Magi (manga)

Magi, Magi - Labyrinth of Magic, or Magi – The Labyrinth of Magic, is an Arabian Nights-themed Japanese manga written and illustrated by Shinobu Ohtaka. It started serialization in Weekly Shōnen Sunday in June 2009. The individual chapters are published in tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan, with 35 volumes currently published as of August 2017. The manga series will end tentatively on October 18, 2017, in roughly 4 chapters if there is no break. Magi also has a spin-off/prologue manga series, Adventure of Sinbad, which started serialization on May 8, 2013 in Weekly Shōnen Sunday but was moved to Ura Sunday in September 2013.

The manga was adapted into anime series by and thus far two seasons, each consisting of 25 episodes, were produced. There were also made three video games adaptations: Magi: Hajimari no Meikyū, Magi: Dungeon & Magic, and Magi: Aratanaru Sekai.

Aladdin, the primary protagonist, is traveling a desert land, with a magic flute that summons a Djinn named Ugo. The Djinn has a huge and muscular body, but cannot remove his head from the flute, giving him a headless appearance and frequently causing even people he is trying to rescue to mistake him for a monster. The two meet Alibaba Saluja, a seemingly greedy and aloof young man who is trying to get rich, and realizes that Ugo would be a powerful ally to explore a nearby treasure-filled dungeon. As they adventure together, they become true friends, along with Morgiana, a slave girl from a distant land that they free from her master. The three encounter other Djinn and find hints that they may be destined to decide who will rule the world.

Reception
To date, Magi has sold over 21 million copies.

Magi was the 9th top selling manga of 2012, selling 3,437,182 copies. It was the 4th best selling manga of 2013, with 7,151,001 copies sold. In 2014, it was the 8th top selling manga, with 4,657,971 copies sold. A year later, in 2015, it was the 20th best selling manga, selling 2,820,526 copies. Keeping the same place on the charts in 2016, Magi sold 2,215,458 copies of the manga in Japan. In terms of top-selling manga by series in 2017, Magi has scored 12th place with 1,357,012 copies sold by May. Furthermore, in the first half of 2017, Magi's most sold volume is #32 with 461,969 copies sold, marking 26th place in terms of top-selling manga in Japan by volume.