Knowing this is another card game manga, I was super excited to see how deep this particular manga would go with the card game aspect in terms of meta and experience in comparison to other manga titles like Destroy All Humankind and YuGiOh OCG Structures. I was certainly not disappointed.

Wizard’s Soul has a funny introduction as Ichinose Manaka’s reasons for playing the game and entering the tournament is to pay off the debt her dad accumulated from card game scams. This alone really sets up how the world revolves around the card game, where things like your school GPA and your social clique are dictated by your skill level of Wizard’s Soul. Although on a surface level it does seem incredibly ridiculous, the narrative actually executes a world revolving around a card game masterfully which is seen by many of the reasons the characters play and how serious the hobby is for them. A particular example of this I want to highlight is the character Kusama who originally dominated her countryside origin yet was completely disillusioned when she came to the city and realized how insignificant she was. Even after sacrificing so much of her social life for the game to get at a competent level within the city, she picks up a mean attitude and aimless outlook as a result of her background in regards to the hobby being what both her life and her world revolves around. It eloquently depicts how a world revolving around a particular hobby can completely warp the individuals who are simply invested in said hobby. This isn’t even mentioning the deeper character arcs this manga has with character relations with the card game such as Ichinose’s mom or Ichinose’s bullies (remembering Japanese names is hard, please forgive me). A story like this is perhaps the closest in portraying the TCG player’s experience in a grand narrative to my knowledge.

Another aspect I have to bring attention to and is probably the biggest appeal is the card game itself. Wizard’s Soul isn’t based on a real card game but more so just a made up one with heavy Magic The Gathering influence. Besides referencing real cards, this manga actually communicates well the basic gist of rules in following a particular matchup and getting invested in the very cards and decks a character plays. In comparison to Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel monsters, a reader who cares about the intricacy of a match would most likely have a deeper engagement as the tangible rules of the game in what you can and can’t do is very evident creating a believable story of a card game match actually happening. This goes beyond other contemporaries that already achieve this like Destroy All Humankind and YuGiOh OCG Structures as because the manga uses a made-up game, it doesn’t rely on pre-established rules from real world card games and instead has to communicate properly how and why certain cards work and the advantages it gives to a player. This results in perhaps the most hype I’ve felt while reading a card game match as my investment in certain matchups of specific deck types are reminiscent of real card game matches with me being able to understand the win conditions of the decks being used. I actually think this doesn’t really matter in the long run if you aren’t interested in card games as the presentation of the manga storytelling within matches are simple enough to understand such as the Stall Burn and Exodia strategies involved.

The most disappointing aspect of this manga and which I assume will be most forgiven is the romance. Although it builds off pretty strongly with Sakurai’s crush on Manaka and their falling out, the relationship never gets any proper development with the bare minimum on the dude’s side trying to get back closer, the romance feels like it's on the backburner most of the time except for the one matchup which I do appreciate. Honestly I really wish this manga could be longer than a single tournament arc since there’s so much to be explored but I’ll take what I can get especially since it handles everything it sets out to do pretty well for the most part.