Magi - The Labyrinth of Magic: Volume 10

Review by: Young Jeohn

Author/Illustrator - Shinobu Ohtaka
Pages - 200
Publisher: Viz Media (USA), Shonen Sunday (Japan)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I open the first page to see a comically simplistic and unimaginative series of drawings and character names. I mean, a pirate named Alibaba, a king named Sinbad and a boy magician named Aladdin? I noticed my irritated right eyebrow starting to flutter up and down uncontrollably as I continued reading what might be another nightmarishly boring comic. Happily, I'd be wrong... so very wrong.

It was at page 26 when I decide to change my mind. "This comic is brilliant", I think to myself. 15 pages later, I'm starting to giggle a bit too loudly at some really funny scenes and wonder, if at any point, this author had been a resident at some looney bin. After going through more pages of weirdness, I wonder if perhaps he was even in a strait jacket. But thank goodness if he was, his stuff is fantastic - cute but monstrous. Silly, with a believable storyline. And best of all, Entertaining with a capital E.

STORY

Alibaba and his band of merry traveling men, woman and child land on an island of a lost tribal people, whose writings have been found in dungeons all over the world (and nobody's figured out how or why). To make sense of this mystery, they explore the local dungeon to learn more... and of course to find its treasure!

This particular dungeon is ruled by Zagan, a djinn with a demented sense of humor who, very oddly, likes things that are cute. That being what it is, his dungeon is populated with all kinds of cuteness - gigantic fuzzy teddy bears, itsy-bitsy turtles, walking talking flowers and little elephants with sticky stamen sprouting from their trunks. And although they're cute (in very weird ways), Zagan uses his magic to bring forth the danger hidden deep within them - and Alibaba and his crew of pirates, warriors and magicians must fight to make their way out alive.

THE MAGI WORLD

is much like a Dungeons and Dragons time period where warriors, magicians and monsters co-exist. The main adventurers are the warrior Aladdin with a djinn inhabited flame sword, the genius child magician Alibaba, the prideful Lord Hakuryu who still has trouble accepting help from his companions, and Lady Morgiana, whose formidable strength can topple mountains (or not... I just made that up. But she's incredibly strong, you'll see what I mean when you read it.) Their aim is to defeat the dungeon's djinn to get to the treasure, and in turn, gain the services of the djinn they defeat.

STORY TELLING

The storyline is easy to follow with clear goals - a good read. But it's not as simple as it first seems - there's a good amount of humor and character development throughout the manga, making it fun for older readers too. Straight forward for the young'ins. Complex human emotions and interesting adult innuendos for the grown ups - if you can catch it.

ART

Humorous. Some of this stuff was so out there, it made me laugh without warning. Imagine if you will, a Hello Kitty innocently waving at you. Two seconds later, Kitty-chan's right eye turns into a huge, scary ball of an eye that hasn't slept in 48 hours and yes, a mouth - A MOUTH - growing out Kitty's left cheek - with sharp tyrannosaurus-like teeth. And her left eye? I thought it just winked at me.

If Shinobu Ohtaka illustrates everything himself, he's got a rather large range of skill at his disposal, from drawing seemingly simple Dilbert'y characters to very complex emotions and details when called for. But it's never at the cost of detracting from the story, which makes it fun to read and easy to follow. The pages effortlessly turn by themselves.

CONCLUSION

Just read it. Fantasy and medieval genre lovers can take to the streets and rejoice, for this manga's for you - put it on top of your list. And you know who else'd like this? People who secretly like weird stuff. Luckily I belong in both groups, and this time around the weirdness is funny!

FINAL SCORE

8 out of 10 / A-