Magical girl manga and the Shoujo genre as a whole has been seeing quite the resurgence in the 2020s, with many classics being renewed, in addition to many fresh concepts hitting screens and pages. As a shoujo enjoyer, I have consumed several different series and titles over the years. A more recent series in particular that has caught and kept a stranglehold on my eye, has been a new Shonen Jump title called Magilumiere Co. Ltd.
First serialized on the Shonen Jump+ website and mobile app in October 2021, Magilumiere presents an interesting take on the magical girl genre, by presenting it in a cold, corporate, capitalist setting. The magical girls of Magilumiere are not chosen heroes or fated icons of myth, but paid workers, backed by privatized corporations and startups to exterminate monsters called Kaii.
Magic power in Magilumiere is also given an interesting spin, being presented as a sort of renewable energy source. Alongside the girls who fight Kaii, are a myriad of technicians and engineers working to perfect the tech for the neutralization of Kaii. The girls carry mechanical wands and brooms, with designs that echo more sleek and modern design philosophies, much more akin to mechas or robots than your classic wood straw and twine.
Magilumiere’s worldbuilding is fast-paced and full of interesting interpretations for many classic magical girl tropes like transformations and magic spells. Various magical girl companies take on different aesthetics, work philosophies, and special techniques that set them apart from industry standards, all within an extremely competitive magical girl market. Every new character and company that is introduced presents a new facet of magical girl culture in this alternate version of modern-day Japan.
The story follows Kana Sakuragi, a down-on-her-luck college graduate who is trying and failing to find herself a job. That is until a chance encounter with an ice Kaii puts her in the position to assist a magical girl. Impressed by Sakuragi’s speedy ability to assess situations, her equally fast response time and her solid memorization skills, Hitomi Koshigaya, the magical girl on the scene, immediately endorses Sakuragi to the magical girl company she works at. A small startup called Magilumiere.
Being a magical girl is a tough job, and the job is only made tougher for small up-and-coming magical girl agencies like Magilumiere. With the introduction of Sakuragi the startup only has two working magical girls, their president Kouji Shigemoto, and a handful of behind-the-scenes staff. The thing that sets them apart from their competition, however, is a fairly innovative magic creation system. The conduction and manipulation of magical energy in the Magilumiere world is similar to the coding in a computer, with various codes and commands implemented to create magic for specific situations.
Usually, these codes and commands are premade and autonomous, executed by magical girls alone. At Magilumiere, however, Magic code and commands are created in real-time, while in communication with magical girls on the scene, which serves for much more precise and effective Kaii neutralization, but at the cost of much more skill and manpower, and the constant need for split-second decision making. This high-risk high-reward magic system is the backbone to the Magilumiere startup and the core technology that is used in Magilumiere’s Kaii response.
Outside of Magilumiere is a web of many mysteries and conspiracies, both involving the profits of magical girls and the origins of Kaii. The many ties and associates of President Shigemoto, the shady business and sabotage of other companies, the truth behind some of the most terrifying Kaii atrocities to date.
The story of Magilumiere is about the world of magical girls, but it also ties a rather depressing realism to its storylines and characters. As the saying goes, the real villains of Magilumiere are not the mindless monsters that appear, but the very sinister and very intentional humans that work behind the scenes in the upper rungs of society.
The ugly backside of the magical girl industry and the power/money-hungry business tycoons that run it, have no interest in the lives of those they send to the front lines for battle. Bright-eyed idealists who enter the industry with the hope of creating a better, safer world, are immediately faced with the cold, bloodstained reality of the business that they have just become a part of. The line between altruism and business blurs, and our heroes are forced to contend with villains far more terrifying than your average monster of the week.
Although the reception has been quite slow and quiet, you’ll be pleased to hear that a Magilumiere anime adaptation has recently been confirmed, forecast to air in October 2024. As of writing this Magilumiere is at a comfortable 104 chapters, so there’s plenty of time to catch up and absorb this story in time for it to hit the big screens. If you have some free time and some fantasy love to share, go check out Magilumiere Co. Ltd. today!
