The beginning of a new week can only mean one thing: time for new Weekly Shonen Jump! This is where Jacob investigates the latest and greatest in the magazine, telling you what’s worth your time and what’s not. You can find coverage of other series under the tag Jump Time. Here’s Magu-chan: God of Destruction chapter 28.
Week after week, Magu-chan continues to prove that it is much more than initially meets the eye. Whether it’s giving wholesome family vibes or exploring the evils of gambling, Kamiki Kei’s series is far from just a stupid gag manga: still, no one could’ve expected Magu-chan chapter 28 to get as deep as it did.
Magu-chan chapter 28 starts out simple enough, with Ruri and friends taking part in setsubun: a traditional Japanese holiday that sees people throwing beans in their house to ward off evil spirits. Naturally, Magu is intrigued, pointing out how ridiculous it is, but the comedy quickly comes to an end when Holy Knight Izuma turns up, demanding yet another battle.
As it turns out, last week’s chapter (which also focused on the festivities surrounding New Year, showing that author Kamiki Kei is using all the traditional holidays to their fullest extent) deeply affected Izuma, as he realized that Magu was going easy on him and could easily destroy the world with his powers if he wanted. He is therefore questioning his purpose in life: if Magu isn’t really evil, then what was the point in all of his training?
To find his answer, he approaches the conundrum in the only way he knows how: through strife. A silly ‘setsubun showdown’ eventually leads to quite a powerful moment where he challenges Magu with ‘all [his] body and soul,’ wishing to fight him ‘for real’ and witness the full extent of his powers. This means that he could die, but also allows him to find an answer: it wasn’t a question of ‘defeating’ the God of Destruction, but changing him for the better. And Ruri already did that long ago.
Magu also makes an interesting point in Magu-chan chapter 28 when he says that never referred to himself as the ‘God of Destruction,’ but was merely dubbed that by humans since they were afraid of his powers. This speaks to the fact that we make our own demons in many respects.
In any case, the net result of Magu-chan chapter 28 is that Izuma gives up on defeating Magu through battle and instead takes to ‘keeping an eye’ on him and Ruri by transferring to their school. Much like chapter 11, this is a major sea change in the series’ status quo and shows that it might not be the infinitely repeating sitcom that we may have initially thought it to be: it has proper plot development, alongside interesting introspection.
You can read Magu-chan chapter 28 for free via VIZ Media.