MystiqueDrako

Written by: CLAMP

Art by: CLAMP

Release year: 2000

Status: Completed

Genres: Romance, Comedy, Slice of Life, Drama, Sci-Fi, Ecchi

Manga length: 88 chapters + extras

Has anime: Yes

Related stories: Angelic Layer

Review:

Hideki Motosuwa is an ordinary broke student from the countryside. He's just moved in to Tokyo, and he's already found himself down on his luck! He struggles to get into college and finds himself working a dead-end job to pay for cram school, living expenses, and more. All he wants is to have a good job, a girlfriend, but especially, he wants his own "persocom", the lastest in humanoid technology. Hideki belives that he'll never own one, until one night walking home from his shift, where he finds Chi, an adorable perscom who is seemingly broken. Taking her home, Hideki finds out that Chi is a bit more responsibility than he expected, and that theres much more to Chi that meets the eye.

I've heard about this manga a long time back, back when I was first getting into anime. I believed I put it to the back of my head, considering I never heard of people speaking about it, so I decided to not watch it. It came back into my mind recently when I decided to go look through some past anime and manga for some nostalgia sake and remembered that I never picked up on this manga.

The story is about many things, but to me, the most significant theme it was trying to convey was the connection between computers and humans. Is it right for humans to love their robot companions? Can we be allowed to fall in love with them? What line divides humanoid robots from either just being convient in everyday life or replacing human companionship entirely?
These are just a few questions the manga brings up, but I assure you it goes much deeper than that.

The artstyle is indicative of 1990s and 2000s manga. The simplistic background art along with the fashion sense proves it(to me). If you love the classics, I'd say to definitely to read this manga. Even if you don't really like this style but like romance manga, I'd still reccomend you to read this manga, or even watch the anime. I've started to watch the anime, and from what I've seen, it looks great.

If I'd like to give my thoughts, I'd say that some characters should have gotten some more screentime. I understand that in the greater story, some of the side characters do not really matter and are there to push the narrative for the main characters, but it would be nice for them to still have some prescene, especially towards the end of the manga. Another thing is that there are two characters in the manga, who are as a pair and are hinted to be somewhat of a main antagonist or force that plays a strong presence in the story. However, they really do not impact the story too much, and their development throughout the story feels scattered, and feeling a bit misplaced. I'd like them to either play a larger role or not exist at all due to how much they didn't impact the story. Otherwise, I don't have much more criticism to give. I guess I would have more to say if I didn't finish reading in roughly 2 days, but I'll be sure to reread this manga later down the line.