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----------------------> Aya-Chan
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The Official Maburaho
Maburaho (まぶらほ, Maburaho?) is a romantic school comedy light novel series by Toshihiko Tsukiji, illustrated by Eeji Komatsu and serialized in Gekkan Dragon Magazine.[1] The light novel was adapted into a manga illustrated by Miki Miyashita[2] and later developed into a 24 episode anime series produced by J.C.Staff and broadcasted by WOWOW in Japan.[3]
The series is about the story of Kazuki Shikimori, a second year student of the prestigious magic school, Aoi Academy. Unlike ordinary people who can use magic less than a hundred times and several of his classmates, who can use magic several thousand times, Kazuki can only use his magic eight times before he turns to ash. His life changes when it is revealed that Kazuki is descended from a line of world famous magicians and he has the potential to father the most powerful magician in the world. Suddenly three girls, Yuna Miyama, Kuriko Kazetsubaki and Rin Kamishiro, enter Kazuki's life in order to obtain his valuable genes.
Background
Maburaho was Toshihiko Tsukiji's first attempt at writing a romantic school comedy. Tsukiji inspired to write Maburaho after losing a previous novel competition hosted by Gekkan Dragon Magazine, the Dragon Cup. Tsukiji won the competition and Maburaho received high acclaim from Gekkan Dragon readers. In an interview in Newtype USA, Tsukiji states, "I kept two key words in mind, two things that are common to every teenage boy—school and girls." Tsukiji wanted to create three characters that were different from each other in every way.
Tsukiji originally conceived of ending the series after six installments with the death of Kazuki after using all of his magic, however the publisher asked him to extend the series. Instead of manipulating Kazuki's magic count, Tsukiji decided to continue to story with Kazuki as a ghost. "I figured it'd probably be most interesting if I made him a ghost," states Tsukiji.
When discussing the anime adaptation, Tsukiji states, "I was actually very inspired by a scene from Episode 1, the one where Yuna introduces herself." Tsukiji was amazed with how skillfully anime director Shinichiro Kimura and the voice actors were able to express each of girls' personalities.
Setting
Maburaho is set in a world where every character has the ability to use magic, however everyone's magic is not equal. Each person in the story has a different degree of magic and a set number of times that they can use their magic. The average person is able to use magic less than a hundred times, however some people are able to use magic several thousand times. Because of this, a person's social standing (or lack thereof) is determined by the number of times that he or she can perform magic. If someone uses up all of their magic, their body turns to ash and is scattered into the winds.
However, being turned to ash does not necessarily mean the end of a person. Certain individuals, such as Kazuki end up a ghosts, and can be possibly restored to living status. However, the process to restoration is long and complicated, and the end result can either have the person forget his past memories, or in Kazuki's case, split into multiple beings.
Critical reception
The English language release of the Maburaho was received by anime critics with mediocre reviews. Many critics comment that Maburaho was a typical "by the book" harem comedy that added little originality to the genre.[7] "Maburaho feels like more of an unfinished prototype for the harem genre than an actual anime series," states Anime News Network critic, Carlo Santos. "The plot is there, but it lacks any defining elements besides the general theme of magic; the characters are there, but they don't have any particular traits apart from being, well, the one loser guy and the cookie-cutter hot girls chasing after him." Santos goes on to state.[8] Chris Beveridge, critic for AnimeOnDVD, comments, "Maburaho has some cute quirks to it, very nice character designs and it's a show that actually took a risk midway through the series by changing the nature of the lead character." However Beveridge goes on to say, "While it has these good points, it didn't capitalize on them and instead worked hard towards keeping with a mediocre series of events and scripts. ... It's a by the book piece with some flashes of creativity."
