Pacing is very important in manga and volume 2 of Magical Girl Incident shows that Zero Akabane is handling this very well. Much of it focuses on answering questions about how magical boys and girls and magic work in this world, while still developing character arcs and main plot in a satisfying way.
Because there is so much content in the first volume of the series. The Magical Girl Incident manga deals with the introduction of Hiromi Sakura and his exploration of the ability to transform into a magical girl named Sakura, without much time spent explaining the “why.” It’s more about how it happened and how he intended to use that power. The second episode fixes that by providing insight into other people with magical abilities, how the government handles it, and how they handle it with each other. It sets up the entire “world” in a fascinating way, looking at the duality of human nature and how magic can work.
At the end of the first episode there is a fight between Sakura, another unnamed magical girl appears and seems to be using nefarious, dangerous forces to hurt and influence others. During that war, a male magician known as The White Knight appeared. After the attack, Sakura realizes this is an acquaintance from work, and the Tokyo MPD Magic Bureau’s Anti-Magic Division appears to clean up, register Sakura, and help introduce Sakura to the Witch.
Image via Yen Press
There things started to click. People like Sakura and The White Knight are known as a Waltz. They can use magic and tend to belong to certain elements. Waltz is completely associated with magic. This means they also cannot die in the usual way, as each person possesses a lifebox that essentially contains their soul. A Waltz only dies when it is destroyed.
While the explanations are great, it also means the opportunity to ask more questions. Since we know that someone who exhibits female attributes when transformed is a man in their non-magical life and vice versa, that helps determine the continued search for the gendered rogue Waltz introduced in the first episode. It also tells us many mysterious things about Sakura. His lifebox is no longer functional, although there are hints as to its location. There’s also the matter of his powers, his typing, and how he can even transform. That doesn’t even get into the big cliffhanger that ends this episode.
This again shows that Zero Akabane excels at establishing a world and characters, then providing just enough information to move the story along. and attract readers. We learn more about Sakura’s new “professional” life as well as more insight into his personal life. We learn more about the White Knight and how magic is integrated into this society. Not to mention the main villain of the entire series gets enough face time to make them and their story compelling. It builds up in such an intriguing way that it’s hard for me to imagine that it’s all tied up and wrapped up in the third episode.
Magical Girl Incident volume 2 is currently available through Yen Press. There is no release date for the third season yet. A total of three episodes have appeared in Japan, with the final episode debuting there in September 2023.