The end of volume 2 brought total despair for Jahy. Out of everyone, the last person she would’ve ever wanted to show up to her cheap apartment would be the Magical Girl. But bad news, she is there, and with her lack of power, Jahy is totally screwed. She soon realizes that it’s over — no more mana crystal, no more reviving the Dark Realm, the works. But at the last moment, who would come out of nowhere to save her and call the cops?
The landlord. Yep, her new nemesis in the human realm would show up to save her!
The Great Jahy Will Not be Defeated! volume 3 builds on what we, the audience, have known since maybe chapter 1: Jahy can be defeated in numerous ways due to her ego. We all know she’s powerless, but she has not accepted she’s in a bad state, enough to where even humans can beat her…so there’s no way she can actually face the person who personally ended the Dark Realm. Her being saved due to the Magical Girl’s personality (much more on that later) and her landlord ends up serving as her wake up call. She tries to avoid reality as long as she can, but the more she thinks people are gonna say “Magical Girl” instead of them actually saying something else, she finally comes to terms that she stands no chance.
And does a very human thing: sobs about it after drinking heavily.
I will have to admit though: Jahy and her landlord getting drunk at the Boss’ pub is just merely ok compared to how it went in the anime. Overall, it was tough to animate everything well but I was in stitches for this particular part in the anime. In manga form, it’s just not the same…maybe I would’ve thought differently if it was the reverse! But in either case, you find Jahy down in the dumps and she gets a sympathetic Landlord on her side! Maybe this will be the wake-up call that gets Jahy to–
*she wakes up the next day sober and angry*
Ok, not there yet…understood!
This isn’t to say it doesn’t weigh on her, but she’s still looks down on everyone else. That said, there are some small attempts of her changing. In one chapter, while looking for mana crystals, she unexpectedly befriends a kind human girl, which ends up warming her stubborn demon heart. And in another chapter Jahy ends up getting Saurva back on her feet with encouraging words, of course not knowing Saurva is dead set on actually defeating Jahy. There are lessons she’s learning, and one day she’ll take the next step of actually admitting her terrible state in terms of power and living situation, and the Dark Realm will be revived faster.
Well, I can imagine it at least. While it does end in some misery, the worst thing that could’ve happened to Jahy is her accidentally running into the Magical Girl again (this time in human form!), which she does in this volume. What she ends up finding out that yeah, the Magical Girl is strong. What we, as the readers, find out, is the Magical Girl’s strong and an airhead. Her past will get explained later in the series, but for now she seems determined to find all the mana crystals despite the curses they bring, and she’s up to survive any and all attempts on her life. This can range from getting hit by a car, to a flower pot following on her head, to various items (washing machine, microwave, a table) somehow all conveniently falling off a building at the same and submerging her in the pavement.
So basically, Jahy meets the Magical Girl twice. After she survives both attempts, she gets totally spooked. But as the volume goes on, she still ends up being the same Jahy as before. Maybe the Magical Girl needs to have better priorities! In any case, while there was some advancement of the story, we still have the usual one-off chapters, Konbu’s art, and more pain for Jahy in store for her. Let’s just say she’ll need a bit more luck moving forward…