[Final Review] Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard!?

I breezed through 14 episodes in one sitting yesterday. I finished around dawn. It was an easy watch with only 20 minutes each episode.

Recap

Adachi’s life revolves around three things: home, the onigiri stand near his home and work. He also semi-regularly communicates with his only friend, Tsuge. Tsuge was a romance novelist.

Urban legend has it that a person would be granted a mind reading capability if he’s still a virgin at thirty. He would lose his power if he gets laid. When Adachi turned thirty, he was still a virgin and found out the urban legend was actually true. Through his mind reading ability, Adachi accidentally found out two of his colleagues, Kurosawa and Fujisako, were secretly in love with him.

Adachi confessed to his only friend, Tsuge, about his newfound ability. Tsuge didn’t believe it at first until it happened to him as well. And when he did, they started communicating telepathically.

Adachi, on the first few episodes, was basically gay panicking over reading Kurosawa’s private thoughts. Meanwhile, Kurosawa carefully kept his feelings under wraps and appeared to be just that cool and friendly colleague that’s liked by everyone. Through their daily interaction, Adachi started to develop feelings for Kurosawa.

As Kurosawa and Adachi got closer, Kurosawa was unable to hide his feelings anymore and confessed to Adachi. Since Adachi was easily overwhelmed, he wasn’t able to respond immediately. Kurosawa walked away but Adachi chased him after a while and had a dramatic confession over a bridge. Kurosawa and Adachi started dating in secret.

Concurrently, Tsuge started liking Minato, the delivery man. Minato was one of the very few people Tsuge interacted with. When Minato stopped delivering packages to his place, Tsuge sneaked out to Minato’s workplace to find him. He accidentally stumbled upon Minato practicing how to dance and found out Minato was also an aspiring idol. Tsuge confessed his feelings for Minato and they started dating.

Over time, Adachi grew guilt-ridden because reading people’s mind felt like cheating. Eventually, Adachi confessed he’s able to read people’s minds to Kurosawa. He also admitted he is afraid to lose his power of mind-reading. Kurosawa gave Adachi the option to break up. They di. Tsuge advised Adachi that losing the ability to read minds isn’t the end of the world. They always have the option to talk things through. Eventually, the couple got back together.

Character Review

Adachi

Hmmm… The best way I could describe Adachi is he’s a shell and not a very well-fleshed out character at that. He was a pushover and gets anxious by pretty much everything. Adachi was pressured over nothing. Everything was happening in his head even without a confession. I liked that his insecurities were apparent. Although, I think this is overdone.

He had no interest or life outside work. His only friend, Tsuge liked isolating himself as well. As much as I would like to say it’s unrealistic, I can’t. I personally knew a few people who are like this. He was existing but he wasn’t living. I’d like to think a lot of people go through this phase in their life at least once but not consistently all through out their lives. To entirely just exist and purely exist, that’s sad. From an audience perspective, I find him boring but at the same time had a room for improvement.

I liked that in the end he had a little bit of a character development. He gained self-confidence and joined a competition. I also liked it that he didn’t win. Just because he’s the main character doesn’t mean he has to win the competition. I think it’s also realistic that he improved bit by bit.

Kurosawa

Kurosawa tried to be the perfect gentleman to Adachi and didn’t try to cross any of Adachi’s boundaries. Some of his actions were borderline creepy but he never acted on it. He even bought a pajama set for Adachi. Sirens started ringing in my head. Yet, he was content to just exist around Adachi. He could’ve been the patron saint of gay pining if he didn’t get Adachi. I can see a lot of people praising him for this but for me that level of respect should be the bare minimum.

I also like the fact that he was shown the glimpse of things from his perspective a.k.a the disadvantages of being handsome. He’s good-looking and he knows that. People like him and take advantage of him for his looks. Some people think he’s just skating through life with his looks so he had to cultivate his talents. Yet, he couldn’t air such complaints to anybody because it would only sound like he’s bragging. It’s definitely not relatable to people who is not as popular as him but it is a valid feeling. I honestly think as a self-reflection, people should ask “why” when they start to like things or people. This is not to say we should stop admiring people only for looks. The entertainment industry would fall apart. LOL.

Tsuge

Ugh! This guy was my LEAST favorite character. He’s VERY CREEPY nine ways to Sunday! Jesus Christ! And who was his stylist? He was looked like a 40 year old man preying on an underage kid. Somebody get a jar of holy water and a police officer! His crush didn’t show up to work? No biggie, he would just sneak into his office to find out where he is. He’s crushing hard on a guy whom he never had meaningful interactions with. Heck! He almost didn’t know Minato’s name before the confession time. He confessed in a “I like you so much it hurts” kinda way. Like bro what? If you start liking someone that much and you don’t even have interactions with each other or time spent around each other’s orbit, where is that like coming from? His face? I got a news for you, that’s lust. Also, who goes around secretly taking pictures of the guy/girl he likes with a professional camera? WTF?! This should never be normalized. Moving on…

Overall Review

I’d give it… a 2/5

The plot was somehow predictable, shallow and a little uninspiring. Kurosawa and Adachi had chemistry but the show could’ve ended in 8 to 10 episodes. I don’t hate this but I don’t like it either. If I understand Japanese, this is definitely a show I can watch while playing with my phone or scroll through social media. Do I recommend watching this? I’m at a 2/5 rating so… it’s a no for me.

Good thing I got from this is I would probably be more open to modern setting BLs.