Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. by Sekka Iwata and Yu Aoki is a magical girl series with an unusual spin. Unlike many series, magical girls are not chosen by fate: it’s just a sought-after, high-paying job.
Burning Passion
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. opens with Hitomi Koshigaya, a rather devil-may-care magical girl, facing off against a monster. She’s not talking about protecting the city. Instead, she’s celebrating her incoming big paycheck for taking it down. This incident sets the tone right away.
Exterminating the monsters known as kaii is big business, and over 500 magical girl companies have grown to fill the need. There are plenty of people wanting to make some money out of it.
As we get to know Hitomi better, we realize she’s not just motivated by money but has a real passion. However, this doesn’t hold true for everyone.
The company that Hitomi works for, Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc., is perhaps a little different than some companies. It’s a startup with only one magical girl and a few other staff. While there’s still talk of sales and finances, they have the start-up spirit and the need to grow. This is where Kana enters the picture.
The Hard Worker
Kana Sakuragi has graduated and has been searching for work in several fields. Fifteen interviews later, she’s not had any luck. Despite not knowing how to market herself, she has a lot of good points. Kana is a hard worker, diligent, and has an amazing memory. What stands out more than anything is that she wants to be helpful. Her helpful nature is what spurs a start to a new path for her.
Kana ends up stepping in to help Hitomi when she needs it, which leads to her becoming the newest magical girl at Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.
It felt hard not to root for Kana. She’s a good person but doubts herself. There were some rather touching moments where she gets the support she needs to grow, and even in volume one we start to see her become more confident.
Whilst we don’t see too much in volume one, I enjoyed the dynamic between Hitomi, Kana, and the other staff. Hitomi acts as a confident (perhaps overconfident) and caring mentor while making her own mistakes. Kana’s diligent nature complements her more carefree personality, and I was happy to see this give Kana a chance to shine at times. There were a lot of inspirational moments showing the trust they’re building which stood out the most, but little humorous interactions between them were frequent too.
Dream Career
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. isn’t the first time I’ve seen magical girls as employees, but it is the first time I’ve seen business be a focus of a story in the genre. It’s integrated almost everywhere, from humorous little things like the transformation item being an ID card to constant communication with the support team as an important part of the scene. There’s talk about contracts, insurance, and more: all hammering in that this is a corporate setting which creates an enchanting contrast with elements such as magical girl transformations and flashy attacks. We even get a glimpse into another company that seems much more corporate than the plucky startup that Hitomi and Kana work at.
Beyond that, we see businesses causing issues by trying to save money and treating workers poorly. This adds an interesting sense of realism to the story, despite the fantasy nature of the theme. Whilst I can’t say if it will last, it managed to grab my attention because of this.
Viz Do Good Work
The version of the manga I’m reviewing is Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. Vol. 1, the version published by Viz. It’s also legally available in English through Shueisha’s Manga Plus service.
Having read the same chapters in both versions, I feel that the Viz translation by Camellia Nieh with editing by Pancha Diaz reads slightly better than the Shueisha version translated by Medibang. Some of the lines in the Viz version sound more natural and fitting for the character’s personality and it reads well overall. As well as that, the Viz version includes a short bonus story with simpler artwork at the end of the volume.
The Viz version also includes the panels cleaned up to remove the Japanese characters for sound effects and only includes the English ones. This allows more of the artwork to be visible, which is a benefit.
Overall, while the Shueisha version has released many more chapters at the time of writing, the Viz version certainly seems to be the better of the two.
Magical Illustrations
The opening panel of Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. creates awe right away, showing an exciting scene of Hitomi standing on the back of a motorbike while a multiple-eyed monstrosity that looks like it could be from a horror manga chases after her. Action scenes are consistently great throughout, depicting a lot of movement, magical blasts, and glyphs well. There’s a lot of movement and changes of expression even in regular talks too, often used for humor.
One thing that did feel like a pity is that the magical girl costumes aren’t too distinctive. This does make sense considering the corporate environment, but it’s still a small pity.
Verdict
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. Vol.1 was a strong start to the story and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes from here. It’s no surprise that a manga with such a unique idea and execution was chosen to become an anime.
MAGILUMIERE MAGICAL GIRLS INC. VOL.1 IS RECOMMENDED
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Many thanks go to VIZ Media who provided a review copy of this title.
A gamer since the days of Amstrad and DOS and someone who has dabbled in a variety of professions. He enjoys a wide variety of genres, but has been focusing on visual novels and virtual reality in recent years. Head Editor of NookGaming. Follow him and the website on @NookSite.
