Ore to Kawazu-san no Isekai Hourouki - Chapter 1 (New series!)

Just noticed this manga popping up. There's not much chatter about it (from what I can tell), so I'm guessing not many people have read it yet. Looks pretty interesting - has a fantasy feeling to it. Anyways, here's the description;

Tarou was an ordinary universary student until a strange old magician summoned him to another world, upon learning that his magical power is 8 million, he uses that abnormally powerful magic to revive the old man that caused all this... In the form of a frog. Thus begin the strange adventures of a boy with ridiculous magical power and Kawazu, the former strongest magician, now revived as a frog.

Chapter 1 Review

The Artwork
Right off the bat, you can see that the artwork in this manga will be simple. I'm not really surprised, as most comedy mangas don't focus much on the quality of the art. The laughs make up for it, I guess. What annoys me about it, though, is we're lucky to get one character with any sort of detail in a panel - everything else is as simple as can be. I know a lot of the background stuff isn't "important" to the story, but if I just wanted story I would be reading a book.

The Protagonist
I got the impression that Tarou is your average, ever-day slacked college student, just barely getting by in his studies. At this point, I could be wrong. Anyways, apparently Tarou is the best possible successor to the old wizards magic. Not for any particular reason - he just is. He's quicky resistent to the old mans tale - immediately asking to go back, shrugging of whatever he says. This is kinda annoying - I mean, if he acts like that in what he thinks is a dream, how is he in real life? Of course, we find that out later on in the chapter.

Well, despite being a degenerate, Tarou seems to be taking his new role as super-wizard extraordinaire in stride. That's one plus for him, I suppose - he hasn't lost his head in a crisis.  Oh, and he's apparently eight-million times stronger (in terms of magic) than the old wizard.


Other Characters

Other than Tarou, the old wizard is the only other character in this chapter. The old wizard, who comes back as a frog-man, has about the same personality as Tarou. Because of this, they have a lot of back-and-forth banter. It's a bit funny, but it only got a few chuckles from me.

Story
First off, I have a basic complaint. I find it really annoying how often "a certain" is used in manga/anime. "A certain" kingdom, "A certain" person, etc... I know the "a certain" part is a product of translation, but the concept is brought over from the original. I hate how often that is used as an excuse to be lazy with certain plot elements. Especially in this manga where we'll end up (at least I'm guessing) running into that "a certain" kingdom and get to know it by name.

ANYWAYS!

The story is pretty simple yet interesting. An old, powerful, 500 year old magician casts a final spell that allows him to pull the person within the multi-verse with the most magical potential into his world. This happens to be Tarou, our protagonist (whom you are familiar with). The first chapter is used to explain the basics of this worlds magic system, as well as the seven starting spells that Tarou is given from the old man. Speaking of that, we aren't given the old mans name in the first chapter. I'm not sure why, but then again I guess it isn't important - I think the author wanted us to feel like it was a throw-away character, but then again it could just be that he was to lazy to write it in. Or maybe he/she thought the manga would become to serious if he gave much detail in a single chapter? Dunno.

As the tags/labels suggest, this is a combination comedy/mystery/supernatural manga. So there is a lot of small gags. Nothing big - it's definitely not a gag manga. It's a nice balance (at least so far) of humor and seriousness. But, like I said, most of the jokes only got a few chuckles out of me.

The chapter ends with Tarou using his super-mega-uber-powerful magic to bring the old wizard back to life - with a unique vessel. There's a conversation where Tarou explains how he could do something that requires so much power such as reviving someone. The wizard insinuates that doing such a feat would require a ton of sacrifices. I found that a bit funny but, again, not so much. The last panel of the chapter shows the old wizard looking into a mirror and being shocked by his new frog-man body.


Conclusion
I find the concept of Ore to Kawazu-san (don't want to type out the whole thing... you know what I'm talking about by now) quite interesting. It's kind of in the same boat as The Gamer and World Customize Creator - normal people being thrown into a situation where they're given interesting powers. Though I suppose it's closer to World Customize Creator (god-like powers, thrown into a different universe/world). The art was simple to the point that I was slightly annoyed, but it wasn't enough to keep me from enjoying the manga. Tarou and the old wizards (he still needs a name) personalities make for some fun back-and-forth banter, too. Overall, this first chapter was nice and I look forward to continuing the series.