I am not completely sure what Makoto means with the first part “Also become (one) for my own sake” ? I would normally think she means “become a witch” but since she outright says that in the next sentence, I am wondering if she’s talking about something else.
Page 120
「このおかしを
祝福し さらなる力を
お与え下さい」
So, jisho says さらなる means “even more, still more, furthermore”, but I’m not completely sure how it applies to the magic chant. “Bless this おかし and grant it even more power”? This would kind of imply the おかし have some mysterious power already, which doesn’t sound right…
This is one of the chapters that bugs me a bit regarding how magic works in this series. Akane has Makoto draw “a pentagram” without any particular instruction (despite its visual complexity), teaches her a rather non-specific incantation, and then has her cast the actual spell without knowing what it does, and yet it still has precisely the effect that Akane envisions. So, clearly there’s nothing about the symbol, the incantation or the intent behind the spell that describes the effect, yet still it works.
But apparently she can draw three perfectly concentric perfect circles freehand - that’s already magic right there. And then Akane once again lets unsuspecting victims test the effects…
Anyone recognise what they’re watching on page 115? It looks familiar, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Vertical has gone with “and grows as a person by doing so.”
Well, they’ve already got the power to make people happy, sooo…
But I think this’d be “furthermore” as a conjuction rather than anything else. “Bless this candy, and furthermore, grant it power.”
My impression is that the magic factor in this manga is there mostly to spice things up and make things interesting, and in regards to that objective the author doesn’t seem too concerned with explaining the foundations or building specific laws on how magic works.
Of course, magic being magic, one can come up with explanations for everything. The pentagram, Makoto says, is something she’s been trained to draw for years, so you can think that for a pentagram to be a magic pentagram, it has to have those specific complex elements. Since she doesn’t get any specific instructions regarding the pentagram, one could conclude that the pentagram is used in that way in several magic spells and thus works like a generic ingredient - so all witches are trained to draw them the same way.
The incantation may feel non-specific, but for all we know each of its words might have been carefully selected; after all Akane says the incantation twice, with the exact same words. So even if the content feels pretty generic, it might not be.
Now regarding the effect, I guess we could just think of it as mixing a bunch of chemicals in a lab. As long as the proportions and components are correct, you are going to get a predictable result, even if you have no idea what compound you are trying to create.
That’s why magic tends to bother me more in other kind of stories where magic is a more important element, because I feel that in many cases authors just pull some random nonsense and say “it’s magic!” when they want to create a shocking plot twist or just want to pull their MC out of a hairy situation. It feels too forced.
I prefer magic used loosely, like here, because I am not expecting it to make a lot of sense - it is there just for laughs and for getting the characters in funny situations, and the actual fun part is seeing the characters react to them, and not the magic in itself.
Hmmm… I sort of see how they got to that translation, but if anyone can give me a breakdown of why it means that, I’d be grateful.
Fun chapter. I don’t mind the magic the way it is and don’t think the unexplainedness does any harm. At least not yet.
I did have a question about two sentences from Akane (she always seems to have the hardest sentences) but they resolved themselves in my head in the time since I finished the chapter.
I agree. I found it frustrating at first because I really enjoy interesting magic systems, but as soon as I just accepted that the series was about generic witches where the actual magic is completely secondary to the story/characters, I could get over it.
I don’t mind the magic the way it is and don’t think the unexplainedness does any harm. At least not yet.