The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies Omnibus Review

Readers may recognise The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies from the currently airing anime adaptation. Now Yen Press have brought the original manga to the West in one complete omnibus edition but how does it compare? Let’s find out!

As the title suggests, our story follows a magical girl called Byakuya Mimori, and Mira the brains behind an evil organization run by the Evil King. The two are natural-born enemies and Mira should be working as hard as possible to bring an end to Byakuya… except he seems to have fallen in love with her?!

Instead of fighting her, Mira finds himself wanting to see Byakuya more and more. Through their interactions, he discovers the hardships she faces in life such as working many part-time jobs and often going hungry, thanks to her money being controlled by her scheming manager. Now Mira finds himself wanting to protect her and often invites her to enjoy tea and some tasty snacks with him when they meet up.

As Byakuya enjoys these peaceful moments she, too, begins to fall for Mira. However, given their positions, both she and Mira wrestle with the fact this can’t last. They’d be in big trouble if anyone else from the evil organization witnessed Mira being friendly, let alone the two of them sharing any kind of deeper relationship. Still, they won’t let these fears interrupt the important time they share away from the battlefield.

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies is a series by Cocoa Fujiwara, who some may recognise for her previous popular series Inu x Boku SS (also available through Yen Press). Unfortunately, the mangaka passed away while this work was still being serialised in Gangan Joker which is perhaps why Yen Press have decided to compile the work into one omnibus rather than the three volumes it was released as in Japan.

Due to the mangaka’s passing, the work ends very abruptly in the middle of a bigger arc, which is a shame as up until that point the series hadn’t even done any larger storylines, instead offering us glimpses into the lives of these two characters. It’s these peaceful moments where we watch over Mira and Byakuya that I enjoy the most, both here and in the anime that Studio BONES have been bringing to life wonderfully.

We’ve seen the enemies-to-lovers and star-crossed lovers trope plenty in manga over the years, but the relationship between these two is adorable. It might not be fresh, but there’s fun to be had watching over them as they slowly come to realise their feelings for one another. Their love may go unspoken, but it is depicted in everything they do for each other. Including when Byakuya mends Mira’s coat, or Mira stays with her in the middle of the night when she’s anxious about ghosts. And of course, during their tea time parties where Mira ensures his archenemy is well fed with only the best cake money can buy…

The artwork is nice too. We start largely with strips of four panels in a 4-koma style, but as the work goes on there’s more traditional manga panelling which gives the characters more room (important as the cast grows) and allows the whole thing to become more expressive. This largely follows the growth of the story, where we go from seeing their reactions to one another (Mira is often overwhelmed by Byakuya being cute) to more emotionally driven storylines. It’s not often a creator has the freedom and interest to experiment with their style, so I was happy to see Fujiwara attempt such and that it worked out so well.

The series does have a few shortcomings. For those unaware of Fujiwara’s passing, the abrupt ending will be one of them. However, personally, I find some of the comedy rubbed me the wrong way as it’s oddly sexualised at points (including where Byakuya’s manager intends to sell R-rated videos of her being groped by a slime…). There’s also another magical girl who constantly curses, which isn’t very funny.

Between these two things, the series loses out on being a family-friendly work as it otherwise could have been. The anime has been cutting out some of the more obnoxious instances of sexual humour, but the examples I’ve highlighted here are still there – unfortunately. Still, I remember Inu x Boku SS being like this as well so if you’re at all familiar with Fujiwara’s work you’re likely to know what you’re letting yourself in for.

As mentioned earlier, The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies comes to the West thanks to Yen Press and has been translated by Giuseppe di Martino with lettering by Rochelle Gancio. The release reads well with no issues to note and includes colour pages at the beginning as well as one of the author’s earliest one-shots: Beauty and the Beast. There aren’t any afterwords to speak of, which is understandable for Volume 3, given the circumstances but I was sad that there doesn’t seem to have been anything for the other two.

Overall, The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies is an enjoyable read following two characters who care for one another deeply while being unable to admit it. It’s gentle, heartwarming and fun throughout, despite some issues I have. Perhaps it won’t be satisfying for many, given where it ends but I feel the good outweighs the bad.

Our review copy was provided by the publisher Yen Press.