It is not often that you see an adventure shonen that is brave enough to go the extremes yet provide all the enjoyment which the fans of this genre demand. Magi by Shinobu Ohtaka, is easily one of the best currently ongoing shonen manga out there.

Combining the elements of Magic and characteristics of Monarchy, Shinobu creates what is a must read manga for all the fans who want something thought provoking at their plate. Magi gives the readers what other mainstream series have failed to do in last couple of years i.e. sense of purpose.

The two core problems faced by mainstream shonen series currently are plot and character handling. Many mangaka just bore the readers to death by introducing vague concepts and plot devices that appear to be an “escape route” rather than a planned move. That is no exception to the series involving magic. It is a convenient tool which can be successfully used by anyone against any baddie aiming for world domination. While in these cases, the fights may appear to look good, the plot and characters end up suffering a lot.

Magi gives us a world that where the class difference is at its extreme. We see the weak yet innocent getting devoured by the status quo. Racial Discrimination, Slavery, Wagging wars to obtain resources, Causing Civil Wars, Dark Justice, Famine, and Poverty are all present. We also see revenge breading more revenge and causing nothing but chaos. Dark Powers of paper money, human mentality of self-submission and dependence on others are also some interesting concepts that we rarely get to see in shonen manga. However Shinobu’s greatness lies in the fact that while playing with such extreme elements she hasn’t ignored basic shonen ingredients rather used them to great effect. So we get to see the evil organizations at work, Nakama Power, good guys bouncing back from the jaws of defeat, cool and attractive powerups, mysterious men like Urahara, revenge seeking vampires like Sasuke, great and timely dosages of comedy, bits of fan service here and there and a story which leaves a lot of room for discussion and theory making.

The only reason why I haven’t given this series is a perfect score is because it is currently ongoing and lots can happen with a shonen manga. But like many others, I’m certain that Shinobu will keep up the great work that she has been doing thus far.