The world of anime is filled will magical MacGuffins that can grant wishes. Often, there are limits or catches to wishes, such as a wish only being granted at a horrible price, like a person's life. As with Aladdin's lamp, sometimes, such items may put characters into contact with a being that grants wishes. In anime, it's not unheard of for some wish-granting objects to actually be sentient.
The idea that people should always be careful about what they wish for is often a popular plot device. Even when there are no malicious intentions involved, a well-meaning wish could have unexpected consequences. That's not even getting into the stories where the wish-granting item is not only sentient but has evil intentions, as well.
10 Dragon Ball: The Dragon Balls Summon The Wish-Granting Sheron
The namesake of the Dragon Ball series is a bunch of seven magical wish orbs that summon the Eternal Dragon, Sheron, who will grant any wish that he can. The Balls must be collected to be used, and are dispersed after being used, driving both heroes and villains to search for them.
Shenron usually doesn't care about the morality of the wish, although he has been known to warn about the consequences at times. As mentioned, there are limits to his power. For example, he can restore the dead to life, but only if they haven't been revived before and their death was recent. As the series goes on, it turns out that Earth's Dragon Balls are merely one of a set, with other sets existing elsewhere.
9 The Genie Family: An Entire Family Of Genies Lives In This Series' Magic Bottle
In the classic anime series, The Genie Family, a boy named Kan discovers a bottle filled with a genie, Hakushon, and his daughter, Akubi.
Hakushon, who is summoned with a sneeze, is incredibly clumsy with his powers, meaning wishes he grants usually backfire. At face value, Akubi is meant to be more competent. Unfortunately, she is quite mischievous and likes to manipulate wishes for her own gain.
8 Sailor Moon: The Silver Crystal Can Grant Any Wish, But Don't Use It At Full Power
In Sailor Moon, the Legendary Silver Crystal, which both the heroes and villains are searching for throughout the first story arc, is Sailor Moon's main source of power. Its wish-granting abilities occasionally pop up, from Sailor Moon accidentally using it to wish for a normal life after fighting Queen Beryl in the '90s anime.
The '90s anime also adds the stipulation, however, that the crystal will cost the user their life if used at full power. There are many workarounds with this, however, from making a wish that technically keeps you alive to two people wishing hard enough to save the other, albeit by using a crystal from two different timelines. According to the Sailor Moon S movie, the other Sailor Scouts sharing their powers with Sailor Moon while using it is enough to negate this effect.
7 Inuyasha: The Shikon Jewel Turns Out To Be The Series' Biggest Villain
In Inuyasha, the search for the Shikon Jewel's pieces, which was broken when Kagome used it to shoot a demonic crow, makes up the bulk of the series. It had been important in Inuyasha's backstory, as he once hoped to use it to become human so he could marry Kikyo.
Towards the end of the series, however, the characters begin to realize that the Shikon Jewel has a corruptive influence and, upon finally being given the chance to make a wish, Kagome realizes the only good wish is for the Shikon Jewel to cease to exist.
6 Death Note: The Death Note Grants A Very Specific Wish
In Death Note, the titular Death Note has the power to kill anyone whose name is written within it, meaning it arguably grants a very specific wish, all the while helping to sustain the shinigami of the series.
The King of Death decides what rules come with the Death Note, which also change depending on the incarnation of the series. Light Yagami also comes up with fake rules to evade investigators. Depending on the version, one such rule includes the Death Note not having an effect on those under 780 days. The original pilot manga had toyed with the possibility of victims of the Death Note being restored, something dropped in later versions.
5 Petite Princess Yucie: The Eternal Tiara Has A Dark Secret
In Petite Princess Yucie, Yuice, a young girl who mysteriously found herself no longer aging, learns of the mysterious Eternal Tiara, that can grant any wish. Unfortunately, she learns that only a person the tiara finds worthy can use it and it kills anyone else who tries to use it.
Yucie enrolls in a "princess school" in order to win the tiara's approval. Unfortunately, that's just the start of the conditions for using the tiara. For starters, once it is used to grant a wish, the other candidates will be sacrificed. The tiara is also responsible for creating Diabolos, a parasitic entity that serves as the antagonist of the series. And only the tiara is powerful enough to stop him.
4 Tonde Buurin: Karin Needs 108 Magic Peals & She'll Get The Power Of Transformation
In Tonde Burrin, Karin is scouted to become the magical superpig, Tonde Buurin. She'd rather be a more traditional magical girl and puts up with being a pig in the hopes of earning magical pearls, which she does by doing good deeds. Upon obtaining 108 pearls, she'll be able to wish herself into a more conventional magical girl.
Unfortunately, she can also lose pearls by doing bad deeds. There's also the catch that if anyone learns Karin and the superpig are one and the same, she'll be stuck as a pig, forever. Fortunately, it's revealed that the 108 pearls also have the power to negate this consequence.
3 Ah! My Goddess: The Goddess Help Line Puts You In Contact With A Wish-Granting Goddess
In Ah! My Goddess, the hero, Keiichi, accidentally calls up the Goddess Help Line, causing a beautiful goddess, Belldandy, to appear before him and offer him a wish. He then accidentally wishes for a goddess like her to stay with him forever, causing her to move in with him. At the end of the original manga, it's revealed that said wish is also viewed as a marriage proposal.
While a wish can have unintended consequences, the gods in the series seldom try to actually cheat or manipulate a wish to their advantage. Unfortunately, demons also exist in the series, and if they don't have an ulterior motive in granting a wish, it's because they expect the human to pay a horrible price for it.
2 Cinderella Monogatari: Paulette's Magic Wand Grants Any Wish, But With A Time Limit
In Cinderella Monogatari, an anime retelling of the classic fairy tale, Cinderella's fairy godmother appears regularly and finds ways to help her godchild throughout the series with the help of her magic wand. Whether it's turning a horse into a man or a dog into a lion, there's usually the stipulation that the spell wears off after some time. She also occasionally uses the powers to fight the forces of evil magic.
Towards the end of the series, she naturally uses her magic to turn a pumpkin into a coach, mice into horses, a dog and cat into servants, a bird into a plume, and fixes up a dress for Cinderella, all with the catch of the spell wearing off at the stroke of midnight.
1 Doraemon: Doraemon Himself Is Kind Of A Wish-Granting Item
In an indirect way, the titular Doraemon can be considered a sentient wish-granting item. An earless, blue robot cat, he was sent from the future to save a hopeless boy named Nobita from himself.
Favoring science-fiction over traditional magic, virtually once an episode, Doraemon grants Nobita some future device that performs near-supernatural tasks for him, usually to resolve some mundane task Nobita is too lazy to do.
