Magi 242nd Night Review

Written by: Micha

Well, this was quite a revelation, wasn’t it?

Last chapter ended with Hakuryuu being shown as the new King Vessel of Judar as he stands in front of his army in the capital of Kou, which is where this chapter continues. Hakuryuu has captured the capital with his army, and it is shown how some of the people in Kou are reacting to this new development.

One civilian says that Hakuryuu is the legitimate successor of the Kou Empire as Hakuryuu’s father Hakutoku was the emperor. But another civilian counters that since Hakuryuu had killed the Empress, Gyokouen, he should be considered a rebel, but his friend warns him not to express it as they were under the law and Hakuryuu’s army might react to this.

And on top of that, they had the right general Li Seiryuu and left general Shuu Kokuhyou of Kouen are part of Hakuryuu’s campaign, which makes them the army.

A legitimate beard as your right automatically makes your kingship legitimate too.

 The generals talks to Judar, saying that he should not leave Hakuryuu’s side as Judar, because like both the generals, he had sworn loyalty not to all Metal Vessel users in Kou, but only to Hakuryuu.

The next scene shows Judar talking to Hakuryuu where he says that even the generals were Hakuryuu’s subordinates and everything was going according to his plan. Hakuryuu says that Judar has it so easy since he can just float on the air if he wanted to forget his trouble and nobody will say anything to him even if he does nothing and waste time.  Judar tells Hakuryuu not to be a cheeky bastard as he went to check the situation of the streets.

Judar continues to tell him that everyone thinks that Hakuryuu is the legitimate successor and he should be happy about it even if he had used any means possible to get there.  And it seems that half the soldiers in the castle have run away as their troops were on the frontlines in Kouen’s West Subjugation army.

Hakuryuu says that they will win, considering he has obtained a power that is capable of defeating Gyokuen so he wouldn’t lose to even Kouen. And behind Hakuryuu is a flock of Al Thamen magicians who are swearing loyalty to him and offering him their power.

This is my face when I see food.

 Judar asks if he used the new two Metal Vessels of his to turn the Al Thamen magicians to his allies. He goes on to say that the magicians were nothing more than puppets and he could not even call them allies considering there was no one who was following Hakuryuu with their own free will.

This is when the chapter goes to a flashback and Hakuryuu’s actions are explained. Hakuryuu was trying to convince Hakuei, his sister, to take back Kou Empire after the death of their father. Hakuei apologized saying that it was impossible considering the large empire, and he should give her more time.

Proof that snuggies were invented in Kou Empire.

 Hakuryuu and her sister were born in the deep East, in a country named Kou. After their birth, their father Hakutoku Ren dominated the Kou and became their king. He was acclaimed by the people as the person who ended the wars as he reformed and united them as Kou Empire.

His brothers, Hakuyuu and Hakuren served under their father and fought in many battles; aiding their father in a lot of wars. They were both promising princes and this ensured that the future of Kou Empire was really bright.

Until Gyokuen called upon Al Thamen, that is.

It is shown that Hakuryuu deeply admired his brother brave brothers and wanted to be like them. After their father was assassinated supposedly by some refugees, both their brothers were killed after they had seemingly gotten deeper in to the truth of the Organization.

And when Hakuryuu had woken up from the injuries caused by the fire, the throne was already given to his uncle Koutoku Ren despite his kingship rights being superior to his uncle’s as he was still a child and suffered injuries so severe he was between life and death for two whole months.

And the seat of the second emperor was given to the person who had actually caused the whole atrocity with the Organization; Empress Gyokuen Ren.

Ohtaka, you can draw Paimon's boobs but not a penis?

This was when Hakuryuu started despising Gyokuen, who had killed his family causing him to shamelessly surrender his country to his uncle. He became conscious of his duties as a prince as he grew up and determined to restore the true form of Kou Empire.

He became the neglected son of the previous empire and he was not given a proper rank or position in the military in recognition that he was a prince. And like his sister, he spent his time studying and polishing his skills with a spear.

Things turned around when Judar invited his sister to obtain a Metal Vessel (PAIMON!) which resulted in her being acknowledged and entrusted with an army. This caused Hakuryuu to be determined to obtain a Metal Vessel as well, but without the help of the Organization. He decided that there would be other Magi outside of Kou, and he intended to make them allies as considered the people in Kou as his enemies.

I love it when Paimon makes spontaneous appearances. Warms my rotting heart.

Hakuryuu pretended to be obedient to the new Kou Emperor and acted like he only had interest in academics. Koutoku then sent Hakuryuu abroad to study; to Sindria where the powerful King Sinbad was along with Aladdin who was a Magi.

However, after a bunch of shit that had happened during their journey, he wishes that he hadn’t searched for their help even if they had offered it. He shouldn’t have searched for people who would understand his situation. And if he were to defeat Gyokuen and Kouen, no one in Kou would ever start a civil war.

He goes on to rationalize that if the Organization were to continue manipulating the Kou Empire, they will exploit it just like they did his family and the Musta’sim Kingdom (where the beautiful Dunya is from). And if the empire got in the way, the Organization would just eliminate them.

I would say he's like Sasuke, but Hakuryuu is tolerable.

 Since the goal of Al Thamen was to create wars and tragedy, it was the more reasons to kill Gyokuen. He remembers Alibaba saying that he was acting according to his own personal grudge, and Hakuryuu thinks that it was indeed his personal grudge, but he was not wrong.

Alibaba walks a different path from him as Alibaba never made an effort to get Balbadd back from Kouen. This chapter then ends with Hakuryuu commanding Judar to give him power as a Magi, to which Judar complies asking him what it is that he wishes for.

What are you doing, Judar? You can find someone better.

 Hakuryuu commands him to kill Gyokuen and Kouen, and take back the Kou Empire.

My opinion on this chapter: 

Firstly, GYOKUEN IS NOT DEAD. I repeat, Gyokuen is NOT dead. Al though, this has gotten me greatly confused. I thought at first that the transition from the summit scene to the scene in Kou Empire was done after Judar invited himself to the summit and went back to Kou. I changed my mind after realizing that Hakuryuu has not killed his mother as he mentioned in the last pages of this chapter, which would mean that this conversation was going on during or before the summit where it was revealed that Gyokuen is dead.

Then, I changed my mind again after having realized that the civilians discussing about the death of their Empress at the very start of this chapter, which would mean that Gyokuen is indeed dead. 

What? 

I don't get it. 

Although, in the midst of this confusion (please make me understand), I have theorized that the talk going on around about Gyokuen being dead is a rumor created by Hakuryuu's campaign in order to establish his army in the capital of Kou. Otherwise, it really makes no sense.

Another thing that doesn't make sense to me is why the empire was called Kou Empire even in the beginning when the king was Hakutoku and not Koutoku? 

This exposition chapter gave insight to Hakuryuu's life, which is very important for the coming battles. I'm also glad that it took only one chapter to explain all of that rather than it extending for a month's worth of chapters, which totally could have happened. 

And honestly, I was never a big fan of Hakuryuu as I saw him as a whiny little shit, especially in the Zagan Arc. But now that I have seen his story with his new developments, he doesn't look all that bad to me. In fact, I might even start liking this guy.

However, in the end, he just looks like a massive tool. He is so driven by his circumstances, and it pains me to think that Gyokuen might have actually manipulated his whole life events, from the death of his family to him going to Sindria and obtaining Metal Vessels and to Judar declaring him as his new King Vessel. This could all be Gyokuen's grand plan to just create chaos in the Kou Empire, resulting Hakuryuu to look like his mother's tool.

I say this because Gyokuen has always been an influential person in Hakuryuu's life, and this is mainly because Gyokuen let herself be influential in his life. Hakuryuu has said before during the Pirates Arc that Gyokuen was a very gentle mother in the beginning and he had great memories of her as a kid. But then she turned in to a cunt after his father died.

And on top of that, she killed both his brothers whom he had admired very much. This would further invoke hatred in Hakuryuu. Judar then invited Hakuryuu's sister to obtain a Metal Vessel. Why would Judar do such a thing? It's either to just scatter the Metal Vessels among people to create chaos, or to give Hakuryuu an idea to obtain a Metal Vessel himself.  

If my theory of Gyokuen manipulating Hakuryuu's life is true, I'm going to be so, so disappointed.

Speaking of manipulation, it seems that Hakuryuu's Metal Vessel has the capability of manipulating people as it is shown that he's been controlling the magicians of Al Thamen. This gives me the idea that he's controlling the left and right generals of Kouen, too, with his new found power. I'm not sure where or how he got it, but I'm willing to bet Judar has something to do with it.

Last but not the least, what the hell is up with the late translations? My friends are reading and reviewing their manga earlier than me and I’m just sitting here alone in a corner crying about it. 

On a more important note, did you seen the zig zag thing on Hakuryuu's clothes? What are they? Did he get cooler hair extensions?

Chapter rating:

3/5

Because Paimon.

Bonus:

Yes. They are hair extensions.

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.