Magu-Chan Volumes 1 & 2: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes (Patreon)

Manga Details

• Author:  Kei Kamiki
• Author’s other works:
  • Really all he’s done
• Run dates:  Jun 22, 2020 to Feb 7, 2022
• Chapters/Volumes: 78 / 9

About the Manga

• Plot
  • The great evil god of destruction Mag Manuek lies dormant in his prison beneath the waves. Meanwhile in modern day Japan a young girl named Ruru is digging for clams when she accidentally finds and releases the evil eldritch being into the world , except in the eons he’s been sealed away he has transformed into a smol bean, with almost none of his power save for one laser beam that leaves him all tired and sleepy. Ruru just can’t leave the little guy all alone so she decides to take him in as her pet while Mag Manuek, now Magu-chan, plots to take over the world. After giving him a best friends book Magu decides to get minions to sign his grimoire and form a pact. His target is Ren, Ruru’s childhood friend who has a crush on her, and Ren signs the book so Magu doesn’t reveal that.
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  • Soon however a dark foe appears: Naputaaku the mad, an ancient foe of Magu’s who’s now a tiny starfish able to gain 100 hermit crab minions with his dark powers. After he loses a game Ruru makes him sign Magu Chan’s best friends book, horrifying him. Not long after Magu and Ruru are approached by Izumi, a member of the holy knight order which sealed magu chan away originally. Magu and Izumi begin to face off but Izumi is arrested for wielding a sword in public. Napu and Ren form an alliance to bring Magu-chan down and it fails, leaving Napu dejected. Ren’s sister Rin helps the evil god by giving him a part time job at their restaurant so he doesn’t have to eat out of the trashcan any more.
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  • Magu hitches a ride to school with Ruru where he meets Yuika and Kikyo, friends of hers. Yuika teases magu chan til he gets mad while Kikyo becomes obsessed with him because she loves aliens. But Magu has more important matters because one of the great pillars of evil has returned: Providential Uneras, who’s tagging along with Izumi because she’s a big stan of the knights and thinks humans are adorable. Magu-chan and Ruru then help a little puppy as little magu tries to raise him just look at that little guy Aw isn’t he so cute awwww oh no! The puppy belongs to someone else poor Magu. But it’s okay magu you can still go visit the puppy!
• Characters
  • Magu aka Mag Menuek
    • God of destruction but is a good boy
    • Himbo God? Maybe just an idiot
    • Form of squid
    • Likes eating Natto
  • Ruru miyangi
    • Average teenager
    • Likes getting stuff at the beach
    • Teach magu about the power of friendship
    • Wants people to sign the BFF book
  • Ren Fujisawa
    • Very average teenager
    • Crush on Ruru
  • Naputaaku The Mad
    • Best god
    • God of madness
    • Perhaps the dumbest
    • Starfish
    • Hermit crab squad
  • Rin Fujisawa
    • Ren’s sister
    • HS first year
  • Izuma Kisaragi
    • Holy night
    • Has magic power
    • Wants to destroy the g ods
    • Gets arrested
  • Yuika Oze
    • Second year
    • Dumb but fun friend
  • Kikyo Komiyama
    • Smart friend
    • Shy
    • Into aliens n shit
  • Providential Uneras
    • Huge weeb
    • Elder god
    • Helps humans as they are cute
    • Power of creation

Why it failed

• The art is passable, I keep remember it being more stylized than it is. It can also be quite inconsistent at times
• You can kinda tell the series is very much in danger of wacky god hijinks that feels the same every chapter
• We talked about this last time but she says magu doesn’t have the power of destruction then he uses the power of destruction and she calls him a god of destruction
• The gag manga curse of too much fucking text
• The series doesn’t really know what it wants to do, the issue is it feels like a slice of life manga but it kinda is structured as a traditional action manga in terms of dialog, art, etc so it feels like the plot goes nowhere
• It’s weird the author can draw the main girl but if he has to draw almost anyone else they look super weird
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What it did well

• I do like how the gods concert into their chibi forms
• It's funny and wholesome like her breaking the crystal by accident was a Legit lol
• I think the first chapter was quite strong, it did a good job introducing a secondary character without giving up focus
• That fucking hanging magu chan joke is always funny
• The true forms of the elder gods look legit cool
• It is just so nice to read a low stakes series about friendship
• I love that the crabs talk
• Fucking human form magu is great
• It’s not afraid to make a long story for a good punchline like chater 6 where the entire book burning arc is ignored for a joke
• It doesn’t have a lot of stupid misunderstanding jokes which is always nice
• The characters are actually drawn like midleschoolers ugh fucking school judgment
• I love series that people just accept the supernatural elements like it’s nbd like WW

Misc Thoughts

• Magu definitely has a super deep Keith David voice right?
• Lovecraft starting himbos
• I kinda forget how the kids are middle school not high school like I always thought Rin was in college or something and not like 14
• The manga kind feels like rakugo where it’s a bizarre story with a punchline at the end