Magi 240th Night Review

Written by: Micha

I went through the raw when it came out like I always do even though I’ve little clue about what’s going on since I can’t read Japanese. But the minute I saw Gyokuen on the panels, my fangirl juices have been flowing nonstop ever since until I read the translations today. You can tell I haven’t even started reviewing yet I’m jumping to the middle pages of this week’s chapter. I need help.

This chapter starts with Judar’s entrance to the political summit, which is where they left off in the previous chapter. Everyone is quite shocked to witness his uninvited arrival, especially Alibaba, but it could be just that Ohtaka likes to draw him very much.

Alibaba thinks that he hadn’t seen Judar since Balbadd, yet could feel the difference in the atmosphere than when he had seen him last. Aladdin asks how Judar could appear without disturbing the rukh, which greatly baffles him.

The greatest contribution to this manga is Judar's sass.

 Judar says to Aladdin that Aladdin had gotten stronger, and Aladdin responds to him that Judar has probably gotten stronger too. Judar then addresses Yunan, Magi of the Great Rift, saying that the old men had told him about Yunan’s weakening body. Judar then challenges Yunan to a one on one jokingly, obviously to taunt him, which was proven successful since Yunan says he does not wish to fight him as he trembled.

Now coming to the more interesting parts of the chapter, where Sinbad tells Judar that he cannot just show up and do whatever he wants, which Judar didn’t even acknowledge and walked pass by Sinbad like he never even existed. This was rather surprising as Hinahoho commented that Judar has always tried to provoke Sinbad and pick fights with him whenever possible.

Judar ignoring Sinbad is the most amusing thing I've seen this week.

Judar then addresses everyone, getting straight to business. He asks why everyone was talking about a ceasefire agreement, since he found it so boring he had to get down there himself. He then directly tells Kouen that it was about time he stopped pursuing Aladdin as his pursuit for the Magi of Alma Torran as it was obvious that Arba is Gyokuen.

Everyone seemed shocked by the news and some didn’t even know who Gyokuen was. One from the Finalis answered that Gyokuen was the ruler of Kou Empire and Queen of the previous Kou emperor.

This was also the moment when it dawned on Aladdin that Gyokuen is also Hakuryuu's mother. Alibaba was, too, shocked to hear that the leader of Al Thamen, their powerful enemy, was Hakryuu’s mother. And I can only guess that Morgiana is thanking the heavens for not accepting Hakuryuu’s marriage proposal.

Always giving a bigger panel for Alibaba is Ohtaka's way of saying he's important.

Judar then says that Gyokuen didn’t exist anywhere anymore, which is when the soldiers of the countries ran in to the summit, claiming something grave has happened. All soldiers seems to have delivered the same news to their kings, which is that Gyokuen has been murdered by Hakuryuu.

Yeah, that scrawny little bitch.

I will obviously talk about this in a little more detail later, but let’s continue with the rest of the chapter.

The soldiers confirm that the news was from a valid source, also saying that Hakuryuu had lead his army and annihilated the troops placed in the capital for its defense. The Kou soldiers then asks Kouen to take lead as soon as possible, clearly to Hakuryuu for murdering their empress.

Alibaba then remembers Hakuryuu having said earlier that he would kill his mother

Where in the name of everything that's holy is Hakuryuu anyway?

Koumeii rationalized that it would be impossible for Hakuryuu to kill Gyokuen, and Kouen asked Judar if it was him that had done the deed. Judar agrees that it was him, and unleashed his “current power” I’m uncertain if I should believe Judar, but his display of power would not contradict his claim.

Basically, Judar went apeshit. He started doing things he’s never done before. He opened his third eye, which hadn’t appeared until this chapter, and he was holding a staff which I will definitely talk about later in my thoughts section.

Judar then summons black thunder, towering over the summit, and says that it was his way of greeting everyone. He then says that talking things out was boring, and as an answer from a Magi, he believes that everyone should fight each other to decide who inherits the Earth.

I support Judar's solution because he has somehow gotten even prettier.

And with the help of his staff, he evaporated the water around the island, causing little destruction but steam. He then says to the Kou generals that he would see them back in their country, draws the Seal of Solomon with his staff, and vanishes in to it.

Koumeii then infers that Judar used space-time magic, same as Dentalion (his Djinn). Meanwhile, everyone else wonders where and when Judar had gotten those powers. This chapter ends with Alibaba wondering about Judar and Hakuryuu’s motives.  

Beautiful destruction. 

My thoughts on this chapter:

My thoughts section would be rather long, so I have underlined some of the key points, but you should read them all if you wanna know the whole picture of my perceptions.

So Judar decided to drop by this summit, which is typical Judar fashion. He pops out of nowhere, fucks shit up, and then leaves. And that’s something I admire very much about him. Also, he probably wont show up for another 100 chapters or so in the future, if he's faithful to his past patterns.

However, this time Judar seems different, and everyone has noticed it. Judar has tremendously increased his powers, and displayed new powers for unknown reasons. He came to the summit to contribute his "solution" as a Magi, which is clearly to provoke people and maybe even prevent the empires from entering in to a treaty. 

He has also taken this opportunity to use his new found powers. I'm not entirely sure if he was testing his new powers or just showing them off to intimidate everyone else in the summit. And I say this because he didn't really hurt anyone physically, even when he summoned those black thunders. Instead, he just steamed up the ocean around the island.

Some of these new found powers include a new staff, and the opening of his third eye. Now, it is to my belief that these two could be interrelated. His new staff could be one of the Divine Staves; the ones that were given to the human race in Alma Torran, which would explain his awakening of the third eye. I'm not sure whose Divine Staff Judar is using out of the 72 ones, and I have exhausted resources I have to figure out who it could have belonged to, so I have no evidence to back this so called theory.

Another weakness of this theory is that Divine Staves ceased to receive magoi from God since Ill-Ilah was overthrown by Solomon. But if you've seen the black clouds and the hole of black rukh Judar summoned, I say that it's possible he could've used black rukh from the hole, which is pretty much  the will of Ill-Ilah. Plus, he is a Magi who can manipulate black rukh. He can do anything.

Moreover, Judar seems to have gotten these new powers right after the supposed death of Gyokuen, which seems fishy rather than coincidental. I do have suspicions that these two are related. I haven't gotten any clue how or why, but I'm hoping to find out in the coming chapters. Or after another hundred chapters or whenever Judar plans on showing up again.  

Also, I promised to talk about Hakuryuu and the declaration that he killed his mother, which smells like pure, 100% bullshit to me. I don't believe this one bit. It's one thing to have to kill a character right after revealing that she was the crazy chick who destroyed your ancestors' planet, but to be killed by her little prince?

I just don't buy it. Arba did great things. There is no way in hell that a person who is a Magi, a master in swordsmanship, whom Solomon nor his wife could defeat, created Al Thamen and somehow reproduced a bunch of babies could have been killed by one of her minions who is much weaker in comparison. Gyokuen is fine wine, Hakuryuu is diet coke. I just don't buy it.

If Arba is really, absolutely, positively dead, then I can not forgive that. To have eliminated a character without having known her full story would mean that she was an underdeveloped character, and I don't think Ohtaka would do that for the major characters, regardless of how she treats some minor ones. This would also mean that she was sidelined just like they did David, for whom I'm still waiting for for some reason.

   

But like I said, I don't believe that she's really dead. But one thing is certain. Hakuryuu has become relevant to the plot again.

This was overall a very, very good chapter. I hope we find out the final answer of the three empires after Judar's encounter. Judar has won my rotting heart with his mysterious powers and I'm happy that Sinbad is being sidelined. It was about time Judar started paying attention to some one else. Someone with a goatee.

Chapter rating:

3.5/5

Bonus:

That face is so beautiful.

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.