Mx0 Review
Mx0, which ended sometime in 2008, is a manga by Kano Yasuhiro. Entailing Kuzumi Taiga, the main character of the series. During an interview on his enrollment for Seinagi Private High School, he was asked what would he do if he could use magic. His reply “Conquer the World!”, manifested laughter from another female applicant. Blaming her, he decided to confront her. This forces him to return to the school, and in doing so, he discovered one shocking revelation: Seinagi Private High School is literally a school of magic.
The manga’s forte I believe, is that it’s skill in mixing the mundane school slice-of-life settings, together with the supernatural elements. It captures both the light romantic comedy atmospheres, and also the bizarreness due to the presence of magic. The blend between the two is one makes this premise so lovely, a wonderful combination of humors, romance and battles. The ecchi strangely isn’t overwhelming as well, and I feel that it’s implemented greatly into the humors.
The card system is okay at first but almost towards the end, it feels a bit too technical. At first, only the different colors of the cards are shown, but towards the end, more explanations about the complicated categorization of the cards are revealed, in which it almost resembles a periodic table. Indeed, these kinds of explanations should be carried out as early as possible and doing it nearly at the end of the manga, or even midway through, feels out of place.
The author also created a few plot points which were rather pointless, and one main example I could give would be the “back to the beginning” arc. It went on for several chapters but at the end of the day, nothing new is gained from it. However, for the other prominent major arcs, it’s done exceptionally well, as I actually like some of the class matches and events.
The most entertaining aspect of the manga is Kuzumi’s growth as a character. He knows next to nothing about magic, yet he got enrolled into Seinagi. However, due to certain misunderstandings, everyone thinks he is a very powerful magic user since he got a hold of a very high rank card by mistake. The poor boy who was ignorant about magic his whole life had to answer the expectations of the whole school and had to somehow fool everyone that he IS indeed a strong magic user.
However, fundamentally, Kuzumi is already a very strong character, both physically and mentally. He is very observant of his surroundings and most of all, he is adaptive. Even without magic, he defeated countless foes using alternative methods; M0, bluffs, tricks, strategies, observations, deductions and even plain brute strength. He is the ultimate underdog, and it is always interesting to see what kind of crazy plans he always come up with in battles.
The other characters sadly falls short in comparison, probably due to lack of exposure. Aside from exceptional characters like Nagai, Satoshi and Daddy Hiiragi, the rest of the cast are surprisingly forgettable.
The artwork had been pretty consistent from start to finish, but that’s fine since the artwork is already quite satisfactory from the beginning. The magic effects are pretty nice though sometimes they may appear slightly excessive. Another downside is that sometimes, I can’t help but feel that the character designs feel rather generic.
The art styles also helped with the comedic outlook of the manga. Mx0 is certainly one of the better manga incorporating various emotions to their characters, and works extremely well during hilarious moments.
Ones who read Mx0 must be warned about the axed ending, so that they will know that the manga they read wouldn’t end in a good note, literally. Abruptly, the author was forced to end his manga and unsurprisingly, some plot developments of the manga weren’t completed, like the romance progression between Kuzumi and Aika. Another major example would be the “10 stages of black plate tests”, which was left untouched.
Overall though, Mx0 is quite an enjoyable manga to read, and depicts a fun, yet mundane journey of magic. It has an unique premise and I would certainly recommend this manga to those who are more fond of battles as Mx0’s battles are certainly unique. Kuzumi, responding to the expectations of the whole school while still barely surviving himself is also a sight to see.
Rating
Story: B-
Character: C
Artwork: A-
Final Score
7/10
deluscar 
Reblogged this on Just my guilty pleasure reblog. and commented:
So much potential killed by SJ and its dwindling popularity at the time. Yasuhiro deserves better. :(
Yea indeed, I think it’s because of low ratings in Japan? If so, I don’t understand the Japanese’s tastes D:
I agree. While Japan was still raving about the popularity of the Big 3 at the time, Mx0 probably went into obscurity from its niche while people from different countries grew interest into this manga.
Now that when I think about it, the Big 3 sure had one hell of an influence, Mx0 wasn’t even in the same era as those three.
I was reading this because it’s KANO Yasuhiro-sensei’s works.
I like his character design that the first motive.
but what makes me continue reading and waiting for the release every weeks (or month on some occasion) is that it has the element of Magic and School life.
its combination of comedy and romance is some of the element that hook me up too.
that class battle really is the best arc I would say.
And yeah the ending is a bit absurd as a lot of important plot is still yet to revealed and continued.
Kano Yasuhiro does make pretty good drawings, but what I like best is how expressive his characters are.
What attracts me the most is Kuzumi himself, it’s always interesting to see how he survive everyday, using his strength and wits.
Class battle is really good, but it’s too bad at that time, he hadn’t learned M0 manipulation skills, would have been awesome if he learned those before joining in the battles.
Oh well, not much to do. The author ended it quite well too, given the short notice.
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Yeah, Kano-sensei’s works always interests with their unique idea, like Pretty Face & Kagami no Kuni no Harisugawa, but why is it that all of them always ends with a cliffhanger/nothing resolved ?
A lot of manga do that, not just his works. Lack of sales perhaps, or lack of popularity.