Reviews

If you love stories and love to write, it's not that hard to write one. With enough tries and growing your craft, you can write good ones. But not many will pen with the certain grace and candor that characterizes the great stories that last forever. Every great story is told by a sincere love and care for its characters and the place they have in their world. Of the eight mediums of storytelling, there is one that began it all - literature - and Izumi Mitsu, writing about books and their power to unite the world, chose to depict it through manga. This form however suited her vision and goals by a multitude of full-page spreads that, relative to total length, you may simply not see in other manga. At this point there have been too many incredibly beautiful panels I wanted to stare at, mesmerized by being in the imaginary library myself, only tugged along by what happens next, what our hero sees next in his amazing world. Far too often in this medium we have characters that fade into the limelight of archetypes that the standard high school anime friend group epitomizes. Shounen has given us the main trio. I find that classroom casts are superior for this and off the top of my mind, only Blue Period challenges Magus of the Library in terms of vibrancy, diversity, and individual personality where each and every character feels like a person, in the modern era. Only a few writers can make me feel that excitement to meeting a new character whom I know will be interesting and whom I know will feel real. At this point I think of Legend of the Galactic Heroes or War and Peace for ensemble casts that feel likewise tangible - but written in different times. Unlike those works, this little book is fit to be read by all; fit to be enjoyed by everyone regardless of color or gender or religious beliefs or any other characteristic. The only author I've read that presents an abiding love of reading as strongly, relative to form, would be Virginia Woolf. The muster with which Izumi tells her story, nods to certain tropes, can only be done by a writer who's that familiar with the landscape of story. The notes of destiny provided by her at points in the story can only be done by one who has a clear purpose. In terms of distinct influences, I detect One Piece, Otoyomegatari, a little bit of Hunter x Hunter, and possibly Blue Period. Not many anime or manga nowadays do true fantasy, a true other world where it seems that anything can happen. The isekai genre notoriously glosses over the barrier of creating a fictional language, which should be, properly speaking, the first thing you create. Because only then can the books and stories flow and inspire. Because in books - in stories generally - there is this incredible, beautiful power and it is one of two true magics in our world. The other would be the creation of it, the manifestation of art by a person and when you bring the two together into one, you have Magus of the Library.