Kobato

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Kobato (Temporary)

ツバサ- Kobato (Temporary) (Kobato (Temporary))
Genre	Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Shounen
Manga
Authored by	Clamp
Publisher
Serialized in	Monthly Sunday Gene-X (2005), Newtype (2006 - present)
Original run	2005 – present
No. of volumes

Kobato (こばと。, Kobato^?) is Clamp's latest manga series which premiered in Monthly Sunday Gene-X in January 2005. Seven chapters were released under the title of Kobato (Temporary), but the series was put on hiatus in late 2005. It returned to publication in Newtype magazine's November 2006 Japanese edition; the story has subsequently been restarted at an earlier point in the original timeline. The story features a mysterious young girl, Hanato Kobato, who works in a local kindergarten.

1 Story
2 Characters
3 Crossovers
4 External links

[edit] Story

Kobato is sweet and perky, but also extremely naïve about the world around her. Her "mission" is to fill a mysterious bottle of hers with the suffering from people's hearts. Among the hearts she heals, there will be a boy she will work for and bring happiness to, but she is forbidden to fall in love with him.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Characters

Names in traditional order (surname first, given name second)

Hanato Kobato: A strange and naïve girl with a kind heart, she is very innocent and dedicated. She seeks to fill a mysterious bottle with the suffering in other's hearts so that someday she will be able to go to a certain place. Her only restriction appears to be that she cannot fall in love with a particular boy she will work for and whose heart she will heal. Kobato has a very cheerful and enthusiastic outlook in life and her want to aid others in need is very heartfelt and sincere. However, she can also be clumsy and rash with her actions and often trips, much to Ioryogi's annoyance.
Ioryogi: Kobato's companion, who usually appears as a stuffed toy dog. It's actually rather foul-mouthed and bad-tempered and the first to scathingly criticize Kobato for her naïveté, though he will acknowledge Kobato's efforts when he feels she deserves it. His origin is still unknown, but he can produce a blast of power when offended like when he blasted the perverted old man in the first chapter of Kobato. Ioryogi was originally Tsubaki Nekoi's mascot on Clamp's self caricatures.
Fujimoto Kiyokazu: A blunt young man working at the same kindergarten as Kobato. Initially, he is rather suspicious of the strange Kobato and does not want Sayaka to be hurt; he generally ignores people he does not like. Kobato notes that he appears to be hiding some emotional pain of his own. He appears to have jobs other than the one he has at the kindergarten. He is presumably 17 years old.
Okiura Sayaka: The teacher of Yomogi Nursery, a local kindergarten where Kobato works. She has known Kiyokazu since he was seven, which is when her family adopted him. Upon meeting her, Kobato wishes to heal Sayaka's emotional pain. Sayaka appears to be in debt.
Mihara Chitose: The kind and generous landlady of Kobato's apartment and Sayaka's old classmate. She is married and has twin daughters, Chise and Chiho. Kiyokazu also lives in Chitose's apartment complex.
Chiho and Chise - Mihara Chitose's twin daughters, presumably age 11-12. Like their mother, they are crossover characters from Chobits, known in that series as Freya and Chii/Elda. In Kobato, they were normal girls and live with their mother and father.
The Debt Collector: A man who appears at the end of the fifth chapter. He is on given name basis with Sayaka and reveals over the phone in chapter four he can no longer hold off the payment of the kindergarten any longer. Little else is known about him though he appears to be Sayaka's brother or another relative, as it is revealed that he has the same surname as her.

Hanato Kobato	Ioryogi	Fujimoto Kiyokazu	Okiura Sayaka
Mihara Chitose	Chiho and Chise with Chitose

[edit] Crossovers

Chitose Hibiya of Chobits and Tsubasa appears as Chitose Mihara, Kobato's landlady, while Chii/Elda and Freya of Chobits also appear as Chitose's daughters, named Chiho and Chise respectively. It can also be implied, since Chiho and Chise mention their father in a conversation with Kobato, Chitose's husband is Ichiro "Icchan" Mihara from Angelic Layer, who was married to her prior the events of Chobits. However, this fact is not confirmed and Chitose Mihara's husband has yet to appear. Clamp has a fondness for crossing over their works and it is not surprising Chitose appears with her two daughters. The characters present are not the same characters from Chobits or Tsubasa, but are separate incarnations and the events of Chobits and Tsubasa do not coincide or occur within the context of Kobato.
The apartment complex owned by Chitose Mihara and her family appears in other works by Clamp other than Kobato and Chobits; it can been seen in xxxHolic and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.
Mihara is also the family name from characters Clamp's other works such as Angelic Layer's Icchan (who is Chitose Hibiya's deceased husband in Chobits) and his stepbrother Ohjiro as well as Cardcaptor Sakura's Chiharu Mihara.
Ueda Hiroyasu, also of Chobits, appears in Exam 3, still as the owner of the Chiroru bakery. He makes another appearence in Exam 5, this time with his assistant, Omura Yumi.
The fortune-teller from volume 2 of xxxHolic (Yuuko's mentor, a kind elderly woman) appears in Exam 4 and plays New Year's games with Kobato. Her fortune-telling pendulum and sand-dish appears as well.