish granted with all her might. A look at her record suggests she is going to need more than a little help along the way however.
Kobato is a return to the sweeter side of CLAMP’s writing style as they have this rather sheltered and kind of clueless, perhaps bordering on stupid, young woman go about the task of helping others so she can have her fondest wish granted. To this end the creative team is able to engage in many of the gags and humorous takes than their previous two titles didn’t lend themselves as well to while also giving CLAMP the ability to run wild with having familiar faces pop out of the crowd as they are wont to do in their writing. The title also provides a bit of mystery as to what Kobato’s wish is, just how she will get it granted and by whom as well as why she can’t take her hat off. To go along with Kobato’s rather unique mannerisms CLAMP partners her up with a hot tempered little guardian who is quick with biting insults but who really wants to help this girl out. A hint that Ioryogi has his own past is laid out as he encounter an old rival though neither one of them is in the form the other one knew them from in the past. There is a good deal of set up in this first volume and the sweetness is an absolute draw for me. I love this earnest little character despite her flaws and eagerly look forward to seeing more of the themes of this story fleshed out.
In Summary
There is just so much to love on the sweet and sappy side of this manga and in its humor that it almost seems CLAMP’s goal was to heal the hearts of its readers. It is a simpler fare from CLAMP than some of their heavier titles and it isn’t the deepest story available and for those who are immune to its charms there is going to be little here to keep them interested. Still for those looking for a laugh or a character who can appeal to their softer side this title should be on their radar but the overly cynical or black hearted should probably go track down some other title instead.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: May 31st, 2010
MSRP:$11.99
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