SEDUCE THE HEROINE. SAVE THE WORLD.
Creative Staff
Story: Mitsuki Mihara
Art: MonRin
Translation: Jill Morita
What they say
Master swordsman Kazuki Hayashizaki is settling into his predetermined role of a summoner, but the Magika’s only male student has a long way to go yet. After failing to pass one of their quests, Kazuki and Mio are allowed a second attempt alongside Scandinavian transfer student, Lotte. But, when the trio is attacked by a mysterious female knight, everything they’ve learned suddenly seems for naught. Then, as if things weren’t bad enough, a giant beast appears! Will Kazuki live long enough to capture the hearts of his classmates, or is this the end of his short summoning career…?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’m sure you all know this by now, but I am a fan of ecchi. I like my fan service, and while I think there are some manga where the fan service disrupts the story, for the most part, I enjoy seeing it in my manga. I wouldn’t read series like Monster Musume and Magika Swordsman and Summoner otherwise.
Magika Swordsman and Summoner vol. 4 delivers fan service on the first page via Mio being groped by a tentacle monster, in full color. Now, I’m not telling you about Mio being groped by tentacles to gross you out. I’m stating this merely so you can make an informed decision. Magika Swordsman and Summoner is a ecchi/harem/fantasy battle manga series. As such, you should expect the series to be loaded up the wazoo with fan service.
Now, as I said before, I like my fan service. I really do. I know some people who have a problem with it, and if that’s not something you can handle, then that’s fine. I’d recommend finding another manga to read. However, if you are like me, and you like fan service, then pay attention because I’m about to tell you what makes this series succeed where other, similar manga often fail.
The beginning of this manga deals primarily with a new conflict that arises between Mio, Kazuki’s childhood friend, and Hiakari, a lithe summoner with elfish features. At the beginning, Kazuki and Mio fail in a quest they took. Afterwards, we learn from Liz Liza Westwood, the loli teacher, that ranks are determined by a number of factors: power, skill, and practical application, or how summoners do in the field. Mio, who lost to Kazuki, an E-ranked summoner, during a duel in volume 2 and has now failed a mission, is coming close to dropping to a B-rank, and if that happens, she won’t be able to live in the Witch’s Manor anymore. This is where Hiakari comes in. She’s apparently fed up with how Mio and Kazuki are acting like a couple and not taking their missions seriously. She challenges Mio to a duel.
While I’m not always a big fan of “duels” in manga because of their overuse, I liked how this duel allowed us to see Mio’s power. For most of this series, Kazuki has always been in the spotlight, displaying his godly main protagonist skills. Mio was mostly relegated to fan service girl who serves a specific purpose to the plot. This was the first time we got to see Mio’s real talent. She’s actually decently strong. I’m really hoping we see more of her actual skills in battle. As much as I love tentacles and fan service, I appreciate it when characters feel more like people and less like archetypes.
We’re also introduced to several new characters in this volume. The first one is Kohaku Hikita, a first year student of the Kengika school. Our first glance of her shows us that she’s an ambitious girl. During her introduction she states that she’s going to become the next Student Council President, and then she asks Kazuki to marry her. Of course, her reasons for this aren’t because she loves him. They just met. Her justification for marriage is that she wants to merge Kazuki’s sword fighting style with her family’s Shinkage style. We don’t learn anything about her style of swordplay, but since this series is mostly an ecchi/harem/fantasy battle series, I guess it’s not important. The important part is that she wants to marry Kazuki. We only see her one more time after this, so I’m guessing she’ll play a more important role later on.
The other new character we’re introduced to is Charlotte Lebeinfrau… and if the name doesn’t sound Japanese to you, that’s because it isn’t. Charlotte’s a foreigner who lived in a small country called Saemundar in Northern Europe. Going by the nickname Lotte, Charlottte is, to put it simply, adorable. She’s naive and innocent to the point where she runs around the Witch’s Manor naked and doesn’t even realize it’s wrong until after she’s already dragged Kazuki into the bathroom because she doesn’t know how to use the bath.
Actually, this brings up an interesting point. In Charlotte’s home country, the technology there is all magic based, meaning only people who can use magic can use technology. They don’t have things gas and electric related household appliances—at least, the nobles don’t. I think the commoners use normal appliances, but noble families are only allowed to use magic. This presents a strong dichotomy between Germany/Saemundar and Japan. Germany, whose summoners all use divas from Norse Mythology, follows a doctrine based on abstaining from seeking personal wealth. They’re supposedly the strictest of all the great magical nations. I found this interesting mostly because it helps expand on the world of the series. It’s always cool to see how authors create alternate universe histories like this.
After Charlotte’s introduction, we learn a lot more about what’s going on outside of Japan, and we also learn that Japan is currently playing host to someone who’s clearly going to cause problems in the future. I won’t tell you who that person is, but I will tell you that she’ll probably become a serious antagonist in the next volume.
In Summary
If I had to give this volume a rating, I’d probably say it was a 4/5. I love the artwork, I enjoyed the fan service, and I liked both the new characters and how this volume expanded on the Magika world. At the same time, this volume’s story felt scattered. It feels less like a cohesive story and more like a series of linear one-shots. Even so, if you’re a fan of this particular genre, like I am, then you won’t be disappointed with Volume 4 of Magika Swordsman and Summoner.
Content Grade: A
Art Grade: A+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: Older Teen
Released By: Seven Seas Entertainment
Release Date: June 28, 2016
MSRP: $12.99
