Majo-kun to Watashi / 魔女くんと私 – Manga Review

Mashiro is a male witch with a curious affliction — the only way he can use magic is by making physical contact with a girl, but his “girl allergy” prevents him from doing so.

You can check out a sample for yourself below!

Japanese (Hakusensha)

Japanese (Mecha Comic)

What’s this series about?

Mashiro is a rare male witch who just entered a new high school after an incident at his previous school forced him to move. In this world, while magic isn’t completely unheard of, it’s rare enough that an ordinary would typically never see in their lifetime. Usually, witches are female, making Mashiro even more of an anomaly.

While female witches are able to use their magic freely and without care, male witches are seen as incomplete, imperfect beings. While they can also manipulate and use magic, they don’t store any magic inside their own (male) bodies. So, they need to make physical contact with a girl in order to borrow the magic that lives inside her. It doesn’t matter if the girl is a witch or not—all girls are born with magic inside them. The only difference between an ordinary girl and a witch, is that a witch is able to manipulate her magic.

Mashiro awakening as a witch came as a major shock to his family, and they were unable to teach him anything about his magic before sending him off to school. The only thing he understands well is that he needs to make physical contact with a girl to use magic. Sadly, due to being tormented by his sisters at a young age, he has developed an adverse reaction to being touched by girls.

Now at his new school, the slightest accidental brush of a hand causes him to unintentionally shatter windows and lights. This catches the attention of his seatmate, Nagi. After learning the reason behind his antisocial personality, she becomes determined to help him get used to his new surroundings, and maybe even get comfortable using magic.

My thoughts on this volume (Spoilers!)

Mangaka Shima Asato was truly meant to write light fantasy manga. Everything I read by them is so full of magic and intrigue; there has never been a moment where I was even slightly dissatisfied with their writing. Generally, I am not a fan of one-shots as I find myself always wanting more from a story, but that didn’t exactly happen with this one — again, I am simply obsessed with their work.

Despite this being a one-shot, I found there to be enough character development to satiate me. While the side characters tended to be rather one-note from start to end, that just allowed the main characters to shine. There were two prominent side characters in this volume, and I found that although they did not develop themselves, they both helped the main characters in their journeys in very specific ways. One helps push Mashiro to discover exactly what his magic can do, and the other forces him to come face to face with the potential dangers of his magic. While our female lead Nagi is also pushed by these side characters, Mashiro is the star of the show in my eyes.

One of my favourite things about this volume was how slowly and realistically the romance developed. We see Nagi proactively attempt to befriend Nagi because they’re seatmates in class, but as things begin getting more dangerous, both begin doubting their relationship. If we weren’t seatmates, would we have ever even become connected? is just one of a few troubled thoughts that throw both of them into a spiral throughout the volume.

I believe the romance really started when Nagi convinced Mashiro to hold her hands for the first time so he could stop the rain around them—it was so beautiful! The mangaka has a very unique, wispy artstyle that truly made this scene look magical.

So, picture this: they’re holding hands, and Nagi is playing with the floating bubbles while talking about how beautiful magic can be. In reply, Mashiro explains that it’s actually her magic that stopped the rain—he just pulled the magic out of her—so she’s the one that caused the beauty…Oh it was just so romantic!

Shima Asato has another witchy one-shot out that I’m going to try getting my hands on soon. I need something to bide my time while I’m waiting for the next volume of The Seaside Where Dragon Boys Dwell!

Maddies Manga