Hibiki's Magic

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Hibiki's Magic


caption = "Hibiki's Magic" English volume 1 cover.
ja_name = ヒビキのマホウ
ja_name_trans = Hibiki no Mahō
genre = Drama, FantasyInfobox animanga/Manga
author = Jun Maeda
illustrator = Rei Izumi
publisher = flagicon|Japan Kadokawa Shoten
publisher_en = flagicon|USA Tokyopop
publisher_other = flagicon|Taiwan flagicon|Hong Kong Taiwan Kadokawa
demographic = Shōnen
magazine = Shōnen Ace "(former)"
Comp Ace
first = June 26, 2004
last = ongoing
volumes = 2Nihongo|"Hibiki's Magic"|ヒビキのマホウ|Hibiki no Mahō, subtitled "a continental chronicle" in the original version, is a Japanese manga series written by Jun Maeda, who is also known for his work with the visual novel studio Key on such famous titles as "Kanon", "Air", and "Clannad". The art for "Hibiki's Magic" is provided by Rei Izumi, who also drew the art for the manga version of ".hack//Legend of the Twilight". The story centers on a young girl named Hibiki who is the apprentice to a very skilled wizard named Shirotsuki. Hibiki does not have much skill with magic, and the only thing she is really good at is making tea. After an accident where her teacher nearly died, Hibiki comes to stay at a famous magic academy and works as a teacher herself.

"Hibiki's Magic" is published by Kadokawa Shoten and started serialization in the Japanese shōnen manga magazine "Shōnen Ace" in June 2004, but later transferred to "Comp Ace" in November 2005. As of August 2007, two bound volumes have been released in Japan, and the manga had been on between May 26, 2007 and June 26, 2008. Tokyopop has licensed the series, and the first volume was released in January 2007, followed by the second in September 2007.

Plot

tory

"Hibiki's Magic" revolves around the life of the title character Hibiki, a lonely young girl who is under the wing of a skilled wizard named Shirotsuki. At the beginning of the story, Hibiki is living in a house in the woods with Shirotsuki and is training under him as an assistant to learn the art of magic. Shirotsuki, whom Hibiki refers to a "Master", is searching for the key to immortality. He is a renowned expert at the craft known as Magic Circles, which draws its power from the art of elaborate circles that enact various enchantments. Even though Shirotsuki invited Hibiki to learn what he knows, at the heart of Hibiki's personality is a pitiful cry-baby who is afraid of failing, and rarely succeeds. In spite of repeatedly failing, she keeps trying with Shirotsuki's encouragement.

Shirotsuki's pressing research in immortality comes to a screeching halt when a group of men break into the house during an experiment. Shirotsuki's soul becomes trapped inside a squirrel-like creature called a Gusk, and his real body is lost in a massive blaze that results from his magical protection wards, originally meant to safeguard his research from falling into the wrong hands. Hibiki and the Gusk barely escape alive.

After settling the remaining issues with local law enforcement, she takes up residence in a nearby town. It comes as somewhat of a shock to Hibiki that Shirotsuki's reputation precedes him, and she is taken to the local Kamisaid Magic Academy and is soon given the position of professor. Hibiki's attempts to convince the administration of her shortcomings meet with failure. Hibiki is forced to learn to cope with being a professor in the most famous magic school in the country and meets many new people that help her along the way.

Magic

In the world of "Hibiki's Magic", in order to gain magic one must make a sacrifice. This is apparent in nearly all of the magic-wielding characters, although the actual sacrifice itself is not always mentioned. It can be a physical sacrifice, such as Ahito experiencing pain after the use of magic, or it can be a mental sacrifice, such as Shirotsuki losing his memories as he uses magic. The sacrifices are often touched upon in the manga, and in some cases are a main focus as Hibiki tries to make the sacrifices a little more bearable.

Characters

;Nihongo|Hibiki|ヒビキ:Hibiki is a young girl who has little confidence in her abilities, with the exception of tea making. When she met Shirotsuki, Hibiki was a shy girl who would hide in the corner of a room in his house speechlessly. Eventually, Hibiki warmed up to Shirotsuki's affectionate personality and came to consider him a very important person. Shortly after the destruction of Shirotsuki's home, she says that he is the only family she has left. She becomes a teacher at Kamisaid Magic Academy, even though her students are older than her, and created a homonculus named Shiraasan. Hibiki can be very lighthearted, and always helps people who need it.

;Nihongo|Shirotsuki|シロツキ:Shirotsuki is a very skilled wizard who took Hibiki into his home in order to train her as an assistant to his craft. Despite Hibiki's constant failures, Shirotsuki never gets angry with her and would let her take her time to get it right. After his transposition into a the squirrel-like Gusk creature, Shirotsuki often helps Hibiki with his vast amount of magical knowledge, though others think that it is Hibiki who performs such amazing feats of sorcery.

:Before he met Hibiki, Shirotsuki was in a relationship with a woman named Yui. After he started to get serious about magic, his memory started to fade until he had forgotten about Yui entirely. Overtime, it became too much for Yui to constantly remind him who she was. After seeing the pain he was causing her, Shirotsuki asked her to not tell him who she was the next time he forgot, and she kept her promise. Now, all Shirotsuki has left of their relationship is a pocket watch she gave him with the inscription: "From Yui to Shirotsuki". Shirotsuki sacrificed his memories for his magic.

;Nihongo|Ahito|アヒト:Ahito is a young man enrolled as a student at Kamisaid Magic Academy. In spite of this, he does not believe that magic is useful to mankind. This attitude towards magic stems from an event as a child when he was taking part in a series of magical experiments to enable him to heal just by looking at someone. Ahito willingly went along with the painful experiments so he could save a girl his age named Mizuki. After her death, Ahito stopped believing that magic is a good thing. He soon starts to act a little more nicely to Hibiki. Ahito sacrificed pain for his magic; He is physically injured after gazing upon someone with his healing eyes.

;Nihongo|Shiraasan|シイラアサン|Shiiraasan:Shiraasan, also known as Shi-chan, is a female homunculus, or artificial human, created by a joint effort of Hibiki and her master Shirotsuki. Shiraasan took her name from one of the greatest homunculus warriors in history known as Lord Shiraasan. Despite looking like a very young girl, Shiraasan has the maturity of an adult who finds nothing wrong with reading newspapers or smoking cigarettes. Since homunculi were originally created as weapons, Shiraasan initially procured several guns to use as she pleases, such as taking care of stray flies. Shiraasan has a very independent personality and does not like to be told what she can and cannot do. After it is confirmed that she is a stable lifeform, Shiraasan warms up to Hibiki and loves her much like a child loves a mother, and can often be a tiny over-protective of Hibiki.

;Nihongo|Asuma|アスマ:Asuma is a male wizard with a frivolous personality and is the director of Kamisaid Magic Academy. He likes using magic to surprise others, such as making flowers and small birds appear out of nowhere. He is generally seen either around flowers on school grounds, or sniffing a rose in his possession. Asuma originally gave Hibiki a position in the research lab at the school, but later made her a professor in charge of a class of problem students since no one else wanted to teach them. His sacrifice for magic is that he ages quickly. For example, when Misaki got saved by him, she had to meet him at Kamisaid Magic Academy and he aged a few years in one day.

;Nihongo|Misaki|ミサキ:Misaki is Asuma's assistant and was the first person that Hibiki met from Kamisaid Magic Academy. When Hibiki makes a mistake, Misaki will lecture her and inform her how a member of the faculty should act, even when it may not entirely be her fault. Due to Hibiki's low magical experience, Misaki has shown that she is worried about Hibiki succeeding as a member of the staff.

;Nihongo|Mizuki|ミヅキ:Mizuki was a young, sickly girl that Ahito knew as a child. She, along with Ahito, had been the subject of several magical experiments which eventually took her life. Both of her parents had been killed in an accident she was in, and afterwards the magic within her had been awakened. Though, due to the trauma, she did not talk again until one day confessing to Ahito that she was afraid of falling asleep and never waking up again as her condition was slowly worsening.

;Nihongo|ItsukoTokyopop translated Itsuko's and Yutsuko's names incorrectly. In the original katakana script, each name has a sokuon in it, denoting a double-vowel sound of the vowel that preceded the sokuon, such as the I in Itsuko, and the first U in Yutsuko. In Hepburn romanization, this would translate to a double-consonant in written form, where Itsuko should have been Ikko, and Yutsuko should have been Yukko.] |イッコ|Ikko:Itsuko is a female student at Kamisaid Magic Academy whose specialty is curses. While normally a sweet young woman, her personality becomes sinister when she is performing her curses. She has shown a skill in sewing when she was asked by Hibiki to make new clothes for Shiraasan.

;Nihongo|Yutsuko|ユッコ|Yukko:Yutsuko is a woman around the same age as Itsuko, who is her sister. Yutsuko lost her young daughter named Nanako in the last war, and since then has spent all her time researching how to make a homunculus in human form, though has never been able to produce one that looked human. The best she could do would be a head-sized orange ball-shaped lifeform with two eyes. Due to these creations being incomplete, they would disappear after three days which would leave Yutsuko to grieve and try again to create another homunculus. After the incident with Shiraasan, Yutsuko is finally able to accept her daughter's death and ceases to make more homunculi. Yutsuko sacrificed her slumber for her magic.

Manga

As stated at the back of the first volume, Jun Maeda first conceived "Hibiki's Magic" as a short story he wrote as a student, and the story contains a theme that he has carried through a lot of stories since, though he does not clarify as to what the theme is. In 2003, he wanted to collaborate with Rei Izumi who is one of his favorite artists, and remembered his earlier concept that would become "Hibiki's Magic". After Izumi drew some early character designs for Hibiki, Maeda wanted to continue the story and start a manga with Izumi as the artist.cite book|last=Maeda|first=Jun|title="Hibiki's Magic" volume 1|publisher=Tokyopop]

"Hibiki's Magic" originally started serialization in the Japanese shōnen manga magazine "Shōnen Ace" on June 26, 2004, published by Kadokawa Shoten. The manga serialization was later transferred to another magazine published by Kadokawa Shoten named "Comp Ace" on November 26, 2005. Two bound volumes have been released in Japan, the first on August 10, 2005, and the second on December 26, 2006. At Comic-Con International 2006, Tokyopop licensed the right to release the English language edition of "Hibiki's Magic", and released the first volume in January 2007; the second volume went on sale on September 11, 2007.citeweb|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2006-07-23/comic-con-tokyopop-triple-play|title=Comic-Con: Tokyopop Triple Play|publisher=Anime News Network|date=July 23, 2006|accessdate=2007-08-01] citeweb|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=6222|title=Hibiki's Magic (manga)|publisher=Anime News Network|accessdate=2007-08-01] "Hibiki's Magic" was on hiatus between the publication of volume fifteen of "Comp Ace" on May 26, 2007, until the magazine's August 2008 issue published on June 26, 2008. Six chapters have been published in the magazine but not into a bound volume yet.

Reception

Anime News Network's review of the first volume states that "Hibiki's Magic"...focus [es] on the ways that magic effects the everyday lives of its users. The personal focus is welcome, but the book is a little too compressed and rushed to evoke exactly the emotional response that it desires."citeweb|url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/hibiki's-magic/gn|title=Hibiki's Magic manga 1 Review|publisher=Anime News Network|author=Carl Kimlinger|date=April 5, 2007|accessdate=2007-08-01] While at the same time describing the first volume as having an "inspirational tone", the review ends by saying, "Don't come to "Hibiki's Magic" expecting a life-changing re-examination of magic. It's a heavy dose of pure cuteness for those who like their sweet-and-sour drama with lots of cheese." IGN Comics' review said, "This book ought to be fairly popular for its intended age group....Make no mistake, this book is "cute" in every sense of the word...but at the same time it's a solid story that breaks out of that cuteness mold." [citeweb|url=http://comics.ign.com/articles/759/759570p1.html|title=Hibiki's Magic Vol. 1 Review|publisher=IGN|author=A. E. Sparrow|date=January 29, 2007|accessdate=2007-08-01]

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.tokyopop.com/product/1730 Tokyopop's "Hibiki's Magic" website]
*ann manga|id=6222