I adore this whole series. I found Kao through his adorable autobiographical webcomic Mondo Mango. This series is such a fantastic magical person story. I'm really glad that Kao included some notes at the start of the volume about the challenges that Max faces in this book. Max's mother is really awful to her transgender son, Max and parts of it are painful to read. But, according to the experiences of many trans folks that I know, it can be fairly accurate.

Magical Boy puts a lovely queer spin on the traditional chosen-one, save the world storyline. It's awesome to watch Max and his friends grow and face their challenges while supporting each other.

Also the art style is just adorable and I love the talking cat companion, Walnut. All thumbs up!