Publisher Summary
Kana Sakuragi is an excellent candidate for the job. Any job! She’s motivated and organized, and has a fantastic memory. So why has she interviewed at over 15 companies without receiving a single offer? She’s trying to keep a positive attitude, but it seems like her bad luck is only getting worse when a monster crashes her latest interview. As havoc ensues, she finds herself helping the magical girl who comes to their rescue and ends up with more than just her life in return. Meet the newest magical girl at Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.!
Author: Sekka Iwata
Art: Yu Aoki
Translation: Camellia Nieh
Touch-Up Art & Lettering: Annaliese "Ace" Christman
I received Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. Volume 1 as an Advanced Review Copy from Viz Media in exchange for an honest review.
Background
Magilumiere Co. Ltd. began it's serialization on Shueisha's Shonen Jump+ Platform on October 20th, 2021. The series was then brought over in English through Shuiesha's Manga Plus platform on February 1st, 2022.
Viz Media announced on June 9th, 2023 that Magilumiere Co. Ltd will publish the series physically and digitally in English with the title Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.
On November 28th, 2023 it was revealed that Magilumiere Co. Ltd. will be receiving a TV Anime Adaptation produced by Anime Studios: JC Staff x Moe scheduled for a fall 2024 release.
Review
In this world, there exist monsters called Kaii, which are described as a weird spontaneous occurrence that can take shape into a wide variety of different forms, such as ice, fire, etc. To combat these Kaii, magical girls are used to act as an exterminator for these creatures. Over time, these magical girls have expanded into 500+ companies, from big corporations to small independent businesses running on their own funds.
We're first introduced to a small company named Magilumiere.
Magical Girls Inc. and their star player named Hitomi Koshigaya, who has a carefree attitude and doesn't like to be told what to do, take pride in their work by getting the job done safely. We catch her in the middle of a Kaii Extermination call where her broom got eaten by said Kaii, and she commandeers a bystander's motorcycle to exterminate the monster in a series of magical attack barrages.
When she's done, we get a glimpse of the company she works at and meet Kaede Midorikawa, a Magilumiere marketing guy who scolds her for the actions she took to contain the kaii. He then reveals to Koshigaya that their boss was interested in bringing on someone new to help assist her in future assignments. Intrigued by this, Koshigaya agrees and sets off to find someone who would be capable of handling the responsibility of being Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.'s newest employee. We then transition to our next main character in this story.
Meet Kana Sakuragi, who we see getting rejected from an entertainment company. We learn that Sakuragi is someone who goes above and beyond to research and perfectly execute whatever she wants to achieve. But as we find out, those around here often doubt her ability and brush off her research as being weird. Sakuragi gears up for the next interview when suddenly the company gets ambushed by a frozen kaii that has the potential to decimate the whole building. They quickly call Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc., and Koshigaya responds to the call.
When she gets there, she realizes that the threat is more serious than ever and that she needs a second magical girl to back her up. With the closest one available being thirty minutes away, Koshigaya makes the split decision to ask one of the civilians to help her out. All of them declined the request and even went as far as to ask for a discount in exchange for the service. Seeing the opportunity open up, Sakuragi volunteers herself for Koshigaya, and the two set out to take on the Kaii. At first, things were looking dim, but Sakuragi notices that the tool Koshigaya uses is configured for the wrong magic and explains that she recognizes the device from an upcoming interview she had to memorize. With no other options, Koshigaya agrees and lets Sakuragi do what she needs to do to unload a series of magic attacks.
When the Kai was finally captured and the situation calmed down, Sakuragi was taken aback by the events. But she feels proud of herself that she was able to be helpful to someone once. Koshigaya asks her to come along and work with her at Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. after a brief introduction with Midorikawa. We are finally introduced to the head honcho of the operation and founder, Kouji Shigemoto, who is a middle-aged man in a magical girl outfit, welcoming Sakuragi to the company thus beginning her employment at Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.
This manga's greatest strength is its story structure. We're introduced to a new type of kaii that takes the form of different natural elements and witness how our two magical girls handle the situation. Here we get a pretty entertaining dynamic where Sakuragi is timid and by the books, while Midorikawa lives in the moment and is spontaneous with her actions. Each other's weakness is covered by the other's strength, and it helps set up pretty solid character growth after each encounter as Sakuragi grows more comfortable being a magical girl and Midorikawa learns to take a more methodic approach. When we're not in a high stakes fight with monsters, we're met with a nice slice of life moment of office hijinx happening inside Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. as we learn more about its employees. For example, our first introduction to Shigemoto computer hacker Kazuo Nikoyama was very sudden and jarring, but as we spend more time in the office we get to see both of these character naturally grow and understand what part they play in the big picture .
The story structure also helps with Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.'s world as it begins to introduce melodrama into the story with Shigemoto standing up against the minister of health, labor, and welfare, defending Sakuragi's actions. Later on in the story, we learn about other magical girl agencies that aren't as free-flowing but very cutthroat with metrics and performance. So much so that they'd even go as far as to steal others from a competitor. This reminds me a lot of other stories, like the magic knights of Black Clover and the companies in Fire Force, where we get to see different perspectives of each one and how they interact with the world and each other. The ending of this volume made me want to see more of this and what other "darksides" are involved in this manga.
I couldn't find any thing I didn't like, as someone who isn't "really" into magical girls, I really liked this one and it made me want to go look at other stories to see what else this genre had to offer.
Final Thoughts
This manga's interpretation of magical girls was really unique to read through. I liked the premise of magical girls being tied to different corporations, which helped set up other aspects like characters, world-building, and pacing to create entertaining moments. Such as watching how Sakuragi and Koshigaya handle each other differently according to the office humor and melodrama to separate the action. This is a solid pickup that I believe would be worth your time to get invested in, even if you're not into magical girls.
Final Verdict: Buy It
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. Volume 1 is now available at all retailers
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