Manga Review: Only One Wish (vol. 1)
Rumor has it that when you send a text message to a certain email address, a dark angel will appear and grant you one wish. Only One Wish is a series of short stories about young girls who email the dark angel and then get their wish granted. Their wishes range from hooking up with a cute guy, to seeking revenge on someone they don’t like, to even bringing the dead back to life. But like most stories of this kind, the girls learn very quickly that the wish does not turn out quite as planned.
Only One Wish comes from Mia Ikumi, the artist behind the popular Tokyo Mew Mew magical girl series. But like Mew Mew, this series suffers from some serious issues that prevents it from being enjoyable.
To Ikumi’s credit, she makes some really cute characters. She really has a knack for short-haired females with big innocent eyes. She also has a really good sense of fashion, often putting together really cute outfits with interesting plaid patterns. This is one pretty looking comic.
However, the problem with Ikumi is that she really sucks when it comes to manga storytelling. Her narrative jumps all over the place and her paneling is way too crowded. This A.D.D. approach to manga writing makes it really difficult for the reader to follow along and comprehend the story. This is why I could not get into Mew Mew and it happens again in the first few chapters of Wish as well.
The latter chapters tend to be a lot more stable and normal, and we finally get to read a comprehensible series. Some of the stories have exciting climatic moments, and at times, this appears to be a comic worth reading. In fact, there is even a really good bonus story at the end with the Tokyo Mew Mew crew.
But ultimately, there’s just not enough here for me to be able to recommend this series. If you were a big fan of Mew Mew and did not have a problem with Ikumi’s congested paneling, then yeah, you probably could give this a shot. But when it comes to shojo, Only One Wish simply falls flat amid all the good series recently released in the US.
* * * * *
The Good: Very cute character designs and fashion. Some exciting moments. Tokyo Mew Mew bonus story.
The Bad: Paneling and pacing in the first few chapters are very difficult to follow.
Final Verdict: While Only One Wish has a few good moments, it is simply a generic and forgettable shojo series. Skip it.
Review copy provided by Del Rey Manga.