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Majokko Carnival

So far on this blog I've covered several titles already that didn't last very long, and there are many more in that vein I plan to cover later. The magical girl genre is quite flexible, so longevity isn't inherently an indicator of quality. You could even, say, compile a bunch of shorter magical girl works into one publication. And on that note, today I want to look at one of the only anthologies of magical girl manga I've been able to find.

Majokko Carnival is a manga anthology published by Rapport Comics on April 20, 1991. It contains 16 standalone chapters by as many different artists, all centering witchy or otherwise magical girl protagonists.

Rapport has a really interesting history unto itself, but that's largely outside the scope of this blog. To give you the short version, they started out as an event planning company before pivoting to anime merchandise, originally distributed through mail order before eventually establishing their own storefront. They went defunct in 2003 and now seem to be best remembered for their manga anthologies, such as this one, as well as their manga magazine Fanroad, which was first published in 1980.

I haven't gotten to read this anthology for myself, nor have I been able to find much information about the stories contained within it, but I have found a listing of all 16 chapters and authors, so I'd like to go through what little I know of them one at a time. Note that I had to rely heavily on machine translation in order to make sense of this list, so apologies if some of these names are presented incorrectly.

Majokko Pomuru by Tsukasa-sei Takasaki

The manga whose protagonist is featured on the front cover. I wasn't able to find any synopsis of the plot but it was included on a list of magical gender bender manga in which male protagonists become magical girls, so make of that what you will. Tsukasa-sei Takasaki (who I've also seen referred to as Shiro Takasaki) is a doujinshi artist who seems to have mostly been active in the 90s and published at least one other work through Rapport.

Catty Black by Omoi Ataru

This is actually the first chapter, but for whatever reason the list linked above flipped the order of the first two. I haven't been able to find a plot synopsis for this one either, but the pictures I've found from it seem to present a slice-of-life comedy about a catgirl witch. The artist, Omoi Ataru, mostly worked in smaller scale manga, including some doujinshi, and she has more recently pivoted to doll customization.

Trouble Maker by Hirano Ramu

I haven't been able to track down plot details or even images for this one (or the next few) and the author is pretty elusive too. The only other work of theirs was published sometime between 1989 and 1992, all of it somehow more obscure than Majokko Carnival.

Hirune by ○Mikan

Hirune is the Japanese word for nap. This is the first installment of a series called Sora no Majo (or Witch of the Sky) which would continue publication in Fanroad until 1994. The artist has gone by a number of names over the years and is still active on Pixiv, having pivoted to hentai. ...'Kay.

Majo Monogatari by Tawashi

The title translates to Witch Story. Tawashi (who I've also seen referred to as Tsukako) is a part time manga artist who also works as a nurse, and has even written a manga called Nurse Story, published by Rapport in 1993. She's written about witches a couple other times, but sadly I haven't been able to find any information about any of them, including this one.

Manatsu no Yozora ni Zebra ga Tobu! by Hibino Mariya

The title approximately translates to The Zebra Flies in the Midsummer Night Sky. I would love to know what that means in the context of the story but, predictably, searching turned up few useful results. I've also had difficulty transcribing the artist's name, 日比野魔俐婀. I've seen it translated a bunch of different ways, so if anybody is able to contribute a more accurate reading of it, it would be much appreciated. They contributed illustrations to two other manga I was able to find: Halloween, written by Marialle, and Babylon, written by Tact.

Kenage na Amulet by Hokoi Satoshi

Title translates approximately to Healthy Amulet or Amulet of Good Health (I think). While I haven't found any details about this manga, I was able to find a review for another Satoshi Hokoi manga that may shed some insight as to the author's style. Portrait, a 1992 manga also published by Rapport, has a very dark tone and heavy story elements despite its' cute art style. This artist has since pivoted to erotica published under the pseudonym Gyro Amarume.

A Kuvira! Dark Princess by Fujisawa Naoto

Another one without any pictures or plot details. Apparently this one was reprinted on May 1, 1994 in another Rapport anthology called Pretty Daisakusen (Pretty Operation), but there's even less information out there about that one than there is on Majokko Carnival. Naoto Fujisawa would publish two other manga through Rapport in the 90s, both of them shoujo: Death Rocker in 1993 and Gargoyle in 1996. The former ran for two volumes until 1998 and even got reprinted in June of 2004 as a single-volume omnibus by Daito Comics.

Chotto Matte ne by Tokumi Yuiko

The title is a slightly more casual and familiar variation on the phrase "wait a moment". Yuiko Tokumi is a renowned illustrator who has contributed to various visual novels, card games, and even done character design for at least one anime figure, as well as plenty of doujinshi (including a Sailor Moon doujin in 1996). She is best known for creating Binzume Yousei (Bottle Fairies) and Slow Start which were released as anime in 2003 and 2018 respectively. (You would think her notoriety would mean there's more information available about Chotto Matte ne, but alas.)

Mahou Soudou by Nantoka Fumihiko

Title translates to Magic Commotion. Fumihiko Nantoka also contributed a manga titled Suna no Majo (Witch of Sand) to Pretty Daisakusen, but I haven't been able to track down any information about that one either. For that matter, all of their manga is pretty obscure. Much of it was published by Rapport and everything I could find publication dates for is from the 90s.

Beginner's Ray by Tashiro Takuya

Takuya Tashiro has mostly worked on action manga, particularly ones with sexy female protagonists, and he was active into the 2010s. His series Najica Dengeki Sakusen was published in English as Najica Blitz Tactics and Atori Shou is his longest running manga at seven volumes.

Wiz Master by E=MC2

Of everything on this list this is THE single hardest combination of words to find anything relevant with. All I have to go on is a where-are-they-now type roundup of smaller manga artists in a blog post from 2014. That post indicated E=MC2 isn't as active as some of the others and mostly does manga about catgirls.

Kurayama Otome by Yokoyama Hiroko

Title means Kurayama maiden, with Kurayama being a Japanese surname that apparently has a variety of meanings. I wasn't able to find much about Hiroko Yokoyama's older work, but she is still active on Pixiv (though fair warning: a small number of her art there is NSFW). She even has some of her newer comics available in English, which is way cool from an accessibility standpoint!

A Looking Glass by Takekura Riku

Riku Takekura is another obscure artist who mostly seems to have been active in the 90s and heavily associated with Rapport. They won a "special award" when they placed 3rd in the FR Contest in 1990 (though I couldn't find what for). A manga of theirs titled Aoi. Hyouma Ran (Blue. Possession) was published in the horror themed August 1991 special edition issue of Fanroad, titled Nightzone. The most recent work of theirs I can find, a manga titled Leaf, was published by Rapport in April of 1996.

Rinji Majo Baita Yukiko! by Yumenohashi Kouichi

This title approximates to Extraordinary Witch Bitch Yukiko!... I think. Kouichi Yumenohashi (who also goes by Koichiro Takahashi) is still active in the industry and seems to specialize in sports manga.

Sore Ike Sen Hitoshi-chan by Hirano Masahiro

My understanding is sore ike means something like "go ahead!" and I'm guessing Sen Hitoshi-chan is the main character's name. This is one that the machine translations really struggled with (the original text is それいけ千仁矢ちゃん for the manga's title and 平乃眞砂廣 for the artist's name if anybody wants to take a crack at it) and, once again, I haven't found any information about the manga itself. Even the mangaka is very obscure, his only other original work being a manga titled Africa that I couldn't find any info on either. Apparently he also contributed to a Fire Emblem anthology, so that's neat.

So... what have we learned?

One of the things that really interested me about Majokko Carnival is that it came out at the tail end of the pre- Sailor Moon era. I know we can be pretty reductive when talking about Sailor Moon's influence on the magical girl genre, but it is notable how much more popular the magical fighter archetype is after her debut than before it. Plenty of older magical girls were either witches or just girls who happened to use magic, and that's something this anthology perfectly encapsulates, based on what little I could find about it.

Beyond that though, I was surprised by how in-house this was. Many of these artists had their other work published by Rapport, either in Fanroad or other anthologies. While some of them went on to find broader success after their time with the company, I get the sense not all of them wanted to. There's actually something weirdly heartening about how Rapport was able to be this sort of platform for smaller artists who may not have had other, better resources at their disposal. The rise of the internet has made it easier to get one's creative works out there (though that certainly comes with its own pitfalls), but I still think it's worth taking a look back at the kinds of stories people were trying to tell before that framework had been established. I would love it if there were more magical girl anthologies like this one. I would love it if more information about this one became available. But if nothing else, I'm glad Majokko Carnival exists.

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