New Flavors: Magi - Labyrinth of Magic

Magi - Labyrinth of Magic
by Ohtaka Shinobu
The main character is a young boy who befriends a djinn; part of the story is about him looking for a better "home" for the genie, so they go from thief pack to thief pack killing them all to see their treasure. (Bob Rangzen)

It's an alternate version of Aladdin and the Magic Lamp! I loooooooove different versions of famous fairy tales or stories, and I freakin' love that classic, so I didn't need to think if I should check this one out or not. Hehe.

The Aladdin in this series is younger and not exactly a thief (at least in present time). Him and the genie here are friends and he was only given one wish, not three. There's no Princess Jasmine yet, at least so far.

The story was okay, but it left me disappointed. I'm not that impressed on how the events had been presented/narrated. I liked the twist about the light haired girl's past though, but overall it seemed like your generic shounen. There had also been scenes that shocked me too much . . . in a negative way.

Oh how to explain this . . . most of the time my reactions had been like this:

And my lines while reading it had been like the following:
". . . . what just happened?"
". . . . eeeerrr . . . okay."
" duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhh"
". . . . whatever . . . . "
"You say such talk again I'll strangle you."
"This is . . . . disturbing."
" . . . . . . . . . . . . " O_O
"WHAT THE F*CK WAS THAT?!"

This had been the most disturbing scenes for me:

Whatever the first panel is, my brain cannot process anything. All it knows is that it's something erotically disturbing and disgusting. The second one though, at first look it's so damn crazy and WTF, but it'll make sense once you see what it actually is or how the kid suddenly looked like that, but it's still WTF!

I admit that some panels looked pretty cool though. Like that one *points manga panel above*. It kind reminded me of Simon and Lagann from Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann (Lagann only had a head while the genie only had a body) Hehe.

However, not all panels had exactly been drawn that well, in my opinion. Some are good, yes, but many are so-so or average.

It seems that the first chapter is just an introduction to the series. We're not in the actual meat of the story yet. Aladdin was cute, but I really can't say if I appreciated the first chapter. It has potential but . . . I don't really enjoy its humor and fanservice.

So people who appreciate these kind of stories and comedy may like this series. Also those who are very biased to stories related to "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" or Arabian stuff or genies.

Speaking of genies, I find it nice that the genie here isn't your typical one. Genies in modern fiction are usually some toughlooking guy or some hot babe, but in this one it's just a muscular body . . . so strange . . . and unusual. *smiles* I like unusual stuff. Hehe.

It's not exactly that bad actually, but . . . it's just not my type. Ehehehe. I might change my mind if I have bothered to check out the second chapter.

Sapphire Pyro	READ: 1 chapter (out of 1 chapter released so far) VERDICT: Dropped But Not Really Hated
It's an Aladdin-like story! Of course I had to check it out! Sadly, it hadn't been my type. It had cute and cool scenes, but I didn't appreciate the story and some scenes had been disturbing to me for being too weird. Ehehe . . .