Magical Girl Incident Manga Starts with Surprises

The amount of exposition and explanation you get in a manga when a story begins varies from mangaka to mangaka. Especially with a magical girl manga, as you might now right away how a character got their powers or it could remain something of a secret for quite a few chapters or volumes. Magical Girl Incident, a Zero Akabane series localized by Yen Press, is going with the latter approach. Everything’s left as a mystery from the start, which means the reader ends up as clueless about what’s going on as protagonist Hiromi Sakura. However, at the same time, I find it really suits the situation.

Magical Girl Incident begins with the absolutely ordinary Hiromi. He always wanted to be a hero of sorts and help people. However, instead he ended up a “corporate drone” salaryman. He works an ordinary job alongside his friend Yuzuru Saotome, dealing with an insensitive, ignorant boss, attempts pushed overtime, and all sorts of corporate nonsense. After saving a child from getting hit by a truck when retrieving a ball from the street, he later finds he can’t stand back and just watch as that same kid is about to be attacked by a supernatural monster. He steps in and is seemingly fatally injured.

Except Hiromi then gets back up, but this time as a magical girl. He’s more powerful. He has increased agility and a higher jump than usual. His whole appearance and voice changes. However, he has no idea how or why it happened, and neither do we. Which makes it all the more fascinating

Especially since Akabane takes advantage of it to have it become a plot point. Once Yuzuru finds out Hiromi’s secret, part of the result is them trying to figure out what’s going on. They attempt to determine what triggers the transformation, for example. The two also essentially end up working together to figure out what Hiromi’s new heroic lifestyle will look like. However, that also means encountering a mysterious young woman who seems connected to the events going on and more monsters.

Everything is incredibly vague, and I can’t get over how well it suits the series. Hiromi is completely in the dark about what’s going on. We’re in the same position as him, and it means we get to figure out what happens alongside him. It allows for a bit more impact when discoveries come up or even more mysteries present themselves.

As an aside, I also like the way Magical Girl Incident sort of parallels Cardcaptor Sakura. This is due to the fact that both Hitomi and Sakura have a rich benefactor and friend, Yuzuru and Tomoko, on their side. It means in this manga we get to see what would happen in a more realistic situation when a magical girl has access to an ally with money and power. The result is immediate access to equipment like a helicopter and the ability to close off a road so Hitomi can deal with an enemy without civilians getting hurt.

The entirety of Magical Girl Incident volume 1 feels like it is setting up the manga. I even wonder if volume 2 is going to provide the answers yet. It feels like there’s still more opportunities for things to build up. Not to mention at this point, I’m more interested in seeing the characters develop and continue to react to Hiromi getting to finally be a hero as a magical girl. I’d be happy if some of the bigger reveals don’t start appearing until the end of the second volume or even further ahead in the future.

Magical Girl Incident volume 1 is now available via Yen Press, and the next volume of the manga will appear on September 19, 2023. It will end its run in Japan in July 2023.

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