Magical x Miracle

A brief impression of the series from the first volume

Ah, Shojo Manga. If the lead heroine got captured in any other genre, there'd most likely be a lot of fighting as her friends attempted to rescue her. Here, all that happens is the reader get a long monologue on how she is feeling.

Magical x Miracle is set in a fantasy world. Here wizards are real, and little girls cat cause flowers to appear out of mid-air (providing they have done their mandatory 10 minutes of inner monologue first).

The series stars a young girl called Merleawe (go on, try to pronounce that). She comes to a school of wizards to learn to be one, however she bares a surprising resemblance to their leader. Quickly she is kidnapped by the top brass and asked to impersonate him for official meetings and political speeches

Despite being put on the spot, this being a Shojo Manga Merleawe decides to do her very best, and agrees to help. Throughout the first volume, Merleawe tries to balance her student studies with the demands placed on her as her leader's double.

There is never any action, and she's never placed in any physical danger – instead the author uses her as a conduit for emotional damage. This is the sort of Manga for those people who like seeing people in difficult positions. Merleawe is set up for us, then we get to watch how she copes with everything, complete with her running commentary of how she is feeling

I didn't really see any major mistakes in this volume.

The fact that Merleawe never questioned the fact that she should go along with everything right from the start was possibly a missed chance to add some character progression to her character, but I felt the author did not want the first volume to be about Merleawe coming to accept her role – again, probably a fair call.

But having accepted her situation, Merleawe sure does spend a lot of time complaining to herself (and the reader) about what is happening.

It's also worth mentioning Magical x Miracle is set almost completely from Merleawe's point of view. Rarely does the reader see what characters are doing when she is not around, and the reader also shares Merleawe's lack of understanding of the world. It could be argued that this does give a big enough of a view of the story, but as the reader is supposed to be seeing things as Merleawe sees them, I felt that this was a fair call.

The first volume of Magical x Miracle focuses almost completely on Merleawe's emotions and the interaction between characters, for the most part forgoing action and plot development.

Listening to Merleawe's inner dialogue is a large part of what Magical x Miracle is about. But some people may feel that this is not enough to make an interesting comic, or worse be put off, so it's a bitter sweet thing.

I enjoyed it, and I hope to be able to read further into the series at some point.