Magi 244th Night Review

Written by: Micha

What a plot twist. Turns out there actually is some sense in Hakuryuu and Judar teaming up together, and this chapter pretty much explained it. 

So this chapter is a continuation of Hakuryuu and Judar in the Dungeon Belial where Hakuryuu is unable to take Alibaba’s hand, because clearly he has inner battles which are explained in this chapter. Even Hakuryuu wonders why he couldn’t take Alibaba’s hand, and Djinn Belial sees the black thoughts swirling inside Hakuryuu.

Then Morgianna extended her hands to him, saying that try and talk to Hakuei once more since he’s been attempting to realize his dream with his sister. Hakuryuu remembers his sister growing up in Kou together. He then asked his sister why he didn’t do anything about their mother despite noticing that something was wrong with their mother and their country.

Alibaba: "What the fuck is this dork doing?"

 And it wasn’t just her. Neither the government officials nor the generals did anything about it when the emperor and  crown princes were killed, and the governmental system was changed. And Hakuei was given a strange power while Kouen, Koumei and the other followers became Gyouken’s subordinates in the sole interest of gaining power and to for whatever they wanted with the country.

And Hakuei knew about all of it, yet she was telling Hakuryuu to ally with the same people who had dominated their country. Hakuei responds to him saying that she did so for a great cause. She explains that there are dirty and wrong things about the world, and Hakuryuu should be more open-minded and tolerant towards all kinds of men. He should bury his hatred and must unite with others. 

And in order to fulfill his brothers’ ideal, it was important that he threw away his violent anger.

On Judar’s side, Judar speaks to Aladdin-well, the Aladdin which is a fragment of his mind- that he is aware that allying with him would be the right path as a magi. However, he could not forgive no matter how hard he tried. He could not forgive them for his parents’ death, and for controlling his life. Judar screamed saying why it had to be him, and not Yunan or Scheherade, or Aladdin.

Why must you hurt your Chibi?

 The ground breaks and Hakuryuu falls between the cracks, which gave me toe-curling fanservice with his nails breaking in a sick a way. Judar says that everyone in the world continues to betray them, and that they were wrong. And he keeps on struggling but yields no reaction from anyone.

Judar grabs Hakuryuu’s hand, preventing him from falling. Hakuryuu looked aggravated and Judar continues his inner speech. He says that he could no longer put up with it. And if the world were to reject them- referring to both Hakuryuu and himself- they would destroy the world and create it anew.

While this speech was going on, Hakuryuu who had been absorbed in his own illusion of his sister and Mor goes through a range of emotions and eventually fell in to depravity. Hakuei holds the wounded body of her brother and screams to him to go back to her so they can live together.

Judar asks Hakuryuu how he wants to live now, to which he responds that it should be clear. With that, he plunges his staff in to his sister and Morgianna. He says that he would not stop at just that. He would kill her for real too sooner or later. He tells her that she was garbage, just like Alibaba because she blindly follows his hypocrisy. Hakuryuu stands proudly and Judar looks at him like he’s the happiest guy alive. No, seriously.

Have you seen him this happy?

This is when Djinn Belial decides to show his face, who by the way looks indescribably ravishing. The Djinn tells them that since they were so centered on their self-interest, he would not give them the Metal Vessel. They respond saying that his will was not important as they were going to take it from him.

Judar shouts at him to submit to his king before both of them blasted a shit ton of black rukh from their staves at the Djinn. Judar’s anger was so strong that he opened his third eye, and materialized a staff out of nowhere.

The Djinn was shocked to see the third-eye, and concluded that the intensity of the black rukh felt like Ill-Ilah itself. Judar then forcibly stole the Djinn, (yes. Stole), and tells Hakuryuu that it was a bit boring fighting as a magi and he intends to make Hakuryuu a king.

Hakuryuu says that it was not his primary goal to become a king, and they should kill Gyouken.  And as a result of killing her, if were to become a king, then it was fine with him. Judar agrees, and finds the exit where they leave the dungeon.  

You didn't conquer it. You raped it.

My thoughts on this chapter:

First of all, I would like to apologize as I’m aware how ridiculously late this review is. I’ve been working in an anime convention for about 6 months now, and this week has been incredibly hectic since the event ran yesterday and is going today. I’m currently working in the convention as I type this review. Think about that. 

And now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let me give you my thoughts on this very brief yet one of the most significant chapters I’ve read in the past couple of months. Hakuryuu has fallen in to depravity. Surprise, surprise. A main character turns evil. And this changes everything.  

The two people Hakuryuu was very fond of were his sister after the death of the rest of his family and his love interest Morgianna. And in this chapter, his feelings have taken a complete 180 degree turn. Hakuryuu killing Morgianna is not something I would have imagined happening even in his illusion considering the last time they met he was proposing marriage to her. But apparently, he is going to kill her for real now.  

I’d love to see the face on Morgianna when he tries to kill her the next time they meet. It’s going to be heartbreaking for most people in the fandom, but I’m a bit of a sadist.

I wouldn’t say that Hakuryuu falling in to depravity is a big surprise, though. It might have been big surprise somewhat 100 chapters ago, but recently he’s gotten quite fishy. Not that he wasn’t fishy when he beheaded Umm Madaura. Which reminds me of when Arba did the same thing to pseudo-David back at the Alma Torran war, demonstrating the tip of the iceberg of her insanity. See, I’m drawing a parallel here.

Also, Hakuryuu is an idiot for drawing conclusions by talking to a person in his head. The people in his head were just his perceptions and there is no guarantee that those were the things the real people would actually say. However, honestly I’m actually quite glad that Hakuryuu fell in to depravity. And I’m not even going to apologize for saying that. This is a good character development. And Judar needs a sidekick anyway.

Speaking of whom, I am very much convinced that the staff Judar is holding is a Divine Staff. I’ve talked about this before in my review of when Judar attacked the political summit a couple of chapters back. His achievement of the third eye and the new staff seems to go together which is why I brought it up.

I’m not entirely sure if it’s one of the 72 Divine Staves or not, but the fact that it was the intensity of Ill-Ilah, or the black rukh which resulted in him possessing a staff pretty much qualifies it as a Divine Staff. That’s how I’m going to assume it anyway. And with this new development, Judar and Hakuryuu would be more troublesome to Aladdin and his gang.

Also, have you seen the Djinn? My god, that thing is beautiful. A lot more eyes in a person than I’m used to seeing, but still absolutely gorgeous. What else did I expect from Ohtaka, anyway? The only disappointing thing is that I didn’t get to see much of a battle between the Djinn and, Hakuryuu and Judar.  But I have a feeling that the Djinn is not a fighting type. His power would fit more with things like interrogation and mind games.

Overall, a very good chapter.

   

Manga chapter rating:

4/5

For Hakuryuu's character development, and the Djinn.

Bonus:

This Djinn is the highlight of my week.

This is beautiful to me.

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.