Impressions: The Big Adventures of Majoko

Nana, a girl from the human world, was searching for her precious necklace. While she looked through her room, she comes across a book with blank pages. When suddenly, a bright light shines from the pages, blinding Nana, and out comes a girl, name Majoko, a witch from the Land of Magic. Their friendship led to many adventures waiting for the reader to discover.

Similar to my previous objective for my article on Ninja Baseball, I wanted to see if the story displays the lessons that UDON said the readers could learn: value of friendship; the follies of cheating; accepting others for who they are, and making their own decisions. While reading the volume, I wrote down some notes and highlighted certain aspects of events that occurred in the story. After completing the volume, I was able to spot three out of four easily. However, the hardest one for me to spot was actually always right in front of me. I was just too blind to notice.

(C) Udon Entertainment 2009

Let’s start with the value of friendship, which was apparent throughout the book. In almost each chapter, the girls traveled to the Land of Magic together, but they never left one another behind. They stay with each other until the objective is complete. Once the adventure finishes, Nana returns to the human world, while Majoko stays in the Land of Magic. However, the lesson was made clear in the end of chapter 1. Nana discovered that the treasure Majoko was searching for was a “great friend.” It turns out that the great friend was Nana.

In regards to the next lesson, follies of cheating, I am sure many of us have been told that cheating is not right and unfair to others, who have studied. In chapter 2, the girls learned that cheating was not the path to take to succeed in one’s tests. Majoko’s mom discovered her daughter’s cheating ways, and as a result, Majoko gets in trouble for her actions. Keep in mind that this is the Land of Magic, so mom had to do quite a bit of magic cleaning. Even though the clean up of the cheating process was completed, Majoko still did not learn her lesson and encouraged Nana to continue to take the easy way out. However, in the end of the chapter, Nana learned that, “It’s best if I just study and do my homework.”

When it comes to making one’s own decisions, Nana has a tendency to do what Majoko does, such as going to the Land of Magic. In chapter 4, while riding with Majoko on her broomstick, Nana quietly thinks to herself, “Sigh…Why do I always get dragged into things like this?” Even though that was how Nana initially behaved, one may notice the slight shift away from just following Majoko’s actions. For example, in chapter 6, the girls have to go through a series of tests or puzzles to reach a Fortune Teller. While Majoko continued to rely on magic to solve the puzzles, Nana used her own intellect to answer the questions at hand. In the end, Nana’s puzzle solving skills helped the girls reach the fortune teller.

The last lesson is accepting others for who they are, and I have to say that one made me flip through the pages quite a few times. I kept wondering where was it in the book! Then I realized the lesson was the manga itself. Nana was an ordinary girl, while Majoko was a witch from another world. These girls were from two different cultures, but developed a friendship without questioning their differences. How much more could accepting one’s differences get? I think we all could learn a thing or two from these characters. Sometimes we have to set aside our differences and look at the bigger picture. At least try to get along, right?
© 2010 Linda Thai

Thank you Stacy King from Udon Entertainment and Manga For Kids for their manga, logos and cover image!
Fors more information check out Manga For Kids from Udon Entertainment.