the late Fujiwara Coco The story was never finished. Even if you don’t like the series, it’s a tragedy that, for the reader, means you know you’re on a journey with no end – and by the time the third volume of this omnibus collection ends, it’s clear that the story It’s over. It ends in an arc, but it’s also a storyline that the anime adaptation never covers, so it’s a bittersweet ending, and fans of Fujiwara’s work and/or the animated version may want to pick this up and see how the plot develops direction.
Whether you do or not, however, may depend on another thoughtful choice made by the anime’s creators. In the show, it’s not entirely clear what the age difference between Mira and Byakuya is – we know she left school after graduating from middle school (the end of compulsory education in Japan). in between, while Mira’s age remains unspecified, allowing the audience to make assumptions. (I thought he was about twenty.) But the manga clearly states their ages: Byakuya is fifteen or sixteen (she and Magical Girl Sparkle were once in the same class, and Sparkle was fifteen), while Mira II Seventeen years old. The discrepancy is enough to make readers uncomfortable, even if they suspect the whole setup is meant to be funny. Is the super capable Mira still so naive in love? As a juxtaposition, it’s quite classic and can be seen in both comics and prose works.
It’s also a story about a grown man falling madly in love with a child. This won’t be comfortable for everyone. Likewise, knowing a character’s age can help fan service The angle of the story is disturbing, although again I’m pretty sure it’s not intended to be taken seriously. The male gaze is strong in this title, but that’s part of the point. Byakuya’s familiar/mascot animal is a creepy grown man in a bodysuit who is Very Keen to let her use her vast assets to keep him in the style he wants to get used to. The pet cat is at least a hundred times more disgusting than Mira. The implication is that Byakuya’s glass happiness outfit is entirely his creation, designed to show off Byakuya’s figure. It’s a tongue-in-cheek way of illustrating that magical girl stories aren’t always aimed at their original target audience of little girls, acknowledging the adult male fanbase in a way designed to mock the audience’s transition. The cat sided with the creepy people who used the story to entertain them, while Mira was the defender of Byakuya’s spiritual purity. Part of the joke was that the cat pet needed Byakuya to remain a virgin so she could transform, while Mira was more keen to respect her.
That may sound too analytical and high-brow for what would ultimately be a comedy series, but comedy still has something to say. (See everything Terry Pratchett has written for an excellent example.) Fortunately, The magical girl and the evil lieutenant were once rivals Still very funny. The magical girl genre is more satirical than staccato, with cat pets gleefully twisting the genre’s basics, making glass bliss utter embarrassing catchphrases, and low-key battles between cat pets and bird pets poking fun at the mascot characters. Average. (The cat pet’s resurrection ability also seems to be a clear reference to Kyubey Puella Magi Madoka Magica.) Likewise, the second magical girl Shibana (we never learn her magical girl name) is a tsundere manga: she bites like a poorly trained Chihuahua, and half of her dialogue is ” The word “fuck”. (Or “f*ck.”) It’s kind of funny in the anime because the way she voice actor Saying it but still happily going crazy. The contrast between Hikka and Byakuya is very interesting.
As I mentioned before, the manga goes beyond the scope of the adaptation and begins a new storyline where Byakuya is captured by an evil organization (not Mira specifically) and imprisoned in a tower to be tortured (specifically Mira). Needless to say, Mira isn’t very good at this and the situation quickly turns into a happy “marriage” between them and everyone else thinking he’s spending his time doing horrible things to her. It doesn’t go very far, but it’s the only new material we get (at least from Fujiwara’s pen), and that alone makes it worth picking up the book. Also included is Fujiwara’s first published manga, which was apparently the source of ideas she came up with later in the series. It’s a rough production, the work of a creator who hasn’t quite matured yet, but it’s still fun, if not bittersweet.
From a four-panel comic perspective, this is a good comic. The chapter titles appear at the end of each four-panel page rather than at the beginning as is more common, and the pacing works well. Fujiwara’s art is lovely, but if fan service Aspects aren’t your thing, and this might not be your cup of tea since we got a lot of images of Byakuya with his bare chest. It’s not a complete story, but it’s fun to read, even if we never know the ending.
