Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
An Arabian Nights-themed manga by Shinobu Ohtaka, the author of Sumomomo Momomo.
Aladdin is a Cute Shotaro Boy and Cheerful Child who's partial to pretty ladies. He's traveling a dangerous desert full of bandits and monsters, but that's ok -- his magic flute summons a huge, muscular djinn named Uugo. Uugo happens to be missing his head at the moment, but this doesn't seem to stop him from casually tossing aside any threats (although he also tends to scare the crap out of whoever Aladdin is trying to protect...) However, summoning Uugo does a number on Aladdin's stamina, requiring him to sleep for a while, so they have to be a little careful.
In their travels they meet Ali Baba, a young man who dreams of getting filthy rich by Dungeon Crawling. See, in this land, dungeons periodically appear out of nowhere: mysterious, seemingly extra-dimensional spaces full of monsters, traps -- and fabulous treasures. Realizing that Uugo would mitigate a lot of the dangers, Ali Baba quickly befriends Aladdin and persuades him to go exploring a dungeon in the middle of the nearby City of Adventure.
As they charge into unknown peril, encountering allies and powerful foes, Aladdin encounters other djinn, and discovers he may be The Chosen One...
A character sheet is now in progress.
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Morgianna pays no attention to Aladdin’s childish antics, but gives a small laugh when he makes a particularly dopy imitation of her horrid master.
- A-Cup Angst: Pisti. Even Aladdin doesn't believe she's actually 17 from the size of her boobs.
- Arabian Nights Days
- Art Shift: To a more sketchy, much less defined style when something particularly surprising has happened, usually of the absolutely hilarious variety.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Averted in chapter 25 -- Our Genies Are Different alright... they have nipple rings.
- Berserk Button: Never badmouth Alibaba in front of Aladdin. And don't ever try to badmouth Sinbad in front of Ja'far.
- Don't refuse help from Morgianna. Or telling her she should Stay in the Kitchen. Everytime this happened, she breaks a tile on floor, and then does something outrageous.
- Cast From Hit Points: Trying to wield too much magoi is dangerous, as it starts eating your life force. This includes maintaining a djinn outside its artifact, so they can't just punch their way through every problem for you.
- The Chosen One: There are hints of Aladdin being this. Due to a prophecy of the land that mention that the Magi will chose and guide one who is worthy enough though the city's local dungeon. This turns out to be Ali Baba whom Aladdin (said Magi) willing helps in his quest as he shows he's an honest and caring person worthy of reward despite how he initially seems. At the end of the first arc, he even (unknowingly) gets his own genie. Jamil thinks he should be this just because his position in the city but Aladdin quickly shuts him down.
- Also a subversion. As it turns out, Aladdin isn't the only magi, and there are far more "king candidates" than Ali Baba.
- Collapsing Lair: The fate of dungeons after they have been successfully completed.
- Death Glare: See Let's Get Dangerous.
- Deflector Shield: Magi and Magician can create 'Bolg' to protect themselves from physical attack and magical attack to a degree. Now, against a Djinn's strength, though....
- Dirty Coward: Jamil.
- Does Not Like Shoes: Aladdin and Morgianna, whose Earthshattering Kaboom stomps would probably destroy any shoes she tried to wear, anyway.
- Dungeon Crawling: The main point of the series. Aladdin's quest is to find information on Uugo and restore his head.
- Elemental Powers: What genies, trained magi, and certain magical items use.
- Everyone Has Standards: Ka Kyoubun should have wiser in choosing his collaborator.
- Fat Bastard: The wine merchant. Preferred to let a little girl die rather than sacrifice his profitable wine. Alibaba's step brother Ahbmed Saluja also fall into this trope.
- Genie in a Flute: Or any inanimate object, really.
- Gonk: Most of the lesser villains, such as Budel.
- Elizabeth, the most beautiful hostess.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Ali Baba's mother, and not just to him: she saved his friends from being beaten by their drunken father, then adopted them when he either died or abandoned them.
- Hope Spot: Combined with Retirony, Baba is fatally wounded pretty much right after her clan has both saved its people from slavery while preventing war (by not killing the slavers) and thinking she must live on with her family.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Nth Night, following the Arabian Nights theme.
- I Work Alone: Alibaba in the Balbadd arc and Hakuryuu. Deconstructed in that doing this seems noble, but it also alienates you from a potential ally, making you unable to move forward or plain get you killed.
- La Résistance: Alibaba eventually leads the "Fog Troupe" against the king Ahbmad.
- Let's Get Dangerous: Aladdin may look cute and harmless. You'd probably think he wouldn't be much without Uugo by his side. But get him riled up enough and he becomes a VERY different person.
- Ali Baba vs Jamil. At first we thought that Ali Baba is screwed, until he pulls out his knife.
- Princess Hakuei let herself get injured to convince an angry mob that she means it when he offers peace. You couldn't think about Relena Peacecraft or even Marina Ismail when we're on it. Then Ryosai is ready to betray her.... Then her trump card is revealed. Yes, it didn't stick, but it is shown that Hakuei is Badass Princess, no doubt about it.
- The Lifestream: Rukh.
- Like an Old Married Couple: Sinbad and Ja'far.
- Made a Slave: The origin of many of the slaves in Magi. Morgianna and Goltas are the first encountered.
- Alibaba is threatened with this when his actions in one chapter rack up a large debt.
- Marshmallow Hell
- Magic Carpet: What Aladdin's turban doubles as.
- Magical Flutist: How Aladdin summons Uugo.
- This is also how Pisti can become friend with animals.
- Magic A Is Magic A: The different magics have specific, complex rules for their use. So many that a lot of readers get mazed by the Info Dump during the Expositions.
- Memento MacGuffin: Usually, Djinn metal vessels and household vessels are like this; they are usually things that the owner had some memories and dependence upon.
- Mr. Fanservice: Sinbad. Bishonen? Check. Tall, Dark and Handsome? Check. Prince Charming? Check. Naked First Impression? Let me just get out of the way of the Estrogen Brigade here...
- Naked First Impression: Inverted with Sin. He first meets Aladdin and Morgianna in nothing but a fig leaf.
- Nebulous Evil Organisation: Al Sarmen, which Banker is part of.
- Non-Elemental/ Soul Power: Every Magi who is loved by Rukh can directly use magoi to attack instead of converting it into Elemental Powers. It doesn't work as well against fellow magi, though.
- Obvious Rule Patch: After Sinbad conquered his seventh dungeon, its djinn basically told him, "You're not allowed to collect any more djinn after this for balance reasons."
- Oh Crap:
- Leila, when she sees bandits who recognize her dark and troubled past.
- Alibaba makes this face, and thinks it, after Aladdin, in typical ignorant shonen hero fashion, simply breaks a slave’s chains in the middle of a market without understanding the consequences.
- Our Genies Are Different: They don't grant wishes, instead they're Olympus Mons, Bond Creatures and Guardian Entities.
- Power Copying: The Ants in the first dungeon, actually Slimes, are capable of this, changing their form after analyzing the strengths of their opponents.
- RPG Mechanics Verse: The dungeons, anyway. Each dungeon's djinn is its Dungeon Master and tends to design it very much like a table-top module or Video Game RPG.
- The Power of Friendship: Aladdin's personality tends to center around this. When a misunderstanding causes him to think Ali Baba doesn't really think of him as a friend, he goes into a serious Heroic BSOD.
- Aladdin says this trope word for word after deciding to go dungeon diving with Alibaba, but it’s subverted as Alibaba isn’t in a friendly mood.
- She's Got Legs: Morgianna’s legs get a good amount of focus, as part of being a Kick Chick. However, hers are a little more toned and muscled than the usual examples.
- Shout-Out: To Arabian Nights, natch. But there are others.
- The Slimes in the first dungeon are a shout out to Dragon Quest, complete with “A Slime appeared” narration.
- Shown Their Work: One chapter goes into economic theory in surprising detail, à la Spice and Wolf. It's also pretty astute about the political complications of overthrowing a ruler, even if he is a tyrant.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Everyone else tends to think Aladdin is hopelessly naive... until they realize Uugo can simply Megaton Punch aside any evidence the world is a cold, cruel place.
- Hakuei seems like a naive idealist pacifist at first.... Then it is revealed that actually this is her pragmatic view, having her own father killed by a conspiracy grow from the defeated kingdom in the past.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Sinbad tries this with Morgianna. She's past the "I hear and obey" stage at that point, though.
- Alibaba also tries this on Morgianna, saying his business is nothing for a woman to worry about. Again, it’s… not quite effective.
- Summon Magic
- Telephone Polearm: Masrur uproots a tree and swings it to clear the fog.
- Terrifying Rescuer: Uugo, thanks mainly to the missing head.
- Theme Naming: Obviously, all the people who are named after characters in the Arabian Nights.
- Tsundere: Princess Ren Kogyoku. I-It's not like because you said it I'm returning now!