The art is good, plot line and background is good, but it lack some good introduction chapters and the ending is a bit abrupt. A bit of nudity. Well worth reading.

Definitely product of previous decades' manga, though. With this kind of materials, these days they can prolong it to at least 10 vols. (2 vols for Mai's mother and connection to the Temples of Japan, 2 for background on that mysterious organization, two for interactions between it and other international interests, and more for each characters introduced...)

This remind me of 70's SF novels, of Robert Heinlein and Azimov.

Ah, how nostalgic!

... Last updated on October 2nd, 2007, 11:15pm

This one started strong, and then kind of fizzled. The premise was great, but it didn't really go anywhere. The ending was not so hot. It was pretty lacking in characterization for everyone except Mai as well. On the flip side, the art was great. I did truely enjoy Mai the Psychic Girl, but I thought it showed some wasted potential.

This manga starts off really good but sadly never reaches it's potential in the end. Though a story of 1980s through early 90s, it's a story that could be adapted or just plain rebooted for modern times if given a shot. That's wishful thinking however.

It's only 53 chapters long but half way through the manga you get the feeling it was being rushed or was canceled too early. Character motivations are put in fast-forward and revelations come about completely nearly 1 panel a page. The final conflict hints that Mai has more to come but of course since the manga ended so long ago it's obvious that won't happen. For that you get a very abrupt ending. In the same last chapter both the final conflict and the epilogue happens in the same 25-ish pages. Mai herself barely has any reflection or thoughts to the reader to give a sense of a pleasant closure.

In the end the manga isn't great overall but it's a nice look at earlier artist works of Ikegami Ryoichi. A quick short "retro" manga to check out if you have a day or two to spare.