Magi 239th Night Review

Written by: Micha

Lord bless early translations.

Don’t you love political summits? I sure do. It seems that after my religious dose in the Alma Torran arc, we’ve switched to politics which is my second most favorite subject in this manga.

Last chapter ended with Aladdin calling all three big empires; Kou, Reim, and Sindria, for a ceasefire treaty, and this chapter reveals the final decision of the king vessels to Aladdin’s suggestion. Aladdin says that all the empires to stop quarrelling with each other, considering that shit got done in the Magnostadt crisis because they all worked together to eradicate one common enemy.

Aladdin then infers that the crisis was not over, mentioning the “world hole” ill-ilah opened. The hole that opened the space between dimensions that ill-ilah used to come down the Earth was not closed. At this point, I’m certain that he refers to the black rukh as ill-ilah in general.

I will never get over how good Ohtaka's art is.

Yunan agrees with him saying that he himself went to check the sky after the battle to discover that the distortion of the sky had not disappeared. The distortion was strong, like the one found in the Great Rift, and he wonders how many hundreds of years it will take to close the hole.

When asked what would happen if the hole was not closed, Aladdin says that Ill-Illah could descend down immediately. And if Al-Thamen was successful in creating a new black spot and another “medium”, they would not be able to fight the djinn equip. And most importantly, the world will be destroyed just like Alma Torran.  

And the countries should collaborate to avoid such a situation.

Reim Empire gives obvious statements in this chapter to let you know that they exist.

 Sinbad, of course, agrees to fight Al Thamen, saying that Sindria had been storing strength to fight against Al Thamen. Aladdin asks with hope-filled eyes, if Sindria was willing to cooperate with Kou Empire, to which Sinbad refuses.

This chapter takes an interesting turn when Sinbad then accuses the Kou Empire of being the Al Thamen itself. He justifies that the ones who had been raising an enormous amount dungeons were Judar and Al Thamen, whose pillar is the Kou Empire.

Some wonders if Sinbad was trying to turn the world against Kou Empire, and using the Al Thamen to support his goal. Also, you bet your ass I will talk about this later in my review.

Ren Kouen is tired of shit, Sinbad.

Sinbad then proposes a way to avoid this particular strife. He asks Kouen to cut all ties with Al Thamen and do everything to drive out Al Thamen out of their country, and they’d have no problems allying with Kou. And if Kou Empire lacked strength to do so, the Seven Seas Alliance was willing to lend them a hand.

Kouen then cut the tension stating the bold and obvious. He told Sinbad that he did not like him. It seems that Kouen had seen through Sinbad’s thin-veiled suggestion, and asked Sinbad why he would resort to narrowly twisted ways when he has the power to make the world move. Kouen then adds that he cannot understand Sinbad, and Aladdin draws a parallel between those two, and Arba and Solomon who had a similar conversation.

Koumei Ren then infers that Al Thamen is part of the Kou Empire because the Kou Empire strives to create a single open community, and they do not mind using any kind of power; good or evil. They then goes on to justify that it was Solomon’s ideal and he everyone in the same form and given the same language. They have inherited King Solomon’s will, therefore, the personification of King Solomon’s “single world” would be the Kou Empire itself; which is either a well thought-out practice or a bunch of bullshit.

The next page is pretty much filled with the arguments betweent he Kou Empire and the Sindria.  Sindria asks if Kou would stop fighting against them, to which they reply that they will only collaborate for the battle with Al Thamen. However, Sindria and Reim should abandon their sovereignty and assimilate to the Kou Empire just like Balbadd.  

It's like watching The Bachelor.

 Ja’far disagrees with it, saying that Sindria was devoted to the ideal that all countries should remain independent with alliances, while preserving their own unique values. And the Kou Empire asks if they thought the person who’d at the top of that system would be Sinbad, to which Sindria counters asking if they believed Kouen Ren should be the one leader of Kou’s proposed system.

The tension between Kou Empire and Sindria was so thick it seemed that they were ready to fight each other.

And out of nowhere, Alibaba who is clearly affected by the situation in Balbadd, approaches Kouen and grabbed his shirt. He tells Kouen that he would fight alongside him even if his sibling would be his opponents, and asks Kouen if he’d do the same thing to protect his country. Kouen simply slaps his hand away and smacks his back.

I thought he smacked his booty until I saw the other panel.

Kouen tells Aladdin that he had told him a good story, but he’d lost interest in him. Kouen then calls on to his army to get his ship ready, because he did not plan to share the “destiny and fanatic ambitions” of Arba. Aladdin asks Kouen if he knows Arba, and Kouen says that he does know a woman who resembles her, thinking about Gyouken.

Kouen says that Gyouken gained the sontrol of the transformation of a small country named Kou. And she had taken up a sinister army that contained veiled, unknown magicians; including Judar. Kouen also refuses to be associated with them.

You can always guess who it is when there are black rukhs. And also when Sinbad's near.

The chapter takes an even more interesting turn when a huge mass or black rukh arrives to the middle of the summit that is none other than Judar. Everyone seems shocked, and the chapter ends where Judar sassily tells Aladdin that was a stupidly boring story, and asks Aladdin if he’d consider if a friend.

My thoughts on this chapter:

This was a pretty fucking mindblowing chapter, and I'm not even exaggerating. Surprise elements keep unfolding in this manga ever since the story of Alma Torran. Not that things were never like this  before in Magi, but they have certainly gotten more intense. 

Last chapter got us wondering about the answers of the different empires, and we got to it in this week's chapter. Reim Empire is pretty much non-existent and irrelevant. They're like Alibaba's sex life of this political summit. Honestly, I didn't expect much conflict from them since they have Titus and Muu Alexius who wouldn't have a self-interest in any of this, unlike Ren Kouen and Sinbad. 

I've had my doubts about Sinbad since a very long time, but this chapter has confirmed for me that Sinbad is just as selfish and just as bad as Kouen when it comes to power. Sinbad is like a cunning politician who has an arsenal of weapons with him, both literally and metaphorically, and waits for the right time to strike the enemy.

Case in point, when Sinbad accuses Kou Empire being Al Thamen, telling in front of everyone that the Kou Empire cut ties with Al Thamen, he added that the Seven Seas Alliance were willing to help Kou if they lacked the power to do so. Sinbad knew about Al Thamen's link with Kou Empire before, but he has been waiting for a huge audience, such as the political summit which would serve as a perfect place to humiliate Kouen because they're both competing for one main goal that is dominating the world.

But Kouen saw through his strategy and his sick way of executing it because he, too, is a political sociopath, which is the reason why he said why Sinbad would "resort to narrowly twisted ways". He was referring to Sinbad's subtle yet domineering way of conversation. You'd know this if you watch political debates where the focus is not the content of what they say, but choice of words and how they say it. Every single word they use serves the purpose of overpowering the other person, and that's pretty much what Sinbad is doing.

Kouen, however, I'd say is much more direct than Sinbad. Also, this chapter erases any sdoubts I've had about Kouen having an affiliation with Al Thamen. His perception of Gyouken is very clear, and I highly doubt he'd  had any affiliation with Al Thamen.  

Chapter rating:

4.5/5

I haven't given this much rating in a billion years.

 Bonus:

Judar bringing sexy back.

Micha: [Co-founder]













Micha likes to broadcast her terrible drawing skills to the world on her DeviantArt account and talks about her life long ambition of making Yakushi Kabuto a woman, on her Skype; michasucks. Yes, with the dot. She will also respond to e-mails on her michamichamicha@live.com because Amber forces her to.

 Also, she now has an ask.fm and tumblr. Here's your chance   to harass her.