Just finished part 1 of I Wish.

I must say, Aira and Shinatsu surprised me, they're a refreshing take on the another self trope. Usually, it's one of "alternate self has the opposite personality of the original", or "alternate self personality is the original's but heightened to the point of abnormality." While I think this is a cheap way to communicate a character by reversing or intensifying their traits to make it more obvious to the audience, I usually don't mind this trope as long as the presentation is cool enough. You could say it's a guilty pleasure of mine. With that said, Aira and Shinatsu are neither of them, and we'll get back to this point later. They seem to still be Hiyori and Rei, just a bit more...weathered? Battle-torn? Not sure of the word to use here. More mature, I guess. They're even aware and doesn't mind the fact that they're copies, unlike Eris who opened the event trailer by screaming "you're not me" on top of her lungs.

Loved the interactions. On the more whimsical side, I like how the first thing Hiyori and Aira thinks of after finishing the request is to spend the reward money on food. I also like Shinatsu's social anxiety. Instead of just telling she's going to train Rei, she just took Rei and flew when she's sleeping. On the more serious side, there's Hiyori and Aira's heart-to-heart when they're eating. For some reason, Aira seemed to emphasize that she got Muimi's sword when she was still Hiyori? I wonder if that will be important. As for Shinatsu and Rei, when they trained and Rei lost. Rei didn't know Shinatsu was just trying to train her, so Rei told Shinatsu to do whatever she wants (with her life), only for Shinatsu to tell Rei to take a break, enough training for today.

This event was surprisingly easy to read despite the more serious tone...until the end where I kinda dropped the ball. I started losing it when Ameth started chanting her thing to give Twinkle Wish their Astral powers. I also didn't quite catch why the copies are necessary to be there, Ameth seemed upset at the copies saying it was dangerous, but I didn't catch why. What I did catch was that they foreshadowed Eris' presence a bit early. Since the copies were necessary, it's only natural that Eris had to be somewhere since Yui also got Astral'd. The game eventually mentioned this outright by having (You) say that he felt Eris' presence somewhere when awakening Twinkle Wish's Astral power. Of course, there's also the stinger for part 2, showing Eris sleeping somewhere. Also, was Eris supposed to be gone in the first place? I guess this is something I'm supposed to find out on arc 2.

Back to the alternate self trope, there is a glaring issue in the Another Wish Log part of the event. I can see that they're trying communicate 2 things here; how other characters would react to the copies, and the fact that there are slight differences in characters between worlds. I have no issues with the first one, in fact, I appreciate the extra interactions. It's the latter I have issues with. We were told how Rin, Yukari, Ninon, Anna and Shinobu are different in the the copies' world. Some of them played the trope straight, like how Anna is still a chuuni writer in Shinatsu's world, but now hides her power level (reversing). Or how Shinobu's tough love to Skullfather warped into straight up domestic abuse in Aira's world (intensifying). As I said before, I don't mind as long as the presentation is cool...but there is NO presentation! We only know this from the copies' words, we're only told, not shown.

Now that I've gotten the criticism out of the way, I wanna mention the other characters in the Another Wish Log. Yukari is in a weird spot, she's apparently known as the "Demonic Accountant" or something along the lines in Aira's world. Aira is surprised to see Yukari in this world shitfaced drunk. Problem is, I don't think Yukari is ever portrayed as someone incompetent when it comes to accounting. She just...copes in an unhealthy way. This could be just the case of Aira being unfamiliar with the Yukari of her world, like how Shinatsu is unfamiliar with the Tsumugi of her world. Muimi's section shed more light on Aira's Spirespine Blade situation. When Muimi told Aira to return it to her world's Muimi, Aira hesitated for some reason, something to do with the resets. This is on me entirely, didn't quiet catch this part. Honestly, Ninon seems to be the only one living the life in Shinatsu's world, she became an influental haiku writer that travels around the world for inspiration, even Shinatsu admitted she's also influenced. I wanna comment on Rin, but I haven't read her ranger event, so I don't know if Rin is actually lazy or is just pretending.

Next up, is of course, part 2. I'm enjoying this event so far, and even if I doubt they'll cover the other worlds right away on part 2 since I understand if they want to focus on Twinkle Wish and their copies in this event, I still hope they cover it somewhere else. Could be the copies' bond stories after they become playable, or maybe even main story's sub stories' section.

Just finished part 2 of I wish.

Part 2 of the event made the things I liked about the event better, without really adrdessing the issues I have with it, unfortunately. I agree with all the people that said this even could've been grander in scope, considering it's an anniversary story. For me, it was the fact that they teased how different characters of the different worlds are. When Aira said something along the lines of "I see a pattern here...", I was expecting us to explore their worlds as well.

Still, the character interactions are enjoyable, and it's what I'm mainly here for anyways. My thoughts between part 1 and part 2 don't change much, so I'll just mention my favorite character interactions in part 2.

that entire exchange between Yui and Eris on episode 2

"Tell me, Kusano Yui. What are you apologizing for?", Fucking hell, that gave me chills. "For everything."

the snowball fight in of the wish logs

Priconne's story is one of those "generally lighthearted to make the serious moments hit harder" kind of stories. This event is one of those serious moments, but I'm glad they still gave the characters some respite here. "Well, while fighting alongside each other certainly would make good memories, but it'd be great if we also had memories of taking it easy."

Yui and Eris finally realizing the differences between them "I gave you the notion that we are the same...and that I understood you. But now, I realize, we really are not the same. What we DO have in common is...the person we've fallen in love with."

Yui and Eris syncing on Aira and Shinatsu

Need I say more here?

In terms of difficulty, this was easier to read than part 1. I actually understood everything all the way through here instead of fucking everything up in the climax. Ameth's schizo chanting on part 1 really threw me off.

Next up...Liberators. May Allah grant me the strength to the brave the trials ahead of me...