Magi 245th Night Review

Written by: Micha

Well, this was a rather dull chapter. A build up, but still incredibly dull.

After raping conquering Belial’s dungeon, Hakuryuu and his pal Judar heads to the front of the supply base, which obviously contains mostly of soldier rejects. Hakuryuu and Judar shoots, apparently from the sky, carrying unconscious bodies of two Al Thamen members as the soldiers in the base halt defensively.

Judar asks Hakuryuu if their first castle is going to be the stinky base, to which Hakuryuu tells him to shut the fuck up. After asking Hakuryuu what he wanted to do in the base, he has a flashback to two days ago, when they had captured the dungeon.

Judar's sass is contagious.

Judar comments that it was great they weren’t thrown out too far from each other. Hakuryuu, with his tentacle Zagan vines all around Judar, says that even if they were to be separated he could find Judar with the help of those things.

Judar then infers that since Hakuryuu had conquered Belial, and the power he found in Magnstadt was so useful, they can now go and kill Gyokuen. Hakuryuu refuses to do that just yet and questions Judar if he could really take down a country mindlessly. He also says that even though Judar has been plotting to kill the members of Al Thamen, he was unable to carry it out.

Judar says that”Obviously that hag is fucking strong,” and I quote this because I couldn’t not do it. This is the best line in this entire manga.

They even have a sassy Judar close-up to go with it.

Judar further explains that Gyokuen’s subordinates are even more difficult to handle and they were located everywhere. It was impossible to get rid of them unless you kill the real body, otherwise, they will just turn in to dolls. They exchange rukh with each other and share information that way, and report to Gyokuen what’s happening around the world. They were probably spying on them at that moment, and Hakuryuu brought down the two Al Thamen dudes hiding and spying on them.

Hakuryuu then suggests that they polish their newfound powers away from their sight before returning to their country, which is where the mini flashback ends.

Hakuryuu says to the troops in there that he was going to take over the base and use it to attack the thieves who stole Kou Empire from him. The captain asks who the thieves were and he replies saying that it was Ren Gyokuen, her subordinates, and Ren Kouen. The guys in there of course, almost loses their minds upon hearing Kouen’s name as they really admires him.

I don't say this enough. Unimportant characters are always ugly in this manga.

Hakuryuu says that Kouen is a usurper, meaning a dick who steals someone else’s throne. Hakuryuu further states that even the people in the army would’ve noticed that.

The captain denies that Kouen is a usurper saying that Kouen had desperately worked with Hakuryuu’s daddy and his brothers to stop the chaos in the world. And now he has succeeded the will of the emperor on his own.

Hakuryuu says that regardless of that, Kouen did not save his brothers when he had two Metal Vessels. The captain gets angry and shouts that even Hakuryuu must admit the truth that his brothers burned in the fire when he was coming back from the Dungeon Phenex. Kouen regrets what happened that day.

But then everybody else started chanting that Ren Kouen is a usurper much to captain’s horror, like a bunch of creepy puppets which isn’t far from the truth.

To the left: Aroused male Arba face.

Hakuryuu had invaded their mind using his newfound powers, and showed false images of Kouen killing people.

Judar comments that Belial’s power was both dangerous and useful, remembering a flashback where Hakuryuu was manipulating a snake to practice his power. Hakuryuu stated that Belial’s Metal Vessel leads living things astray by making them see things they can’t see and hear voices they can’t hear, causing a delusion.

Judar commented that the power was pretty much useless considering it doesn’t fire lightening from his ass because apparently that’s the sort of thing Judar is into. Hakuryuu disagrees, saying that the Metal Vessel would work out perfectly for them for their plan.

The flashback ends and fast-forwards to when Hakuryuu had taken over the base, where he is terrorizing innocent soldiers. Hakuryuu is shown mind-raping a terrified soldier who kept begging Hakuryuu to spare him since he has a family.

Hakuryuu has gotten really cool lately, unlike before.

Judar asks why he was killing them, and Hakuryuu responds saying that they were in fact, not dead. Hakuryuu was merely experimenting on them to polish his ability to combine both Zagan’s and Belial’s power that he intends to use to kill Gyokuen.

Judar, incredibly impressed, says that he has never seen a Metal Vessel that can be activated together with another one. Not even Sinbad and Kouen possess such a thing.

Judar then explains that Hakuryuu can enjoy all he wanted, inferring that he could experiment and develop his power as the base was covered with a special barrier that doesn’t allow magic used in it to leak outside. It was the same kind of barrier Magnostadt used to carry out their experiments in. This would also mean that the clones of Al Thamen will be unable to send messages outside.

Hakuryuu says that he was going to use the Al Thamen clones for a different experimentation. And he was aware that the Al Thamen would realize that something’s up sooner or later, but he was making the soldiers act normal to buy time for them to execute the plan.

Experimenting on humans is always nice decorative plot element.

Hakuryuu then diverts the conversation to the Magnostadt barrier, where Judar explains that he came to know of it from the black rukh in Magnostadt where Matal Mogamett was present. He was getting information from that rukh.

Days continue and Hakuryuu does his experiments on the unconscious bodies of the Al Thamen clones. He conclude that their systems were far simpler than normal humans, of which we’re given no elaboration.

One day, Hakuryuu comes up to Judar and asks him to learn Long Range Clairvoyance magic, which was the same type that was used in their army to transmit orders. All he had to do was visualize the memory of rukh and be able to transmit it to other people, which apparently would become extra handy in their fight with Gyokuen.

This is beautiful, but I want Gyokuen.

The chapters ends exactly after 10 days, where Hakuryuu and Judar invades the 9^th Supply Base with their army.

My thoughts on this chapter:

As I have mentioned in the beginning of this review, this chapter is more of a build up. These chapters will be focusing on how Hakuryuu gained his new political power, developed his magic, and apparently killed his mother Gyokuen. For the people who are in to Hakuryuu's character, this might be good news, but for me, this is starting to feel like a soft torture.

I have never been a fan of Hakuryuu. He reminds me of a certain someone in a manga that just ended, and I know this sounds unfair. I have always ignored Hakuryuu, but it seems that I can't do that anymore. He is becoming one of the biggest villains in this manga, and his character developed dramatically in the past few chapters. I am hoping that I will change my opinion of him soon, because I really do wanna enjoy these chapters of him.

Speaking of which, did you see how the captain said Kouen was just as bummed out about the death of Hakuryuu's family and he couldn't save them because he was on his way from the dungeon? Kouen. was. not. there when it had happened. Hakuryuu knows this. Either he doesn't remember much because he was a kid, or because he doesn't want to believe it. 

I like the second option. Hakuryuu is deluded. Him falling in to depravity is because of his naive thinking and his inability to logically deduce anything like an intelligent person. Yes, I'm calling him stupid. But the beautiful irony in all of this is that while Hakuryuu is deluded, his new magical power has the capability to make others deluded. This is awesome.

On an unrelated note, it seems that the dolls appearing after you kill the Al Thamen members are an indicator that you've killed only a mere clone. And you've no idea how excited I am about this. This would mean that Ithnan is not dead, and Sinbad can suck it. I am not sure if they re-spawn somewhere else or they're just hiding in the shadows, but the idea of seeing Ithnan again someday makes me happy.

In relation to this, it seems that Hakuryuu has found a breakthrough in his experimentation with the Al Thamen clones where he asks Judar to learn a technique where they can send messages to other people via the rukh.

And as usual, I'm going to come up with a far-fetched theory in here. I believe that Hakuryuu is going to kill Gyokuen by utilizing this process. It is known that you cannot kill most of the Al Thamen members because they'd probably be clones and turn in to dolls. And Gyokuen probably uses clones as well, so it'd be pointless to kill a clone considering you cannot distinguish between a clone and a real body. 

And out of all the Al Thamen members, the ones who turned in to a doll was Ithnan only (please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure I aint), who was a former Alma Torran resident. They got sealed in to a space by Solomon, and it is unknown how they have descended down upon Earth, and my theory is that they're using clones to do so and cannot take their real body with them. 

Now how does Hakuryuu killing his mother fit in to this? It is known in this chapter that the Al Thamen members communicate using rukh transferring, which is maybe the method they use to communicate with the real body of Gyokuen; which is the technique Hakuryuu had asked Judar to learn. I believe that they are going to manipulate the black rukh being transmitted to Gyokuen in order to defeat her real body.

I know this theory makes little sense right now, but this is totally plausible.

Also, what I do like in these chapter is there are flashbacks within flashbacks. And I know manga readers are often turned off by this sort of story telling. Trust me, I get annoyed too. But Magi different. In the original novel of Arabian Nights, the whole entire novel is based on story-within-stories framework which is the beauty of it. But I wont go in to much detail with it.

 Manga chapter rating: 

3/5

Because crying male Arba face.

Bonus:

You have to appreciate my new love for multiple eyes.

And distorted spirit figures.

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.