It’s time for a magic manga that sure ended fast. Oneshots are always interesting to read through and then see afterwards if it could have worked as a long ongoing. In this title’s case, it might have been for the best that it ended. It does seem like there is more they could have done but the premise/battle system itself seems like it really limits the series. It’s an interesting angle to choose but at the same time you would have to either throw out a lot of the concepts early on or find a convenient way around them.

The series introduces us to a world of magic where people train in the ways of sorcery. The main character is named Kokuyo and unfortunately he is unable to use magic easily. He has to have a stone with him at all times to use even the most basic of spells. As a result he tends to act out a lot and doesn’t take things seriously. He’s starting off with a disadvantage so why even bother getting past it right? Well another student named Harika isn’t a complete quitter and so she has actually developed some pretty good skills herself. She is ready for the big exam coming up and now Kokuyo has to try hard because he doesn’t want to lose to her. Will he be able to clear this exam or is it all over?

So lets talk about this power system real quick. Everyone has Yin and Yang energy. Aside from the main two, most people can use these energies but only one at a time. So you want to team up with others or just be ready for very long fights. You can use a stone to help you but that seems to be something for the commoners. Kokuyo has a sword which is cool and I think more people should use one since it can actually injure the monsters. Well, by the end of the series it seems like the main two might actually be prodigies who can use both types of energy when they are together. I assume this would be happening a lot going forward. So what are my problems with this?

The whole Yin vs Yang energy is something that has been done better in many other settings. The fact that you have to keep alternating looks super annoying. My main evidence is how even the teachers were taking some time to beat a basic monster. It feels like the power ceiling would be quite low in this series. Kokuyo and Harika may be able to break through that but then you will have everyone wondering why people in universe aren’t more familiar with sharing energy. Why are these two so special?

With a long enough series you can go into that or have people admit they were holding back. Either way that’s just something that is a lot cleaner to fix on the front-end than doing so retroactively. I am judging a whole lot from one volume so I acknowledge that it is possible the author could have won me over with some more time. That just wasn’t the case as this is a one shot so you don’t always get the second chance like that.

As for the characters, the cast was fairly small for now. You have the teacher Sekiei who is always panicking and making a big deal out of everything. He’s okay but not a very interesting kind of character. You know he can fight but that’s about it and I have doubts on just how well he can battle. I wasn’t buying his hype. We have Nekome who is a fairly good student that doesn’t like Kokuyo at all. It doesn’t help that he likes Harika and has to really do a lot to get her attention at all.

It’s a weak romance at best though. If Nekome really liked Harika, you’d think he would be a lot nicer than he is. He’s still big on making fun of Kokuyo for needing the orb when the same is true for her so naturally that gets him into some real trouble there. I was glad to have a rival character of sorts though, that always does a lot to make things interesting and pick up the pacing. Now the battles are automatically more personal by a fairly high degree.

I ended up liking Harika quite a bit more than Kokuyo. Like I mentioned earlier, she didn’t use her circumstances as an excuse. Instead she jumped right into the action and that’s absolutely what you want to see from a character. She just kept on training and fighting to the point where she cold hold her own and pull off any of the normal foes. It’ll probably still take a whole ton of effort to ever be one of the strongest but at least she has not given up on that ambition.

So while I may not be thrilled at some of the rules of the verse, the series was off to a good start here. You had action, a reasonably solid main duo once the main guy starts to shape up and of course you can do a lot with magic. Just keep on throwing in more monsters and you could last for a whole while on that. No ready to jump straight into the big action arc too soon after all, have some good training arcs to build things up and the school setting can be really fun. Just look at Black Clover or Wistoria. There is always an audience for this if it’s executed well.

Meanwhile the art is good. I won’t say that it’s great yet but it is easy to follow along and the character designs are good. The fights we get are fun as well so I definitely don’t have any problems on that front. At least I know if it were to transition into a complete action title played 100% seriously, the art would be ready for it.

Overall, Haridama is a manga that has a very simple/traditional plot and just covers it up with some unique layers. If this became an ongoing I would completely ditch the yin and yang stuff though. You could still have the main two need stones to use magic but in this case it would be more classic. Without the stone they can’t use any magic which is why everyone makes fun of them. Just like that, you’ve got yourself a pretty reasonable series. As a proof of concept, it was fun to check this out and I would recommend reading through it. Again, part of the fun is sort of analyzing why a series didn’t hit big or if it made sense to be a oneshot. In this case it did make sense being a oneshot as it did have some threads to iron out.

Overall 6/10