Manga Review: Magu-chan: God of Destruction by Kei Kamiki
In a sleepy seaside village in Japan lives a middle-school girl named Ruru Miyanagi. Her father passed away some years ago, and her mother is working overseas, so Ruru is taking care of herself and money is tight. When she finds an unusual crystal on the beach, her first thought is of selling it for spare cash. Clumsily, though, Ruru breaks the crystal, releasing a strange creature that looks vaguely like an octopus. This turns out to be Mag Menuek, god of destruction!
Mag Menuek is one of the Six Pillars, powerful beings of unclear origins that were worshipped as chaos gods by cults that wanted to borrow their powers to use against their enemies. He (it’s not clear if the Six Pillars actually have biological sex, but Mag Menuek was treated as male by his worshippers so he uses male pronouns) was sealed away in that crystal by the Holy Knights. His first thought is to resume his previous course of world domination, but he’s drastically shrunk in both power and stature during his long slumber.
This means that the not terribly strong Ruri is able to injure him easily (if mostly accidentally). She realizes that Mag Menuek is lost and confused, and lets him stay with her as a house guest/pet under the nickname Magu-chan. Magu-chan, meanwhile, realizes that he needs to build up a cadre of worshippers, and schemes to do whatever it takes to have Ruru become his first disciple.
Over the course of time, we meet other villagers and human friends, starting with Ren Fujisawa, Ruru’s childhood friend who has a secret crush on her; other “gods” like Naputaaka the god of madness, and Uneras the god of providence; and eventually the remnants of the Holy Knights. Life in this sleepy village has become more exciting!
Despite the fantastical elements, this is more a slice of life comedy series that just happens to have chaos gods in it. Time passes, Magu-chan learns about humanity and (at least locally) its customs. The humans grow (time actually passes in this series) and deal with their small crises. Uneras, who enjoys human pop culture, tries out new ideas. Naputaaka learns to cook!
While this series was not immensely successful, and often floated around the bottom of the Shounen Jump ratings, it did well enough to avoid early cancellation. The last major plotline was perhaps a bit rushed, but the ending made sense where it was, and the finale was outright beautiful. (And the following week, fellow comedy manga Protect Me, Shugomaru!! had a crossover with some of the Magu-chan characters as a tribute.)
One thing that a comedy series can do especially well if it takes time to flesh out the characters and make them more than their gags is to get the audience emotionally invested. Ruru’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she’s good people, and we want good things for her. We want Ruru’s mother to get home safely, for her to be able to stay in contact with her friends, and for Ruru to get to enjoy her mortal human life.
Mag Menuek is not a good person, but he’s not quite the evil being he at first sees himself as. He’s just alien, and most of his experiences with previous humans were with either the worst of humanity or his enemies. Being humbled doesn’t make him learn humility, but he comes to a better understanding of his limitations, and a deeper appreciation of those around him, particularly Ruru.
Most of the other characters are also enjoyable, though some of the ones introduced past the halfway point never get past their one-note comedy potential.
Admittedly, there are a couple of chapters that seem like just bog-standard sitcom fare and could be skippable, but the overall manga is good. The entire thing is currently available on the Shonen Jump website, and you may be able to get the first volume in print soon.
