Magi

i have to say that i enjoyed the manga until chapter 250 , i only read it to continue where the anime stopped, i can now see why the anime stopped ... at first, i enjoyed it a lot but it ended horribly ... i was hurt .. it was painful to see how the manga turns ... i really wanted it to stop ... i hope the story writer gets banned from ever creating such sinful 100 chapters that brutally murders the 269 chapters before it ... i loved the characters and their development , i think people should only read until chapter 250 and then improvise an ending on their own .... if you wish to read on, then get ready to ruin the whole thing for yourself.

i finished magi awhile ago but i recently finished rereading it so i thought i would write a review about it,well magi for me will always be a perfect manga simply because of the feelings of nostalgia that it gives me even though alot of people said that the final arc wasn't that good and i agree with them but i still enjoyed all of it anyway,most of magi is really enjoyable but the final arc is simply not that good but please don't let that prevent you from reading it, it's a really underated manga so please give it a try.

A lot of shonens really dont appeal to me because they a lot of the meat and excitment of Manga like Naruto is centered around hyping these amazing fights which are amazing but fights are such a quick grab for entertainment in manga that it doesn't get me invested or entertained as much

Magi hits different notes in Shounen while their are these amazing fights what I love about Magi is the adventure aspect of its story and its dedication to the construction of the world

you literally are in Magi it escalates not through fights most of the time but through the scope of the world and your knowledge of the world and position of the characters in the world theirs a great sense of the world feeling richly carved nations with culture and history thats really introduced amazingly in an adventurous fashion

Magi simply knows how to entertain you in other ways than straight up fights but exploration, inventive situations and problems that aren't as easily solvable, and character maturity <3

One of my all-time favorite. Like most others, I was not fully satisfied with the ending. Nevertheless, it was an amazing read. It was full of humor, love/hate, fantasy politics, ideologies, beliefs, and multiple allusions. From the beginning to the end, everything made sense and everything fit in place.
.
Story - 10
It has a solid base,

Art - 10
Just so amazing

Character - 10
Unique characters with their own strong personalities. No damsel in distress and no forced dark-skinned characters.

Enjoyment - 10
It's been a while since I laughed from a manga. I did multiple times throughout reading.

Overall - 10
I love this and forever will.

I first started watching Magi out of mere boredom. I didn't expect much from the show (and honestly, I still don't), but I started reading the manga out of curiosity anyway, because I was getting a little impatient with the anime. Boy, was I blown away.

Story – 9

The bulk of Magi's story follows the story of Aladdin, a boy who travels the world to find out who he really is and what he's supposed to do. In his adventure, Aladdin's main companions are Alibaba, a young man with a strong sense of determination, and Morgiana, an ex-slave that Aladdin and Alibaba saves from captivity. Of course, they encounter bumps in the road and make wrong turns, but in the end, fate paves their destiny. The story, while occasionally light and amusing, has serious and cruel tones and themes throughout.

Art – 9

The art in Magi is fantastic. It goes from being humorous to serious while keeping a consistent style. The designs of the characters are easily differentiated from one another, the fighting scenes are amazing and full of detail, and the art always fits the mood of the scene.

Character – 10

Now this is where this manga shines. All the main characters have amazing character development and they mature on throughout the story. Aladdin does have some typical mainstream characteristics, but the back story behind him, his bond and interactions with other characters, are deep, fleshed out, and entertaining. Alibaba isn't perfect and sometimes he makes the wrong decisions, but in the end that's what makes him a character that isn't flat and boring. Morgiana, despite her superhuman strength, is determined to become as strong as Aladdin and Alibaba and help people so that they didn't live a hellish life like hers. Of course, those are just the main characters. Most of the recurring characters and even some of the minor characters have interesting back stories and actions. The manga doesn't only focus on the main three, but everyone.

Overall - 9

I rather enjoy this manga, and I'm definitely looking forward to what will happen next. However it does occasionally have its flaws and in my opinion it's pace is a bit slow (but I'm rather impatient, so that's probably just me), so I can't give it a perfect 10. It's a shounen manga that has really made its mark and separates itself from others – in a good way. Overall, I'll absolutely recommend this manga to anyone who's deciding on whether or not to read it.


//I apologize if this review sounds amatuerish, because it's my first one. If you have any opinions, feel free to comment about it !!

STORY:
This series has a very fun concept and setting. It has a middle-eastern style setting in a fantasy world of magic. It is an adventure series for the most part, not only geographically but also ventures in ideology and politics. The characters travel to different countries and are either involved in the land's political situation or partake in some sort of quest. The adventure aspect is definatly the most appealing aspect of this series, however, 2/3rds the way in, it dives deeper into politics and ideology, which is much more text heavy and differs from the "fun" - which may not be to everyone's taste. Although, personally I think the actual ending was satisfying.

ART:
The down fall of the series for me would be the art. The actual character and background designs are actually quite stunning, however the actual drawing is inconsistent, with some pages looking beautiful, and some pages looking off model, especially towards the end. I must say, the characters in their 30s look way too young, particularly Simbad, who looks younger and younger as the series progresses. Despite good designs, their actual faces lack variety, with some characters looking almost identical without their most distinctive characteristics. For someone who puts art high about anything else, it was excruciating to read. Unlike other mangaka, Ohkata Shinobu seems to be getting worse.

CHARACTER:
As I said, the actual character designs are okay, it's just the drawing skill that isn't as good. The characters are well developed, even the supporting cast. You can really understand their motivation behind their actions, making them more real and believable. You can see who the characters develop in time, it's not just a sudden change, but gradual. This is one of the few shounen that actual spans across several years with an actual sense of time, and we get to see how everyone grows.

ENJOYMENT:
Overall, I did enjoy this series. It is different from the classic shounen but is still very enjoyable. However, at times, it was really difficult to read, but other times, I just couldn't stop. I feel that it's a bit inconsistent, starting off excellently and wavering towards the final third it's run. I still recommend it as a series that actually ends properly and has a plot right from the start.

I picked up this series a couple years ago at the library and since then it's become one of my favorite manga series ever. (Right behind D.Gray-Man, which is also amazing! Go check it out!!) At the beginning it's very playful and fun with some innuendos thrown about here and there, but it get's extremely intense. The character and plot build up is very similar to shonen manga like Blue Exorcist and D.Gray-Man. All of which have a have a fun and goofy beginning that eventually builds up to become extremely serious to the point of self reflection. I absolutely love stories like that so if you liked the manga for those two, you'd love magi. (The Blue Exorcist manga is way better than the anime btw).


Story:

Like I said, it's got an amazing build up. It's very friendly and bubbly at the beginning, but towards the end it gets super serious. It's heavily influenced religion and politics creating controversy through different perspectives shown in the manga. It really reflects politics in real life where it almost seems like an opinion sounds amazing, but then another opinion is told which makes you completely contemplate your likening in the previous one and the cycle continues. It's very eye opening and makes you much more aware of everything that's going on around you. Magi's story, plot, controversy along with it's extremely good representation of people's different views and the research that must have gone into it is all terrific. (I really wish the anime kept going because it just started getting good with the Magnostadt arc)

Art:

The simplistic, unique, bubbly sort of art style holds extraordinary use of detail to bring out an intense scenes and movement throughout the series. A little bit similar to the dramatic faces used in Assassination Classroom (the manga, I'm not sure about the anime), Magi uses gruesome facial features or other characteristics besides the face to emphasize certain characters and scenes. My only problem is that with adult faces (mainly Sinbad) seem to be a bit wonky in the volumes and on the covers, and out of everything from the manga, I do like the improvement. (but yea *cough* volume 35 *cough*) Otherwise it's great.


Character:

I basically talked about the characters when talking about the plot and art. All I'm going to add is that the characters in magi really bring out the fact that we are human, and remind us readers of the basicness of being human and our needs, wants and naturalness. Besides that, the development is great and although I don't really like Sinbad (he's hella scary!!), his character is extremely well done and is the face of what I talked about with the plot.


Overall I enjoyed it immensly. I have about five more volumes to go, but I've been reading it for years (I wait for the library to buy more volumes instead of reading them online or buying them) and I reccomend it along with D.Gray-Man to everyone because of how amazing it is. The only reason I wouldn't recomend it is if you are a light reader and don't want to have to read about deep topics that make you self reflect and contimplate. If you have watched the anime, read the manga, it's better. If you haven't watched or read it, read the manga first. Like I said, the beginning is light hearted and possibly a little bit cheesy at times, but it builds up to become one of my most favorite manga of all time.

.Story :10


The story takes place in a world inspired from different civilizations. The Roman Empire for Reim, the Abbassid empire for Balbad (Bagdad) and many other references that you better discover on your own. The manga treats about a lot of serious issues like slavery, war, truth and revolutions despite the "childish" first impression it gave me. The story doesn't only focus on the "Main Trio" (A.K.A. Alibaba/Morgiana/aladin). At certain points, it really goes wild, including new characters in the team, seperating them and following everyone of them seperatly. By this way, we explore the large world created by the author and discover so many different ways of thinking and ways of life, that, at a certain point, when there is a confrontation, you don't know any longer who to support. In fact, one of the big "pluses" in Magi is that every ideology is developped and arged. Of course, like in any other shonen manga, there is a "great evil orgonisation". But them too have their own reason to fight.


. Art 8


The art is messed up. Sometimes it is cutness overload when in other times it goes really dark. And personnally, I love it. The mangaka isn't afraid of drawing flying arms or heads but has extreamly cute chibis. The outfit design is detailed and perfecty suits the atmosphere. The expressions of the characters make them seem so alive. Some of them are heartbreaking.


.Characters: 10


Other great point: characters' development. I fell in love with them. They are real. Everyone of them has a background story that affects his life. Everyone of them has his own goal. Everyone of them has a part of shadow. And we especially see that through Hakuryuu, Sindbad and Morgiana.
Morgiana is a slave that have been freed. She's extreamly powerfull sinse she's a Fanalis (a Tribe of great warriors). And this is an important point because, unlike the majority of Shonen female characters, she is...USEFULL. She isn't there for fanservice. She actually has guts. She doesn't cry for help. She solves her problems on her own and beats up whoever tries to harm her friends. Morgiana won all my respect.
Sindbad is a great king, he's hot and is willing to do anything for the sake of his country. But over the chapters, we discover a dark side of his highness. He's such a complex character that he's having his own manga (here is a link http://myanimelist.net/manga/48025/Magi:_Sinbad_no_Bouken ). To be frank, I am confused and I don't know what to think of him. Should I like him, or hate him ? Hey seriously ! Why don't you read Magi and help me ?


. Overall:9


I've started reading Magi Labyrith of magic because someone told me that it is close to One Piece.
In a certain way, it is. The art is messed up but good in its own way, the characters are nicely developped and I can only enjoy its greatness. Overall, Magi is great and the mangaka has a lot of talent but it is underreated in many countries and this should change.

Story 2
magi started with some good arcs at the very start after the end of the kingdom of magic it went downhill. It tried to pass a message of "don't try to repeat the past" but deliveried it very poorly and boring. After that we had a few reveals for Hakuryuu one of the only good characters in the entire manga and Judar, a war starts and everyone's fighting after the tragedy that happend I've started enjoying a little bit that semi war arc and then... Alibaba and Aladdin had to ruin it with Aladdin being op and throwing Judar into the damn space and Alibaba just not being that interesting at all even though what happend to him at that very moment... Aladdin got for once a bit of character development and only that one time. After a timeskip the world didn't made much sense and how Sinbad got to do all that it is later revealed that Sinbad is the final boss and he went pretty hateable character with no motivation for trying to re-create the world Aladdin grew 30cms after 3 years and Morgiana tied her hair the final arc I am just not gonna say anything about it. It was just a huge suffering

Art 8
Is actually very good backgrounds and powers etc

Characters 3
The cast went downhill due to story Judar became just a poor written character one of the only edgelords I enjoyed at start, Hakuryuu is the only character WITH a motivation the main characters are just not well developed, Sinbad also became a trash character on the last arcs, honorable mentions most of the Kou family are actually good characters Kouen Ren is a good king that will give you an actual lesson in life and have some really good moments when fighting Koumei Ren had an interesting ability and could have a good character but the author forgot about him Kouha Ren
had a personality he might seem like a killer but actually is scared of stronger enemies and cares about his army. Kougyoku Ren had a damn good development and acted realistic to the situation after the timeskip.

Enjoyment 2
Story went downhill and characters were poor written

Overall 3
Magi might start as a good journey by introducing an interesting cast,concept,story but it will go downhill at the end of the day I just don't want to see that series in front of me again that's my opinion feel free to disagree

Set in a world inspired by the Arabian Nights, this manga is a long experience exploring multitude of characters, cultures and skills.

Story: The setting is already interesting, to begin with. The world is beautifully built, with enormous amounts of development not only for characters but for the world's history as well. In fact, there's an entire arc dedicated to this. While it may be considered an action shounen, because of obvious reasons, the political theme is very interesting. This causes fights in a different dimension, which isn't that common in these kinds of manga. The only issue I have with the story is that the final arc feels very rushed, and the closure may be a bit unsatisfactory for some.

Art: Not the most original artstyle, but it definitely works and I enjoy it. Action scenes are well portrayed and the characters have good designs. There isn't much to say, there's just nothing wrong with the art here.

Characters: Immense development with plenty of different characters makes this perfect. Despite some possible flaws in their design, I'm inclined to ignore them because of all the work put into it. Also, I really like the co-protagonist idea.

Overall enjoyment: It's a great manga, definitely worth reading. A great world to explore and many characters to meet, with great action and even political themes mixed in. There is an anime adaptation, but I wouldn't recommend it.

This is a new read for me and I like! I admit while I was reading the first chapter I thought that I wouldn't like the series much, but before I knew it I had caught up to the current chapter. Magi is a huge world that is a little bit like a mix between Tower of Druaga, 12 Kingdoms, and The Arabian Nights. Pack your bags and get ready for this magic carpet ride.

What I was most surprised by was the story transition of this manga. It begins as a pretty silly manga but then introduces serious themes such as slavery, slums, revolution, coup d'état, and the question of destiny and birth right.

I may be giving it too much credit, but I recommend it.

The world of Magi is an impeccably designed and sculpted mecca of allusion and fantasy.

Reading Magi makes my mind feel free. Perhaps this would not apply to all readers, but Magi is one of the few manga that made me roll around in excitement, cry tears of despair, and ponder my role in the world. It is a series that, I feel, has made me more humble.

One of the principles that Magi applies excellently to the story is yin and yang--not the simple "good and bad" trope. It is with this that the story, but most importantly, the characters grasp their complexity and realistic human depiction. Not to mention, the research done for the manga is done tremendously, with the depictions of the Middle East, Rome, etc. The designs for all the characters are quite beautiful, and the art is complex with serious attention to detail down to the jewelry the characters wear. The amount of research and time put into designing the world is frankly, amazing, and for readers who love theorizing about manga, there is no better series than Magi. The aspects such as international relations, economics, and war also add a pristine finishing touch to the realistic facet of Magi.

I agree with other readers that the ending had an incomplete feel, but with such a large universe such as Magi's, it is difficult to fully explain the entire world--also, it leaves more up to the imagination and theory, to keep the readers fully immersed in the world and its magic ;)

Even if you are not a lover of adventure and fantasy, Magi is a must-read that will leave you craving for the next chapter and the wondrous magic that fills its pages.

Let me start off by saying that Magi will present itself as being inspired by the famous Arabian piece of literature 1001 Nights, its really not in all frankness. While it certainly takes some names and a couple of small ideas, its very much its own independent story, which is certainly for the best.

Story 7/10
Most people give the story either a 9 or 10, but I believe that's being too generous. Before people jump at me with sabers, let me explain myself. The story itself is good, and allows for a lot of characterization and dimension given, and combined with a really interesting setting that takes numerous cues from the real world, it allows for a fleshed out, and interesting world to see and get lost in. You have everything from a China-equivalent, to a Baghdad-equivalent, to an Egypt-equivalent, to a Rome-equivalent.
There is however a proverbial Achilles heel with the story: how its told. The pacing of the story is rather questionable, going from quick action scenes to long extended periods of exposition and debate between the characters about everything from politics to philosophy to basic ethics. As a result, this series can get VERY talky, particularly when it comes to various notes about politics, economics, and even how magic works. During these, the story grinds to a screeching halt, and all the showing is replaced by telling. I suppose the point is to flesh out this world as much as possible, but I'm not sure how many shounen fans read manga to hear a discussion about the economic and political implications of imperialism.

Art 8/10
The art here is very good, though the reason I didn't give it a 9 or 10, is that while its very flashy and creative, some of the expressions and designs can be a tad too weird for my tastes. Also, sometimes it can be hard to gauge things such as size or distance from the angles and shots it uses.

Character 9/10
In my opinion, the strongest part of the series isn't the story, its the characters by far. I often gauge them by how much of the character I remember, and I remember all the characters. They all have their own unique traits, skills, and quirks that make them memorable, and stand out. My favorite character is certainly Alibaba. While he does exhibit some typical shounen tropes, like being rebellious, losing his mother at a young age, and being kind hearted, in a departure from traditional shounen characters, he's not entirely confident with himself. Rather, he often needs real encouragement and push from his friends in order to accomplish his dreams. If I had to choose the best shounen protagonist, I'd definitely say it was Alibaba.

Enjoyment: 8/10
Ultimately this is a really enjoyable and engrossing series, but it takes a certain level of patience. Expect a lot of political and economic talk a lot, and brace yourself for long scenes of exposition. However, that doesn't damage the enjoyment of the series, and there are still the flashy action scenes with magic, flying around, explosions, and all the good stuff.

Overall: 8/10
A combination of a strong setting, a good story, and great characters make for a very strong series that I would definitely recommend. However, with a slightly off paced narrative, and with slightly too much exposition, it prevents it from being prefect.

Magi is a rare manga that managed to grab me less due the writing and art, but more due to gaining admiration for the author and my desire to see good parts of it through while looking what went wrong and why. Sadly I don’t have the answer to that, but I’d still like to talk about what makes Magi great/bad while looking forward to her new manga, Orient, being an improvement.

The beginning of Magi might give people a wrong idea of what’s to come. It seemed plain and in some ways, generic. You got yet another fantasy world, though this time with a huge focus on Asian and Arabic regions instead of the usual Europe which is somewhat refreshing. You got a power system not too different from the others, with magic and magic items and weapons with special abilities. Initially there’s even a pretty straightforward seeming plot progression of traveling across the world and capturing dungeons and beating up bad guys.

However, Magi quickly deviates from its peers towards political conflict and moral dilemmas. This is at the same time its biggest strength and downfall. When it works, the manga presents you with some genuinely fair arguments and intrigue. Characters get to have real debates, instead of right side and wrong side it’s more often about people doing morally reprehensible things for a good cause, or retaliating after they were wronged themselves. One such example are the ruling dynasty of Kou empire. Even though their unrelenting conquest of other territories seems aggressive, and their homogenization of culture disrespectful, behind it is an effort to prevent future strife under the premise that much conflict is born through disagreement and under one ideology they’d be able to instill peace. This is not the most realistic solution but this is not the most realistic world so I think it’s interesting regardless that even villains seem to have real reasons behind their actions.

Same way when it comes to politics it feels like Magi takes a note from real world history. This makes countries almost feel like characters in and of themselves cause there’s an organic relationship between citizens and government. Some of the best examples of that is Balbadd, one of the first cities we see. Incapable leadership by a corrupt monarch leads to bad relationship between rich and poor classes of society, eventually it all leads up to a revolt, bloodshed, and a new ruler. Yet, troubles don’t end there. Since last monarch managed to get country in a huge debt it falls under control of Kou empire who forces Balbadd to accept their culture, way of life and government yet since this doesn’t sit well with some of its older citizens and political figures, it promotes yet more conflicts down the line. There’s a whole lot of stuff like this, especially during the later parts of the manga where for the longest time, conflicts tend to center around politics and economics rather than actual fights.
On top of that, while this is not much more than reference, I really like how seemingly every country in the world of Magi has a real life alternative. It’s obvious that plenty research went into this and I wonder how much more a history buff would get out it.

Unfortunately there are always exceptions. Being fair an argument can lead to some interesting dialogue but when that fairness is unwarranted it just leads to some stupidity. For the first time this really annoyed me during the part where our main character Aladdin opposes mages who keep normal humans under their city in terrible conditions as they sap their magic energy (which is also what everything is made out of in this world so if you get drained you die) top mage man explains to him the story behind this all and why he thinks it’s justified. That’s nice and all but then time comes around the argument of “well they don’t mind it/like it so why would you free them” when talking about people who were forced into conditions they live in and beaten into submission until they convinced themselves to enjoy it. Aladdin just accepts this as fair and doesn’t reply and we just ignore that from then on. This example was bad to me but worst one is right near the end of the manga. It’s slight spoilers but basically there’s a point in the story where everyone in the world is convinced that dying and blending together in the great flow of life as pure energy (rukh, the stuff mentioned above that mages siphon). Main characters for a while wonder if it’s really okay to save people since they’re all so happy about it and it’s just wild. You’re not being fair to anyone, you know they don’t want this, why are you doubting this? It’s like watching someone get hypnotized and being told to jump off the roof and you watch as they walk towards the edge thinking “well they’re seem really into the idea of jumping off the roof, who am I to judge?”. I try to be fair too and this is obviously an issue of personal view more than anything but I think most people will agree with me on the point mentioned above.

Overall Magi’s message becomes loud and clear as you follow the story. It’s narrative about what’s right and wrong. It is right to control people for peace? Is it fine to kill if it makes the world better? The questions it asks are vague but answer is generally the same. Magi consistently rejects any kind of moral system by pointing their flaws or hypocrisies, instead going for a much more idealistic answer of doing what you feel is right and dealing with consequences. It celebrates personal will and diversity of thought instead of any sort of constrictions for the sake of pragmatic results. This might seem a bit too basic cause “just bee yourself” is such a cliche and generalized thing to say but I think Magi’s way of getting to it through difficult moral problems is interesting and engaging cause for once instead of the usual “I AM RIGHT AND YOU ARE WRONG, BY BEATING YOU WITH MY FISTS I WILL PROVE THIS TO BE TRUE” followed with “YOU BEAT ME WITH YOUR FISTS OF JUSTICE, NOW I KNOW THAT YOUR WAY IS THE WAY OF TRUTH” we get something more human to chew on.

Buuuut, there’s a caveat to that too and it’s one of the biggest I have with Magi. This caveat is plot focusing on the moral message so much, that they forget to do anything else. Moral dilemmas are interesting for some time but that has a limited appeal. I need to relate to characters or at least care about them to engage with what happens to them and wish to follow it but in Magi there’s no time for that. Even when it comes to some of the most important characters you get to know fuck all about them! For example Alibaba’s entire character is that he’s upbeat, fair and nice but also wants to date a girl and be loved. Doesn’t sound too interesting does it? And two lasts points only pop up during gag segments if I recall. Even less could be said about Aladdin, a person with no eyebrows is more interesting and the only thing a person with no eyebrows has going for them is minor lack of hair on their face. Aladdin is just a nice kid who likes meeting friends, learning stuff and other shit. That’s it. This is who you follow for the majority of the manga. All because there’s so much focus on repeating the same basic structure and same type of argument instead of doing something new and expanding on your universe and characters.

What makes this such a travesty is that there’s short bonus chapters at the end of each volume and they bring more life to characters than the actual main chapters! They all revolve around quirkier aspects of these characters that aren’t seen or used enough otherwise. When I finally finished reading this manga I kinda wanted to see more of these characters but then realized I just want more of those bonus chapters. Ohtaka’s got a sense of humor too and you don’t need to see bonus chapters for that but maybe if she was daring to put more lighthearted and SoL segments in this manga we’d be able to get better feel for the characters and maybe care just a bit more when they face real danger.

Don’t have a good segue for it but the universe had a lot of potential too. Since they’re all vaguely based on different countries, you already got the complex culture for future reference and since the manga takes place in roughly medieval times, yet with heavy presence of magic, there’s SO much ground for exploring different possibilities. What would occur if certain cultures got their hands on certain type of technology or magic ahead of others? How would they use it, how would the others respond? There’s a moment like that in the manga that I enjoyed a whole lot. It happens in the later parts of it and concerns a militaristic country reforming into one focused on business in accordance with the new world order set by one of the characters. To reform their country they take many steps but they face a big problem. Their country is so big and their business partners are so far apart that transportation is difficult and costly. They get screwed out of access to technology more sophisticated than a wagon and resort to magic. In the end they come up with mobile magic circles that teleport goods and people to points setup across the map. This revolutionizes trading but doesn’t go as smoothly when countries they want to trade with start raising rather realistic concerns. If only there more of that. Instead the world is only able to come out ahead of characters thanks to the story focusing on politics so damn much.

I avoided talking about what Magi is actually about for so long and that’s not because I forgot or don’t want to spoil it but because at the end of this negative section I only have a little mention for it. The plot of magi is fucked up, unfocused mess with no weight or intrigue. It’s hard to even talk about it because there’s no proper structure to it. It’s just a series of things happening over and over for some reason until big bad escalates it to the max and we get a final conflict with a final resolution and a flaccid “everything was fine” happy ending.

At last I’d like to talk about art and end this on a positive note. I think the art of Magi is great. On a purely technical level it’s not the most impressive thing you’ll see in WSJ but Ohtaka’s sense of style more than compensates for it. More than once throughout the manga you’ll see pages dominated by a single panel with some intricate designs that depict magical formulas or symbolic and religious imagery. Spreads with a lot of detail that don’t fail to convey sheer scale of combat between large armies or simply beautiful scenery. Even on smaller scale it’s an enjoyable manga to read cause of how lovely and energetic everything is. The multitudes of expression on faces of characters helps dramatic scenes and sometimes serves as a punchline for comedy. When it comes to combat Ohtaka usually puts emphasis on powerful and expressive forms. I think it’s somewhat weak at the beginning but at some point she’s gets really good at this so even plain, uninspired action scenes become a pleasant sight thanks to the amount of impact, momentum and general power that comes through the art. It helps that a lot of the manga seems to be drawn using a brush pen that always leads to some delicious nuance in line art. Overall this was a good chunk of why enjoyed the manga.

That’s about all I have to say. This turned out rather ranty but there’s a lot of things I wanted to say. I hope what came across is that Magi is a manga with both great highlights and weaknesses but in the end, I feel like the strong points of it are good enough to warrant some appreciation. Orient, please be good.

Honestly I watched the anime before I even started on the manga, but oh boy am I glad that I read it!

While I was on an anime binge I ran out of Magi episodes to watch, and I didn't want to go back and re-watch the first and part of the second (I was up to episode 19, and waiting on 20)

I wanted to know what happened next, but I had been told by a friend that there were some major differences between the anime and the manga, so I went and read the entire thing (up to 214) in another of my binge reading/watching sessions and I'm impressed with the entire thing as a whole! I love the anime and the show!

It doesn't happen very often, but through enough searching you can eventually find a diamond in the rough, and that is what Magi is to me. It is rare for me to get into a series and not find a "flaw" in it, but that is what Magi is. I have never seen a series before where there are literally no bad characters in it, but Magi is just that. Magi is a unique and mesmerizing experience in an expansive magical world that can be as frightening as it can beautiful. The story flows extremely well for the bulk of the manga with the only questioning areas being early in the story and very brief. Also, despite it seemingly generic and "goody two shoes," themes, the story does an excellent job of surprising the reader by going in the complete opposite direction at the most exciting times. I never once found the story to be boring, lacking, or repetitive. On top of this, Magi, is at no loss for interesting, loveable, and hateable characters (Hating in a good way). There are all different characters with all different personas, goals, methods, and abilities. The development for these characters isn't lacking either, especially in the case of Alibaba. Overall, I'd say the only real problems with the series are some personal problems that others may have with the art. The art can be a little "much" at times. The author enjoys using a very huge lighting effect to symbolize happy emotions, but it can seem a little garish to some. The author's personal artwork may also not be to some peoples' liking. However, if these are the only flaws in the story, then it's strength more than make up for them. Magi has become my all time favorite manga, and I hope that you give it a try.

Magi. Oh boi were do I start. Its starts off pretty childish, builds strong characters and keeps going for around 250 amazing chapters and horribly crashes and burns to the End. Id honestly recomend against reading the manga. Spoil yourself in the character Bio's and be done with it. There are some interesting things that happen with the setting later but the story also becomes literaly one asspull per chapter, it turns into the most generic muh friendship garbage, and honstely, I woudnt have read the last 30 chapters if it not for completion. The Anime covered the best parts of magi, and just stick with that
Story:____6 (per ~250 9 the closer it come to the end 1)
Art:______7 (characters are suprisingly hard to keep apart in monochrom due to the high saturation)
Character:_8 (would be 9, but the last third screws with it, like with everthing)
Enjoyment:3(dont force yourself to finish it, just drop it once you dont like it anymore)
Overall :__ 5 (had it at 6 OG, but it realy did leave a lingering bitter taste.)
--IF you insist on reading as much of the manga as is enjoyable till right were it goes downhill read till
chapter 318

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.

*Note*: I watched the first season of Magi before I got into the manga. While the anime is very good, aside from the Balbadd arc, it is very different and much more rushed than the manga. I highly recommend both, but the manga is definitely the one I prefer.

Magi Labyrinth of Magic is something unique in the popular long-running shounen manga category alongside such renowned works like One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, and Fairy Tail. None of them come anywhere near being as intellectual as Magi is. Despite not being a psychological manga, Magi still manages to look at what is right or wrong and what is good or evil through a historical perspective. In my mind it stands alongside psychological manga and anime such as Death Note, Shinsekai Yori, and Shiki by asking the real important questions about humans and society. This is not a story about who can beat the shit out of who by becoming the strongest in the world. It uses social issues from human history such as discrimination, slavery, monarchy vs. republicanism, and many more topics. This manga does not have a clear end in sight, but it sure as hell knew what it was trying to accomplish right from the first few chapters even before the central conflict was ever mentioned.

Story – 9/10

Wait, this is a shounen/action manga with no end in sight, how can it earn a such a high rating in the story category? Magi is all about the story. Characters come together from all across the known world (and even farther) to join together in this ever-growing tale. Characters who seem to be just be there for filler end up serving a purpose and even show up later (the trio of thieves in the Balbadd arc for example).

The story of Magi begins with Aladdin, who is a Magi which is a human who can draw in the Rukh (the energy that creates everything in the world) from around him and use it as magic. Normal humans can only use the rukh from within themselves to use whatever powers they have (magic, the power of metal vessels given to them by Djinns, etc.). Aladdin meets a boy, Alibaba, who is working for an oppressive boss. Alibaba dreams of one day being able to capture a dungeon (these mysterious “buildings” that began appearing in random places all over the world a little over a decade ago) and becoming rich. But Alibaba does not want to be rich just to become rich unlike most of the people who are wealthy and greedy. He has personal reason that I won’t give away involving his home country and his childhood friend. At first Alibaba just wants to use Aladdin’s amazing Magi powers to achieve his goal, but, along with the Fanalis (red-pink haired people with incredible physical strength) Morgiana who was a slave that the two of them helped free from her sadistic master, they eventually become friends and agree to travel the world together (yeah that plan still hasn’t really happened because of a lot of stuff that gets in the way). But that stuff that gets in the way is all very interesting and is really what the story is all about: how the main characters Alibaba, Aladdin, and Morgiana come together with everyone they meet in order to protect this world that is being threatened by a mysterious group known as Al-Tharmen. Al-Tharmen is causing chaos all around the world by influencing people and helping struggling countries either by offering them weapons, money, power, or all of the above.

From there, the world unfolds and the great story that Magi has only just begun becomes a fantastic tale of rebellion, magic, war, and friendship (well it is a shounen/action manga of course it has friendship as a strong aspect).

Art – 10/10

One great thing about Magi is the emotions, whether comedic or dark. I really love the way the art portrays the characters during the humorous scenes (they get scarcer and scarcer as the story progresses though if you’re looking for a lot of comedy then try Fairy Tail not Magi). This manga (as well as the anime) really do an amazing job with the darker aspects of this story, and trust me there are a lot. This manga is actually pretty gruesome at times (Morgiana can kick straight through huge mutant animals and come out the other side). This manga has plenty of blood and the author is not afraid to show it all. The action scenes are also very well done, but of course with any action manga suffer a little in ways that the anime can portray a bit better. Still it’s not a problem at all and I am definitely not saying they are poorly drawn by any means. Most characters (especially Aladdin, Judal, Cassim, Jafar, etc.) have really great and unique characters designs. Some characters look a little similar, but mostly just because of the lack of color. The only ones I can think of (like Sinbad and Mu Alexius) have not actually appeared together so far so it does not pose a problem.

Characters – 9/10

Alibaba, Jafar, and Aladdin are my personal favorites so far, but the character cast keeps expanding and amazing characters are added into the story. Magi does have a damn large character cast, but one thing this manga does well is not focusing too much on the main trio. In fact, only a couple arcs have even had all three main characters (Alibaba, Aladdin, and Morgiana) all together. In most arcs they go their separate ways and it is their interactions with the people they meet that is really important. Do not expect Alibaba or Aladdin to be like Luffy or Natsu and just steal the show and defeat the main villain in each arc, because that’s not how this manga goes. It’s a joint effort from everyone that wins. The minor characters in this manga are great: Sinbad and his eight generals (Jafar is in them and I love how he keeps Sinbad, one of the most overpowered people in the world, in check and actually scares Sinbad), the Ren family (aside from Hakuryuu there are several other extremely powerful men and women who have all captured dungeons), and the people of the many other nations like Reim (obviously based off the Roman empire), Magnostadt, Balbadd, etc. This manga gives an equal amount of time to all of the minor characters whether they are recurring or not, allowing you to connect with all of the interesting and unique characters that this story has in its vast world.

Enjoyment – 9/10

This manga is just amazing. It’s amazing to me how it can deviate from the usual shounen/action genre and become so intellectual (it’s not deviating to the point where it becomes something like Evangelion in the mecha genre but still…). All of the characters are intelligent and unique, and the art allows the deep emotions they are feeling through loss and despair, as well as happiness and success to be shown to their fullest. Magi the Labyrinth of Magic is something I recommend to anyone who enjoys intelligent manga about society or anyone who enjoys shounen/action manga as I don’t think most people from either group will be disappointed. If you like things like Fairy Tail, One Piece, or Blue Exorcist or if you enjoy things like Shiki, Code Geass, or Shinsekai Yori, then I fully recommend Magi to you, and you may want to check out the anime as well.

Magi, First Impressions,

I really think the idea being in the desert is very unique and the story about some treasure seems pretty interesting. I think it is funny through how the names of the main characters are ones of famous people like Aladdin and Alibaba from Alibaba and the 40 thieves, look him up, he's real.

Story - 9 Great:
I like the story so far and I think it is very funny how at first Alibaba turns Aladdin into his slave at first, but as he sees how useful this kid is he decides to become friends with him to go in search of some treasure.

Art - 9 Great:
I like the art, it feels like I am reading an anime, but I don't like the people with overly exaggererated body proportions like that fat rich guy had. It just doesn't appeal to me unless everybody is a little off then I consider it normal.

Character - 9 Great:
They feel like an older brother little brother relationship kind of like Kamina and Simon from Gurren Lagann. I think they are funny and Aladdin's friend is a little weird but I am expecting a very interesting character from him. Other than that I don't know of any enemies of girls yet.

Enjoyment 7 Good:
Okay, so as you saw I thought this manga was interesting, but it has yet to make me enjoy it at first glance, so I will be reading on waiting for it to impress, I have high expectations for it.

Overall 9 Great:
Can't wait to read on and dive into this one. I love the idea of this and it will be exciting to see where this one goes.