Magu-Chan Volumes 5 & 6: Unedited Audio and Recording Notes (Patreon)

Intro

• By popular demand we’re doing our second long-form mini series on a manga too long for us to cover in a main Shonen Flop episode, this time we’re talking about Magu-Chan god of destruction!
• This episode we’ll be covering volumes 5 and 6, chapters 35-52 and we’re joined today by Red from overly sarcastic productions
• Guest introduces themselves

About the Manga

• Plot
• 
  
  • Magu and friends hang out at a hot spring. Uneras discusses Muscar’s recent attacks with Magu and clarifies that she views him as an enemy because he hates the foolishness of humanity while she stans it.
  • Zonze Ge of Despair, aka Unisuke, tries to get over his shyness and connect with Maguchan so Yuika gives him a toy dog game to share with Magu but they immediately break it. Uneras then appears and repairs it but this time it’s magic and tries to turn them into dogs. The two are able to team up and defeat it
  • It’s spring and time for the tradition of flower viewing. Muscar attempts to ruin it with his adjustment of fate but Magu turns into the flower petals, saving the day.
  • Frustrated by his lack of promotion, Naputaaku runs away from the restaurant to find a new place to stay. After trying to live with everyone he is found again by Ren who takes him home and says his dad is going to teach him to make fried chicken.
  • Magu and Uneras infiltrate Ruru’s middle school using hand-me-downs given to them by Rin, and Magu manages to get some first years to follow him as a gang leader.
  • There’s a new teacher at the middle school named Mr. Akamura who is brutally strict with Izuma. However it turns out this is because he is a member of Magu-chan’s old chaos cult who was brought to the school by Muscar. He attempts to bring Magu back to his old status but fails when Ruru defeats him in a dance competition.
  • Attempting to throw the chaos cult off their trail, Uneras creates a fake Magu-chan golem and places it with Magu and Ruru to learn his mannerisms. He escapes and causes chaos until defeated, but still winds up in the hands of the chaos cult, who are thrown off for a week or so.
• 
  
  • Uneras fights Muscar and gets defeated when he traps her in a pipe and strikes her with lightning. Don’t worry she’s fine.
  • Oh no! Magu seems to be running off and not responding to Ruru! She’s really sad but it turns out he’s just trying to throw her a surprise birthday party even though it’s like a month away.
  • Muscar tries to get Napu to give up cooking and be a god again but instead winds up drawn into a cooking battle against Napu and Ruru with Magu as the judge. Muscar’s food makes Magu blow up and he gets the shame rope.
  • Magu, Napu, and Gu La the Adamantine AKA Glassy, decide to make their own secret bases. Magu’s box is kind of pitiful, Glassy’s wooden logs fall on him, and Napu’s place catches fire when he tries to cook something. They instead team up and build their own treehouse together but it’s soon taken over by birds and squirrels.
  • Izuma and Yuika are about to fail Akamura’s class, so the group makes them go through study sessions, and they manage to barely pass.
  • Ruru busts out the wii and shows Magu-chan smash bros. However, Uneras soon shows up and displays her top tier play, causing Magu chan to train his skills until he manages to defeat her by using speedrun tech to glitch the game out.
  • Ruru and her mom visit her father’s grave while Magu tries to learn what a father is. He attempts to emulate being a dad but she loves him for being a cat.
• 
  
  • It’s been a year since Ruru found Magu so they decide to celebrate with a Tanbata Star Festival. Magu collects various talismans of wishes before firing a laser at the sky and making fireworks.
  • Oh my god, I think a plot is forming? Ruru wakes up to find her father alive on a weekend, but it’s a TRICK! She’s dreaming, and Magu desperately tries to wake her up to no avail. As he leaves, armed with a container of natto he discovers Muscar who has awakened a new little god: Nosu Koshu of Illusions, a little sleepy baby who makes everyone have good dreams. Magu attempts to stop him but is quickly defeated by Muscar who strikes him with lightning. Thankfully Magu falls on the back of B.S., his minion who is a buppy. The two wind up at Ren’s family restaurant to find Napu running the whole store and stressing about a lack of customers. They are approached by Muscar who derides Napu for his subservient to humans. This enrages the god of madness who screams at Muscar until his cool magic earrings break, and a now replenished Magu is able to fire a laser through him. Izuma and the rest are able to stop Nosu Koshu, waking everyone up. Ruru discovers Magu about to finish Muscar off and stops him. She then thanks Muscar for giving her such good dreams and offers him her hand. But when he takes it, the charm bracelet which Uneras gave her transforms Muscar into a little babby god like the rest of them, and he runs off in humiliation.
• Characters
  • Magu
    • Has truly seen the power of friendship
  • Ruru
    • Still a sweet cinnamon roll
    • Seems to accept magus antics more
    • Really See a lot more about her fathers death
  • Naputa
    • Absolute goat
    • Has a lot of Character development
    • Really has accepted his more modest lifestyle
  • Uneras
    • She's always so zanny xd
    • Fucking love the murder mystery joke she played on izuma
    • I appreciate how she low key is insanely op as she is the only god at full power About the same
    • School struggles
  • Muscar
    • Straight man as magu says

Where it did worse

• It still really struggles showing action
• Muscar is kinda weird spot where he wants to be taken seriously but the manga won't
• I feel it kind of half asses a main plot which is kind of worse than not having oneIt really kinda forgets about the humans but honestly idk if that’s a big deal

What it did better

• I feel the moment to moment comedu is better or maybe I'm just enjoying our stan queen more
• Long maguuuu
• Really puts a good light on the side characters
• I feel the author said imma get real weird with it and it really works
• The magu being like a father is an interesting direction
• The treehouse chapter is probably my favorite single chapter
• Finally some real shit going on with the dream eater

Misc Thoughts

• Naputa cookbook when?
• Clearly the bull was reading swot when he thought school was violent
• From Kirbymon: Basically there’s a couple more pages added during the  fight between Magu and Muscar  that adds more to Muscar’s backstory,  long ago before Muscar was sealed, the boy he apparently based his face on was persecuted by the people from his village but he forgave them because of their dire situation, so he asks Muscar to make the people happy by granting their wishes. Muscar tries to do this with his powers but all the people wish for selfish and violent things and the boy ends up dying (maybe murdered, that’s left up to the imagination). Muscar becomes twisted due to his disgust with humanity and ends up admiring Magu when he witnesses the sheer power of destruction.  I can send you the specific pages later if you want
• I wonder if the dream sequence is inspired by TTGL