By: Latonya Pennington

The magical girl subgenre of Japanese anime and manga has captivated me ever since I saw Sailor Moon in the 90's. Now, some of the generation that grew up watching Sailor Moon has gone on to create their own magical girl inspired cartoons and comic books. One of the best works is Mildred Louis' webcomic and graphic novel Agents of The Realm.

Agents of The Realm begins with Silvermount University student Norah discovering a mysterious brooch. The next day, Norah is attacked by a monster after class and finds herself thrown into a conflict involving an ancient enemy, alternate universes, and the cycle of the Agents of The Realm. As her real-life collides with a magical destiny, Norah must make new friends, pass her classes, and become the leader she never knew she could be.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this comic is its modern and engaging take on elements from the magical girl genre. For example, Norah's outfit as an Agent pays homage to Sailor Moon while being practical. She has a skirt similar to what Sailor Moon's characters had, but she also has some protective armor too. The group dynamics of the main characters are also more realistic. Unlike how everyone was instantly friends on Sailor Moon, Norah's group of new friends have to put in the work to get along and learn to work together as a team.

Speaking of the characters, they are very diverse in terms of skin tone, ethnicities, body types, and orientation. It's awesome to see more than one dark-skinned Black young woman as the hero, multiple women of color as heroes, and multiple lesbian or bisexual women. Not to mention, all the main characters have their own personality quirks that make them relatable. Since I have social anxiety and I'm introverted, I really related to Norah and found it heartwarming to see her slowly come out of her shell.

In fact, the only issue I had with the characters is the lack of transgender, non-binary, or intersex heroes. I say heroes because one of the main antagonists uses they/them pronouns. It is bad enough that there aren't a lot of trans, non-binary, or intersex human characters in magical girl influenced works. To see a non-binary character as a villain and how they were presented was very disappointing.

Nonetheless, the characters are very well developed. There is an engaging backstory about the Agents of The Realm and how events from the past led to events from the present. Not to mention, the monster-fighting aspect of the contemporary Agents is balanced nicely with social aspects. Perhaps the best aspect of this is seeing all the main characters have a major payoff after doing some hanging out.

Since this is a comic book, I would be remiss if I didn't discuss the lettering, artwork, colors, and layout. As one person doing the work of an entire comic book team, Mildred Louis is amazing with integrating every element so that it flows seamlessly with the storyline. Every character has their own color-coded dialogue and the colors are both bright and earthy depending on where the story goes. When there are panels, whiteness creates an invisible border around them that is never distracting. There are some pages where the panels are designed to enhance the action.

All in all, Agents of The Realm Vol. 1 is one of the best contemporary magical girl comics out there. It's colorful, true to life, and just plain fun to read. I recommend it for anyone who loves Sailor Moon and wants a more modern iteration.

Agents of the Realm, Vol 1. by Mildred Louis.

2014. Sapphire Shard Press: 284 PAGES. PAPERBACK $ 30.00

Latonya Pennington is a prolific freelance pop culture critic and poet. They’ve written articles for places such as Gamercraft, Brian Mills Press, and Comics MNT. Their poetry has been published at The Asexual Journal, Color Bloq, and Fiyah Lit Magazine among others. You can follow them on Twitter @TonyaWithAPen.