Spotlight: Magi

Aladdin and Alibaba meet.

Together, they fight crime!

The Cute Kid

Magi is the story of Alibaba, Aladdin, and Morgiana as they become friends and face lots of enemies together.

At the beginning, the story seems to be about simple adventuring, but quickly grows in complexity as details about the world (and Aladdin’s mysterious background) are revealed.

The main trio find themselves drawn into a battle against a shadowy organization that is trying to manipulate the fate of the world for nefarious purposes.

Also, politics.

Seriously.

If Al-Thamen didn’t exist these people would still politic each other to death.

The Long Suffering One

As far as shounen manga go, Magi is rather unique. Instead of having an Asian-themed setting or something more European, the world of Magi is inspired by One Thousand and One Nights.

Loosely inspired.

There are Djinns and characters that share the names with the ones in the classical work (Aladdin, Sinbad, Alibaba, etc.), but don’t go into it expecting accuracy.

What you should expect is a very rich world with plenty of fun characters. Magi takes place in a Mediterranean setting and the author has taken advantage of it by having in-story equivalents of China, Rome, Greece and even Egypt.

The Darkness Bros

Magi succeeds in several levels. The action is fun. The world is well thought-out and the power levels are nicely defined. Additionally, the author does good job in portraying her characters in several shades of grey.

When there is a war going on, she manages to portray the points of both sides and doesn’t excessively vilify on character which is rare to see.

However, it also has its downsides.

The current flashback arc which is just now finished, for example, over stayed its welcome.

Additionally, I find myself rooting more for the supposed bad guys in certain situations.

The Destiny thing with White Rukh and Black Rukh is probably the weakest part of Magi, truth be told.

Well, that and the whole “Alibaba must remain the buttmonkey”.

Sure, Kouen laughing at the guy was hilarious, but the author wasted a perfectly good chance of going something differently with the character the moment she revealed he was just lying about Toto being his girlfriend.

Overall though? Magi is a great manga.