-MASHLE-, Masshuru

Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Comic Fantasy

Written By: Hajime Kōmoto

Publisher: Shueisha/Viz Media

Magazine: Weekly Shōnen Jump

Volumes: 7

In a world of magic, Mash Burnedead is magicless. In order to live peacefully with his adoptive grandfather, he has to become a Divine Visionary who are basically THE big dogs of the magic world. They are known as the top students at Easton Magic Academy where Mash decides to go to school. Relying purely on his muscles, he will have to navigate every day life as well as deadly magic students and homework.

I started reading Mashle about a month ago. I just happened to see some new comics come out on the Shōnen Jump app and it looked interesting so I gave it a read. Best. Idea. Ever. I was so glad I picked up this series because I couldn’t put it down. It’s hilarious and gives me a lot of Mob Psycho 100 vibes (which I reviewed earlier and you can check out that review by clicking here) but I did say that Mash was like the love child of Mob and Saitama from One Punch Man.

The first thing I noticed right away was the art style. It was again, very reminiscent of Mob Psycho 100. It’s not perfect but it fits. I’m always dying at the way their legs are drawn, I mean they look like sticks! 🤣 You just have to see it for yourself, it cracks me up every time. Another reason I adore this series are the tons of meme worthy images. Like look at Exhibit A:

I want to note this scene is from when one of the magic police officer’s, Brad Coleman, launches one of his most powerful attacks against Mash and he’s just like “Get that outta here!” No technique, just takes his hand and swats it away like a mosquito trying to get a hit of blood. This is how some of the fights against him are handled and it’s hilarious to me! Basically, it’s to show just how physically strong he is because he’s been training most of his life since he doesn’t have any magic in him.

In the beginning, we meet his adoptive grandfather who has been shielding Mash from the outside world. They live in a secluded area of the woods so Mash has only really communicated with him and no one else. He has very limited human interaction, which makes it all the more interesting when he decides to leave and venture out into the town (even though his grandfather warned him not to) just to buy some cream puffs. Oh, did I not mention that cream puffs are his favorite food because they are. I kid you not his brain is filled with thoughts of them. The boy is willing to sacrifice himself for them too.

One thing I want to point out is there are some comical and obvious references to Harry Potter. For example, there’s the whole sorting hat that places the students into their respective houses or dorms. Well, in Mashle, they have something similar but it places people based on their thoughts. Of course, Mash’s only thought was being surrounded by cream puffs so he was randomly placed in House Adler. If Harry Potter were actually like this, I’d probably have watched it, just sayin’.

Now, let’s talk characters!

Characters

Naturally, Mash is the main character but he’s surrounded by quite a cast of supporting characters. They’re all crazy and have issues but it would be boring if they didn’t right? My favorite of them is 100% without a doubt, Dot. He’s the nuttiest of them all. He hates Mash at first because he just hates all males and loves only females. He also proclaims he’s the main character of the series and everything’s all about him. I love him to death. Later on, we find out that he’s one of those loyal friends who’s also an idiot along with Mash. He sucks at talking to women and can barely contain his nosebleeds when he does.

Mash is a loveable idiot. Again, he has ZERO experience with humans aside from his grandfather. He was abandoned as a child and his granddad, Regro, picked him up, saw his dorky face, and fell in love with him. Even though he’s dumb as rocks (I really want to emphasize how slow he is) he’s earnest and will defend his loved ones to the end. And, he’ll probably sell his right arm for a cream puff.

Lance Crown is one who I thought would be the main antagonist against Mash but he also turned out to fall for Mash’s charms. I will say the only thing I don’t like about his character is he has that whole character type of being obsessed with his sister, blegh. To be fair, I don’t really like that character trope to begin with, it’s creepy, and Mash agrees with me.

In one scene he discovers a locket around his neck and opens it to see a picture of a little girl, who turns out to be his little sister, and he immediately decides he needs to inform the cops that the guys a pedo 💀. Make no mistake about it though, he’s considered one of the stronger first years in House Adler.

Next up on my chopping block is Mr. Finn Ames who just bursts with baby energy. He’s fairly weak in terms of magic power but he’s such an adorable guy. At first he was blackmailed into bullying Mash but, as always, he is swayed by Mash’s charms and they become friends. He’s pretty much the only normal one in this whole pack.

Lastly, Lemon Irvine. She is also used to trick Mash in the beginning but she ends up falling in love with him and proclaims he’s her future husband to which Mash vehemently denies every time. She’s pretty crazy but so far she’s just serving as a kind of side character? Hopefully, we’ll see more from her in the future in terms of growth and story.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Fight scenes – The illustrations for these are really good. I have some high hopes for if this series get animated so let’s all pray they do them justice!
• Villains – I know I told you in my last review that I LOVE VILLAINS. This series has some really unique and vicious ones that I can’t help but love. My favorite being Cell War and and Abel.
• Story – It’s already been said that the series references Harry Potter a lot but I don’t really recall reading or watching a series like this before. Not the whole magic part, that’s been done millions of times, but the main character going to a magic school with literally no magic at all and whopping his opponents like they stole from him, I don’t remember watching or reading something like that before. It’s also fairly easy to understand and get into.

CONCLUSION

If you are looking for a new series to get into or even if you’re looking to start reading manga, I would highly recommend this series. If you’re not someone who is into simple humor, it might not be for you and that’s okay! I will say some of the comedy can be repetitive but if you can get over that stump then you should be able to fully enjoy what Mashle has to offer. If you are interested, I will post some links below to where you can either read it digitally or if you’d like to purchase any of the volumes physically. I do know that the series isn’t going to be a long one so I think it’s serving its purpose well. There’s no need for a long, thought out storyline like AoT or One Piece. I’ve also read somewhere that the series was not that far off from being completed but Oda also said something similar and lord knows there’s still so much left to uncover in One Piece but let’s discuss that in the future. So, I’m going to go ahead and give this a rating of:

🍙🍙🍙🍙

And if you’re like me and enjoy reading digitally from the comfort of your phone, ipad/tablet, computer, or just about any electronic device, you can read this and thousands of more amazing manga at Viz.com where you can subscribe for just $1.99 a month to read all the manga you want. You can even download it to your phone for when you aren’t on wifi and still enjoy your favorites. *No this was not sponsored by Viz but I wish it was!*

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