Both the summer movie season and the summer anime season is loaded with sequels, so it's as good as a time as any for us to cover some more manga sequels, prequels, and spinoffs, starting with a spinoff from one of my favorite manga.
THE ANCIENT MAGUS' BRIDE: JACK FLASH AND THE FAERIE CASE FILES (Maho Tsukai no Yome Shihen.75: Inazuma Jack to Yosei Jiken), written by Yu Godai with art by Mako Oikawa and script supervision by Kore Yamazaki. First published in 2019 and first published in North America in 2020.
PLOT:
Just beyond the busy everyday surface of New York City is a world of alchemists, fae, and other magical beings living amongst them. When the thin boundary between the two is broken, it is up to investigators like Jacqueline "Jack" Flash and her werewolf assistant Larry to make things right. Their status as changelings allows them to easily traverse both worlds, which they'll need to do to solve cursed cameras, a ring of thieving spectral hounds, and stolen dragon eggs.
STORY:
Considering the ongoing popularity of urban fantasy stories, it was probably inevitable that someone would try to take that sort of approach to the fantastical world of The Ancient Magus' Bride. That doesn't mean that I wasn't a little skeptical that the two could ever mesh. Much like its protagonists, though, it manages to find a way to merge the two while holding its own as a fun little mystery series.
It helps that like a lot of good detective fiction, it's got a good protagonist at the heart of it all. Jack projects a hard, street-smart front, but when her guard is down her kinder (and dorkier) sides shine through. Larry doesn't get nearly as much focus as her, but true to his canine form he is friendly, a little absent-minded, but very loyal to his changeling counterpart when she needs it most. While the vibes between these two reminds me a little of the lead pair of My Dear Detective, there isn't any sort of romantic tension between the two which is a welcome change of pace.
I also appreciate that this series isn't just trading on the Ancient Magus' Bride name. It features not just broad strokes from the series (like centaur mailmen) but cameos from notable supporting cast members. It's not so frequent that it becomes obnoxious, allowing it to give a little extra texture to the world of this story. The mysteries themselves are for the most part uncomplicated, giving the creators plenty of room to flesh out the leads as personalities until it's time for the inevitable cliffhanger at the end of the volume. Taken altogether, it adds up to a pleasant read.
ART:
While there are maybe some surface similarities between the art of this series and Kore Yamazaki's original series, Oikawa's art is thicker, looser, a little more angular, with chunky linework. It's not bad and there's a fluidity to it all that I find appealing, but if you're used to Yamazaki's more measure, delicate style, it might come as a bit of a shock. That said, that style works better in some places than others. When Oikawa gets truly fantastical, it can be gorgeous. When it's time for action, things can get pretty messy and chaotic. They tend to favor low angles and extreme perspectives in those moments, and when combined towards their tendency to fill their panels stuff it becomes a little hard to parse. Luckily, these moments are brief so at most it's just a visual hiccup.
RATING:
This manga is published by Seven Seas. It is ongoing in Japan with 5 volumes available. 4 volumes have been released and are currently in print.
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