Hey guys, Nitsuj here, welcome to another side blog the blogs between the blogs. Well my system is still down so I can’t continue the Magi review but not to worry I have a team of highly skilled and trained AI girls handling the problem as we speak. I’m sure they’ll have the issue resolved in no time.
*Meanwhile inside the system, Isis and Chibi-Isis were enjoying a relaxing hot spring*
(Chibi-Isis): Hey Nee-chan, shouldn’t we start fixing the system?
(Isis): I suppose, just 10 more minutes and we’ll get started.
*Back to Nitsuj in his room*
(Nitsuj): Or they could just be goofing off, who knows, I’ve been wrong before. So, since the system is down, for this side blog I thought it be fun to do a little comparison between the main characters of Magi and their counterparts from 1001 Nights. As I’ve said before the main characters of Magi are all well-known characters from several stories found in the book 1001 Nights. But how do the Magi characters compare to the characters from 1001 Nights? Well let’s take a look at them in a somewhat Magi vs 1001 Nights.
Aladdin
Let’s start by looking at the first character we meet in the series, Aladdin. In Magi, Aladdin is a cute 10 year old boy who is cheerful, kind, selfless, and a little perverted when it comes to women. We’re told he’s been living in seclusion his whole life but decides to go into the world in order to help his jinn friend Ugo find his friends and go on an adventure. Despite his age and appearance Aladdin is quite smart and wise for his age, he provides amazing insight and advice to others at a number of points in the series such as telling Morgiana that even though her chains are broken she still wears invisible chains around her legs to keep her from freedom and offers amazing insight and advice to Alibaba on a number on occasions when he’s doubting himself. He’s also shown to be an eager learner, he listens to others and learns from them just like they learn from him. He’s humble in giving away his sagely advice and wisdom, he doesn’t act like he knows everything nor does he try to show that he knows, to him, knowledge is give and take and take and give, teach others and learn from others. Also one thing I forgot to mention in my review is that Aladdin and Alibaba kinda have a bromance going on between them. It’s nothing major or disturbing but just the way Aladdin acts around him makes you think that he has a thing for Alibaba. This is probably all because Aladdin was originally going to be a girl. Yeah, according to Ohtaka-sensei she had originally planned to make Aladdin a girl but at the last minute decided to make him a boy. So chances are the scenes where the bromance between Alibaba and Aladdin happen could have probably been meant to ship the two as a boy and girl. To be fair it is easier to write and come up with stuff when your character is a male in manga. No offence to female characters but with male characters the author has more freedom and can get away with stuff more than they could if the character was a female. For example, if Aladdin was a female who liked big breasted women and was a little perverted would you still find this character trait cute and funny? Chances are you either won’t or you’ll find it a little amusing but when you give this character trait to a cute and innocent little boy it’s instantly cute and funny. I don’t know why it just is and because of this it’s easier to get away with more stuff when your character is a male.
In 1001 Nights Aladdin is quite similar to his Disney counterpart. He’s a teen who lives in poverty and gets tricked by a sorcerer to go into a cave and retrieve the magic lamp where he uses the power of the jinn to become rich and powerful. The sorcerer finds Aladdin, steals the lamp, uses the jinn’s power to take everything away from Aladdin but Aladdin finds him, gets the lamp back and kills the evil sorcerer. Eventually he marries the princess of his country and they all live happily ever after. The differences are that in this story Aladdin’s mother is still alive and well and lives in poverty with Aladdin until he finds the lamp and gets rich and powerful. Also, there was a little more to the story after Aladdin kills the sorcerer. After he kills the sorcerer, the sorcerer’s more evil and powerful brother tries to take revenge on Aladdin by disguising himself as an old lady to seek refuge in his palace and kill him in his sleep. But the jinn warns Aladdin of the plot and he kills the sorcerer.
While the 1001 Nights Aladdin is good I like the Magi Aladdin more because with him he’s constantly learning from others and taking an interest in the world while also teaching the world around him. It’s kinda fun and nice to see and experience the world from his perspective. The 1001 Night Aladdin doesn’t really seem all that interested in the world. He knows what he wants and why he wants it. He already seems to know about the world and what it holds but he doesn’t seem all that eager or intrigued to learn from it or give back. 1001 Night Aladdin, you seem like a nice guy and know what you want in the world but you need to learn from the world as well just like Magi Aladdin. Also, a little perverted-ness is also nice as well.
Alibaba
Said to be the second protagonist in the series next to Aladdin, Alibaba comes off as a cunning and petty when we initially meet him but after getting to know him he’s quite kind, caring, and helpful. He fights for the good of others when they become oppressed by those who wallow in their power and use it to hurt others. He has a good education and is quite clever when it comes to negotiations. He can also be kinda hard-headed such as going into fights by himself without backup because he wants the settle the issue himself and not get others involved in his problems. This can be seen as a rather selfish and dumb act on his part but it can also be looked at as confidence in one’s self. Alibaba is surrounded by good friends who care about him, understand him, and trust him and he wants to show them that their confidence in him is well placed and earned. He can mess up at times but he’ll learn from them and try not to repeat those same mistakes the next time.
In 1001 Nights, Alibaba is a poor wood cutter from the tale Alibaba and the 40 Thieves. After overhearing a group of 40 thieves visit their treasure cave Alibaba sneaks into the cave and steals some of their treasure. But his wicked older brother Kassim finds out about the gold and forces Alibaba to tell him where he got it. Alibaba spills the beans and Kassim goes to the cave to steal all the treasure he can but in his greed and excitement he forgets the magic words to let himself out of the cave and gets stuck inside only to be found by the thieves and killed. There’s more to this story but I’ll get to it in the next character.
There’s really not a whole lot to the 1001 Nights Alibaba other than he’s an honest man. Other than that nothing else, we never learn any of his other character traits such as how does he interact with others, what did everyone else think of him, what were his likes and dislikes, etc. With the Magi Alibaba we know a whole lot about him from his days as a child growing in the slums, to his time living in the kingdom palace, and to the present day Alibaba trying to be known as a dungeon conqueror and save the world from Al-Thamen. We see how the Magi Alibaba interacts with others and the challenges and issues he faces with himself and others as well as how others view and think of him. And this makes him interesting to watch. They say that the little you know about a character the more interesting that character is and while I agree with that statement I argue that when you don’t know a whole lot about that character it can be quite distracting. Take for example Jing, while we know he’s a talented bandit who always stays calm under pressure and can just about steal anything he wants we don’t know anything about him such as who trained him to be such a good bandit, what are his family circumstances, why is he a bandit in the first place does it run in the family or something we never get an answer to these questions and it can be quite distracting to the overall series. While fans of the series have come to accept this and let it go in the back of their minds these questions still remain unanswered and unsolved. 1001 Nights Alibaba may be an honest person but I still need a little more information about him to get fully invested into the character like I am with Magi Alibaba. This is a situation where not knowing much isn’t always a good thing and knowing a lot about a character makes you invested in seeing where he goes in life. Magi Alibaba wins.
Morgiana
This is a character where there’s not much to say about. All you just need to do is just look at her and see what she can do and you know this is a character you’re gonna like. Morgiana started off as a slave girl ever since she was a child but thanks to Aladdin and Alibaba she became free and their friend. She still has a complex over it but as far as the anime goes it doesn’t show up that much. She comes from a tribe of great hunters called the Fanalis who have super human strength and speed. Morgiana is no exception to this, she is a great tracker, has excellent fighting abilities, and is quite strong and athletic. Despite her great power Morgiana is a quiet girl who blushes quite easily when complimented and has a rather cute smile. It’s hinted in the manga that Morgiana has a secret crush on Alibaba as whenever he compliments her she blushes right away and whenever he’s with other girls she gets jealous and angry.
In 1001 Nights Morgiana is still an awesome character by trading in her strength for being smart and cunning. She makes her appearance in Alibaba and the 40 Thieves as a slave girl working for Kassim. After Kassim is killed by the 40 Thieves she becomes Alibaba’s slave and covers up Kassim’s death to make it look like it was a natural death. When the thieves discover that Kassim’s body parts are missing from the cave they go into town and look for Alibaba. One of the thieves marks Alibaba’s home so that they can all come back to kill him and his family but Morgiana sees through their trick and marks all the houses to fool them. The next day one of the thieves chipped a chunk off of Alibaba’s stone step to remember his house but Morgiana does the same thing to all the other houses to foil there plans. Tired of playing around the leader of the thieves finds Alibaba’s house and memorizes everything about it. The next day the leader pretends to be an oil merchant in need of Alibaba’s hospitality. With him are mules with oil jars that contain the rest of the thieves who plan to kill Alibaba in his sleep. Morgiana finds out about the plan and kills the thieves that are hiding in the jar by pouring boiling oil on them. When the leader sees his men are dead he escapes into the night. Once Alibaba learns of all the things Morgiana has done he sets her free as a reward. After some time the leader tries to kill Alibaba again under the disguise as a merchant who befriended Alibaba’s son Alishar who invites him over for dinner. Morgiana recognizes the thief and kills him at the dinner table. To show gratitude for saving his life again Alibaba marries her to his son. I’ve also heard there was an alternative story about Morgiana actually being a jinn trapped in a lamp by the leader of the thieves. She gets saved by Alibaba who frees her, becomes his servant and saves him from the thieves. To show his gratitude he decides to marry her.
Both of these characters are great Magi Morgiana is strong and dependable while 1001 Nights Morgiana is smart and also dependable. For this one I’m gonna go with the Magi Morgiana because while she’s strong she’s still quite smart and eager to help those she cares about. That and she killed a monkey man by kicking it right through its stomach. That is fucking awesome.
Sinbad
The king of Sindria and the man who has conquered seven dungeons he has established himself as being possibly the strongest fighter in Magi as of now. Even though he’s a king he has a laid-back attitude and fun-loving personality that stops him from becoming your typical politician. He’s well-respected and admired by his peers and other nations as not only a great king but a great warrior as well. When the need arises he can be serious and when it comes time to fight he’ll use all that he has to crush his opponents. He’s also said be quite the flirt who can get any girl he meets to fall for him and whenever he gets drunk he tends to do outrageous things that tend to cause trouble for his men and kingdom.
There’s a lot to Sinbad’s story that even if I were to try and explain it all chances are this blog would go on forever so I’ll just give you a guys a prequel to the story. In the town of Baghdad a poor porter stops to rest outside the gate of a rich merchant’s house where he curses the rich for having a rich and wonderful life while he works hard and remains poor. The owner of the house who is Sinbad overhears this and calls for the porter where he finds out that the porter is also named Sinbad. Finding it amusing that he and the porter have the same name Sinbad decides to tell the porter of his seven voyages showing that he became wealthy “by Fortune and Fate”. Each his adventures start out the same, he goes out to sea, gets lost, and washes up on some unknown island where he has an adventure and gets rich from it. The moral of his stories is that he wasn’t blessed or born into a rich lifestyle he went out and earned his fortune through trails and hardwork. Basically saying if you want something in life you gotta go out there and earn it yourselves, you can’t just wait around and curse others who live better than you.
Many films and cartoon adaptions portray Sindad as being a dashing dare-devil who seeks adventure instead of a traveling merchant as depicted in 1001 Nights. Tough choice here but I’ll have to go with the Magi Sinbad over the 1001 Nights Sinbad. The Magi Sinbad is a lot cooler in my view. I like how they took this dashing adventure loving dare-devil and made him into a responsible and mature king who carries the responsibility of looking after his country but is still a warrior of the sea at heart who isn’t afraid to back down from a fight whenever it presents himself. Also, in the manga it seems that he too has his own struggles. He comes to see himself as a sly person because he’s accomplish too many things and that the only reason why he helped out Alibaba and Aladdin is because he sees them as being powerful allies to have on his side and hates himself for thinking like that. He doesn’t want to be a sly person he wants to be like Alibaba who he says reminds him of himself when he was young and going on adventures. Someone who’s doing the right thing and not seeking a reward or praise for it but because it’s the right thing to do and he just likes helping out people. Magi Sinbad would like nothing more than to go back to being that person but because of his new responsibilities as king of a country he has to look out for all of his people even if that means becoming a bad guy. Magi Sinbad is a great character who is heading down the road of becoming a tragic hero or dark hero.
Kassim
The final character I would like to talk about is Kassim Alibaba’s childhood friend who grew up in the slums with him. Kassim is shown to hate the government of his kingdom because of want they did to the people of the slums and is determined to fight against it and make those that tried to destroy his friends and family pay. He’s also shown to be a leader able to rally the people of the slums together to fight back. While he has great leader qualities he can be seen as untrustworthy, cold, and manipulative especially when it comes to Alibaba where he betrays him on numerous occasions.
There’s not much to his character in 1001 Nights. He makes his appearance in Alibaba and the 40 Thieves as Alibaba’s evil brother who values money more than anything else which led to him dying a cruel death in the story.
It’s obvious that the Magi Kassim is the better of the two because of the tragedy of his character. In truth he’s really not a bad person. He’s shown to care greatly for people and deep down he does think of Alibaba as a brother but because of the environment he grew up in he became a bad person not because he wanted to be one but because he has to be one. His life has only been the bad things he had a dead-beat father who beat him, a little sister who he watched die and was unable to help her, and a corrupt government that turns a blind eye to him and the other people in the slums. Magi Kassim is evil because he feels that’s the only way to survive in this evil world that he lives in. Fight fire with fire instead of fight fire with water and that’s why this character is such a tragedy. He’s a man who wants to do good but because of the world around him he became bad.
While the 1001 Nights characters are alright I like the Magi Characters more because they add more depth and character to them than what the book did. That’s not to say the characters in the book are bad I just would have liked them more if instead of focusing entirely on the story we got a chance to learn a little more about the characters and who they are. Whether you read the manga, watch the anime or read 1001 Nights one can’t deny that the stories they present are a joy to read and watch. Well that’s my blog, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj where I’ll finish up Magi and the system will be fixed. . .hopefully.
Thanks for reading. As always feel free to leave a comment or send them along with requests or feedback to iamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com.