Magu-Chan: God of Destruction Chapter 4 Review

Magu-chan: God of Destruction has been a fun little manga over the course of the first three chapters. This manga is heavy on cute and comedy. The basic gimmick is seeing a previously all-powerful and somewhat evil god now having to deal with being a tiny cute creature who is having to adjust to the modern world.

Having said that, I am worried that this manga is about to get stuck in a rut and become a bit of a one-trick pony. Hopefully, Kei Kamiki can evolve the story and add a few more dimensions to this manga. Let’s go ahead and hit this review for Magu-Chan: God of Destruction Chapter 4.

Words: Kei Kamiki

Art: Kei Kamiki

Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10

Cast:

Magu Menueku aka Magu-chan: Magu-chan is the God of Destruction and a member of the Gods of Chaos. Magu-chan was sealed away after a war against humans. Magu-chan remained sealed in a gem for hundreds of years until the gem was discovered by Ruru. Ruru freed Magu-chan and now has him living with her at her home. Magu-chan has the power of destructive energy blasts.

Ruru Miyanagi: Ruru is a middle school girl who lives on her own. Her father passed away when she was young. Her mother works long hours on the mainland. Ruru is not that smart but has lots of spunk.

Ren Fujisawa: Ren is a middle school boy who is friends with Ruru. Ren harbors a secret crush on Ruru.

Naputaaku: Naputaaku the Mad is an evil god who is a member of the Gods of Chaos. Naputaaku can control the minds of living beings.

Synopsis: We begin with Ruru waking up angry that Magu-chan broke her alarm clock. Magu-chan says that he destroyed the alarm clock so it would not interrupt Ruru’s slumber. Ruru is angry because now she is going to be late for school. Magu-chan is confused by Ruru’s reaction. Magu-chan thinks how no matter what favors he does for Ruru she still does not worship him.

Ruru then heads off for school. Magu-chan thinks that showing his true might to Ruru then she will revere him. Magu-Chan peers into the refrigerator and sees several cups of pudding.

We cut to later with Ruru walking home from school. Ruru thinks about how she can’t wait to have the puddings that she bought. That she will split them with Magu-chan.

Ruru enters her house and sees that Magu-chan in the shape of a pudding container. Ruru is shocked and runs to the refrigerator. Ruru sees that Magu-chan ate both containers of pudding.

Ruru punches Magu-chan and calls him the worst. Ruru then ties Magu-chan to the drying rack in her backyard. Magu-chan has a sign on him saying, “I ate all the pudding.” Magu-chan thinks how his first servant disobeying him sets a bad precedent. Magu-chan slips out of the rope and decides to go buy more pudding to gain Ruru’s devotion.

Magu-chan wanders down the street wondering where to buy the pudding. Along the way, Magu-chan comes across Naputaaku the Mad. Naputaaku is still exhausted from his battle with Magu-chan in the prior chapter. We see the 100 hermit crabs with Naputaaku that he took control of in the prior chapter which sapped him of his power.

Naputaaku sees Magu-chan and yells at him. Magu-chan shoots Naputaaku with an energy blast and says that Naputaaku is no match for him in his current condition. Magu-chan then tells the hermit crabs that Naputaaku signed his friendship book. (Magu-chan thinks it is actually a book that your servants sign as a symbol of their subservience.) Therefore, the hermit crabs must serve Magu-chan now. Magu-chan asks the hermit crabs where he can get pudding. They lead him to the convenience store.

We cut back to Ruru checking on Magu-chan to tell him that dinner is ready. She sees that he is gone.

We hop back to Magu-chan arriving at a convenience store. Unfortunately, Magu-chan is too small to activate the automated doors. Magu-chan thinks that the doors are magical and only open for lowly humans. Magu-chan thinks that he is too weak to summon another energy beam after blasting Naputaaku.

Suddenly, Ren appears on the scene. Magu-chan reminds Ren that Ren signed Magu-chan’s book in return for Magu-chan keeping silent about Ren having a crush on Ruru. Therefore, Ren must do what Magu-chan says and help him buy some pudding.

We cut to inside the convenience store. The clerk is dreaming about how he wished he had enough money to move to Tokyo and pursue his dream of being a musician.

Suddenly, Magu-chan enters the store wearing Ren’s gym clothes. Magu-chan has elongated his body so that he is as tall as a middle schoolboy. Magu-chan says that the lowly human clerk will never notice that Magu-chan is disguised as a lowly human. Ren is outside thinking that Magu-chan must think all humans are stupid. The clerk is stunned and wonders why an alien wearing a gym uniform would be in the convenience store.

Magu-chan grabs two armfuls of pudding containers. Magu-chan realizes that he has no human money, so he dumps a bunch of gold and treasures that were given to him from his worshipers in ancient times. Magu-chan says that should be enough and then leaves the store.

The clerk is stunned and takes all the treasure. The next day the clerk quits his job. We then see that the clerk moves to Tokyo and uses the treasures to fund his death metal band that gained a small cult-like following. (Ummmmm…so random.)

We shift to Magu-chan returning home and telling Ruru that he has returned with pudding. Ruru rushes over and hugs Magu-chan and cries that she is sorry that she kept him outside as she did. Ruru says she was worried about Magu-chan and thought he ran away.

Magu-chan shows Ruru the pudding. Ruru is happy and says that Magu-chan is the best. We cut to the hermit crabs carrying a container of pudding to Naputaaku. Naputaaku is touched by the hermit crabs offering him food. End of chapter.

The Good: Magu-Chan: God of Destruction Chapter 4 was a solid read. The clear charm of this manga is the cuteness of Magu-chan himself and the comedy that is served up in large amounts. Kei Kamiki has succeeded in making Magu-chan an adorable character. His amount of rage and ego packaged in such a small and cute form is a recipe for success.

Kamiki threads the needle well in how to keep Magu-chan comedic without reducing him to a non-threatening joke. Kamiki always reminds the reader that Magu-chan has considerable power. This is important since Magu-chan is still a God of Chaos. It is critical that readers still see flashes of Magu-chan’s immense power to keep the comedy gag of his physical form being discordant from his personality and power going with the reader. However, that power needs to be limited so that Magu-chan remains reliant upon Ruru. So, having Magu-chan so weakened after expending any of his power helps achieve the necessary balance for his character and the very foundation for this manga’s core gimmick.

The other emerging star of Magu-Chan: God of Destruction is Naputaaku. Kamiki simply takes what makes Magu-chan so appealing and adorable and replicates that with Naputaaku. It is hilarious for this God of Chaos to have hermit crabs as his loyal followers. Kamiki nicely balances Naputaaku’s evil and aggressive nature with his sweet appreciation of his hermit crabs presenting him with the gift of pudding. It is this lovable aspect of Naputaaku that quickly endears him to the reader.

Outside the cute factor of both Magu-chan and Naputaaku, the other clear strength of Magu-Chan: God of Destruction is the comedy. Kamiki has a great sense of humor and knows how to deliver a fun light-hearted story. The amount of comedy never subsides. Kamiki is able to keep the reader smiling and chuckling from start to finish in Chapter 4.

Kamiki delivers some solid artwork. Kamiki does the best in drawing adorable small creatures and imbuing them with such excellent emotion. However, for the most part, the artwork never does anything particularly impressive. It is simply serviceable.

The Bad: Magu-chan: God of Destruction is beginning to become a bit of a one-trick pony. I began to get the feeling of Groundhog Day as I read Chapter 4. The story is starting to become too repetitious. It feels that Kamiki is already recycling the same material that we got in the prior three chapters. We are now far enough into this manga that Kamiki needs to begin to grow and evolve the story. It is imperative that this manga starts to show some new wrinkles and substantive plot progression. Chapter 4 simply serves to repeat the prior chapters’ basic gags.

Chapter 4 also presents the reader with a rather shallow story. At this point in this new manga, I would expect to get to more meat on the story. I would expect Kamika to start fleshing out the world and installing several plot-lines designed to complicate and deepen the story. Unfortunately, none of that has happened.

Kamiki seems to suffer from a bit of a lack of focus with Chapter 4. The weird tangent with the convenience store clerk added nothing to the story and seemed like a weird time waster. That odd tangent combined with the general lack of plot progression and repetitious nature of the story makes the reader feel like this manga is suffering from an overall lack of focus.

Magu-chan: God of Destruction continues to suffer from a lack of any real strong character work. Both Ruru and Ren are generic and lack anything unique or interesting to their personalities. Therefore, the reader never gets invested in either character. Ruru and Ren are standard issue characters that you have seen in countless manga before. The weaknesses in the character work for these two characters is a real problem spot to this manga.

Overall: Magu-chan: God of Destruction Chapter 4 is an average read. If you like light-hearted comedy mangas then you might want to give this manga a try. However, the lack of depth, pedestrian character work, and the repetitious nature of the story makes it hard for me to wholeheartedly recommend this manga.

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