| Maga-Tsuki | |
| Ja Kanji: | まがつき |
| Genre: | Harem, Mythic fiction |
| Type: | manga |
| Author: | Hoshino Taguchi |
| Publisher: | Kodansha |
| Demographic: | Shōnen |
| Magazine: | Monthly Shonen Sirius |
| First: | April 2011 |
| Last: | February 2017[1] |
| Volumes: | 13 |
| Volume List: |
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is a shōnen manga series by Hoshino Taguchi, who got the idea for the story after visiting a shrine. The story follows Yasuke, who is about to confess his love to his childhood friend when he is cursed by accidentally breaking a mirror at his family's shrine. The curse causes him to be linked to the goddess of misfortune Orihime at all times or else he will die. He can only be revived by having her kiss him which among other things causes problems with his relationship with his childhood friend. Maga-Tsuki was first serialized in Monthly Shonen Sirius starting in April, 2011, and ran until February, 2017. The series was released in manga format in Japan that spanned thirteen volumes which were released by Kodansha. Outside of Japan, the manga was adapted into an English language format that is being released by Kodansha USA. Eight English language manga volumes have also been released with more announced through 2016. The English adaptation has received several reviews from critics.
While visiting a shrine, manga author Hoshino Taguchi thought to himself to whom he was praying to. He stated that Japanese people do not correctly differentiate between shrines, and temples which makes it seem rude to the deity when the person does not know to whom they are making a request to. Hoshino kept the idea of "Poor gods all people ever do is ask things of them", and incorporated it into a new story after reading about Japanese mythology.[2]
Yasuke is a first year high school student who has feelings for his childhood friend Akari. He lives at a shrine, where his older sister is a shrine priestess, and caretaker though she neglects some of her duties for her brother to clean up. After Akari is invited over by his sister, Yasuke sees this as the perfect time to confess his feelings towards her, but ends up accidentally breaking a mirror in the shrine. The result is that he is cursed by Orihime, the goddess of misfortune who takes his soul into her. To make matters worse if he is separated from her then he dies, and can only be brought back to life through her kissing him. When Akari suddenly sees Orihime she storms off thinking that Yasuke did this in order to hurt her as she also has feelings for him. Orihime initially asks Yasuke to make her happy which will lift the curse, but due to his childhood friend storming off he is upset with her. Orihime soon breaks down into tears which causes the destruction of the things around him. Realizing this he soon is able to calm her down.
His sister eventually finds out, and is able to help convince almost everyone at his school that they are related. Akari is not convinced but feels better after Hinata introduces herself as Orihime's sister, and asks her to break the two up. Hinata later reveals herself to be Amaterasu, goddess to the universe who declares that she is going to reseal Orihime into the mirror. In her attempt to do so though, Yasuke's soul goes into Akari causing the two to remain in close contact at all times or else he will die. Akari is relieved to hear about the curse as a reason for the misunderstandings, but Hinata tells Yasuke that his goal to make her sister happy has not changed.
Amaterasu eventually also falls in love with Yasuke, and a third heroine named Izuna Amatake is introduced who also falls for him. Yasuke meets with his fiancée/cousin named Momoko Yamato and although she became disillusioned with him, she still continues to love enough that at the end she returns to join them. Yasuke regains his soul at the end of the series, and a joint marriage is held between Yasuke and all the heroines including his cousin. Orihime becomes purified so she can no longer cause calamity, and they all decide to live together.
Maga-Tsuki was first serialized in manga magazine Monthly Shonen Sirius starting in April, 2011, and later concluded in the February, 2017 issue.[1] The first manga volume of Maga-Tsuki was released in Japan by Kodansha on August 9, 2011. Thirteen volumes have been released so far, the most recent being on April 7, 2017.[8] [9] Crunchyroll first announced that an English adaptation would be available on its website on November 25, 2014.[10] Having picked up the license, Kodansha USA later announced at Anime Expo 2015 that it was planning to release Maga-Tsuki sometime in February, 2016.[11] The first English language manga volume was released in March, 2016 in both digital, and print formats. In addition to North America, the series has also been released in Australia through Random House.[12] [13] Eight volumes have been released so far with upcoming volumes to be released via omnibus format.
The English adaptation of Maga-Tsuki has received reviews from critics who specialize in the field. Jordan Richards from Adventures in Poor Taste gave the first volume a score of 4.5/10. He concluded that the harem story was typical when it came to the comedy, and that it left a lot to be desired. Richards also called the characters stereotypical with an almost nonexistent storyline.[14] Anime UK News also gave a review of the first two volumes giving them a 3/10 rating. Reviewer Ian Wolf stated that there was not much that separated Maga-Tsuki from other harem stories. He compared the idea of a curse by a god to Nyan Koi! saying that it "has been done before".[15] Gregory Smith from the Fandom Post though wrote in his review of the first volume that the characters are sincere, and that the artwork is engaging. Smith said while not original, the story does not need "complex world-building".[16] Neo magazine gave the first volume a 3/5 score, and compared it to Oh! My Goddess saying that it throws the latter's premise on its head concluding that Maga-Tsuki is "cute, wacky, harmless fun".[17] Shaenon K. Garrity from Otaku USA said that while the story has comedy potential the action scenes were "visually" confusing. She went on to call the art bland with the female characters having "identical moe faces", but said that the art was nicely executed.[18]