is a fantasy ''shōjo'' manga written and illustrated by

Yuri Narushima is a Japanese manga artist best known for her series ''Planet Ladder'', licensed in English by Tokyopop, and '' The Young Magician'', licensed in English by CMX. Narushima is a member of the dōjinshi circle Comodo. Bibliography Manga *''Re ...

Plot

Incorporating multiple

sub-plot In fiction, a subplot is a secondary strand of the plot that is a supporting side story for any story or for the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or thematic significance. Subplots often involve supporting cha ...

s, ''The Young Magician'' focuses on two young men—Carno Guino, a magician whose soul fuses with demons, and Ibuki Shikishima, who practices

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

—who find themselves entangled in a complex war between various factions.

Development

collected references books about magic for ''The Young Magician''; in the

afterword An afterword is a literary device that is often found at the end of a piece of literature. It generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or of how the idea for the book was developed. An afterword may be written by someone other ...

of the first volume, she comments that " erbookcase is totally over-flowing with reference material!" She also planned to take a research trip to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

in September. For the section of the first volume in which the characters discuss

genetics Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...

, she consulted ''The Meaning of Immunity'' by Tomio Tada and ''Understanding Genetics'' by Hironori Kodama. Because of the content in the first volume, she often received letters asking if the manga was horror—which she does not consider it to be.

Release

Written and illustrated by Yuri Narushima, the chapters of ''The Young Magician'' have appeared as a serial in the Japanese

manga magazine Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is used ...

Wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expresse ...

'' between its November 1995 issue and its December 2016 issue.

Shinshokan is a Japanese publishing company. It was established on June 14, 1961. In April 2009, the US publisher Digital Manga Publishing announced a co-branding operation with Shinshokan, to license and manga from Shinshokan's ''Wings'', ''Dear'', and ...

collected the chapters into eighteen ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' between September 9, 1996 and July 25, 2015. In 2005, the manga

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

, CMX, announced that it had licensed ''The Young Magician'' for an English-language release in North America. CMX put together an eighty-page sampler of manga for mature readers—''The Young Magician'', '' Sword of the Dark Ones'', ''Monster Collection: The Girl Who Can Deal With Magic Monsters'', ''

Testarotho is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kei Sanbe. The manga is licensed in English by CMX Manga. The manga is licensed for a French-language release by Vegetal Soleil. Characters *Garrincha is the feared inquisitor of Neo Arse ...

'' and '' Madara''—and distributed it to retailers on June 8, 2005. CMX published thirteen volumes of ''The Young Magician,'' with translations by Hiroko Yoda of

AltJapan Co., Ltd. AltJapan Co., Ltd. is a Tokyo based company specializing in the translation and localization of Japanese entertainment. It is particularly active in manga and video game localization. It specializes in Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese t ...

, from September 1, 2005, to April 21, 2009. Scheduled for publication on May 11, 2010, the fourteen volume remained unreleased as DC Comics announced on May 18 that the CMX imprint would end on July 1.

Reception

''The Young Magician'' has received generally positive reviews. Reviewers at Mania Entertainment ranked ''Young Magician'' sixth on their list of "20 Must Have CMX Manga", describing it as " utal and heavy" with "a rich world of characters and plots" and a challenging, nonlinear plot. Dan Polley of Manga Life considered the artwork "fairly innocuous" and occasionally helpful in accentuating the tone and plot, but sometimes detracted from the plot's appeal. Polley praised Narushima's skillful handling of the relationships between the characters and the growing suspense towards the ninth volume, but felt that the suspense in the eighth volume was uneven. Jason Thompson, in '' Manga: The Complete Guide'', gave ''The Young Magician'' three and a half out of four stars, and praised it as "a powerful work of modern fantasy" with Narushima's writing and

page layout In graphic design, page layout is the arrangement of visual elements on a page. It generally involves organizational principles of composition to achieve specific communication objectives. The high-level page layout involves deciding on the ov ...

s being an asset.

References

External links

*
The Young Magician
(archived) at CMX's site {{DEFAULTSORT:Young Magician 1995 manga CMX (comics) titles Dark fantasy anime and manga Shinshokan manga Shōjo manga