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Destroy All Humans. They Can’t Be Regenerated. A Magic: The Gathering Manga, Vol. 3: Limited edition Magic: The Gathering card included in first printing!
As their 1998 summer vacation comes to an end, the release of The Gathering’s new expansion, Urza’s Saga, garners excitement from Hajime and the other players. Amidst the hype, Hajime runs into a mysterious yet somewhat familiar girl during an autumn field trip. Who is this girl and what does she have to do with the game?!
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Published April 8, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 20, 2025
I’m not going to pretend that I won’t overuse the word magic in this review, so you may as well batten down the hatches while I get into the particulars.
Honestly, my general feeling is that some of the magic went out of this volume because it didn’t do enough with Magic(tm). They play a bunch of it, but the bloom is off that rose a smidgen. I have been okay with our slow burning romance, but it contorts itself in some unpalatable ways this time too.
One thing I will credit is that it does manage to use the history of Magic to make for a few matches that are very comparable to any battling anime/manga on the market. When one unbeatable deck hits the tournament scene, it’s historically accurate and based on reality, which I appreciate.
Yakumo shows up and her rival status is confirmed and that, at least, is not a bad choice. She and Hajime are basically identical in terms of their personalities and they end up on a non-date that would make them a good couple except that isn’t where Hajime’s heart lies.
Amidst this, Emi is suddenly being pursued by Hajime’s friend, Kurushima, who decides to take on his best friend over a girl. Which is a heck of a swerve since we never really see them interact and there’s no hint that Emi and Kurushima have much chemistry to speak of. And here’s where things start to kind of hit the skids.
Kurushima is basically an ass and he ends up bringing the absolute worst in Hajime. The ending of this volume is meant to be a dramatic battle between two rivals, but it’s also an overt display of male chauvinism that reduces Emi to a prize for these guys to fight over without considering her.
Look, I want it to be set in 1998, not written like it’s 1998.
Emi is, I have come to realize, a Magic pixie dream girl, who is the beautiful and talented girl who loves a nerd hobby and becomes romantically interested in our male lead. While this annoys me a little, I do also think that Hajime and Emi ending up being pretty good together when he’s not being a chump.
I promise that this is not a knee-jerk reaction to the story largely glossing over the release of Mirage, which was the expansion that made up the bulk of my time with the series.
There are just issues here that make this feel a little less fun than it previously was. For something that was already a very acquired sort of taste to begin with, that does slim it to a more narrow focus.
When it does what it does well, it’s actually got some juice. Emi is obsessed with the end of the world and various prophecies thereof, which drives her in a ‘life’s too short’ sort of way. The scene with her and Hajime in the grass is top tier.
It was a real balancing act between the various facets of this story, I now realize, and they tumble out of whack this time around. I’m not especially hopeful about next time either, but I’ll come back because it’s still neat enough to see something I’m familiar with in a manga and the main pairing has legs when the cruft is wiped away.
3 stars - I mean, I still enjoy the late-90’s nostalgia, and there are some good moments amidst an unsurprising narrative too. But it loses the novelty of the game and leans into a rivalry that diminishes Emi, which turns out to be, unsurprisingly, not much of a replacement.
Honestly, my general feeling is that some of the magic went out of this volume because it didn’t do enough with Magic(tm). They play a bunch of it, but the bloom is off that rose a smidgen. I have been okay with our slow burning romance, but it contorts itself in some unpalatable ways this time too.
One thing I will credit is that it does manage to use the history of Magic to make for a few matches that are very comparable to any battling anime/manga on the market. When one unbeatable deck hits the tournament scene, it’s historically accurate and based on reality, which I appreciate.
Yakumo shows up and her rival status is confirmed and that, at least, is not a bad choice. She and Hajime are basically identical in terms of their personalities and they end up on a non-date that would make them a good couple except that isn’t where Hajime’s heart lies.
Amidst this, Emi is suddenly being pursued by Hajime’s friend, Kurushima, who decides to take on his best friend over a girl. Which is a heck of a swerve since we never really see them interact and there’s no hint that Emi and Kurushima have much chemistry to speak of. And here’s where things start to kind of hit the skids.
Kurushima is basically an ass and he ends up bringing the absolute worst in Hajime. The ending of this volume is meant to be a dramatic battle between two rivals, but it’s also an overt display of male chauvinism that reduces Emi to a prize for these guys to fight over without considering her.
Look, I want it to be set in 1998, not written like it’s 1998.
Emi is, I have come to realize, a Magic pixie dream girl, who is the beautiful and talented girl who loves a nerd hobby and becomes romantically interested in our male lead. While this annoys me a little, I do also think that Hajime and Emi ending up being pretty good together when he’s not being a chump.
I promise that this is not a knee-jerk reaction to the story largely glossing over the release of Mirage, which was the expansion that made up the bulk of my time with the series.
There are just issues here that make this feel a little less fun than it previously was. For something that was already a very acquired sort of taste to begin with, that does slim it to a more narrow focus.
When it does what it does well, it’s actually got some juice. Emi is obsessed with the end of the world and various prophecies thereof, which drives her in a ‘life’s too short’ sort of way. The scene with her and Hajime in the grass is top tier.
It was a real balancing act between the various facets of this story, I now realize, and they tumble out of whack this time around. I’m not especially hopeful about next time either, but I’ll come back because it’s still neat enough to see something I’m familiar with in a manga and the main pairing has legs when the cruft is wiped away.
3 stars - I mean, I still enjoy the late-90’s nostalgia, and there are some good moments amidst an unsurprising narrative too. But it loses the novelty of the game and leans into a rivalry that diminishes Emi, which turns out to be, unsurprisingly, not much of a replacement.
April 17, 2025
Launch of Urza's Saga and relationships are defined and explored
April 16, 2025
Thank you to Netgalley and Viz Media for an advanced digital copy of Destroy All Humans: They Can't Be Regenerated Volume 3.
This has easily became one of my favorite series and one that I am constantly recommending. I'm happy to say that this volume is just as good as the first two volumes and I look forward to reading the rest of the series as it comes out.
In this volume we get to see the different relationships develop a little deeper and some more MTG matches. I will forever love the art style and showing the art work of the cards, it's as if the action of each card is coming to live.
Towards the end things are getting interesting as we have a showdown between to characters that each want to confess there love. I can't wait to read the next volume and see who wins the match.
This has easily became one of my favorite series and one that I am constantly recommending. I'm happy to say that this volume is just as good as the first two volumes and I look forward to reading the rest of the series as it comes out.
In this volume we get to see the different relationships develop a little deeper and some more MTG matches. I will forever love the art style and showing the art work of the cards, it's as if the action of each card is coming to live.
Towards the end things are getting interesting as we have a showdown between to characters that each want to confess there love. I can't wait to read the next volume and see who wins the match.
April 10, 2025
Kano and Sawatari are off and on in their strange relationship, but their love of M:TG keep them together. But when Sawatari sees Kano and Yakumo together on the field trip, she wonders what is going on. Then Kano is confronted by a strange guy who challenges him over Swatari. We will just have to wait until the next volume to see who wins that showdown. And what will Sawatari think of being the prize in this fight? Things are definitely getting interesting!
Thanks Netgalley and Viz Media for the chance to read this volume!
Thanks Netgalley and Viz Media for the chance to read this volume!
April 29, 2025
The love triangle begins in this one... and it's the exact middle school drama you would expect with kids obsessed with normal (non-Shadow Realm related) card games. Continues to be a fun ride with cheeky references here and there.
August 15, 2025
The love story becomes a love triangle, or maybe a love square! Are they going to conform to social expectations, or are Kano and Emi going to admit they have "more than friends" feelings for each other?
April 15, 2025
I can't wait for the next one to come out!
May 7, 2025
I love how very in-the-moment this series is in its setting. Old jokes and contemporary memes abound.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews