Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! Volume 12 Review
Salarymen and colleagues Adachi and Kurosawa met at work, fell in love, and are now married and living together. But problems start to arise when Kurosawa is appointed project leader for the annual stationery festival, a really big event with about 40,000 attendees. Even though Adachi quietly tells him that he’s there to help, he knows that Kurosawa is the kind of man who, as a matter of pride, needs to be seen to be competent and in control. But as, inevitably, problems begin to pile up and the festival date draws closer, Adachi is reduced to trying to ensure Kurosawa doesn’t skip meals and just rely on energy drinks, and taking over all the household chores at home. In the end, he tells Kurosawa in no uncertain terms, “We’re not doing any of that stuff… until after the festival.” No sex until the big project is over!
And how are things progressing for Tsuge, Adachi’s romance novelist friend, now that he’s been going out with young dancer Minato for six months? Again, both are busy with their respective careers but they make time to go on a motorbike trip to a place Tsuge has wanted to share with Minato, with wonderful views of Mount Fuji. But the longer their relationship continues, the more Tsuge feels impelled to confess the truth to Minato about the fact that – because of the ‘Cherry Magic’ – he is able to read his thoughts whenever they touch. Will this be too much for Minato to handle? Could this bring about the end of their relationship?
Meanwhile Kurosawa is working all the hours and then some – but what he hasn’t factored in (how could he?) is a sudden vicious cold snap that brings heavy snow on the day of the festival. He has no options but to turn to the rest of the team and ask them for their help and they’re quick to respond. Rokkaku has been enjoying the chance to deploy his display skills, ably aided by Fujisaki-san. But the big-name guest author has had to cancel as he can’t get a flight, due to the weather. Where can Kurosawa find a replacement at such short notice?
With Volume 12, we move even further beyond the TV anime and live action series (the mangaka’s Afterword joyfully announces the anime version). It’s good to have a slice-of-life romance series that doesn’t end with the main couple’s wedding but goes on to show them negotiating the problems that life inevitably throws in their way and how they deal with them. One of Yuu Toyota’s most amusing panels is the frozen expression on Kurosawa’s face when Adachi firmly tells him that he’s ‘refusing to be intimate with him’ as the blurb puts it coyly until the festival is over. The Mature rating for the volume implies that when the festival is over, Adachi won’t refuse any longer… so it’s no spoiler that there’s a very sweet reconciliation scene between the two toward the end of these chapters.
This is also a volume that tells us more about Kurosawa’s personality and his constant need to be seen to succeed; as he’s working all the hours, we get a flashback to when he overhears two of his senior colleagues speaking disparagingly about him: “Guys like him, the type who gets by with a charming smile and not much else, are just worthless.” Kurosawa feels he has still much to prove so the moment when he turns to the rest of the team and admits that he really needs their help is a turning point for him. It’s difficult not to read into this that Adachi’s quietly benign influence has led to this change – and it’s a change for the better.
Fans of Tsuge and Minato (and adorable rescue cat Udon) will not be disappointed as they get plenty of development in this volume too! To say too much would be to spoil what happens – but it’s left at a critical moment in their relationship and the extra pages from the first chapter of Volume 13 at the end show us Minato on the road with Trap Trick (the dance group), away from Tsuge. This age-gap relationship could go either way. The two bonded over their affection for Udon at first… but they really are from very different worlds and maybe the gap is too great to be bridged.
The translation for Square Enix Manga is again by Taylor Engel and flows (as ever) very well. Bianca Pistillo again brings the dialogue and inner monologues to life with excellent lettering as before and it’s good to have an attractive full colour illustration at the start. Volume 13 will not be out until February 2025, so we’re catching up to Japan where the series has reached #14.
Until then, it’s always good to spend time with both couples in this gently humorous but realistic (apart from the ‘Cherry Magic’) look at life and relationships for gay men in contemporary Japan.
Read a free 18+ preview at the publisher’s website here.
Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).
