Volume: 14 (of 27+)
Creator: Shinobu Ohtaka
Format: Right-to-Left
Original Publisher: SHOGAKUKAN
US Publisher: VIZ
Release Date: 10/13/15
Pages: 192
ISBN: 1421559641
MSRP: $9.99
Genre: Shonen Sunday
Rated: T (Teens)
Description: Aladdin and his friends face the powerful and diabolical pirate queen Madaura, who uses a powerful magical item called the Holy Mother Halo Fan to enrapture her captives and make them her slaves. A fierce battle looms, and if Aladdin cannot release his companions from Madaura's grip, he may find himself fighting against them!
Contains Nights 129-138:
- Night 129: Independent
- Night 130: Memories of Darkness
- Night 131: The Enemy
- Night 132: Confession
- Night 133: A Kind Person
- Night 134: The Day Before
- Night 135: Traveling Alone
- Night 136: Koha Ren Appears
- Night 137: Days of Training
- Night 138: Days of Study
Review:
Cover Art: The cover this time has a new character to the series, who is only briefly shown in this volume, Koha Ren. Lots of pinks, grays, and black coloring makes the character really pop, however, with the series title also being the same color pink that is predominant over the cover makes the title not that noticeable on the top portion. The volume number is displayed at the center-bottom of the cover in a gold circle.
The spine is pink and from top to bottom contains the Shonen Sunday imprint, the series title, volume number, mangaka, Koha Ren's face from the front cover, and a magic lamp with some smoke coming out of it making it look like the image of Koha Ren is coming out of the lamp.
The back cover has an image of Alibaba, Hakuryu, and Sinbad on the top portion. The volume summary is on the bottom half of the cover in white lettering on a pink background.
Overall the color is nice. The coloring really pops, its just the lettering used was a bad idea. The pink on pink isn't the best thing. I love the back cover art though. It is nice seeing these three characters as with future volumes we won't be seeing much of them for probably a while where Aladdin is heading off to do.
Artwork: The artwork for this volume is all over the place. We have your typical shonen style for the beginning third of the title. When we finish the previous story arc and move into the next one, the artwork begins to feel a bit sloppier then normal. There is a lot more humor going on since the last story arc dealt with some serious drama which we will get to soon, but I feel the artist did not need to drop the quality as much as he did. At certain points it seems like a five year old could do a better illustration.
Translation: Character names, places, and references are left intact. The Sound effects have been changed from the original Japanese ones to show English sound effects.
Extras: There are two bonus mangas that are only a couple pages long. They don't really do much to advance the story. They are purely humor.
Content (Warning: May Contain Spoilers): The battle with Madaura continues from the previous volume, and ends with a very dark story. Hakuryu finally uses his Djinn equip and frees the children from Madaura's control by killing her with no remorse. We then get a bit of backstory on why Hakuryu is trying to bring down the Kou Empire. Hakuryu is trying to get enough power to kill his own mother. This puts a bit of fear into the other members of Aladdin's group. Hakuryu leaves the group to fulfill his mission alone.
Moving on from the Madaura story arc, we have a few comedy chapters as Aladdin, Alibaba, and Morigana have a night on the town before they all go their separate ways.
After the night out and our heroes all go their separate ways, Aladdin heads alone to Magnoshutatt, a magic country, to learn more magic. This is where he runs into Koha Ren, the third prince of the Kou Empire. After the short meeting and not really learning a whole lot yet about this new character, Aladdin finally makes it to his destination where he becomes a student of magic. Aladdin gets placed in the lowest magic class and must pass a test in three months in order to move up ranks or he will be removed from the magic school. He is placed in a class with a dominatrix like instructor who whips him into shape fast. The three months pass and the test finally comes and Aladdin passes and instantly makes it to the top class, Kodor 1. The volume ends with a mysterious figure finally reaching the Leam Empire.
For the most part, the story was entertaining. The humor was a bit too much this volume, and the time jump of three months within two chapters was a bit quick. I wish we got to saw a bit more of Aladdin's training and not just him drooling over his teacher and her huge rack. Hakuryu's story was very intriguing however and i hope to see more soon on that subject. The pacing though with the rest of this volume from when our heroes all departed on their own journeys makes me think we will be seeing more sooner rather then later.
- Language: No
- Violence: Yes
- Nudity: No
- Sexual Situations: Yes
Overall Rating: 5/10
Where Purchased: Barnes and Nobles
Original Review Date:11/3/2015
Where Purchased: Barnes and Nobles
Original Review Date:11/3/2015
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