Manga Review: The Magic Touch Volume One

[Jason]

Title: The Magic Touch
Volume: 1
Mangaka: Izumi Tsubaki
Originally Serialized in: Hana to Yume (Hakushensha, Inc.)
Genre: Shojo
Licensed by: VIZ Media, LLC
Price: $8.99/US

Chiaki Togu is shy and quiet, but when it comes to massage she is an avid student, working hard as a part of her school’s Massage Research Society and using her fellow students to practice her art. One student’s body, however, keeps eluding her. Yosuke is the hottest boy at school, but Chiaki only wants him for his back. It’s so tense that it calls out to her to massage it but Yosuke wants nothing to do with massage, so he tells Chiaki no…unless she can make him fall in love with her first!

Tsubaki’s first manga, originally published in 2004 in Japan, is a cute, though imperfect, debut. The plot is crack-filled in the way that only manga can be, but she goes with it well enough that the humor shines through. The idea of a Massage Research Club in a high school is obviously ludicrous and Tsubaki doesn’t shy away from that silliness. She also tosses in lots of details about massage, which help readers understand Chiaki’s unique take on the world. These massage elements often work to the characters’ advantage in interesting ways, helping them to get out of bad situations with style.

The characters are what drive this story. Chiaki is awkward and ignored, bossed about and taken advantage of by her twin sister, a playgirl out to take from guys. Yosuke’s haughty demeanor is believable in a school stud, but his transition into caring boyfriend is also believable, and he comes to love Chiaki as the readers do. In the middle of Chiaki and Yosuke’s story is an intermission of sorts—a story featuring two other members of the Massage Research Society: Chiaki’s older brother and her best friend, who are having romantic difficulties of their own.

Unfortunately, Tsubaki’s inexperience shows through in both her plot and art. Plot elements are picked up and dropped for no reason, the most glaring example being Chiaki’s twin sister. She’s a major component of the first half of the book, but no other character really mentions her other than Chiaki, Yosuke, and his brother. Since Chiaki’s older brother is no longer living at home, (apparently having run away to allow him to focus on his love of massage), it makes sense that he wouldn’t intervene on Chiaki’s behalf in regards to his other sister or his mother, but the abrupt drop of a character as pivotal as a twin still seems odd.


Tsubaki’s art is the most awkward element of the book. Her characters’ bodies are not well proportioned and her young men often look so much alike that the story becomes confusing. On the other hand, Chiaki and her twin don’t look very much alike at all, even though boys are supposedly always confusing one for the other. The most distracting element, however, is the way Tsubaki draws eyebrows. They are long, violent slashes taking up most of a character’s forehead, and on her male characters they stand out so much as to toss you out of the story to wonder at them. The art isn’t all bad, though. Tsubaki favors thin, sketchy lines that give lightness to the drawings, which nicely matches the lightness of the story. Her page layouts also aren’t bad, though nothing outside of the shojo norm with lots of blushing, attractive posing, and flowery backgrounds.

VIZ has done their usual decent job of production and translation. The explanations of Japanese cultural references are written right on page, saving the reader from having to flip to the back of the book, though they do tend to clutter the panels.

Even with its beginner flaws, The Magic Touch is a cute read and shojo fans, especially those who like high school romantic comedies, should find this light, fluffy read appealing. Tsubaki’s debut is strong enough to make me eager to read the second volume and interesting enough to make me want to see where she’ll go from here.

Reviewer: Snow Wildsmith
Proofed and Edited By Lissa Pattillo