こばと。/Kobato Volume 05 Manga  

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SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The angel Kohaku pays for her cake buy singing a song at Genko’s request. Meanwhile, Kobato is late for the kindergarten and after being chastised by Fujimoto, he reluctantly agrees to allow her to sing after she suddenly expresses a desire to do so as a form of apology. She sings her song, thrilling the kids, but when she’s done, she has tears in her eyes and starts to confess her love for Fujimoto. She’s interrupted by Sayaka-sensei, who doesn’t see what she’s doing, but seeing her tears, Sayaka has her go home.  On the way home, Kobato tells Ioryogi her feelings and goes to bed, crying.

Genko comes by with information Ioryogi wants. Ioryogi tells Genko about Kobato’s situation, where if she goes ahead and hooks up with Fujimoto, her wish fails and they will be stuck in these forms forever.  However, if she proceeds with her wish, then they return to normal, but she loses Fujimoto. While they talk, Genko reveals that he knows that they went to war over an angel Ioryogi fell in love with, who was a brilliant singer.

The following day, Kobato reports to work and is her normal, cheerful self, though her chatting with Fujimoto gets him flustered. A yakuza thug that Kobato saved pops by, uncomfortable because he’s never met anyone like Kobato.  Because he’s in her debt, he wants to do anything for her, so Kobato asks to be taken to the loan shark.

Meanwhile, Genko tells Ginsei the situation with Kobato, which doesn’t set well with him. Genko goes further, telling how the war Ioryogi started ended up spilling out into the human world, mortally wounding the girl Kobato. The angel Ioryogi fell in love with placed her own soul into Kobato, stopping Kobato’s time so that she’s neither alive nor dead. She can’t stay in limbo forever and will eventually die, which lead to Ioryogi to making his plea before God. God transformed Ioryogi and his followers, tasked him with helping Kobato, and here we are. Genko reveals that Kobato and the angel share the same face and probably the same soul.

Elsewhere, Kobato apologizes to Ioryogi for what she’s about to do to help Fujimoto. Ioryogi recalls the events with the angel and Kobato, where she told Ioryogi what to ask God.  As she enters Kobato to keep her alive, the angel addresses Ioryogi as “Iorogi,” which is his proper name, for the first time. As she dissolves into Kobato, she thanks Iorogi for loving her and confesses her love for him.

Fujimoto hears from the students about Kobato going off with a yakuza, and races after her, stopping to get more information from one of his friends who’s met Kobato. The boss, Okiura, meets her, remarking on Miyata’s caring for Kobato (Miyata being the guy she saved). He does confirm that he won’t close the school if he’s repaid.  He wonders if Kobato will do anything to save the school.  She says she will not, but wonders if being repaid will heal Okiura.  This puzzles him, so she rephrases, asking would it make him happy? Further to that, she wonders what would make him happy.

Ginsei swings by Kohaku’s place, where she immediately notices him. The go to the engawa that surrounds the house to chat further. Ginsei is curious about Kohaku, since she has been committed to Shuichiro, even though the Shuichiro now is not the same person she first fell in love with.  As such, he wants to know more about the concept of unrequited love, since Kohaku had previously remarked that it was OK if the one she loved didn’t love her back. In his mind, one should reach out, rather than accept it.

Thoughts/Review:

I get the feeling that CLAMP decided with this volume to go ahead and bring Kobato to an end. I say this because after four volumes of mystery, suddenly, volume 5 spews out vast amounts of exposition to explain exactly what Kobato is and why she is the way she is. Since it came out the way it did, rather than in a more normal fashion, that’s why I feel the way I do.

As to the explanation, it makes sense.  I had thought that Kobato might be supernatural since there was the whole hat issue.  Plus, early on, she didn’t seem to have a place to live, but always seemed clean and the like. Since CLAMP introduced folks sharing the same souls in Tsubasa (I think it was introduced there), it is no surprise that they established that Kobato and the angel had the same face and soul.

With CLAMP continuing to use the angel character Kohaku from Wish here, it really makes me want to read that story to gain a better understanding of her, angels, and the “devils” such as Iorogi. I’m also curious to see how much recycling CLAMP is doing.  It may explain why they seem to get bored with manga titles and just end them.

As to Kobato and Fujimoto falling in love, I’m not even going to speculate on how things will go.  No, actually, I will.  We’ve been presented with an “either-or” situation, where either Kobato’s wish is granted and she loses Fujimoto, or it fails, she ends up cursing Iorogi and company, but she gets Fujimoto.  Option three is that her wish is granted, she still ends up with Fujimoto, and all’s well that ends well.  Then again, this is CLAMP, so a complete mind frell is in order. *_*

On the Yen Press side, there’s only one translator note, briefly mentioning the Tsubasa aspect of the same people from different universes sharing the same soul. No mention of Wish though, which is a bummer.  It would be interesting to know more.

While the explanations are quite good, I can’t help but feel somewhat disappointed that there’s not more to this manga.  Still, I plan to read it until the end.