The Fall 2024 Manga Guide

Magical Buffs

What's It About? 

He's one support mage who can hold his own on the front lines and will prove it in this action-packed fantasy manga!

Wim Strauss is a "granting caster"—a support mage who can increase the strength of his allies through the power of his spells. It's a useful talent, but since it can't be used directly in battle, it gets zero respect from the other members of his party. As far as they're concerned, support magic is dead weight. It isn't long before they toss him out on his ear, leaving Wim to wonder if his career as an adventurer is over.

Lucky for Wim, he has one big chance: His childhood friend Heidemarie is able to get him an audition with her elite A-rank party, Nachtlibelle. The two of them know his magic is good for more than just menial backup, but now he'll have to prove it. It's time to show the world that support mages can do more than just stand on the back lines!

Magical Buffs has a story by Haka Tokura and art by Shin Arakawa, with character designs by Eiri Shirai. English translation by M. Jean. This volume was lettered by Isabell Struble. Published by Seven Seas (October 1, 2024).

Is It Worth Reading?

Is there any doubt that the so-called weakest member of any given fantasy party in an RPG-based world is going to turn out to be the strongest? Sure, we may joke that “aggro” means “the priest dies,” but the truth is that a solid party needs a healer or similar class if it's going to succeed. That's what makes it so baffling that we keep getting series like this one, a story based on the oh-so-shocking fact that repudiating the one person in your party with the ability to heal and buff everyone else turns out badly for the more aggressively-classed members. It's like slapping a band-aid on a severed finger and being shocked when it doesn't work.

Rather than turn this into a discussion of how this shows the paucity of light novel authors (because this is an adaptation of one) who have actually played an RPG, TT, or MMO, let's instead look at how this particular series handles the admittedly silly trope. The answer is “decently well;” Magical Buffs: The Support Caster is Stronger Than He Realizes uses for its base the pervasive anxiety of its lead. Wim has little to no self-esteem, in part brought about by the fact that his class, Granting Sorcerers, isn't particularly well respected. The story's lore tells us that they may have been at one time, but they've since become a group viewed as disposable, and Wim has taken that to heart. Because of this, he's become easy for his party mates to disparage and use – they convince Wim that his contributions were minimal at best and then take all of his credit and glory, something similar to what happened to Shiori in Housekeeping Mage in Another World. But unlike Shiori, Wim has someone looking out for him from the start, his childhood friend turned yandere stalker, Heidemarie. She knows how amazing Wim is, and she's not going to let him continue to think he's worthless.

The best part of this volume is how well Wim's anxiety is portrayed. The poor guy is a quivering mess of worries, constantly convinced that he's doing something wrong and will be punished for it. He's hesitant to voice any opinion, even if he's been reassured that that's okay and expected, and even when he's proving himself with his buffs or trap detection, he's certain he's one wrong move away from expulsion. It's horribly recognizable if you've ever suffered from a similar form of anxiety, and he's a relatable hero in this respect. It also makes it harder to dislike Heidemarie, who is his biggest cheerleader, determined to help him out of his morass of worry. But she's also a pretty irritating character on virtually all other fronts, which nicely encapsulates the way this volume feels upon completion: there are some good elements, but the less good ones threaten to consume them.

The art is one of those, with a very rough feel in the character designs and expressions, and the overuse of German (or German-sounding) words and phrases gets distracting if you don't speak the language, with no real glosses provided. This has its moments, but they're offset by the book's problems, and while they don't overwhelm it entirely, it still is a book I'd suggest finding at a library before buying.

I'm already tired of manga about characters with broken “useless” powers—more so when the people around them are so hilariously belittling to the character in question. It's not enough to just be snide towards the protagonist, you have to be a full-on Lifetime movie villain towards them, even if we have visual evidence that their powers are busted. Having played MMOs—and the kind of dungeon crawlers that inspired Magical Buffs—nobody worth their salt would ever look down at a buff-caster. Or a healer. Or a tank. Catch me dead going into the Labyrinth without a Medic or a War Magus. Hell, catch me dead in the Labyrinth because I went into the Labyrinth without them.

It gets worse for Magical Buffs: our protagonist Wim has such a fractured ego that even after single-handedly beating a giant boss (which his party members couldn't even scratch), he refuses to acknowledge that he's of any use. 'Cuz, y'know, he's been bullied so badly. Literally every other character in the series can see that Wim has some busted buff spells to his name. But sure, the only person who sees Wim's potential is the also-busted mage who's been stalking him for ages.

Magical Buffs seems more interested in making us sit through long, ponderous explanations of how magic works (spoilers: they're RPG mechanics, because of course) than any decent character development, and what little characterization we get is just miserable to sit through. Wim is an endless sadsack, Heidemarie can barely even hide her worship of the guy, and everyone else exists to be amazed at the scope of Wim's buffs. I appreciate that the world around these characters is basically Etrian Odyssey with the serial numbers filed off (heck, it might even be Wizardry), but there's no spark here. I've played games with better settings than Magical Buffs. I've dropped games with better settings than Magical Buffs.

I can't even pretend the art is particularly interesting or that the character design is particularly memorable. The fights aren't interesting because, surprise-surprise, Wim's powers allow people to one-shot huge monsters. Wim's powers aren't interesting unless you like over-long explanations (one is done over the course of three pages). I know people can't get enough of these stories, but Magical Buffs seriously represents the absolute bottom of the barrel. Pick a manga on the shelf, your time and money are better spent reading that instead. Not recommended.