Deep-Sea Aquarium Magmell Volume 1 Review

Manga with an educational element to them are always a welcome addition to the Western market, and that extends to Yen Press’ latest release: Deep-Sea Aquarium Magmell by mangaka Kiyomi Sugishita. But will this prove both educational and an entertaining read? Let’s take a closer look.

Our story begins with the opening of Magmell, the world’s first deep-sea aquarium two hundred metres below Tokyo. Here we meet Kotaro, a young boy in love with the deep sea thanks to his father, and who attended the opening and got to see a giant squid for the first time. Five years later, Kotaro is lucky enough to work at Magmell, but as a janitor rather than a caretaker like he dreams of. Still, being able to work within Magmell at all is a blessing for one as in love with the deep sea as our protagonist is.

His everyday is filled with getting to observe the creatures that call the ocean depths their home, and he’s always eager to share that knowledge with anyone who’ll listen! One day, he overhears some visitors calling the giant isopods, and his passionate speech catches the attention of Director Minato Osezaki, who recognises that not just anyone would have the information that Kotaro is readily listing off to the visitors. And from that day forward, Minato starts involving Kotaro in more of the aquarium day-to-day, because even if he’s just a janitor now, there are still plenty of things he can learn from the caretakers. And more importantly, Minato is reminded of someone who looks very similar to our protagonist…

Every chapter of Deep-Sea Aquarium Magmell is dedicated to a different kind of deep-sea creature, from the giant squid we meet in the prologue through to sperm whales, frilled sharks and Venus’s Flower-Basket. There’s detailed information on each creature in-between chapters, written under the supervision of Koji Ishigaki, who is a marine biology specialist. Having these descriptions between chapters means Sugishita doesn’t have to try and fit it unnaturally into Kotaro’s dialogue, instead allowing our lead to convey only the key basics while he goes about his daily work life.

And that’s really the charm of the series. It’s both an educational manga and an extremely charming work-life story. It’s great fun to watch over Kotaro as he goes through his everyday, helping visitors and his co-workers alike. There’s clearly more to Kotaro than first meets the eye; he’s a shy but passionate young man who has loved the deep sea from a young age, and his co-workers respect and admire that passion. Yet, his father that he so deeply admires no longer seems to be in the picture, and we don’t know exactly what his job entailed. He talked about having been to the deep sea before when Kotaro was a child, but that predates the opening of the aquarium. And the man Minato is reminded of when he looks at Kotaro is clearly his father, but Minato doesn’t seem to have made the connection between the two yet. Could Magmell’s very existence be in part due to the work of Kotaro’s father? I’m looking forward to finding out the answers over time.

This seems to be Sugishita’s debut serialisation (they have another long-running series in Japan), and it’s an engaging work. The character designs are soft and approachable, while the sea creatures are more realistic but not to the point of distracting from the overall gentle style of the work. They give off a friendly vibe, even if that sounds weird to say about something like a shark! There’s a lot of detail on every page, so I think this is a series where readers will enjoy rereading it and taking in new details each time.

As mentioned, Deep-Sea Aquarium Magmell Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Yen Press and has been translated by Kevin Steinbach with lettering by Lys Blakeslee, who have both done an excellent job with it. Sadly there aren’t any colour pages or other extras to speak of, which is a shame, as judging by the cover, I’m sure more colour pages in Sugishita’s style would look incredible.

This series began in Japanese in 2017 and is up to 10 volumes and seemingly still ongoing at the time of writing. Yen Press has Volume 2 scheduled for an English release in January, but nothing beyond that currently, so I suspect it will take us quite a while to catch up at this pace. Still, with such a unique premise, this does seem likely to remain on your radar even if releases are few and far between.

Overall, Deep-Sea Aquarium Magmell is a delightful manga that has a lot to teach us about the creatures that live in the depths of the ocean and proves wonderfully charming as we watch over Kotaro’s work life. There’s really not a whole lot of manga set in aquariums, and especially not with this careful balance of story and desire to teach readers. Highly recommended if you’re looking for something new to add to your collection.

A free preview can be read on the Yen Press website.

Our review copy was supplied by the publisher Yen Press

©Kiyomi Sugishita / SHINCHOSHA Publishing Co., Ltd.