Modern day magician on the left and a beautiful other world mage on the right.
"… This too? This world is really that far behind? Are we seriously not finished treading backwards with this world's magic?"
— Suimei
The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind! is a Japanese web/light novel written by Gamel Hitsuji. The novel was adapted into a manga drawn by Comta and published by Overlap. The light novel is illustrated by Himesuz to NEKONABE Ao (from v7) and published by Overlap with 8 volumes and ongoing. Both the manga and the light novel are being officially translated and published by J-Novel Club.
Felmenia Stingray was a genius magician. She quickly became the most distinguished magician of the Astel Kingdom after her discovery of white fire magic, which had the power to burn anything.
However, the world is in peril due to the Demon King. The kingdom's court magicians perform a summoning ritual for heroes and bring forth a hero and two youths, a boy and a girl. Unlike the girl, the young man refused to fight the Demon King alongside the Hero and demanded to be sent back to his world. The kingdom, angry with his behavior, locked him away.
Now Felmenia stands before the same young man with her strongest magic, the white flame, being completely useless, and asks who he is. It was already obvious to her that this man was far stronger than she was. To this, he simply responds, "Yakagi Suimei, a magician."
Has a manga adaptation.
Beware of unmarked spoilers!!!
The Magic in this Other World is Too Far Behind! contains examples of:
- Baby Morph Episode: Lefille has this all the time whenever she depletes her magic.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: At first with 2 boys and 1 girl.
- Beauty - Mizuki being the one girl of the group.
- Brains - Suimei would be the smartest and most cunning of the group as well as being a knowledgeable magician.
- Brawn - Reiji would run headlong into danger without any fear.
- Bullying a Dragon: Having a traditional magician against a modern magician is like pitting a mouse to fight a cat.
- Chick Magnet: Both Suimei and his friend attracted a lot of girls. Suimei has four while his friend has three, though Reiji notes that this isn't anything unusual for Suimei, as he has foreign female friends (and fellow magicians) visiting him from time to time.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Both of them are unaware of the affections of the girls that they are attracting.
- The Chosen One: Shana Reiji and others who were also summoned into other kingdoms.
- Chuunibyou: Mizuki used to be before the start of the entire series, though apparently a spirit that is possessing her has now manifested into her chuuni personality as Io Kuzami.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Suimei and Lefille defeat two Adventurers to pass as Adventurers.
- Drama-Preserving Handicap: Suimei, during his duel against Graziella, was previously injured during his attempt to save Lilianna, so he was having trouble keeping up that he nearly unleashed a spell that would have wiped off the area just to win; he notes that he wouldn't have had as much of a trouble had he been at his full strength.
- Suimei's magicka isn't as strong as it could be, due to being in another world. This usually isn't a problem aside from being a mere annoyance on his part due to being way beyond what most people living in that world are, but the moment magicians from his world start to show up, he is understandably helpless.
- Hero of Another Story: This particular light novel centers on the person who more-or-less looks like The Rival to The Hero and centers on this person's exploits.
- Elemental Powers: How most magic is used in the other world.
- Blow You Away: Wind Magic.
- Casting a Shadow: Darkness Magic.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Earth magic.
- Making a Splash: Water Magic.
- Playing with Fire: Fire Magic.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: A magician rival to Felmenia summons a Demon to take care of Suimei and Felmenia, but, to his dismay, cannot control it as Suimei explains that this Demon is not alive and thus, cannot be controlled.
- Freudian Trio: At first with Suimei, Reiji, and Mizuki.
- Id: Reiji, being the typical hero who acts first before thinking.
- Superego: Suimei, trained as an elite magician since childhood with the results of him being mostly calm, intelligent, cunning, logical,and pragmatic.
- Ego: Mizuki, being somewhat of the balance of the two where she is almost as emotional as Reiji and would kind of think things through like Suimei.
- Magikarp Power: Out of the heroes summoned, Reiji is the only one of the group who was a normal person before he was summoned. To compensate for this, the goddess noticeably gives him far more favor and a stronger blessing compared to the others. It's to such an extent that even Suimei complains about how unfair it is more than once. As he is able to rack up power and experience at an incredibly frightening rate, even when compared to magicians from earth. In only a few months, he is able to reach the level of power one would expect from a magician from earth with years of training.
- And even more so, when it's later discovered that a previous hero from earth was summoned. And the weapon that the said hero left behind was a sword that was essentially a Superweapon even by Earth's standards. Many had tried to claim that weapon and all had failed. Reiji was the first to succeed in using it. Suimei once again expresses disbelief when he sees Reiji using it in action.
- Nerds Are Sexy: Felmenia fell smitten with Suimei realizing how much power and skill he possesses.
- Our Mages Are Different: Modern-day mages compared to the other world mages.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The King is kind to his people and inquires Suimei first rather than accusing him for what happened to Felmenia.
- Shaming the Mob: After the Adventurers exile Lefille, Suimei abandons them to follow her.
- Summon Everyman Hero: Is how this novel began but with a twist of where 2 bystanders accompanied the hero with one of them being a powerful magician and that there are other people being summoned as heroes in different kingdoms.
- Took a Level in Badass: Reiji and Mizuki learned magic upon being summoned to the other world, allowing them to fight against other magical beings. In Suimei's case, his was more of a Nerf, as his Magicka isn't as potent as it could be in the other world. The moment he got back to Earth, he shows exactly why he's a high grand-class magician.
- Unreliable Narrator: Suimei could be this at times. He claims to be of a lower-middle as a magician in his own world, which is the truth. That is until you figure out the fact that he's comparing himself to his own father, a Greed of Ten, and other really powerful magicians, so his self-assessment is heavily skewed. Lefille was not amused when she found out.
- This was due to Suimei's father not wanting him to grow up to be conceited, which is why he drilled it out of Suimei's system. This caused Suimei to think he was a weak magician and had a lack of confidence in himself that caused his father's death. He's a bit better a few years later, but he still has a tendency to downplay his actual strength.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Suimei is understandably pissed about being kidnapped to another world for the express purpose of solving someone else's problems, and is quite vocal about it.
- Mage Hunt: Suimei has been hiding his status as a magician out of fear of being hunted down and getting his closest friends in danger.
- Wrong Context Magic: Everyone in the other world mostly use elemental magic, however Suimei uses his own world's magic which is heavily focused on spirituality and religion (i.e. Kabbalah magic) as well as being far superior with the other world's people believing it to be impossible.
