Magical Girl Incident Volume 2 Review
Undoubtedly one of my favourite manga debuts of 2023 was Magical Girl Incident created by Zero Akabane and published in English by Yen Press. The first volume captured what makes the magical girl genre special with some fun twists and turns. But can it hold onto those charms for a second instalment? Let’s find out!
When we last saw protagonist Hiromi he’d gotten himself into a scrap with a fellow magical girl and as we reunite with him for Volume 2, we find him being rescued by a caped magical boy wearing a very attractive feathered hat. Hiromi has no idea who the newcomer is, but seeing as he’s asking Hiromi to call him ‘senpai’, there’s clearly more to this than meets the eye. But first, he’s going to have to make it out of the fight unscathed!
Quite quickly we learn that the newcomer is Hakuba, one of Hiromi’s work colleagues. Before passing out from damages incurred, she warns Hiromi that the Magicops will be attending the scene shortly to clean up the damage done during the fight and she instructs him to tell them to take the two of them to the `Black Cat of Ward 3’.
From there we get to encounter a host of new characters as we meet the Magicops, who are the Tokyo MPD Magic Bureau Counter Magic Division. They’re tasked with dealing with all things magic and magical girl-related and have been chasing the magical girl Hiromi was fighting.
Hiromi and Hakuba are taken to a safehouse, where their injuries are treated and Hiromi can learn more about the division and their work. He’s also asked to learn how to control his magical powers, which so far he’s been using on instinct alone but have plenty more to offer him if he can work out how to control them.
While Volume 1 of Magical Girl Incident was fairly comedic this second instalment puts a lot of the humour aside in favour of better developing the characters. That’s not a bad thing on the whole, given it answers a lot of questions I had about the setting, but it does mean this has a different atmosphere and it’s not as entertaining to flip through overall.
The first book was carried by Hiromi’s charismatic personality and his relationship with his best friend/co-worker Yuzuru. However, for the majority of these chapters, Yuzuru is nowhere to be seen, only making a return toward the end. This is disappointing because while Hiromi works well with Hakuba, it’s simply not the same as the relationship we’d enjoyed previously.
And that’s the problem with Volume 2, particularly knowing that Volume 3 concludes the series. It feels like we gained a lot but also lost some of the magic, which is a shame given how short this manga is. I would have been quite happy to watch Hiromi and Yuzuru run around defeating monsters for the rest of its run without the extra complexity that the Magicops brings, at least when it has ended up being at the expense of what made this engaging.
I’m not saying that Magical Girl Incident is terrible now. It’s still a light read with plenty to say about the magical girl genre as a whole. And if you liked Volume 1 I don’t think there’s a good reason to not pick up #2, but I think you need to come into it with expectations lowered because this is disappointing simply because the first book was so good. But in many ways, it’s now do-or-die for #3 as to whether this will be memorable for the reader base or quickly forgotten as more interesting offerings come along (particularly with Magilumiere Co. Ltd. getting an anime).
As previously mentioned, Magical Girl Incident Volume 2 comes to the West thanks to Yen Press and continues to be translated by Caleb Cook with lettering by Phil Christie. No translation notes this time around, which is fine since there’s a lot less to reference here. There’s a colour page to open the release, which is striking thanks to Zero Akabane’s wonderful artwork and works well in contrast to the cover which is a bit more muted in tone and palette.
Perhaps because of having only been released in Japan in September 2023, Magical Girl Incident #3 isn’t currently scheduled for an English release so we might be left waiting until mid-to-late 2024. Still, I’m hoping that the wait will be worth it.
Overall, Magical Girl Incident Volume 2 isn’t as special as its first outing but it does offer some interesting worldbuilding. It’s an enjoyable read, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that something’s missing (mostly Hiromi’s best friend) and that does put a downer on the whole thing. Hopefully, #3 will come together better!
Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
