O.k. I will say that when I first heard of Kobato. I didn't think it would be all that great. I was looking at works by CLAMP, who I enjoy a lot of manga from and when I got to Kobato. I thought it just looked stupid. Still if you are desperate to read some new manga, like I was, you will try anything (except yaoi or yuri), so I gave it a shot and now it is my 2nd favorite manga. I mean I LOVE it! I didn't look like much at first but the farther you read into it the better it gets. Trust me!
10/10 Storyline: Kobato Hanato is a sweet, cheery, but naive girl with a mission: fill up a mysterious "bottle" she carries with her all the time. There's a place Kobato wants to go, and she can only go there once the "bottle" is completely full. In order to fill her "bottle", she needs to find people with hurts and heal their hearts. The more people she heals the more hearts there are in the" bottle". However, there is a restriction: she can't fall in love with anyone she heals the heart of. Accompanying Kobato on her mission is Ioryogi, a foul-mouthed talking blue dog plushie who has his own reasons for helping her get her wish granted. Now I must say that following them on their quest makes for a great read. It's has the comedic times, the dramatic times, the mysterious times, and the all-around enjoyable times, which is why it really caught me! Kobato.'s story has a little bit of everything in it making it outstanding! Hopefully the ending will be as great as the story so far as been.
10/10 Artwork: It's CLAMP! What more can I say? I mean all their art is fantastic so Kobato.'s rocks as well.
9/10 Characters: Now as for the characters you've got the sweet, naïve Kobato who can be a bit stupid with her misunderstandings but you come to love her because of her caring nature and her determination and you really want to see her succeed. Then you have the bad mouthed, harsh, and mysterious Ioryogi. Although he can be mean to our lead character, he truly cares about her. His past is also kinda mysterious and you wonder why he helps Kobato. Then you have Sayaka who is like a motherly figure to everyone. She can put on a good show to hide her hurts but she can't get past Kobato or Fujimoto either. As for Fujimoto he can be very gruff and grouchy to everyone but really he cares. He picks on Kobato a lot and seems to not trust her. He will do anything to help Sayaka with the Kindergarten and he too seems to have hurts. As you read on new characters appear and some surprising things about our 4 main characters are revealed, which is what I think makes the story even more interesting.
10/10 Enjoyment: I enjoy Kobato. a whole lot, especially as the story progresses. If you like CLAMP works then you will enjoy Kobato. Or if you just like a great story then you will enjoy Kobato. too. The only thing I don't enjoy CLAMP releases the chapters too slowly!
10/10 Overall: Although at first glance I thought it wasn't much, it really captured me when I first read (and I'm still reading it). Everything about it makes it a wonderful manga that anyone will enjoy. So if you are ever sitting their bored wanting a new manga to read, like I was that one faithful day, then go look for Koabto. I'm sure you will fall in love with it too!
