Manga Review: Science vs. Magic
One-shot manga are fascinating, because you get a glimpse of something that could have easily been worthy of a long-running feature, yet somehow it seems like they exist in a small bubble in an alternate universe where we witness something that could have been but never was. This feels true of the title Science vs. Magic, a one-shot manga with art by Yusuke Murata (known for the popularized adaptation of One Punch Man—obviously not the original web version drawn by the creator ONE), and story by Inukorosuke (whom I can't claim to know for their other work, which seems to be rather sparse). Shoutout to Brandon Bovia who worked on the lettering for the English localization, and whom I briefly met at Anime Expo this past year. He's a super talented guy with a lot of great work under his belt, and it's neat to take a closer look at work done by your peers who also work within your broader industry.
Science vs. Magic is about as simple as it sounds, but with every shonen manga reader's favorite thing: a fighting tournament. As it's a one-shot, we don't really have the time to see an entire tournament play out from top to bottom. Instead, we're briefly given the basics right up front. Every three years, two different countries—the Magic country and the Science country—hold a tournament to see who's better. The two countries used to hate each other, but now it's seemingly nothing more than a friendly rivalry. Both countries have their own separate tournaments to find the absolute best fighter to represent their specific countries, culminating in one final battle between the two countries to determine who's the best for the next three years.
The Magic country makes sense. They duke it out with fights that use a lot of fire and ice kicks and punches. The science country to me doesn't quite make as much sense. Sure, the fighters are largely cyborgs and have robotics and computer systems surgically installed in their bodies, but the fighters themselves aren't really scientists. Reita from the Magic country seems like a guy who really understands magic, but Onigoro from the Science country doesn't seem like much of a scientist to me. In fact, his backstory seems to further suggest that he's not. He's just a guy who wanted to fight the strongest person he possibly could, and that meant going up against the famous Magic fighter Reita. No matter how many times Onigoro tried to get the jump on Reita in the past, he just couldn't outdo how good of a fighter Reita was, which is what led him to try enhancing himself with cybernetics. It's not like he knows anything about the technology inside his own body. Some other scientist is the guy who actually put it in him, and Onigoro's just reaping all the benefits.
Anyway, that doesn't matter when you've got a sick shonen fight drawn by the guy who draws One Punch Man.
Reita and Onigoro have very different personalities, but they actually get along fairly decently, and may even be considered friends. Onigoro only wants to fight Reita for the sport of the fight, not because he has anything particularly against him. Reita, on the other hand, fights because his country believes in him and his gifts of strength and magical talent and doesn't want to let them down. He's humble and reserved, perfectly opposite of Onigoro's loud and brash mannerisms. And when it finally comes time for the two of them to fight, there's no bad blood between either of them. They both fight proudly and clean, with representatives from each respective country watching from the stands in the stadium and logically debating which one of them will come out on top.
Despite being a one-shot, nothing feels too terribly rushed. It's clear who each character is and how the story is progressing, and the layout is easy to follow. You're never really sure which character is going to end up the winner because both of them have been written so easy to like that you could be convinced that it could end up either way. Onigoro has the ability to collect and analyze data on Reita's moves and abilities, but Reita has been practicing a special move in secret in hopes of overcoming the computer inside his opponent's head.
Overall, this one-shot is a brisk, easy, fun read that may leave you wishing more of it had been made. The art is fun and the characters are likable. Since more of it does not exist, though, the next best thing you can do is return to One Punch Man and get more art like this, even if the narrative is in no way similar. Science vs. Magic can be found on Viz's Shonen Jump app, or directly on Viz.com.
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