Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make you a Wizard?! Volume 9 Review
After Adachi’s return from Nagasaki, he’s back at head office with Kurosawa and the two men, having realized how much they want to be together, have become engaged and are living together. They’ve even met each other’s families! Kurosawa can’t believe how happy he is, as he reflects on how the two first met and what Adachi soon came to mean to him.
Meanwhile, Adachi’s novelist friend Tsuge is far from happy. After he helped Minato (the young dancer he’s fallen for) to get to a vitally important callback audition, Minato has not been in touch. Tsuge’s home deliveries (the way they first met) are brought by different delivery men – and when he asks them about Minato, they look strangely at him, saying they can’t divulge personal information. And given his ‘wizardly’ ability to read thoughts, he hears one thinking, He seems sketchy. Is he a stalker? This last thought really hits home for Tsuge who finds himself wondering if this is the real reason for Minato’s silence. I guess that makes sense. If a man past thirty is fixated on a young delivery guy, it’s what people are going to think.
When Adachi goes to see Tsuge, he finds his old friend unshaven and depressed. He claims he’s got writer’s block but Adachi, knowing him well, gets him to talk about Minato. Tsuge has convinced himself that confessing to Minato has frightened the younger man away – but Adachi isn’t so sure. Once back in the office, he asks his younger colleague Rokkaku (who was in the same dance club at college with Minato) if he’s had any news of the dancer recently – but all that Rokkaku knows is that Minato’s out of Tokyo. In the meantime, Tsuge has to face up to a meeting with his editor where he admits that the writing’s not going well (or at all). But she’s not angry, just reassured that at last he’s answered her calls. She also suggests that he might like to consider a sequel to his last novel Waltz (about a dancer) which sets Tsuge thinking…
However, on his way home, he sees on one of the huge screens, a live relay of the follow-up to the dance contest that Minato was in: the creation of a new dance unit. And who should be among the seven specially selected dancers but Minato! Has the young dancer been able to realize his dream of going pro at last? And does this dash Tsuge’s hopes once and for all: that Minato might be able to return his feelings?
As the brand-new anime TV series of Cherry Magic! begins streaming on Crunchyroll (as of January 10th) it’s a little disappointing to find that the latest manga volume (which was delayed by some weeks) is just ‘marking time’ before the big one: Volume 10 and the wedding. The main interest in this ninth volume lies in the development of the main side couple: romance novelist Tsuge and the delivery boy Minato who bonded over Tsuge’s cat Udon before Minato was revealed to be a dancer-in-training, working hard to get his first big break. There’s something of a bigger age-gap here, because Tsuge is the one who turned thirty (a little after Adachi) and developed the same powers to hear the thoughts of others and Minato is about ten years his junior. But Tsuge, in spite of his bespectacled writerly appearance, is cool enough to own and ride a proper motorbike (he came to Minato’s rescue when he was late getting to an audition in Volume 7). And the pair are depicted in the colour page at the front of this edition with Udon, so they get the spotlight this time around!
And as for the main couple? The first two chapters are domestic scenes, including Kurosawa reminiscing about his childhood, how he and Adachi first met and in which we also get some rather touching new insights into Kurosawa’s feelings about Adachi, revealing a new vulnerable side to the office’s best employee.
The bonus chapter at the end shows Adachi and younger colleague Rokkaku working together again (much to Rokkaku’s relief as Adachi has helped him since he joined the company). Rokkaku can’t resist asking Adachi about ‘his fiancée’ (the ring is something of a giveaway!). Just how long can he and Kurosawa keep the fact that they’re getting married… to each other… from their colleagues?
In spite of the lack of development for the main characters, readers have come to know the cast well enough now to enjoy learning more about their daily lives. The chapter in which Adachi and Kurosawa start looking for somewhere to live together after they’re married is rather endearing as they imagine themselves in different types of accommodation from an old-style traditional house to a high-rise condo.
The translation for Square Enix Manga is, as usual, by Taylor Engel and reads well; there are some helpful translation notes at the end. And Bianca Pistillo’s lettering continues to work well in conveying the wizardly nuances of the story, although by now, Tsuge is the only one to still be able to hear other people’s thoughts. Square Enix Manga have given this volume a Mature rating, although there’s very little in the way of intimate scenes and those that are there, are not only consensual but earned. The cover uses the visual metaphor of the invisible ‘Red Thread’ that is said to connect predestined couples together.
The one-page preview at the end of Volume 9 of Cherry Magic! highlights the main event promised to come in Volume 10: the wedding! And in mangaka Yuu Toyota’s charmingly illustrated afterword, the news is ‘Cherry Magic! is getting a movie!’ because this was published in Japan in 2022, when the live-action movie was announced but before news of the TV anime series was made public. Volume 10 is due out in February 2024 from Square Enix, so not too long to wait!
Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).
