The plot of Magie Paire, Volume 3 remains the same as that of Volume 1 and Volume 2 – Maria, having now found herself a powerful onee-sama at a school for mages, is still incapable of performing any magic herself. Well, not unless she has Unyuu the magical creature on her head, that is.

As you can see by the cover art, Maria’s problem takes second place to the inevitable cosplay one comes to expect with Takagi Noboyuki manga. So, while it’s true that Maria is going to spend some small amount of time in pursuit of her latent magical powers, she’s going to spend way *more* time getting in and out of bathing suits, gym clothes and maid costumes. Fans of this series have priorities, you know. ^_^

For a change, Maria spends an entire chapter clothed and working on her magic, as she approaches the issue of flame. Since her Paire, Reina-oneesama, is a Flame Master, they conclude that Maria ought to be able to work with small fires like a candle. After much effort, she seems to have developed the ability to…extinguish a flame. Very useful if one can’t, say, exhale. ^_^;

In terms of Yuri, a particularly erotic little sprite gets loose in the school and makes Maria strip down, cover herself in ribbon and offer herself to Reina as a birthday present. And Maria picks up a few upperclassmen who’d like to spoil her with kisses and hugs as she’s so utterly adorable in that maid costume she wears for the school festival.

And, oh yeah, Reina-oneesama picks up an newcomer as an admirer who challenges Maria’s right to be her Paire…of course.

After that, Maria sets her sights on getting stronger and spends the rest of the volume in a variety of costumes appropriate to various sporting and fighting situations.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 5
Characters – 6
Yuri – 4
Service – 7

Overall – 6

I happen to have picked up a recent issue of Gum Magazine the manga mag in which this series runs (as does Ikkitousen and a host of other crap) and I can assure you that Maria will gain her powers…but not before many more clothing changes.

If there’s one lesson we can take away from Magie Paire it’s that the appropriate outfit is at least, if not more, important than one’s attitude. ^_^