FROM SWORDSMAN TO LADIES’ MAN?!
Creative Staff
Story: Mitsuki Mihara
Art: MonRin
Translation: Jill Morita
What they say
After receiving the Enigma—the mark of a summoner—Kazuki Hayashizaki’s years of training at the prestigious Hayashizaki sword school seemed almost for naught. He was forced to enter the Magika—a school dedicated to the art of summoning, and one that until now, only allowed girls inside its walls.
Things at Magika Academy have gotten off to a rocky start for Kazuki, after contracting with a powerless Diva who can only access magic by copying the abilities of other summoners. Now, Kazuki has challenged Mio Amasaki—one of the school’s most talented summoners—to a duel to prove the strength of his Hayashizaki sword style. As battles are fought and memories regained, Kazuki must survive his greatest challenge yet—a first date!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Volume 1 of Magika Swordsman and Summoner left us on the ledge of a small cliff. Volume 2 picks up immediately after where volume 1 left off.
Our story begins inside of the student council office, where the president of the magika side, Kaguya Otonashi, tries to calm down Mio and Kazuki. It’s clear from this conversation that Kaguya doesn’t approve of this fight. From what we’ve seen thus far, Kaguya is a very kind character despite her extreme power. Her attempts to make the two reconcile are for naught, and matters only escalate when Kanae arrives and approves of the duel.
Kazuki and Mio head onto what appears to be a track field. There the duel officially commences, and Mio immediately turns up the heat by changing into her Décolléte Oblique, the skimpy battle armor that summoners acquire once they’ve reached a certain level of power and proficiency. However, in spite of Mio’s amazing display of power, we soon learn that Kazuki isn’t without his own ace. Using a sword that had been gifted to him by the head of the Hayashizaki family, Kazuki demolishes Mio in single combat.
It’s only after she’s been defeated that we learn how she and Kazuki know each other, when Mio, in tears because Kazuki has forgotten her, explains how she’s from the Nanohana orphanage, the same orphanage that Kazuki had grown up in before being adopted. She was adopted into the Amasaki family because of her strong magic, but before then, she and Kazuki had been extremely close—like brother and sister. Later that day, while Mio is sulking because she lost, Kazuki enters her room because she’s refusing to eat. Of course, Mio is completely naked, and so Kazuki is given a well-illustrated peep show. After some embarrassment, Kazuki agrees to become Mio’s “slave” even though he won the duel.
Now, while I’m not too sure I understand the appeal of Kazuki becoming Mio’s “slave,” I would like to point out that the artwork in this series is really gorgeous. MonRin’s artwork is very clean, and I love the shading used for the characters to illustrate the softness of their figures. The faces of the characters, especially the females, tend to fall along the lines of expressive sensuality. While their facial expressions can contain a wide range of emotions, everything about them, from their face to their figure, is designed in a way that’s aesthetically appealing to the eye.
Mio undergoes a drastic change after their conversation. She becomes a lot more cheerful—not to mention more clingy—and she and Kazuki begin to act a lot like a married couple. To be honest, I think the interactions between Mio and Kazuki are pretty cute. However, the situation once more plummets when Kanae comes to the Witch’s Manor and informs everyone that, due to Kazuki’s excellent display of swordsmanship, the school feels he would be better off in the kengika division.
Kazuki opposes this ruling, and after an argument with his sister, she agrees to let him stay in the magika division, but only if he can defeat her protege without using a sword. He can only use magic. Right now, thanks to his affection levels with Mio, Kazuki can use some of her magic. However, not only is he untrained, his magic is still weak. To correct this, he and Mio go on a date.
Pretty much all of chapter three deals with Mio and Kazuki’s date. While a good portion of the chapter is stereotypical of a harem romance series, I still found the interactions less cringe-worthy than I would most series of the same genre. I think what saves it is that Kazuki and Mio’s relationship doesn’t seem quite as forced. Honestly, the only issue I have with this is the plot device driving the harem portion of the story, which revolves around Kazuki having to “get closer” to the women in his life in order to gain power.
The date ends after a girl from Kazuki’s past, another orphan from the Nanohana orphanage, appears before him. There’s not much known about Kana, nor is there any clue as to why she’s decided to appear now. That said, we can probably expect her to show up in the next volume. After Kana vanishes, Mio reappears and gives Kazuki a gift. She and Kazuki are then attacked by a false prophet before they’re subsequently saved by Kaguya.
One thing that I don’t really understand right now are the false prophets. I don’t know what they are. At first, I thought they were summoners who went rogue, but this false prophet is a male, and according to what we learned in volume 1, Kazuki is the only male summoner. What does it mean now that a male who can use magic has appeared? Is this a contradiction within the story? Is there some explanation that will help understand how all this is possible? I hope we’ll find out in the next volume, because I feel like the ending to this volume left me with more questions than answers.
In Summary
Volume 2 is a nice sequel to the previous volume. While the story maintains a steady pace and sticks with a specific sub-genre of the harem style of storytelling, the artwork remains strong, and the characters get further developed. I overall enjoyed the volume, though I do feel the series is still an acquired taste.
Content Grade: C
Art Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: C
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Seven Seas Entertainment
Release Date: July 7th, 2015
MSRP: $12.99
