geri_chan | Hibiki's Magic

I've decided to try and stick with the National Blog Posting Month thing. I was planning to post a Harudaki (Embracing Love) fanfic today, but it's not quite ready. So instead I'll do a brief review of a manga I've been reading, because I thought it had an interesting magical system.

It's "Hibiki's Magic" by Jun Maeda and Rei Idumi, published in the US by Tokyopop. It's about a young girl named Hibiki who eventually gains a position as a professor at a prestigious magical academy, based on the fact that she was an assistant to a powerful sorcerer. However, she barely learned any magic, and as the blurb on the back cover of the first volume says, "Her only real skill seems to be making a pot of delicious tea...or is it?!" Her master, whom everyone thinks is dead but is actually trapped in the body of a squirrel-like creature called a gusk, helps her with his magic when necessary, but her innate kindness and compassion create a special kind of magic of their own.

To be honest, the art is a bit overly cute for my taste--the main character is a stereotypically cute little manga girl with big eyes. ^_^ But I do like the story, and the way that magic works in this fantasy world is really intriguing: using magic requires a sacrifice of some sort, which is different for every magic user. At the end of the first volume, we learn that the price that Hibiki's master paid was the memories of the people he loved. He loved a woman and lived with her, but eventually he forgot who she was. They continued to live together for awhile, with her re-introducing herself to him over and over again, and he fell in love with her again each time, but eventually he could see that it was breaking her heart to constantly wake up to a lover who regarded her as a stranger, and he broke it off so that he wouldn't hurt her anymore.

One of Hibiki's students at the academy pays a heavy price for his magic, too. Ahito can heal people just by looking at them, but he takes their pain into his own body and suffers physical injuries to himself. He nearly killed himself trying to heal a sick friend, but was unable to save her. Because of this, he hates magic and has decided to rely on technology instead.

Two of my favorite fantasy authors, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Mercedes Lackey (who was mentored by Bradley), have a slightly less drastic system: using magic tires the user, much as physical labor does. Casting a small spell won't affect the user much, but casting a powerful spell will exhaust, and in extreme cases, possibly even kill the mage. Therefore, wise magicians learn not to use magic for trivial things like cooking and cleaning, because they might not have enough energy left to defend themselves if an emergency comes up later.

This is something that is missing in the Harry Potter universe, I think. We don't see that using magic costs the witch or wizard anything; the only things that hold them back are the level of their ability and their training. Except possibly Dark Magic, which the books seem to imply corrupts the user--except if you're a heroic Gryffindor, of course. ;)

It doesn't seem to bother many readers, but it's one of the little flaws and inconsistencies that I've noticed. Maybe it's just because I'm used to the MZB style of magic.