Magi: The Kingdom of Magic – 10 – 12

Not a good way to celebrate Christmas

Ola minna! It seems that I’m late (again), but I guess late is better than nothing at all… Right? I should be on time for this week’s. While I was on my unofficial break, it seems that Magi shifted its focus from Aladdin to the other three. So let’s see how the others are doing now!

The Gladiator

Fosh and Kara already discussed about Alibaba and that unique magoi of his, so now I’m going to talk about that manly side of his. Compared to others (except Aladdin), he’s the least manly of all. If Alibaba now is compared with the previous Alibaba though, Alibaba the Wandering Prince is waaayyy better than Alibaba the Merchant/Thief. There’s not that much difference, but this small difference plays a big role in Alibaba’s life. He was lost, but now he finally knows what he should do. He didn’t know what he should do to save his country, but now he knows that he should improve himself as a prince if he wants to save his country. No longer lost, Alibaba knows what he’s doing now, and this can be seen by the fusion of the conflicting magoi within him. Of course, this is all because of the experience he stacked up during his journey with Aladdin, Morgiana, and Hakuryuu. There was also time where Alibaba gave up, but the experience – loss – he went through reminded him that he needs to get to get his butt straight and become a better prince. I’m so proud of Alibaba growing like that *tears of joy*

The Traveler

Nothing much with Morgiana except that she’s finally in the Dark Continent, which, contradicting its name, is very green and fertile – at least, used to. In Dark Continent, she stumbled upon Alibaba’s brothers and the Torran Clan. Through them, she was able to get some basic information about Dark Continent and the mystery of the Great Rift. Though she was swallowed by the “darkness,” inside the Great Rift, she was able to “find” the “light” that still exists in the Rift, and that is no other than Yunan (Yunan’s house glowing is a nice foreshadowing of the importance of his role in the Magi universe). Now Morgiana is in dilemma. If she goes across, she won’t be able to see the two again. If she doesn’t go across, she won’t see her people. Now, which one will she choose?

Though Morgiana’s meeting with Yunan was interesting, but I am much more intrested about the Great Rift. How can that Rift be there in the first place? The crack – the division – between the two sides are unnaturally wide and deep.Yunan might be someone mysterious, but the Dark Continent itself is even more mysterious, as it is both natural and odd at the same time. It’s as if the blueprint of Dark Continent is made by a human. Or maybe I’m thinking too much about conspiracies in Magi universe.

The Puppet

Hakuryuu is just sad. He’s so sad to the point where I just want to give him all my love because that’s what he actually needs. If only someone can become his friend and shower him with love, then everything will be alright. But of course, a tragic character is not a tragic character without losing those two. Indirectly rejected by Morgiana, rejected by his own sister whom he dedicate his entire life for, having his not-so-motherly mother as the Emperor (though he supports it for his own reason), etc. Damn, Hakuryuu’s life sucks. No wonder he’s so emo. But really, does everything actually suck? There are some things Hakuryuu are not aware of due to his blindness – his caring sister, his brother who actually respects him, his great friends in other countries. Alibaba’s life sucks too, but he was able to stand up again. So really, it juse depends on how Hakuryuu takes things in his life. In his case, he can never take things in positive ways.

But Hakuryuu’s pessimistic nature shouldn’t be blamed. Everyone would be like that if his body got splashed with his own brother/dad’s blood as the said man asks for revenge. Actually, Hakuryuu could have been saved at that time, but the switch has to be when his mother told him that she killed everybody in the family. Considering how mother always plays important roles in a kid’s life, the betrayal must have been painful for Hakuryuu. Why did his mother said that though? From my suspicion, it seems that she wants Hakuyuu to be Al-Tharmen’s King Vessel. That’s why she spite those hurtful words to Hakuryuu. He wants Hakuryuu to live for vengeance, the perfect requirement for black rukh. Unfortunately, Hakuryuu gives in to the “lifestyle” his mother “gave” him. It seems that Hakuryuu will fight against Alibaba later in the future.

… Or will he? It seems that Judal is plotting something against the Organization, and that’s why he offered his hand to Hakuryuu. Maybe he’s plotting nothing at all. The point is, Judal chose Hakuryuu as his King Vessel. Not Hakuryuu’s brother or mother, but Hakuryuu. With this, it is sealed that Hakuryuu will play an important role later in the future. Whether it will be a nice role or an evil role, we can only wait.

Phew, that was quite an amount of information. Three times in a row. Not that it’s bad though, since it’s nice to see how the others are doing in other countries. This way, we don’t have to ponder about the other characters. The highlight has to be Hakuryuu though. Man, he was just broken, a whole NTR episode dedicated to Hakuryuu. Hakuryuu aside, I like how the manga-ka connects the separated events one by one, starting from Yunan predicting war to the death of the Kou emperor that partially triggered the war later on. The characters are so far, but their paths are still intersecting. It’s as if the Rukh is guiding them, heh.

If there is one thing I don’t like though, it has to be Morgiana episode. It suck so bad, and the anime stray from the manga in some way. The later half of the episode is fine, but I was clicking my tongue throughout the first half. I didn’t like the appearance of the brothers. It’s just too cliché in my dictionary. Just because they have been gone in a while that doesn’t mean tthat the characters could be shoved in such an unrealistic scenario. There is also the depiction of the greedy Torran head tribe. The Torrans are supposed to be nice people who taught Morgiana some Torran language. Heck, Morgiana stayed there more than one night. I mind about Torran Tribe because they kinda matter later on. At least, in terms of setting. Beuh, Morgiana’s episode was horrible. Thankfully, it was made up with that tense Hakuryuu episode.

This week is going to start the Magnostadt Arc though, so it seems that we’ll see Aladdin again. Which means, I need to prep my tissue as soon as possible. I’m starting to worry though since Magnostadt Arc is so damn long, and I’m not sure if they can squish everything in 12-14 episodes. I don’t mind anime original concept, but please, make it decent. At least don’t shove characters like what they did with Alibaba’s brothers. Now let’s see whether the studio can get everything right, shall we?

Preview: Seems that Aladdin found his shota buddy