Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation 7

Rating T+ Genre manga Author Yoshiyuki Nishi Publisher Viz Media

If you’ve been on Harry Potter withdrawal and would be okay with reading its manga equivalent, then Muhyo & Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation is right up your alley. It’s definitely Japanese Harry Potter at its most intense.

I wish I could eloquently describe the nature of the plot for you guys, but I’m still pretty confused on it myself. It goes something like this: There’s this short, creepy-looking thing named Muhyo, and he’s the big cheese at this place. He’s an “Executioner,” which basically means he rocks at magic and gets to be in your face with it. Roji is his assistant/apprentice, with a lot of natural talent. Then there are these two twins, Lili and Maril Mathias. They’re taking the magic law examinations, and they go on this special magic law retreat with Roji. That’s one crucial element to the plot—this magic retreat goes absolutely haywire. Nothing goes right, and chaos ensues. Luckily, their strength in the knowledge of magic paired with the help of Ebisu is enough to keep them alive.

The other part of the plot is Muhyo’s fight with a huge creature. The battle will be won once he gets the creature to sign a contract. These two separate happenings are the main focus of the entire book, until the final chapter when Muhyo and Roji are brought together again.

I didn’t find too many redeeming qualities in this manga. It’s always difficult to enter a story in the middle of a crucial battle or conflict, but it’s even harder here. This world in its entirety is far too involved to really wrap your mind around in just one manga, whereas Harry Potter gives you the length of a thick novel to get yourself acquainted with a foreign environment. But there were just so many jumpy fight scenes and big explosions and “WHOOSH” and “FWAP” noises and made-up languages and laws that my head is still spinning. The next volume looks intriguing (as sneak previews are supposed to lead us to believe): One of the members of this bureau will be on the brink of turning into a ghost. I smell a rescue mission…

In short, you’ll survive without this one. I really like seeing new creatures that resemble those dazed-looking creepy ones we were introduced to in “Princess Mononoke” and all, but besides that, I’m just too confused to continue! And the main problem is that I don’t want to put in the effort to make sense of this story. It’s really not worth it, judging by the overall weak characters and intricate layout of this new world. Muhyo is actually a really awesome character. He’s tough and confident, and gives his enemies a glare of triumph before the battle even begins. I think if he was more of a central focus in this story, I would have become more excited with the series in general. But volume 7 just didn’t do it for me. But check it out anyway; maybe my 3-year gap in reading Harry Potter has distanced me from understanding the ways of magic in general. You die-hard fans could be way ahead of me.