<b>Review of Magi: The labyrinth of magic #1 by Sarah</b>
Young Aladdin is searching for treasure. There are plenty of unscrupulous people in the desert, only too ready to take advantage of the cheerful, unworldly boy – but Aladdin has an ally: concealed within the metal flute that he always carries is Ugo, a powerful djinn. And Aladdin needs Ugo’s help as he constantly seems to find himself in difficult, dangerous situations, encountering bandits, crooked merchants, carnivorous plants…
It’s not long before he teams up with Alibaba, a driver boy who has the same burning desire to find treasure, and it’s Alibaba who tells Aladdin about the mysterious Dungeons that started to spring up fourteen years ago, each building reputed to contain vast amounts of treasure. And so the two boldly enter Amon Dungeon no. 7; ten thousand people have reputedly entered this Dungeon and not a single one has ever reappeared.
A shounen manga set in the world of the Arabian Nights, with djinns, magic carpets and turbans, and plenty of colourful characters, <em>Magi</em> is the second of Shinobu Ohtaka’s works to be published in English translation (the first was <em>Sumomomo Momomo</em>.) Fresh, clean artwork with attractive character designs (not to mention a nice line in chibi, a little reminiscent of Hetalia) and a plot that zings along with all the energy and humour required to keep a magic adventure story lively, it’s no surprise that the series was picked up for a popular ongoing anime TV series. The reworking of well-worn tropes from Arabian Nights mythology is interestingly done and young Aladdin makes a sympathetic hero. Shinobu Ohtaka shows considerable skill in pacing her panels, whether to comic or dramatic effect (check out Ugo’s first appearance.) The bonus chapter at the end in which she depicts her day-to-day life as a mangaka reminds us what a labour-intensive job it is, working for Shonen Sunday, with eighteen pages due in every week.
It’s not all quite there, yet, in this first volume, although the foundations are successfully laid down. The first chapter – as so often, due to the precarious nature of the manga business – reads as if it were originally a one-shot, put together as a pitch or taster for a potential series. That doesn’t matter too much, except that what follows takes a while to introduce the protagonists and the first volume ends just as things are hotting up.
<b>Final score: 8 out of 10</b>
Young Aladdin is searching for treasure. There are plenty of unscrupulous people in the desert, only too ready to take advantage of the cheerful, unworldly boy – but Aladdin has an ally: concealed within the metal flute that he always carries is Ugo, a powerful djinn. And Aladdin needs Ugo’s help as he constantly seems to find himself in difficult, dangerous situations, encountering bandits, crooked merchants, carnivorous plants…
It’s not long before he teams up with Alibaba, a driver boy who has the same burning desire to find treasure, and it’s Alibaba who tells Aladdin about the mysterious Dungeons that started to spring up fourteen years ago, each building reputed to contain vast amounts of treasure. And so the two boldly enter Amon Dungeon no. 7; ten thousand people have reputedly entered this Dungeon and not a single one has ever reappeared.
A shounen manga set in the world of the Arabian Nights, with djinns, magic carpets and turbans, and plenty of colourful characters, <em>Magi</em> is the second of Shinobu Ohtaka’s works to be published in English translation (the first was <em>Sumomomo Momomo</em>.) Fresh, clean artwork with attractive character designs (not to mention a nice line in chibi, a little reminiscent of Hetalia) and a plot that zings along with all the energy and humour required to keep a magic adventure story lively, it’s no surprise that the series was picked up for a popular ongoing anime TV series. The reworking of well-worn tropes from Arabian Nights mythology is interestingly done and young Aladdin makes a sympathetic hero. Shinobu Ohtaka shows considerable skill in pacing her panels, whether to comic or dramatic effect (check out Ugo’s first appearance.) The bonus chapter at the end in which she depicts her day-to-day life as a mangaka reminds us what a labour-intensive job it is, working for Shonen Sunday, with eighteen pages due in every week.
It’s not all quite there, yet, in this first volume, although the foundations are successfully laid down. The first chapter – as so often, due to the precarious nature of the manga business – reads as if it were originally a one-shot, put together as a pitch or taster for a potential series. That doesn’t matter too much, except that what follows takes a while to introduce the protagonists and the first volume ends just as things are hotting up.
<b>Final score: 8 out of 10</b>