The Spring 2020 Manga Guide

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!

What's It About? 

When Adachi wakes up on the morning of his thirtieth birthday, he finds that he suddenly has the ability to read the minds of people who touch him. Attributing his strange new gift to the fact that he's still a virgin, Adachi alternates between hating his talent and thinking it's kind of okay – until he touches his hot coworker Kurosawa and realizes that the other man's in love with him! Does this make it all worthwhile, or is Adachi in way over his head?

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! is written and illustrated by Yū Toyota. Square Enix released it in March both in hard copy ($12.99) and digitally ($8.99).

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

When I say that I was pleasantly surprised by this title, that's less because of the plot and more due to the conceit – the idea that being a virgin for a certain length of time is abnormal and thus gives the protagonist superpowers. I will absolutely own that I'm not a fan of virginity shaming and fetishizing, so if those are things you also find distasteful, allow me to assure you that despite the premise that being a virgin for thirty years gives you superpowers (or at least telepathy), this is actually a fun little book.

There is an emphasis on “little” here because it's really short, and unlike some of the less lengthy digital titles, this one does sell for full price, and that's not a ton of book for your buck. The good news is that this is a frothy romance that is a perfect break from whatever else is going on in your day. Adachi's sudden ability to read the thoughts of anyone he touches is nicely depicted, showing the good (he can figure out what Kurosawa's thinking), the bad (crowded public transportation is now a total nightmare), and the keen temptation to abuse it, as he starts to become intrigued by Kurosawa and tries to casually touch the other man to see what's going on in his head. There's also a fair amount of light humor, and as an added bonus, it doesn't feel particularly mean – both Adachi and Kurosawa are treading softly around each other, Kurosawa afraid to scare the object of his affection away and Adachi just generally uncertain of how he feels and what he wants to do about it.

Despite the mature rating, this volume is perhaps PG-13 at most. There's some mild kissing and a few unillustrated thoughts that pass through Kurosawa's head about what he'd like to do with Adachi, but absolutely nothing explicit. That said, creator Yū Toyota (who started this online and was shocked to be offered a book deal) states that they do plan to make it sexier later on, so if that's not your thing, just know it's projected to happen later on in the series. Toyota's art is fairly middle of the road, but it is pleasant to look at and both Adachi and Kurosawa do look like actual adults (and act like it), so that's a nice bonus. It's a pleasant book, so if BL is your genre and you just want something nice, you could do worse than to pick this up.

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Faye Hopper

Rating:

Despite its gross and off-putting title, Cherry Magic has a lot of charm. It depicts a cute, queer romance centered around two people with little in the way of romantic experience trying to find ways to realize their affection and confess how they're feeling. It also have a lot of good jokes (the scene where Adachi's friend gives him terrible romantic advice, only for Adachi to read his mind and realize he's a virgin too, comes to mind) , and the connection between Adachi and Kurosawa is real and genuine (despite one being a pretty boy and the other a bedheaded loner, they both like manga, they both have similar vibes and similar interests). It's sweet and it's funny, which was the last thing I was expecting based on that title.

The only issues with Cherry Magic are how its romance threatens to teeter over into dubiously consensual territory. Though Kurosawa takes never once takes advantage of Adachi, a lot of the humor is based on an imminent desire to do so (like one scene where Kurosawa uses grabbing his phone as a pretext to see Adachi lying down, or him saying he's about to ‘take Adachi home’ after a brief kiss on the forehead). On the one hand, this could be just a lewder depiction of the desires every person has when harboring a crush and falling in love. On the other, I'm not a huge fan of how it maybe connects this behavior to Kurosawa's queerness. Though the book never makes the direct association, of course, I am always wary of how these tropes seem to show up more in stories about queer romances than in het ones. And even if this book wasn't teetering dangerously close to making gay panic jokes (which is thankfully something I feel it mostly manages to avoid—Adachi is developing feelings for Kurosawa, too), I'm still not a fan of how a portion of the book's humor is based on these kind of surreptitious actions and unacceptable behaviors, even if never taken to their worst conclusion.

Though I'm not sure how long Cherry Magic's slow-burn, telepathic romance can sustain itself, I am given a certain amount of hope by how Adachi and Kurosawa's relationship actually seems to be developing. Adachi grows to spend more and more time with Kurosawa, and the point where he actually admits that he might want to be with him, too, seems to be on the horizon. This glimmer of actual romantic catharsis makes me eager to see where the story goes next. I'd happy to see yet more Cherry Magic's mind-reading hijinks.