, also known as , is a Japanese manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 series written and illustrated by Jirō Suzuki

Jiro Suzuki

is a female Japanese manga artist. She is notable as the artist for the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni manga; only Tatarigoroshi-hen however was done by her. An earlier manga of hers is MAGiMAGi. She will also be doing the manga version of Umineko no Naku Koro ni episode two, Turn of the golden...

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It is about a girl named Akira. Ever since she was little she's loved mythical fantasy books about magicians and can't wait to grow up to be an author so she can write about magic. She has always believed in magicians and she believes that one day a magician will appear and whisk her off to magical land so she can escape the world she lives in, where nobody is interested in magic or her dreams of magical worlds. And then, after another humdrum day in the real world, she falls through a manhole, and finds herself in what might just be the world she's been looking for.

Plot

One day whilst daydreaming on the way home from school Akira falls down an uncovered drain and finds herself not in a sewer but in another world... Appearing from a hole in a tree-trunk, she meets a young man dressed as a magician who introduces himself as Haru. Given that the passage between worlds she has just fallen through is one-way only, he tells her she can come along to the house he shares with his brothers.
Akira moves from delight at having discovered a magical world to horror as she discovers that fantasy worlds are notably lacking in features that we take for granted - having to walk everywhere exhausts her, and not being able to get mobile phone signal are her first horrors. Much of the comic features on Akira and Haru's incredulity and misunderstanding of each other's worlds. Haru cannot understand why Akira gets so excited by what he considers mundane objects, but is envious when she explains washing machines, tumble driers and electricity, which would make his life considerably easier as he spends his time doing all of the housework and cooking for his older brothers. Sen, the oldest, is too lazy to help, and Kai, the middle brother, too dopy.

Characters

Akira

A 16 year old girl, who after years of dreaming about being whisked off to a magical country, finds herself in one, but that it is not quite how she imagined. Her excitement over what the others see as commonplace objects baffles them and annoys the long-suffering Haru.

Haru

The youngest of the three brothers, Haru, who is 18, meets Akira and brings her back to the house he shares with his brothers. Seemingly all his time is spent cleaning up after them, cooking for them and so on.

Kai

Haru's older brother and possibly the dimmest member of the group. Kai is not so much absent minded as unfocussed from the reality everyone else lives in, for instance his fascinating with a battery-operated "dancing plant". He is first seen when Akira hears a noise behind a door upon entering the house. Akira thinks he is "cute" but then she looks and sees he is sitting on a toilet and immediately shuts the door in embarrassment, before it is revealed that Kai found the toilet and installed it as a chair in the house, unaware of its usual function.

Sen

Sen is the oldest of the three brothers. At first he pretends to be convinced that Akira is an animated scarecrow, but relents after he upsets her. Sen is loud and confident, but extremely lazy, leaving Haru to do all of the work around the house while he relaxes. He permanently wears dark glasses, which Haru has never seen him without, and his eyes remain a mystery, as Kai's attempt to paint a picture of what they look like fails due to his artistic ineptitude.

The Sage

The sage fulfils Akira's imagination of how a magician should look - he is aged and bent over, with a long beard and wizarding robes. However, he confesses that he too is unable to do magic, despite having turned 80. He does, however, have the ability to read Akira's thoughts when she doubts his usefulness as a magician with no magic.