Wizard's Soul: Research Notes

Tucker

Title: 

•  Wizard's Soul 〜恋の聖戦〜

  • First part of the title is just in English. Subtitle is “Koi no Seisen,” which means “Holy War of Love”

  • I’m seeing this title translated elsewhere as “Love’s Jihad,” which is…uncomfortable.

  • UPDATE: Dear lord, chapter 7 has “jihad” as furigana above the “holy war” kanji. Definitely get why the translator didn’t touch that page so as not to draw attention to it. Wow. Yeah, Japan’s cultural insulation sometimes manifests itself in some uniquely yikes ways…

Author

• 秋★枝（あきえだ)

  • Ah-kee, Eh-dah

  • The star symbol is silent but apparently really a part of how the name is written…

  • …or at least I THINK so. Or maybe not. Her Japanese Wikipedia article says “「秋☆枝」と表記するのは誤り。” I’m pretty damn sure that translates to something like “Writing her name as ‘秋★枝’ is a mistake.” There is no further explanation. Maybe it means that this is a pen name that originates from a typo? But there’s nothing in that sentence that’s past tense at all. I’m kinda confused.

  • UPDATE: turns out it’s a reference to what kind of star you use (it’s a black star, not a white one)

Characters

• Ichinose, Manaka 一之瀬 まなか（いちのせ まなか）

  • Ee-chee-no-say, Mah-nah-kah

  • Is her name a reference to the mana system of Magic: the Gathering? 

  • The character's name is written as まなか in hiragana, which is pretty common way for people, especially girls, to write their names when not using formal kanji spellings. According to the Japanese wikipedia article describing the rules of MTG, mana is written as マナ in katakana, which is the most common way of writing words borrowed into Japanese from other languages. 

  • This doesn't mean that Manaka's name isn't a reference (it does sound exactly like saying "is it mana?"), but it would be very weird and out-of-character for her to write her name in katakana (I can't remember any instance of seeing a Japanese female name written in katakana). If she did write her name using katakana, it would make her come off as an edge lord or something, which does not seem like something she would do

• Sakurai, Eita 櫻井 瑛太（さくらい えいた）

  • Sah-kɯ-rah-ee, Ay-tah

• O’ota, Hitomi 太田 ひとみ（おおた ひとみ）

  • OH-tah, hee-toe-mee

  • The double “O” is just an “oh” sound that gets two beats of rhythm. It does not sound like the “oo” in the English word “ooze”

  • Her name is written with the kanji for “fat” 太 instead of the kanji for “big” 大 that the reading normally gets, which feels too on-the-nose and a little fat-phobic in my opinion. 

• Kagurazaka, Aoi 神楽坂 あおい（かぐらざか あおい）

  • kah-gɯ-rah-zah-kah, ah-oh-ee

  • Her personal name is three separate syllables! Three! It definitely doesn’t sound like “owie”!

• Ouji, Ken’ichi 王子 憲一（おうじ けんいち）

  • Oh-jee, Ken-ee-chee

  • As they said in the manga, Ouji literally just means “prince”

• Aya-no-kouji, Kokona  綾小路 ここな（あやのこうじ ここな）

  • Ah-yah-no-koh-jee, ko-ko-nah

• Asahara, Aki 浅原 あき（あさはら あき）

  • Ah-sah-hah-rah, Ah-kee

  • Same given name as the author (assuming it’s not just a pen name)

• Roman

  • Roe-mahn

  • This nickname has nothing to do with Rome. It has more to do with storytelling or fantasy (think of the term “Romantic Movement”). 

  • I don’t know if it’s the source of this use of the term, but the German word for novel is “Roman”

  • Oh damn, the translation’s notes touched on this. These translator notes are really good!

MaxyBee

Manga Details

• Aki★Eda

  • Notable people they were an assistant for

    • None known

  • Notable people they had as assistants

    • None known, but interestingly an assistant runs her various socials (twitter, pixiv, et cetera), and another is a bit of a card game expert. Assistants are useful in more ways than one.

  • Other works:

(NOTE: Aki★Eda is a prolific doujin circle leader and mangaka, and we would be here all day if I listed everything, so this is very much a highlight reel rather than a comprehensive list.)

• Touhou Ephemeral Moon Vignette - Silent Sinner in Blue (2007-2009, 3 vols, Monthly Comic Rex) with writer ZUN

  • Do you know anything about Touhou? The bullet hell video game series with untold amounts of spin-off material, both official and unofficial? This is one of those. No idea what that means. 

• 100% Miracle Innocence (2007-2010, 5 vols, Comic Yell!/Manga Time Kirara Forward)

  • Idol manga, as a naive young woman tries to make it in showbiz. Survived the end of one magazine, only to die in another. 

• Bonnouji (2008-2012, 3 vols, Monthly Comic Flapper)

  • A loner and a newly single woman bond within their condo. Will it turn into something more? Probably. 

• Koi wa Hikari (2013-2017, 7 volumes, Ultra Jump)

  • A college student can see the love in girls’ hearts as a series of sparkles, but they never sparkle for him. Can this change when he meets a girl who wants to know what love is? Probably. 

• Please Wake Up, Kusakabe-san (2018-2019, 2 vols, Monthly Comic Flapper)

  • A girl who wants to sleep on her time off. A boy who wants to go outside with her on his time off. Comedy ensues. Qualifies for this show, I must remember this one. 

• Houkago Metaverse (2022-present, 1+ vols, Monthly Comic Flapper)

  • A boy who doesn’t talk a lot and a gyaru who talks a lot. A rom-com of unequal communication ensues. 

• Publishing

  • Magazine:

    • Monthly Comic Flapper

      • Yes, that sort of Flapper. No, I don’t know why. Seinen magazine that has run such hits as Twin Spica, Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, Girls und Panzer, and My Wife Has No Emotion. So series for adult men, but usually starring women. 

  • Run Dates: 

    • August 2013 to August 2015

  • Series it replaced

• N/A

• Series that replaced it

  •  N/A

• Series that started at the same time as it

  • N/A (Comic Flapper’s serialisation timeline isn’t well recorded)

• Chapters/Volumes: 

  • 22 chapters/4 volumes

Manga Itself / Misc thoughts

• I cannot stress enough that the author’s name is Aki★Eda, not Aki*Eda, not Aki☆Eda. It’s a solid star. I have no idea how you would say her name out loud. Anyway the specificity probably helps with SEO.

• You don’t need me to tell you that Wizard’s Soul is heavily based on Magic: the Gathering, and how if you squint you can apply game knowledge from the latter onto the former.

  • I’m like 90% sure I could build a grixis (BUR) deck that is similar to Manaka’s, but I don’t play anymore.

• Rare card scams, as depicted in the manga, aren’t far from reality, where people will often speculate on what will increase in value due to synergies in legacy formats.

• The author comments between chapters make it clear that Magic: The Gathering isn’t the only card game that inspired Wizard’s Soul, as the The Prince of Tennis card game (based on the Weekly Shonen Jump series by Takeshi Konomi) gets specific mention. It’s a bit different, in that it’s about playing a game of tennis (singles or doubles) using your deck for players and shots, and a playmat for layout, but is a pretty fascinating card game, as anyone who’s ever played its official single player-only PS2 video game “Card Hunter” can attest to (Japan-only, sadly).

  • Notably the cards have major real estate taken up for the art, as the pretty boys are half the point of TeniPuri.