With all of the confusing press we’re getting about Hogwarts Legacy (good reviews, troubling creator issues), maybe we all just need a nice palate cleanser in the form of a Harry Potter parody. More specifically, a Shonen Jump parody called Mashle: Magic and Muscles.
For the uninitiated, Shonen Jump is a Japanese weekly manga anthology under the umbrella of the Jump series of magazines. Suffice to say, it’s very popular and has been around since the late ’60s. Regardless, all you need to really know is that there’s a HP-inspired story — and it doesn’t hold back.
It’s called Mashle and the protagonist is named Mash Burnedead — who lives in the forest and “spends every day training his body, building muscles strong enough to compete with magic itself!”
Mash starts out “young and powerless” but wants to become a “Divine Visionary” so everyone will have to accept him. Here’s the rest of the synopsis:
“And so, in order to maintain his peaceful life, the magicless Mash enrolls in the prestigious Easton Magic Academy, competing against the children of some of the most powerful and elite in the realm. Lacking the very skill needed to survive at Easton, magic, Mash appears to already be at a disadvantage to his fellow classmates. In order to achieve his goals, Mash will have to fight his way through every trial using his fists alone, overcoming magic with muscles, all for the illustrious title of Divine Visionary!”
The idea that this kid enrolls in a magic school and wants to punch his way through it is pretty spectacular and a good twist on the whole “chosen one” trite Harry Potter storyline. The cover of the manga show Mash with a lightning-shaped scar not on his forehead, but under his eye. He’s also shown in familiar black cloaks snapping a wand in half.
It’s also hilarious, as Ash has “a powerhouse of a body that is so well-defined, each of his muscles has a name,” according to CBR, who calls it a “laugh-out-loud page turner.” It’s also more concerned with jokes than depth, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, considering all the exhausting chatter around the OG HP franchise.
There are eight chapters of the manga so far, and it has its own version of Quidditch and a Dumbledore-like character that looks a lot like, well, Dumbledore. Fun!
Mashle: Magic and Muscles is available now. Hogwarts Legacy releases on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X on February 10th. The PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game come out on April 4th, while the Nintendo Switch version is currently slated for July 25th.