Mabaka - Magic is for Idiots!/Characters
The Shrine Residents
Rokuro (碌労)
"Look. I'm an idiot. I'm fully aware of that. And I know I tend to be dense, even when something's obvious. I'm just a bit slow – Not insensitive." |
Rokuro is an amateur wizard who crash-landed head-first into Akemi's yard one day in April. He seems to attract trouble wherever he goes, and seldom comes up with a way to get out of it by himself. He also seems to have a crush on Akemi despite the fact that she's taken.
- Accidental Pervert: Not as much as the usual character type would imply, but still more often than he’d like.
- Apologizes a Lot: Played for laughs, most of the time.
- Attention Deficit Disciple
- Attractive Bent Gender: Cali drew this gender-bent picture of Rokuro a while back. The result is a girl who might actually be better looking than the normal female lead.
- Bare Your Midriff: When he’s not wearing his light blue shirt.
- Big Eater
- Butt Monkey: Gets both hurt and insulted in just about every chapter. Played for Laughs constantly.
- Character Tics: He fixes his headband when he’s embarrassed, when he needs to think, when he’s confused, ect.
- Digging Yourself Deeper
- Elemental Powers: Rokuro's Rudaia transformation is obviously fire-based.
- Gray Eyes
- Hand Behind Head
- High-Pressure Emotion: Oh, he's definitely guilty of this.
- Lightning Bruiser: His Rudaia form gives him a boost in both strength and speed.
- Not a Morning Person: Extremely evident, by early chapters.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Rokuro is a rather... dense... person, and can't seem to think things through, which amounts to loads of trouble for him. However, he's shown that he can handle himself professionally when the situation calls for it. The tenth arc illustrates this well, when he and Maruchi are working on an exorcism in Rie's house. Not to mention his apparent hidden genius when it comes to math equations.
- Omniglot: Rokuro notes that he can speak Japanese, English, Italian, and Spanish fluently because of the job he has back home - He's a delivery boy for the different sects and domains of Mahokkai. Apparently, the different areas all speak different languages.
- He can also speak "some" Esperanto, write in Tibetan (Though he claims everyone in his home world can do this), and read Latin. Akemi is floored by this.
- Power Crystal: His Keifu (the purple gem attached to his shirt).
- Token Non-Human
- Tsundere: There's really no other reason to describe his personality. He goes from an argumentative, back-talking, smart-mouthed brat to a full-on Shrinking Violet Dojikko when he's around Akemi - Complete with pronoun changes to match. (He uses ore addressing himself normally, but uses boku when speaking to his hostess.)
Akemi Segawa (瀬雅琶明美)
"Oh, come on; don't be like that. I'm trying to compliment you." |
16-year-old shrine maiden who likes to think of herself as one of the sanest people she knows. While most of the time she's considered a tomboy, when she's with Daisuke, she goes into a surprisingly girly, dere-dere mode. She has little tolerance for stupidity, and likes things to go her way.
And yes, the orange hair is natural.
- Anime Hair: The only human to invoke this trope - Every other non-magic character is shown to have a normal, black/brown coloring. Even Rokuro thinks that her hair color is weird.
- Blue Eyes
- Battle Aura: When she's really pissed.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Has at least two fangirls.
- Gratuitous English: And how. She can’t speak a clear word of it, despite the linguistic abilities of the rest of her family.
- Honorifics: Uses these with nearly everyone.
- In the Blood: Minus the art and linguistic skills, Akemi is basically a female version of her father.
- Magic Skirt: Her uniform one, anyway. She wears pants under her casual skirt, so that doesn't count.
- Miko
- Ordinary High School Student: Her life, not so much.
- Rapunzel Hair
- Secret Keeper: Of Rokuro and Maruchi’s otherworldly status.
- Skirt Over Slacks: Her signature style.
- Spell My Name with an "S": While her surname is a common one, the spelling is not. Segawa is usually spelled as 瀬川 ("Shallows" and "river"), but Akemi's last name is written as 瀬雅琶 ("Shallows", "grace", "lute").
- Sweet Tooth: One of her weaknesses. Rie usually cajoles Akemi into going with her to the Cosplay Cafe because of the desserts there.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Parfait.
- Tsundere
Maruchi (丸智) / Maruchirō Kyoyoseikan (炯妖凄感丸智婁)
"You need to have a serious talk with yourself, Rokuro. Or at least with your common sense. I'm sure it misses you." |
Maruchi is Rokuro's majikyou (Magic instructor) who made his first appearance in chapter seven as a purple kitten. He is barely half of Rokuro's height, and tends to be classified as either a huge jerk or a brat. However, despite his outward appearance, he is actually close to three hundred years old and has an IQ more than two times higher than Isaac Newton's. He's also known to be racist against humans, and sometimes even sexist, but not to any particularly serious degress.
- Anime Hair
- Berserk Button: Calling him a kid or generally disrespecting him. The former more than the latter.
- As of chapter 11-2, he seems to have a new Berserk Button: Asking him why he was trapped in the body of a child.
- Big Eater
- Bishonen
- Brutal Honesty: Not one of his better qualities...
- Catgirl: Catboy.
- Cute Little Fangs
- Deadpan Snarker
- Fingerless Gloves: Wears these, though it's less because of Rule of Cool and more because they hide the marks on his hands left behind by his curse.
- Fish Out of Water: Though may be not as bad as his student.
- Humans Are Bastards: Indefinitely his point of view.
- Jerkass: He zigzags between this and Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- Kemonomimi: Cat ears and a tail.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Has an IQ in the 400’s, but knows absolutely nothing about humans or the first dimension.
- Kubrick Stare: Probably the extent of his usual facial expressions. Especially while he’s an adult.
- Older Than They Look: 291 years old and he looks like he's seven or eight. In his child form, anyway.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Maruchi is actually short for Maruchirō.
- Paper Fan of Doom: Utilizes this.
- Rokuro is convinced that it isn't actually made out of paper.
- Shape Shifter: Alternates between his default form, a kitten, and his human disguise.
- Secretly Wealthy: He's the second son of a high-ranking duke and duchess; and he's kept this secret for so long that not even Rokuro knew.
- Shapeshifter Default Form: His child form. Though recently, we've learned that this was just another transformation. His real default form is that of a full-grown adult.
- Throw The Book At The Wizard: Or just dump water on him. Maruchi seems to favor that option as well.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Apples. He really likes apples.
- Unusual Ears
Shigeru Segawa (瀬雅琶茂)
"Look, you pervert. It would do you some good to listen. This isn't your house. You can't just do whatever you want - And my daughter is at the top of that list!" |
Shigeru is Akemi's Overprotective Dad and Meiko's more sensible younger brother by four years. He is noted to have no real, steady job, but is both an English tutor and the substitute coach for his old high school's kendo team. Sometimes he helps his sister with the names for her comic because she's usually too busy or lazy to do them herself.
- Alliterative Name
- Annoying Younger Sibling: To Meiko. It’s not that he’s annoying by other people’s standards, but to his sister, his strict personality is extremely irritating and frustrating.
- Battle Aura
- Brown Eyes
- Gratuitous English: Granted, given what he does for one of his jobs.
- Hot Shoujo Dad: YMMV, but seriously.
- Hyperspace Bamboo Sword / Katana
- Looming Silhouette of Rage: Run, Rokuro, run!
- Only Sane Man: He thinks so.
- Overprotective Dad
- Scary Shiny Glasses
- Secret Keeper
- Selective Obliviousness: No matter when, where, or what our wizard friend is doing, Shigeru will always assume that Rokuro's trying to get into his daughter's pants.
Main Recurring Characters
Rie Hirota (尋田利江)
"I knew ghosts and spirits were real! My fantasies aren't fantasies after all!" |
Rie is Akemi's classmate and foil best friend. She's very much into the occult and the idea of magic, and acts very enthusiastic about it. Rie is also a proud Otaku, and a fangirl of Izumi Rio. She is great at school, especially English, despite the fact that all she does during class it read (Whether it be manga or an occult book). She's also Daisuke's younger sister by a year.
- Adorkable
- Agent Mulder: Towards anything pertaining to the occult.
- All Work vs. All Play: Her brother and her.
- Annoying Younger Sibling
- Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny
- Genki Girl: Rie manages to be a completely straight example, and still be into the topic of death.
- Green Eyes
- Meganekko: Definitely a subversion.
- Mind Rape: Goes through this from chapter 24 to 26.
- Omniglot: Speaks Japanese and English, and can read Latin. She also communicates with her cousins in Europe, so it's likely that she knows more than that.
- Ordinary High School Student
- Otaku Fan Girl
- Purely Aesthetic Glasses: Akemi outright says that Rie has no need for glasses; Rie just likes the fact that make her look even more like an otaku.
- Shout-Out: Usually the one responsible for them.
- Smart People Wear Glasses
- Tomboyish Ponytail
- Verbal Tic: "Accha!"
Daisuke Hirota (尋田大輔)
"Just who the hell do you think you are, touching my girlfriend like that!?" |
Daisuke is Rie's older brother, Akemi's boyfriend, and a second year student at Okashii High. By his profile, he's shown to be a B+ student and a member of the kendo team. He's a truly nice guy with good morals, and is absolutely the sanest person in the cast, but will fly off the handle if you do anything to upset or hurt Akemi. He will kick your ass, then. Like Rokuro, Daisuke is afraid of Shigeru.
- All Work vs. All Play: With Rie. He's the former.
- Anime Hair: Sort of. While his hair looks black, Word of God says that it's actually more of a gray-ish color.
- Berserk Button: Mentioned in the short bio above.
- Bishonen
- Green Eyes
- Love Interest
- Only Sane Man: His designated role, apparently.
- Ordinary High School Student
- Slipknot Ponytail
- Trademark Favorite Food: Mitsumame.
Hideki Miura (海卜ひでき)
"Hey, if there's ever a way, you wanna go on a date with me?" |
Hideki is the only other wizard known at the moment. He is Rokuro's best friend, and extremely confident when it comes to getting girls. Even though he's never succeeded once. He just comes off as a pervert. He's also been known to screw up and slack off, and even has a schedule made for skipping classes. Despite these qualities, Hideki is shown to be very concerned with the wellfare of his friends, and is helping Rokuro keep the fact that he's now on Earth for a year secret.
- Anime Hair
- Bishounen
- Bromantic Foil
- Butt Monkey
- Extroverted Nerd
- Half Identical Twin: It's mentioned that he has a twin sister named Kyoko.
- Idiot Hair
- Keet
- Lame Comeback: Hideki is full of these.
- Nerd Glasses: He even fixes them in a nerdy fashion.
- "No Respect" Guy: Sometimes more than Rokuro, which is saying something; but only when he appears.
- Purple Eyes
Shichi (志智) / Shichirō Kyoyoseikan (炯妖凄感志智婁)
Shichi is another resident of Kitakuvaaraji. He first appears as an evil spirit, scaring Rie from her home so he could live there while training to become a majikyou, but is later caught and revealed to be a very talkative boy with the power to control shadows. Shichi is also revealed to be Maruchi's second and youngest brother, and admires him very much. He's two hundred and ten years old and colorblind (Which partly explains his horrible taste in fashion).
- Anime Hair: Best example of it in this story so far.
- Annoying Younger Sibling
- Big Eater: Probably, like every other boy in this series (Excluding Daisuke). He did manage to stuff six cookies (And counting) in his mouth at once.
- Catboy: He may be lacking the ears, but his feet are green paws, and he purrs.
- Cute Little Fangs
- Cute Shotaro Boy: Even more than his brother.
- Does Not Like Shoes
- Eyes of Gold
- Honorifics: Shichi always refers to Maruchi as onii-sama.
- Informed Flaw: He's colorblind.
- Info Dump: Pretty much drops this on everyone when he makes his appearance, sealing his fate as another Motor Mouth.
- Keet
- Kemonomimi: Well, he has a twin-tipped tail, in any case. His ears are fake.
- Living Shadows: As a shadow general, he has control over these. They're rather weak, though.
- Motor Mouth: God, yes.
- Multicolored Hair
- Older Than They Look: 210 years old, and looks like a young teenager.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: He isn't referred to as Shichirō unless he's giving a self-introduction.
- Shape Shifter
The Segawa Family
Meiko Segawa (瀬雅琶命子)
"He's so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!" |
Meiko was the first other Segawa family member to get a formal introduction in Mabaka!. She is the eccentric older sister of Shigeru, and Akemi's only aunt. She's an extremely happy person, and makes her feelings and thoughts known loudly and bluntly. She loves her little brother very much, and is insulted by the fact that he refuses to work with her on her manga, Yamato Master.
She is married to Tsukkomi, and has a daughter, Emiri.
- Adult Child: A straight-forward case, and lampshaded by Shigeru.
- Berserk Button: Apparently, bringing up the topic of her age is a sore spot for her.
- Catch Phrase: See her quote.
- Curtains Match the Window
- Genki Girl: Even at her age...
- Insistent Terminology
It's not a comic, it's art! |
- She also insists that Akemi call her 'Aunt Meiko' instead of 'Meiko-obasan', simply because she thinks Akemi needs to work on her English.
- Lethal Chef: Is incapable of making food edible. Her whole family dreads it when she walks into a kitchen.
- Marshmallow Hell: Makes Rokuro suffer this when she first meets him.
- Motor Mouth
- No Indoor Voice
Tsukkomi Segawa (瀬雅琶月混)
"Very sorry to disturb you, Shigeru-san... We'll just be on our way now." |
The most worrisome character of the story. He's a company worker who married into the Segawa family by marrying Meiko. He's a rather nervous man, and he's known to apologize a lot - Mainly to Shigeru. When altercations break out between the two siblings, Tsukkomi is the one who tries to remain neutral and calm them down. He's also the tallest character in the series.
He has a single daughter named Emiri.
- Apologizes a Lot: Usually it's for Meiko and her genki-ness.
- Blue Eyes: A dark navy shade.
- Idiot Hair: Even though he's not an idiot.
- Meaningful Name: His name is written as 月混, with the kanji for "moon" and "blend, confuse". The phrase tsukkomi is usually written to mean "straight man".
- Only Sane Man: What keeps him from being the straight man of the series? The person he married. Seriously, he can't be completely sane if he married the Motor Mouth Mangaka out of his own free will...
- Opposites Attract: Probably the only way a quiet man like him wound up with a woman like Meiko.
Emiri Segawa (瀬雅琶笑理)
"I happen to read a lot of medical journals when I visit the library. After all, I am going to be either an ophthalmologist or an anthropologist. Fields like that are really fascinating, you know!" |
Emiri is Akemi's eleven-year-old cousin. She's the daughter of Tsukkomi and Meiko, and seems to be more like her father than her mother. She has more common sense than most of her family does, as it's noted by Akemi. She may or may not be classified as a know-it-all, depending on who you ask. Apparently, she wants to go into the medical field when she's older. She also tends to invariably tick Rokuro off whenever they speak.
- Blue Eyes: The same shade as her dad.
- Bob Haircut
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Possibly.
Hazuki Segawa (瀬雅琶葉月)
Akemi's mother and Shigeru's dead wife. Not much is known about her, other than that she was very beautiful and "went away" at a young age.
- Anime Hair: Where do you think Akemi gets it from?
- Blue Eyes
- Hime Cut
- Hot Mom: Noted as a "bombshell" by Meiko.
- Posthumous Character
- Rapunzel Hair: From what we've seen, hers is even longer than Akemi's.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Her daughter is nearly the spitting image of her.