MAGIC VERSUS STEEL
Creative Staff
Story: Mitsuki Mihara
Art: MonRin
Translation: Jill Morita
What they say
Kazuki Hayashizaki, the only boy in the all-girls’ Magika, is starting to accept his fate as a summoner rather than a swordsman. But after a decisive victory in the dueling arena, the teachers believe that Kazuki’s rightful place is at the Kengika, the school for training swordsmen. No one feels this more strongly than Kazuki’s adoptive sister, Kanae, who challenges him to a duel that would pit her sword skills against his summoning magic. If Kazuki wins, it will prove once and for all that he has what it takes to become a summoner and should remain at the Magika. There’s only one hitch—Kazuki’s spells are mysteriously running dry, and time is running out!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Put on your Decollete Oblique, because we’re getting ready for volume 3 of Magika Swordsman and Summoner. In the previous volume, Kanae issued her adoptive younger brother Kazuki a challenge: Defeat her protege if he wants her to forget about forcing him into the kengika division. Now it’s time for Kazuki to meet that challenge head on in the tournament.
This volume is fairly different from the previous two volumes. First, the entire volume centers around the tournament. There’re no switching gears here. We don’t go from a duel between Kazuki and whoever to a fanservice panel at the Witches Manor. From the first panel to almost the last, this volume takes place almost entirely at the track field where the tournament is held. Kazuki also isn’t the only one who fights; the very first battle, in fact, is between a swordsman and the vice president of the magika student council.
It’s been mentioned before, but the school is divided into two divisions: magika and kengika. Summoning and swordsmanship. The tournament is one that pits these two divisions against each other in a battle for supremacy.
While it is interesting to see someone who isn’t Kazuki fight, I wasn’t too enthralled by the first duel. It’s not just because Kazuki wasn’t fighting. While the artwork was still excellent, outside of filling up a few pages, we didn’t learn anything new. Even so, once Kazuki gets into the ring, we get to see the culmination of what he’s learned so far—or we would, but Kazuki seems to have some hang ups at first. He still can’t use any spell aside from Spiral Blast. It’s only thanks to his evasion skills that he isn’t outright pawned in the first bout.
Kazuki and Kamizumi, the vice president of the kengika division, are at a stalemate. He’s too fast for her to hit, but he doesn’t have the power to defeat her. Yet Kazuki knows that this can’t continue. If he doesn’t do something soon, he’ll lose, if only because he’ll run out of magic power.
It isn’t until Mio and Kaguya cheer him on that Kazuki realizes why he’s only been able to use Spiral Blast despite how high Mio’s affection level for him is: the affection gauge goes both ways. Even though Mio and Kaguya both like him a lot, he doesn’t feel worthy of their affection. His lack of confidence in his bond with them kept him from being able to use more powerful magic. Once he realizes this, he decides to put his faith in the bonds he made with them, and this allows him to utilize higher level magic from Mio—it also lets him finally use magic from Kaguya.
While I’d like to applaud Magika for having this sort of revelation, what happened in this volume isn’t something that hasn’t been done before. Saying that, I’m not going to call it cliché. It’s a well-used trope that isn’t always used correctly. Fortunately, it is used correctly here.
Part of what makes this plot development work for Magika Swordsman and Summoner is how they used foreshadowing to let us know that something was wrong with Kazuki. In volume 2, Kazuki’s affection with Mio raises considerably. By all rights, he should have been able to use higher level magic, but he couldn’t for reasons that weren’t disclosed to us at the time. They gave us a good enough hint that something was wrong. Then they delivered us the reason quickly enough that it’s not going to frustrate readers, but slowly enough that it doesn’t feel like a plot device. It was a good move.
Kazuki defeats Kamizumi—and his last attack ends up burning off her clothes. The tournament is interrupted after that when Kaya appears and summons two dragons from Norse mythology.
We soon learn that Kaya has formed a contract with Loki when an attack from Kaguya nearly destroys her. She calls out to him for help. Yet help doesn’t come in the form I think she wanted. Her soul is destroyed and her body is taken over by Loki, who proves to be more than a match for Kazuki. A powerful attack nearly kills Kazuki, but Mio comes in to defend him at the last minute and is fatally wounded. Fueled with rage, Kazuki overcomes whatever barriers had been stopping him and deals Loki a decisive blow that forces him to retreat. Kazuki then saves Mio’s life by using a shortcut to access all of Phoenix’s powers. The volume then ends with a definitive sense of more sequels to come.
In Summary
I think volume 3 is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I feel this is the strongest volume story-wise. On the other, it feels very short. The reason is because this entire volume had no time skip, so we’re left with a feeling that very little time has passed in this volume. That said, I enjoyed volume 3 more than the previous two, and I hope the next volume proves to be just as good!
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: Older Teen
Released By: Seven Seas Entertainment
Release Date: February 2, 2016
MSRP: $12.99
