Impression
The hate is strong with this one – and by this one, I mean Hakuryuu. He very much represents the shounen archetype of the vengeance-obsessed, hate-filled guy who seeks revenge for the death of a loved one or family member. Of course, that’s not to say that his hate isn’t justified – it definitely is, especially considering his family massacre was orchestrated by Al-Thamen. It’s just that he’s going about it the wrong way. What he creates from Zagan’s abilities sort of epitomises that – when you think of growth, you expect greenery and natural life instead of weird, grotesque… microbe monsters. Hakuryuu’s level of obsession with his revenge looks like the start of a slow descent into depravity to me (there’s a flash of black rukh in his appearance in the OP), something which Alibaba picked up on very quickly. It might be what Judal sees in Hakuryuu too, and why he’s always so chummy with him. All that potential violence and destruction to capitalize on!
We also saw a conclusion to the conflict with Aum Madaura – and the battle against Hakuryuu didn’t even turn out to be as climactic as they made it out to be. The real clincher was his decision to mercilessly kill Madaura, even with the mentality that she was his mother. Or rather, it was because she appeared to be Ren Gyokuen that he killed her. While we haven’t seen much of Gyokuen at all, I’m presuming she fell into depravity at some point after (or maybe even before) the massacre. Being introduced as Al-Thamen’s witch as well as the person pulling the strings in Kou doesn’t give us a favourable first impression, nor does her weird NTR-esque decision to marry the new Kou emperor (who, at that point had just usurped the throne from her husband). But anyway, it’s good that Madaura’s dead, especially as she saw her “children” as nothing more than tools, prioritising her life (and treasure) above anything else. It’s at times like these that I appreciate Magi’s willingness to kill off its characters when deemed fit.
Hakuryuu’s confession was very manly 😀 I didn’t think he had the guts to swoop down and kiss Morgiana like that! I think she was far too shocked to respond properly – while we’ve been aware of Hakuryuu’s crush on her for some time, she’s evidently never thought of him as anything more than a comrade. Adding to that train of thought is his status as a Kou empire prince, which from her point of view is at a massive disparity with her own former status as a Fanalis slave girl. Ultimately though, his anger and obsession with revenge has placed him in a different camp to our trio; at the very least, I don’t think Aladdin is willing to start a war with him any time soon. Hakuryuu was friendzoned pretty damn badly… I feel sorry for the guy.
