Magi
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

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Arguably no genre in manga or anime suffers more from an ill-fated combination of cliche reliance and a basic premise than action shounen. Whilst it is not inherently bad for a show to skilfully execute well-trodden territory (for which there are plenty of shounen that do), Ohtaka’s “Magi”, true to its adventurous spirit, treads beyond the boundaries of its genre without ever losing the heart-racing excitement that all shounen lovers yearn for.

An allusion to the Middle Eastern folk tales of “One Thousand and One Nights”, the world of Magi is unlike most we’ve seen in that it neither draws its main inspiration from the ninjas, ... folklore and mythologies of Japan à la Naruto, Bleach etc., nor from the superheroes of the West (e.g. BokuAca). The premise is that of a world in which mysterious towers have spawned across the globe, that if overcome, supposedly grants the conquerors of these life-threatening dungeons the magical powers of a djinn. If this were a typical shounen, the story would not expand beyond this premise and we would be presented with a small cast of characters who will inevitably face fierce rivalries, powerful friendships, slapstick comedy and action.

Magi guarantees you all of this, especially at the start, but the story truly shines once the initial worldbuilding is established as Magi uses its premise as a springboard for exploring socio-political, economic and ontological issues. The conflict in the plot arcs of Magi are grounded upon one of these issues which makes for a more powerful experience that relates to our real world but connecting each and every one of these arcs is a story about a boy whose search for his identity, beliefs and ideologies on the social and political issues in his world are constantly challenged. It frustrates me beyond belief when in shounen our protagonist has such inherently strong convictions and sense of justice that they are only “weak” in terms of their physical abilities and powers because that narrows the storyline and character development to merely the acquisition and development of their combat prowess. Shounen protagonists almost never truly engage with the complexities of the issues they face, if there are even any at all in the story. Alibaba and co. are not fight bots who merely beat people up into magically agreeing with their ideology nor is he a paragon of wisdom whose words convince anyone he manages to speak to – that is more along the lines of Sinbad but even he has plenty of depth. Magi’s world and characters may be wonderfully supernatural but they are also a reflection of our own world and people.

My only issues with Magi are that its ambitious storytelling means that the balance between action and politics is at times compromised. Certain arcs can be very focused on the politics and others on the fighting. For many shounen readers, if the action is the only aspect you want to observe, there will be times when you may find yourself losing interest. Magi does not achieve the absolute pinnacle of storytelling that sees a perfect transition between the two but nonetheless it still achieves this better than the vast majority of shounen. Regarding the ending, although the series concludes excellently with regards to the main issues at hand, it felt slightly rushed and further attention to the vast cast we met along the way would've very much been appreciated.

One of the main benefits of having a manga have its premise set in Middle Eastern folklore is being able to have art that shows the dazzling designs and drawings of fantastical beings and creatures that most people have probably never come across. The character expressions and designs are memorable and fun but Magi’s art shines the most in its action scenes. When our warriors fight and djinns are released, the manga sometimes requires you to spend a couple minutes per panel just to marvel in the designs and as the series progresses, the sheer scale of the battles and wars that we observe. Combined with Ohtaka’s panelling, which excels in constructing fluidity between scenes in a medium where images are still, Magi is rarely ever a visual bore to read.

Magi, the manga, was not what I expected after having watch the anime. Whilst certainly, Balbadd and Magnostadt arcs certainly give you a glimpse of its potential, the anime did not adapt far enough to see what Magi is truly about. If the political aspects of Magi and its universe appeal to you, I recommend reading it entirely. Even if Magi is not as surgical in its exploration of these issues as manga who dedicate themselves towards "deeper" themes, the fact that it is also an equally amazing adrenaline-rushing and heart-pounding action, should convince you to read Magi and for those aforementioned reasons, I would wholeheartedly recommend this manga to both shounen lovers and shounen-sceptics alike.

Magi was honestly very captivating at first. I really enjoyed the sense of wonder and excitement that the author was able to write into the setting accompanied by well written characters. It brought back a sort of Hunter x Hunter feel for a while. Aladdin and Alibaba are a loveable duo, and one's who you root for throughout the entire story. I honestly really enjoyed the (most of) the story, especially the first couple of arcs, but the later arcs of the show did not really make the best decisions story-wise. I understand it can be difficult extending a series and planning a long plot ... spanning over 30 volumes, but my gosh does the writing just really fall off towards the last third of this adventure.

Story: 4

I liked up until the last third or so. My problems exist with how Sinbad's character was handled, it really felt off, and the entire thing seemed very drawn out. The way the last chunk is set up just feels a bit like the author was struggling with how they wished to end the story. I just got tired of the twists because half the time they wouldn't amount to much. It just clearly wasn't as well thought out as previous arcs, and the pacing also becomes much less enjoyable in the last third too.

Art: 7

The artwork in this manga is very enjoyable, there were definitely some stand out panels in this one. Sometimes battles seemed to get almost too clustered, but overall Magi's art has a nice, and very shonen feel to it. The character designs are also very diverse and interesting, as are the designs of the monsters. It does honestly have a very distinct feel to it, but it does feel a little lacking sometimes, as the author does sometimes have panels that are naturally much less interesting than others.


Characters: 5

I liked most of the characters, though none really didn't feel all that profound, save for maybe Alibaba and Morgiana (though she is missing or MIA in many parts of this story). Aladdin was nice but he was just sort of a typical, "Be nice to save the world," sort of main character. Hakuryuu honestly just didn't really do it for me, especially in later parts of the manga. Sinbad shares Hakuryuu's fate but it is much worse, he is written very poorly in the final arcs. I'm honestly just not a fan of how the characters in this manga have so much wasted potential.


Enjoyment: 5

I enjoyed this manga. It was not the best I've ever read, but Magi is not a bad manga by any stretch of the imagination. It is a fun shonen with very unique character design, and an interesting world. It has it's short-comings but I still liked what I read.

Overall: 5

Magi is a decent shonen, but not something I can necessarily recommend to everyone. If you like shonen like One Piece or maybe even Hunter x Hunter than give this one a shot, but I'd be lying if I didn't say there are definitely shortcomings in this one. The story flucuates in quality, half of the cast gets written so very poorly in the last arc, and the plot is rather predictable at times. But there is something good here, it's just not the first thing that I would recommend to someone when discussing shonen manga.

It honestly felt like the author was writing one manga, and then at some point midway through, had an idea for a completely different manga and just stuffed her ideas into the world she had already established (debatably even like four different series). (It's also possible she had some conflicting ideas with her editors so who knows). It ended up having a case of constant whiplash for me until the very end of the series.

While I'd like to blame the lackluster finale on the lack of a defined endpoint, there's plenty of examples of manga with no defined endpoint that had good endings (usually more-so ... seinen or SoL) and manga with clear endpoints with pretty bad endings, it basically all comes down to the writer's skill.

But outside of the finale and tonal whiplash, the focus on Djinn Equips led to a lot of power-up designs that left the characters looking nothing like themselves, and sometimes made fights really hard to follow as a result and everything just becoming a mess.

Though for the positives, the main cast was likeable and their interactions really kept the manga going, especially early on. The final arc, while jarring at first, set the story into an interesting direction. And the initial final villain was way better than how it was described to me by someone else.

Overall, I started this manga really impressed and surprised I hadn't considered reading it before, but by the end I was just hoping it would get better or at least all be worth it in the end, but I just never got that.

40/100