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This is my first review on this site and as such most will be expecting something short and sweet for this anime and for those of you looking for such a thing, I LOVED this manga, it has become one of my favorite serialized pieces to date. I would recommend you also look into it if ever you need something to read.

Now that I’ve satisfied those of you who want something short and sweet, time to get into the bits and pieces which actually make up a review which I hope helps to justify my earlier statement. Before I begin however I admit my bias ... towards this sort of setting. I have always loved a European setting for fantasy and I admit this does bias my review somewhat in favor of this series automatically so take all of this with a grain of salt.

Story:

So let’s start by talking about the story itself. The story itself revolves around the magical beings inhabiting this fantastical world which overlays our own, filled with pixies, dragons, vampires, demons and other creatures from myth and legend and those who interact with them who can only perceive them under special circumstances. Chise, this story’s main protagonist, is one of the few people who can see and interact with these characters naturally from birth which, as you can imagine has led to a hard life filled with tragedy up until she sold herself to be brought by Ainsworth, an unusual figure who is perceived without any alteration as being a thrown together from a combination of the body parts of multiple animals.

Now, as you probably guessed from the title and reading up to this point, those who interact with these beings are called Magus with the Magus being divided into two groups: Those who can perceive these beings and gain aid from them in exchange for mana, sorcerers and those who use knowledge of the natural laws in order to achieve the same results, wizards. These two groups are the most important, by and large to the story with the vast majority of characters belonging to one of these two groups. One of the few downsides in fact is that the only normal people who receive extensive mention are those shown from Chise’s past, at least, in so far as the story has led to this point.

Now, this story is slow paced, taking its time to establish its characters and concepts within this world. In this, it diverts itself from normal shounen series and perhaps sets itself apart from the majority of other forms of manga as well being something so rarely seen. There is very little action in this story, something which may change as items progress, and the conflicts by and large are on a interpersonal scale rather than of a larger scale as one might be used to seeing focusing on direct clashes between different characters based on the motivations and beliefs of each character all of which is orchestrated based on the underlying mysticism of this hidden, unseen and unreachable realm which only a few have the ability to interact with.

This allows for a somewhat fantastical and refreshing story and plot overall, with strong tension and an ability to utilize the author’s obvious talent for world building to it’s fullest. 10/10

Characters:

Surprisingly, amongst the characters there were few who were atypical. Rather, the dialog and interactions heavily made use of techniques and ideas which I’d associate far more strongly with Western novels and felt far more natural within the setting they were shown within. The dialog felt natural and there was exquisite detail put into every single interaction held with even the minor conversations holding a sense of importance within the narrative.

Each character had a strong sense of personality and self with the author avoiding the projection of faceless men who lack importance. There were side characters however these characters were all shown with a sense of story and character which is rarely seen in this day and age. Perhaps the closest comparison I can reminisce of is Spice And Wolf in this fact however even there the level of detail is slightly lower than it is here.

I suppose to summarize this section there are four main things which made me love the characters here: Strong, mostly unique characters, natural dialog, no character is made insignificant, every character has at least a decent amount of time given to them. 10/10

Artwork:

The artwork for this piece is a combination actually. Whilst overall I would say that the artwork in this piece is fantastic, during periods where quality isn’t needed there is a slight decline within said quality. It’s still leagues ahead of most other series even then however it is one thing I should note here whilst talking about it. On the other hand, the visuals during the times when it IS necessary for them to be as such are spectacular, almost dazzling with the illustrator clearly working hard to maintain the feel of mysticism within this fantastical wonderland. The illustrator’s heavy usage of shading and ability to apply complex detail to every panel certainly allows it to stand out in this regard and thus I give it a 10/10.

Overall enjoyment:
I think it should be clear by this point the extent of which I enjoyed this piece. 10/10