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 MASHLE: Magic & Muscles chapter 62.
After a couple of weeks of very solid action storytelling, MASHLE chapter 62 is here to crash the party: reintroducing Innocent Zero and adding high-concept magic back into the mix.
Last time we saw Innocent Zero, they were meddling in the Magia Lupus arc to make an already uneven story even more mixed. Cell War’s character design was enough to turn me off, to say nothing of his personality, as well as the fact that he disguised himself as Lance. What’s more, the series’ apparent insistence on not explaining the basics of its magic system really adversely affected it here, given that most of the battles were a trade of spells.
Admittedly, Hajime Komoto did make some steps towards explaining some aspects of the series’ power system back in chapter 46, but only for the most powerful magic users. Consequently, when the headmaster of Easton Magic Academy Wahlberg and the leader of Innocent Zero summon ‘Uranus, God of Sky’ and ‘Chronos, God of Time’ at the end of MASHLE chapter 62, it does at least make some sense.
Rewinding just a bit, what exactly are Innocent Zero here for? Well, apart from causing chaos, their leader apparently wants to ‘absorb’ Mash so that he can complete his quest to become ‘the perfect human.’ Presumably, this means getting his hands on Mash’s marvellous muscles, although there’s also something else: at multiple times throughout MASHLE chapter 62, he calls the protagonist his ‘son.’
This would seem to directly contradict the information we got at the start of the series about Mash’s dad, although it’s not like this can’t be explained. If Mash turns out to be the Chosen One or something, that’d be perfectly in keeping with the series’ obvious inspirations, although it’s a pretty tired trope. I think I’d prefer it if Mash was just special because of his own power, to be honest.
In any case, MASHLE chapter 62 leaves off in an interesting place. The battle between Macaron and Mash still isn’t finished, but it seems as if Wahlberg and the Innocent Zero leader will be having a clash of their own while time is stopped. Given that we know their special wands can summon the power of gods, we’ll probably be able to follow it, even though we still don’t know what the hell a ‘secondth’ is.
You can read MASHLE chapter 62 for free via VIZ Media.