"The Light Conjurer" follows Rubin, an aspiring conjurer who hopes to defeat a dragon but lacks the skill to do so, accidentally summoning a young prince in an adventure gone wrong. The prince, upon hearing Rubin's goal, leads him to a dangerous castle where a dragon lives. The characters are cute and silly, and the first adventure ended pretty quickly, letting us learn more about the kingdom along the way. The character art is really good while the story didn't interest me as much, but I am looking forward to reading volume 2.

This is the second book by Gene that I have read, and his artwork never ceases to amaze me. He is a talented illustrator.
The book was a bit of a slow build, but overall I think it was a good book.
Can't wait to read more by this author.

The Light Conjurer had a whimsical nature to it which the art really fit. A little simple in nature, the expressions of the characters were perfect and really helped bring them to life.

I must say this one really took a while to get into. It is a slow build to get a feel of where the story is going. This volume doesn't seem to find it's footing until the last few pages and make a trope known that really helped with the overall comfort of the story line.

It really ends on a cliffhanger that did make me curious to see where the rest of this story was going to go, but with the rest of this volume, I'm not sure that it grabbed my interest enough to go out of my way to find the next volume.

The Light Conjurer by Gene is a lighthearted, comedic Western-style fantasy BL manga. This first volume sets the scene for the series and introduces the major characters (thus far): Robin, the protagonist, who dreams of becoming a powerful conjurer to make his father proud; Kyle, a summoned child prince, with hidden depths and surprising strength; and Boa, a skilled apothecary with a quirky (read: chaotic neutral) personality. This is a good series for adventure/comedy lovers, with similar vibes to Delicious in Dungeon, but with less serious drama and no recipes.

The plot is a bit tropey, with a "bumbling fool/charismatic hidden depths" pairing. Much of the comedy follows Robin as he struggles to level up his skill ranking, and his magic constantly goes unpredictably awry. It is fast-paced and suited for a reader who wants something purely light and entertaining (a beach read manga). There is some drama, but low stakes. Unfortunately, it is a BL that falls into some of the pitfalls of the genre (cross-dressing as a joke, heteronormativity, etc.). Though Taiwan (the series' place of origin) has legalized same-sex marriage, true acceptance and the transition of accurate representation in the media remains a slow process. Still, as an entertainment series, I would be interested to see how this series develops. Volume 1 is early yet, so there is room to grow in the future. Here's to Volume 2!

The things I did like about this story were Robin’s dad, Robin’s friend Boa, and the silly, creative creatures that were introduced. What I did not really like about this story was Robin himself and Kyle, who are the main characters. That made it difficult to get into the story. Also, I know that Kyle is actually older than Robin in reality, but I was really put off by panel of Robin and Kyle kissing while Kyle was still age regressed. No matter how old the character really is, watching a 17 year old share a kiss with someone who’s in the body of a young child is not my thing!

Fun and entertaining ✨️ I would say that the storytelling is pretty good, it was engrossing to me. I wish it was just much more longer.

I really wanted to love this book, but struggled getting into it. The fight scenes are a little confusing, but as the story goes on you learn more and more. It does start to come together at the end. The world building is very intense. There is an age gap romance and I always struggle to be ok with those. I am curious to see where this is going especially after the cliffhanger ending.

3 stars

I wasn't personally a fan of this manga. It had a comedic tone which is not to my taste. I found the writing or translations to be clunky. The dialogue seemed random and off-topic at times and left me confused about who was who and what was going on. It felt like stepping into the second book in a series because there was a lot that had happened off-page already when you begin reading. I did like the character art, but the backgrounds were lackluster. I did enjoy the plot twist at the end but on the whole this isn't a series I would continue to follow.

This was another solid read by Gene for me! I recently had the chance to read & review their other YUZU published manga, "Loving You When the World Ended," and really enjoyed that story as well. Both manga captured a great balance of humor and heart, in my opinion. By that, I mean for all the hilarious comedic relief moments of this book (usually poking fun at Robin's *lack of* magical abilities), there were also some really relatable, sweet moments between the main characters. I think maybe this is more of a trust-the-process read than "Loving You When the World Ended" only because I had some reservations about some things that are set up early in the volume, but thankfully they resolved themselves in a good way for me by the last page.

I was definitely delightfully surprised by this manga! It took me a second to get hooked on the story; but once I was, I really grew to love our main MCs and their journey. Would definitely recommend for fans of magic/fantasy manga and especially so if you're looking for a cute BL storyline to boot.

Thank you to NetGalley, Media Do International & YUZU Comics for sending me an e-ARC of this manga.

A very cute fantasy manga!!! It is definitely a coming of age story with adventure, hijinks, and some romance thrown in there as well!

Personally this one was just ok. I felt confused at times and just generally found the pacing to be a bit weird. Very much a me thing though, I imagine lots of people will love this.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review!
This book was so cute! A struggling conjurer accidentally summons a prince and the adventure gets crazier from there! The characters are interesting and it was a very good start to the story!

Thank you so much for letting me read this manga. I liked this story. The characters are fun and loveable and the magic system is very cool.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review.

This book had a very interesting concept and world building that was easy to follow along. Great start and set-up…. then didn’t quite go anywhere. I definitely wanted more. More action, more details, more character building. The author led us to a battle and within the turn of the page- it was over and we were moving on with the story. By the end, I was disappointed to have the main character already at their goal…

Summary:

Robin is a summoner with a problem. That problem? Well...let's just say that Robin isn't exactly a good summoner. That probably explains how he accidentally summoned a prince...who drags him off to a castle, complete with a dragon.

Review:

I'm unsure what to make of The Light Conjurer Vol. 1; I'm not even sure where to start my review. Hrm. Okay! Let's start with the fact that we should have been given more time to know the characters.

Primarily, I mean we needed to know more about them – including one specific curse. On the surface, The Light Conjurer Vol. 1 looks super creepy. We have two characters, one of whom appears to be a literal child. It's only toward the end that we learn that it isn't what it looks like. But learning that up front would have been...better.

Knowing that now, I can look back and see how people might enjoy this story. It has the potential for a BL romance. Combine that with the fantasy and curse elements, and there is an interesting core concept to play around with.

Highlights:
Manga/Manhua
Fantasy
Comedy

Trigger Warnings:
Apparently Age Issues

Will I continue the series? Probably not?

Thank you NetGalley for gifting me this eArc in exchange for an open and honest review.

I really liked this story. It was definitely silly with the overly confident MC that couldn’t conjure anything correctly to save his life, and the kids that definitely felt like something was off. Even though the dragon didn’t play the biggest role I really enjoyed it, especially the later half of it’s appearance!

I really appreciated that Robins dad was actually a good dad. I hate when MCs parents are trash, even if it makes for a decent backstory. I’m intrigued to learn more about Kyle, and Boa was absolutely hilarious!

Will definitely be looking out for the next volume!

...Interesting?

Not sure what to think about this one. The art was cute, the story was strange. I would have liked to know the little boy was going to become a man beforehand, because it seemed strange for the two of them to get to know each other with him as a child and then to become the love interest?

I can only assume I’m not the right audience for this. I’ve read some manga, and I prefer the historical over this. There was a lot of info-dumping in the beginning, rather than a smooth world building. Robin was unbearable. I didn’t connect with the characters or the story.

I thought it was a good volume, but I did have to speed through a couple of parts. I think the ending for the volume was surprising but in hindsight, I should've seen it coming. Overall, I'm interested to see how the relationship develops between the two main characters. I also like the backstory of the main character and how they view their father.

This was honestly a very cute story. The main character, Rubin, is pretty annoying as a character for the most part. But by the end, you get to see why he acts in such an irritating way. It doesn't make him any less irritating, but at least it's something that makes sense. This works as a cute stand-alone graphic novel, but I'm perplexed how they will turn this into a series. The way it ends makes it appear to be the end of the story. I doubt I'll seek out a second volume, cause while this was pretty cute, it didn't do much for me. The art, as always with this author, was wonderful.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!