Magical Sempai Volume 2 Review
Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale for another manga review! Today, we will be taking a look at the second volume of Magical Sempai. While Volume 1 did have its fair share of flaws and shortcomings, it nevertheless remained to be a rather promising series with a fairly unique gimmick, magic. Having addressed several key points that the first volume could have improved upon, let us take a look if the second volume is able to capitalize upon those.
Keeping in mind that Magical Sempai is released on a weekly basis, it would not be realistic to expect to see a massive change at the beginning of the second volume. More often that not with weekly serialized manga, the changes tend to often be rather gradual moving from chapter to chapter. The same can be seen in Magical Sempai which departs very little from the initial premise of the first volume. Each larger chapter is divided into smaller sub-chapters which then to follow the singular theme. Be it, a single magic trick or an explanation as to why sempai has so man different costumes at her disposal.
Speaking of costumes, the manga certainly capitalizes on its strong point by findings as many opportunities as possible to dress sempai up in various different outfits. These range from a traditional Japanese outfit, track and field outfit, or even a cafe waitress outfit. The focal point of these costume changes, as far as the second volume goes, is solely upon our titular Magical Sempai. While the costume variety is certainly fun, it also serves to highlight a jarring deficiency of the series. That being, the lack of any new characters to share sempai's load.
Aside from sempai's sister, the only other side character introduced in the second volume is sempai's uncle who runs a cafe. Otherwise, the core dynamics of the relationship between our magical sempai and her kouhai remain very much the same. Sempai attempts a magic trick, fails miserably and ends up in a precarious situation. A novel concept initially, things do start to become rather stale and predictable part-way through the second volume.
Fortunately, a lot of care and detail does go into explaining the magic tricks that are done even if it may initially appear rather simple. The panels are rich with explanation and some chapters even have additional explanations at the end of it. Oddly enough, this has always been one of my favorite parts of the series and I was glad to see that the author had expanded upon the explanations. Not that it matters too much though as sempai almost inevitably messes up any magic trick she attempts.
On the topic of new magic tricks, one particular stand out chapter is the hypnosis one. Magical Sempai has never shied away from fan service especially since it is one of the series' selling points. Come the second volume, things to ramp up quite a bit and become a lot more risque. Nothing on the lines of Monster Musume or Why the Hell Are You Here, Teacher?! but, with each chapter you cannot help but shake the trajectory of the series would sooner or later align with the aforementioned series.
The addition of more risque scenes is fortunately, complemented by improved art come the second volume. Panels are more densely filled with character illustrations now and it is obvious that the mangaka has become more comfortable in illustrating our magical sempai. From various hairstyles and outfits, sempai maintains an immediately recognizable appearance. Not that you would really have much trouble in the first place as she is very much the only female character of her kind within the series.
Hairstyle and outfits aside, sempai's facial expressions and variety of angles are also greatly improved. This allows for more creative panel compositions aside from the usual with sempai looking straight towards the readers. Not much change is made to our sole male "protagonist", kouhai, as he still looks rather plain and drab. It may be very low on the list of things to improve for most readers but, this is an aspect I would love to see get worked on in the third volume.
Unlike other series with the similar genre/premise (e.g. Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out or Teasing Master Takagi-san), limiting the scope to just the two main characters act as some what of a crutch to the series. Even when the mangaka attempts to add a little spice into the story, it somehow falls a little flat due to the limited scope of interaction with characters surrounding them. As such, the duo of sempai and kouhai end up feeling like an isolated aberration compared to the world around them. Perhaps that has always been the intention of the mangaka but, I simply cannot shake the feeling that these scenarios would play out significantly better with the addition of more characters.
Moreover, this would also present the opportunity to alleviate the load of carrying the story off the two main characters. A larger cast would help to drive various scenarios more organically especially since the fixed premise means that readers already know what is going to happen from the beginning of the chapter. Even if the formula changes up a little, Sempai's characterization is hardly developed for the role of the "straight man" which makes for an unconvincing performance whenever she is applied to that role.
A third or even fourth character would have just been that necessary boost to help push Magical Sempai to the next level. After all, the mangaka has made honest strides in improving upon the art and details (of magic tricks) in the series. Unfortunately, the second volume comes and goes without the addition of any new characters to the main cast.
Two steps forward and one step back would be the best way to sum up the second volume of Magical Sempai. Overall, it is a certain improvement over the first volume and continues to develop upon the potential of the series. The pivotal question remains as to whether these little changes are enough to keep readers going onto the third volume? It seems the editors of the manga probably had the same idea as we are given a very big teaser at the end of the second volume.
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