is a Japanese manga series by . It is currently serialized in Dragon Age Pure

Dragon Age Pure

was a Japanese shōnen manga magazine published by Fujimi Shobo. It was first released on January 30, 2006 and was initially sold quarterly. Starting with the sale of the fourth volume on April 20, 2007, the magazine was sold bimonthly until its final issue, the fifteenth volume released on February...

, published by Fujimi Shobo

Fujimi Shobo

is a Japanese publishing company that specializes in the publication of light novels, manga, role-playing games and collectible card games. The company started in 1991 as a subsidiary of Kadokawa Shoten.-Magazines published:Light novel magazines...

. The official website of Fujimi Shobo's Monthly Dragon Age magazine has revealed that an anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 adaptation of Hiromitsu Takeda's Maken-ki! manga is in the works.

Plot

Takeru Ohyama, a young normal yet perverted minded guy, got accepted and now goes to a school that, unknown to him, was where combat and magic is used. Arriving at the school (which was once only for girls), he meets again after three years: Haruko Amaya, his childhood friend, Inaho Kushiya, a girl who says she's his fiance, and Kodama Himegami, a blonde who wants to kill him. Finding out that there are many girls there that just don't like him, he is told that everyone there uses a special magic ability while using an item or weapon called a Maken. Later, he finds that no Maken is acceptable for him and doesn't know what to do, since in this school the students get into duels that showcase their magic and combat power, of which he seemingly has none.

Primary characters

A perverted high school student. He hates his father believing him to be the reason his mother died. He wields a power known as "blood pointer" which allows him to drain "element" from the people around him through his mouth. He has periodically used this ability throughout the series without knowing it. After the battle with the Venus unit he has begun to undergo training to understand this power and use it. He is the childhood friend of Haruko Amaya and, as later revealed, Inaho Kushiya, though he does not remember it.

His maken is known as "Overblow", which lets him cause his opponent's maken to gain incredible power and overflow with element causing it to go out of control and force the user to not be able to use it. However, when his opponent is able to contain the overflow of element or has perfect control over his maken, it would only provide his opponent greater power or even make the maken evolve into something greater.

Called the strongest maiden in Tenbi by Kodama Himegami and the Vice-President of the student council. She is the childhood friend of Takeru Ohyama and has romantic feelings for him often not caring when her body is revealed in front of him. She shares a room with Takeru Ohyama, Kodama Himegami and Inaho Kushiya. Haruko is very jealous of the other girls around Takeru, who then suffers from her violent outbursts as a result. She also tries to up her sex-appeal through breast pads, when the Maken-ki went to the hot spring with Chacha and Aki present, very much to Himegamis dismay.

She wields one of the eight (8) legendary maken, "Murakumo" meaning "Gathering Clouds". Her maken allows her to turn her element into photons around the blade. Murakumo's seal cannot be broken unless it reacts to opponents on par with its power. However, Haruko was able to unleash a little of the maken's power through her anger.

Wields shikigami that follow her around and call her ojou-sama. She needs element to survive, it has not fully been stated what exactly she is. But she has said to herself that she can't leave the tenbi area because the element doesn't flow as fully elsewhere. Which is why she went out to get a stone full of element so she could travel to the training grounds for the summer vacation. She stated that Takeru Ohyama is her mortal enemy after she saw the mark on his chest. Although its has yet to be confirmed if she still feels that way as she has kissed him on a few occasions leaving the cast a bit bewildered and annoyed. She can give her shikigami life and bring them into the real world so everyone can see them, giving them a human body in which they can fight with. It is hinted that she has a weakness for cute things, specifically rare and inexpensive stuff animal toys when she forgave the Finians when they tricked her because if she forgave them, she can have the rare king penguin stuffed toy. She is also deathly afraid of ghosts and other supernatural beings. Even becoming scared of a scary story that the story-teller openly admit that he made up the half rest of the story.

She has long, blond hair. When Himegami gets mad (mostly at Takeru and Kengo, when they are peeping) her eyes resemble a dragon, becoming yellow with a long, thin pupil.

Self proclaimed fiancee of Takeru Ohyama. She feels strongly for Takeru Ohyama, and although he doesn't remember her much she has decided to wait until he fully does. She holds Takeru's father in high regard. Upon revealing this, Takeru gets upset and ignores her, making her cry. Takeru later apologizes after his "conversation" with Kengo. However, in the anime, she cries, after Takeru tells her that he can't remember their promise. It is yet to be seen, how Takeru reacts to her view of his father.

Her maken, "Kamudo", takes the shape of a gauntlet that when brandished, greatly increases her strength and speed as demonstrated in chapter 7 when she used it to protect Takeru and the cat (later named Monji) he had saved by breaking a huge rock falling on them and then rushing in front of them to deflect the broken fragments. However, overusing it puts enough stress on her to knock her unconscious.

Tenbi students

Perverted friend of Takeru. He has open feelings for Himegami and is supposedly in her fanclub. He often like Takeru peeks on girls when they are in the shower, changing, etc. Much like Takeru, Kengo has a strong sense of justice. He sets Takeru straight, after seeing Inaho cry, figuring out what caused it. He calls Takeru a hypocrite for claiming to want to protect girls, yet making Inaho cry.

His maken can let him exchange places with an item. (him or other people)

A strong fighter that Takeru has had problems with like visiting the shop she work at which was a maid cafe

Maid cafe

Maid cafés are a subcategory of cosplay restaurants found predominantly in Japan. In these cafés, waitresses dressed in maid costumes act as servants, and treat customers as masters in a private home, rather than as café patrons...

 named Macaroon. She threatened him with death, should he ever tell someone else, despite Himegami being the one who showed him to the cafe. Azuki has probably the shortest temper of the whole cast, is very thickheaded, especially around Venus' Yan Min and does not back off a challenge.

Her maken is "Hawk", which looks like a mechanical boot when activated. Her maken's ability boosts her already superior agility and speed, as well as her physical power. Azuki mainly fights using her legs through kicks, etc.

She is obsessed with Haruko. She seems to despise Takeru because of him always being near to Haruko. She made a bento on her own and some bullies had thrown it out and disposed of it, Haruko seemed to have witnessed it and so she offered her (Minaya) some of her bento; this is what her obsession stems from.

She is the President of the student council. She is very shy around boys and even states in the manga that she has a phobia of men. In the anime, she is very attracted to Akaya from Venus, whom she falls for at their first meeting because, unlike the peeping squads, he appears like a gentleman. Despite her shyness around boys, Furan is very strict when it comes to Maken-ki's duties that need to be carried out. She often scolds Haruko for coming late (mostly because of Takeru) providing a bad role-model for the other students as vice-president of the student council.

In the anime, her panties have been exposed a couple of times, revealing different animals (so far only a bear and a cat). Yuka skips her skirt one time to catch Takeru's and Kengo's attention.

Friend of Furan and the accountant of the student council. She is also a ninja. Yuka appears to be carefree most of the time. However, she is very cunning, mostly encouraging activities of the Maken-ki that involve some kind of other work that needs to be done. The most obvious of these actions is the "match" between Venus and Maken-ki, where the players use broomsticks and soap while playing in the pool. She is close friends with Furan and likes to tease her.

Yuka is also the younger sister of Takeru's homeroom teacher Tomiko Amado.

Secretary of the student council. Her maken results of her love of mangas as she can draw anything and bring it to reality. She is close with Chacha and the combination of their maken is considered to be one of the strongest in Tenbi.

A foreign and powerful member of Maken-ki. Her Maken is "compressor" and ability to change the shape and density of objects she can use, such as changing a small broken plank into an enormous board.

Tenbi Academy staff

Ditzy principal of the school. She is the one that allowed Takeru, Haruno, Inaho, and Himegami to all live under the same roof. She brandishes incredible power and control over element as she was able to break through amazingly powerful barriers, with her bare hands, thanks to nothing more than, in her own words, her "fighting spirit". She was in the maken-ki of the school before it became an all girl's school.

The creator of all the maken in the school. He was in the maken-ki of the school before it had to become an all girl's school.

The school nurse. She is also the staff-advisor (sort of a "teacher overseer") of maken-ki. She was in the maken-ki of the school before it became an all girl's school. She has absurdly huge breasts, possibly the largest of the cast, which attracts the attention of all male students and the envy of girls around her. In addition to this Aiki is unexpectedly still a virgin.

Takeru's homeroom teacher. She also was in the maken-ki of the school before it had to become an all girl's school.

Mercenary Unit-Venus

Commander of the Kamigari mercenary unit "Venus" and a former member of maken-ki before it became an all girls' school. He is however the weakest member of Venus in terms of element level. Aki is hinted to have romantic feelings for him and it's even possible said feelings are mutual between the two. Akaya is a flirt around most of the female cast and is portrayed in the anime as a poser. He appears to be carefree as he finishes the rumor about someone trying to revive Yamata-no-Orochi (the eight-headed snake) with the words "or so they say" and a dumb smile on his face. It turns out that in reality, he is really serious about his work.

He initiates a change of Takeru's view of having to protect all girls, when he asks Takeru, what he would do, if a girl were to do bad things to another person. Akaya was one of last generation's Maken-Ki.

Venus Unit: Vice-Commander

Her jingu is "Trident" and can control water (referenced from the trident of Poseidon

Poseidon

Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of the earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon...

, God of the Seas in Greek mythology). Her jingu takes the form of a trident and can create and control water, and even manipulate any liquid within its range (even blood or water within a person). She is a very strong character pointed out by Yan Min when she said that her(Demitra) fighting capabilities are beyond of hers(Yan Min). Yan Min also mentions that she only smiles at those whose power she acknowledges, that being Minerva.

Venus Unit: Defense Member

He is an American "idol" superstar. He is shown as someone with amazing strength and is well-known through his singing/dancing career as an "idol" as well as a professional wrestler. He/She later pairs off against Inaho, whom he/she devastates with his/her jingu and ultimately defeats using wrestling moves, prompting Takeru to fight in Inaho's place.

His jingu is an internal-type named "Inverse". Its ability is to "reverse" situations at his will. His ability is not limited to reversing forces, but could even reverse the will of his opponent (as seen when she reversed Takeru's will to attack him during their battle) and even gave him the ability to change his gender and physical appearance at will including the reason why his eyes have a flower shaped pupil when a girl. Though he is male, he possesses female characteristics and emotions. He fell in love with Takeru when he showed a cool-looking stance (in her own opinion) to protect Haruko during the match between Venus and Maken-ki. In the anime, however, it was a normal volleyball match which went extreme after Minerva used her waterbending abilities. Takeru jumps in and accidentally lands on Shiria instead of Haruko, much to Himegami's annoyance (because more big breasted girls came into the school). Shiria is aiming to become a real woman, and is referred to as an okama.

Venus Unit: Special Attack Member

In comparison to makens (equipments used by Japanese gods), "jingu" that are used by "Venus" members are the equipments used by gods from their homelands, as described by Yan Min. Her jingu is "Kinben", which utilizes the power of lightning. Yan Min's jingu takes the form of a whip split into two. When used, Yan Min fuses the equipment into her body which enables her to use "Reirii", in turn increasing her speed. She can also increase the speed of the transmission of her neural signals, reducing her reaction time. Another ability of her "Kenbin" is "Reichin" or thunder fist, which turns her fists into pure lightning increasing her power.

Venus Unit: Defense Member

A Venus member who on the outside appears as a carefree airhead and always has her eyes closed. Her jingu "Aegis" is a maken that allows her to open gates to other dimensions at will. This allows her to teleport various articles such as clothings a person is wearing to even parts of their body to another dimensions at will, making the person in question visibly naked or rendering a figher unable to use attacks by making their limbs disappear from the current dimension. Her eye, when open, emits an inexhaustible stream of element, which allows her to engulf huge areas around her with her own element, creating a "territory" in which she can use her aforementioned interdimensional powers. This is also the real reason why she always has her eyes closed except when in action. In chapter 35, Minori shows Takeru a chart showing the rankings of various people according to their power levels. According to it, Minerva Martha is by far the strongest element user in the entire cast, exceeding the likes of Minori herself, and the main antagonist Ouken.

Not much is known about the background of Minerva. She does have some perverted fetishes and fantasies, as is shown during the battle against Venus when she on purpose strips the girls of Tenbi by making their clothes disappear but only leaving the stockings on, and proclaiming herself to be the "Master of all Lingerie". Due to her perverted attitude, she gets along quite well with Kengo.

Venus Unit: Special Investigators

Twin sisters, one with light hair, the other dark. They have a weakness to cats. Their ability "Time/Space" has the ability to create barriers, including ones small enough to imprison targets or form levitating blocks to walk on. They can reverse the effects of things within the barrier, such as healing wounds and repairing clothes.

Volume list

Chapters not yet in Tankōbon format

• 039. Drink & Meet (Ex 37)
• 039.5. Youthful Days (Ex 37.5)
• 040. Break Point
• 041. Unknown title
• 042. Unknown title

Anime

An anime adaptation was announced on Monthly Dragon Ages official website in December 2010. In April 2011, Monthly Dragon Age confirmed that the anime series will air on television. Produced by AIC under the direction of Kōichi Ōhata

Koichi Ohata

is a Japanese animation director and mecha designer, known for cult classics M.D. Geist and Genocyber.-Direct-to-video animation:* 1986 M.D. Geist* 1989 Cybernetics Guardian* 1994 Genocyber* 1996 M.D. Geist 2 – Death Force* 1996 M.D...

 with Yōsuke Kuroda as script supervisor and music by Cher Watanabe, the anime series will begin its broadcast run on October 5, 2011.

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No.	Title	Original airdate

External links

• Fujimi Shobo's Maken-ki! website
• Official anime website