Magical Boy Volume 1: A Graphic Novel

This was awesome action packed and funny

This was awesome, an action packed and funny ride. I can't believe it left me on a cliffhanger though so rude! I haven't read manga or watched anime in a good while and the style of this graphic novel brought me back to the shoujo manga I used to read years ago. I loved it so much, the humour and call out of the impractical magical girl outfits (and transformation scene) was hilarious. I will be reading the next book.

Great and quick read. I like having this transitioning young character named Max. Max's family (particularly mom) are expecting a different transition into a magical girl! So there is a surprise when both are happening.
A twist on the typical magical girl story and has a nice theme of identity, being yourself, and each character has a type of troupe they subvert in their own way.

Side note: I like the approach to the dead name in this story. It is simply blurred out in text and I thought that was an interesting choice.

I'm not crying, you're crying.

This is an episodic comic/graphical novel hosted on Tapas. It has 31 story episodes and 27 of which you need to ‘unlock' with ‘ink' for 333 a single episode. You can earn ink for free by filling out surveys (which will take you forever) or buy ink via the app, so it'll be around a tenner to get all the episodes unlocked, which is a fair price. I'm not sure if there's a clever way to unlock them all at once as I'm not super familiar with Tapas and only joined specifically to read Magical Boy.

There are some episodes that really hit you in the feels, especially if you're queer or ever had difficulty being accepted (particularly by parents), and the episodes with the most distressing stuff have warnings at the start. That art is exceptional and while there were a couple of typos that's easily forgiven for such a great comic.

It is a really beautiful story and so inspiring; I hope there's one day a physical copy printed or just a follow up that details Max's life as he gets older.

Merged review:

I'm not crying, you're crying.

This is an episodic comic/graphical novel hosted on Tapas. It has 31 story episodes and 27 of which you need to ‘unlock' with ‘ink' for 333 a single episode. You can earn ink for free by filling out surveys (which will take you forever) or buy ink via the app, so it'll be around a tenner to get all the episodes unlocked, which is a fair price. I'm not sure if there's a clever way to unlock them all at once as I'm not super familiar with Tapas and only joined specifically to read Magical Boy.

There are some episodes that really hit you in the feels, especially if you're queer or ever had difficulty being accepted (particularly by parents), and the episodes with the most distressing stuff have warnings at the start. That art is exceptional and while there were a couple of typos that's easily forgiven for such a great comic.

It is a really beautiful story and so inspiring; I hope there's one day a physical copy printed or just a follow up that details Max's life as he gets older.