is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Haro Aso. It was serialized in Shogakukan's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday from December 2007 to December 2008, and later in Club Sunday website from December 2008 to July 2009. Its chapters were collected in seven tankōbon volumes. In North America, the series was licensed for English release by Viz Media, who serialized it online at ShonenSunday.com and later released its volumes in print.
Plot
13-year-old Shunpei Closer is viewed as a weak and timid teenager. His grandfather, Alsyd Closer, was a magician, the "Sorcerer King." Alsyd would travel around the world constantly, only stopping in Japan every now and then to tell tales of his journeys to Shunpei. Before leaving to Africa on Shunpei's 7th birthday, Alsyd gave Shunpei a teddy bear named Hyde. Shunpei quickly grows attached to Hyde, stating it was his best friend. Six years have passed, and Shunpei comes home one day, only to receive a package that had a stuffed animal in it. Soon, Shunpei is attacked by the toy, and is almost killed. But before getting killed, Shunpei is cornered into his room, and as the toy was about to strike, Hyde comes to life, and protects Shunpei against the toy. Shunpei is frightened of the fact that Hyde came to life at first, but Hyde quickly calms him down and explains how Shunpei is the number one target of every magician in the world. At this moment, the stuffed animal from earlier is still alive, and ruthlessly attacks Hyde with knives and forks. Hyde is at a disadvantage because his only weapon is in his back, and he can not reach it himself, meaning he needs Shunpei to do it for him. Shunpei struggles to get away from the fight, but he remembers how he was treated at school, and calls himself "pathetic". Summoning up his courage, Shunpei returns to the fight, and brings out the Texas Chainsaw within Hyde. With this new weapon, the stuffed animal is easily destroyed. With the duo finishing up their first battle of many to come, Shunpei learns more about his grandfather than he could have possibly dared, and to overcome the coward that he and everyone else thought he was. Shunpei eventually meets more allies and learns about "The Six", a group of sorcerers who are after him, and "The Watcher in the Window", a mysterious magic user. Shunpei also learns more about his family history with magic and what truly happened to his grandfather.
Characters
Main characters
A timid 13-year-old boy, Shunpei has spiky black hair and blue eyes. He wears a necklace that holds what seems to be a half light blue, half dark blue Magatama. Everyday Shunpei is harshly looked down upon by his classmates, as he is seen as being plain and is constantly messing things up. In chapter 2, Shunpei uses magic for the first time and in chapter 3, he is told by Hyde that he needs to learn more about magic because protecting Shunpei whilst also fighting enemies is very hard. Shunpei, at first, strongly believes that he cannot do anything, but when Hyde comes into his life and corrects him, Shunpei begins to think otherwise. Hyde later states in chapter 4 that Shunpei's a lot more potential in him then he realizes and can become an extremely strong magician; if he did not, he would've stopped hanging around Shunpei a long time ago. In later chapters, Shunpei shows his bravery in battles against other magic-users, for instance: In chapter 11, Shunpei and Uryuu had to use umbrellas to block the light from some overhead lights to help give Hyde the advantage in his battle against a Shadow user, but the last light was too far to be able to hang an umbrella over it. However, seeing Hyde on the ropes and close to dying, Shunpei gathered up his courage and jumped to the final headlight, successfully blocking it and leaving Hyde free to finish off his opponent. Another example of Shunpei's growth since Hyde entered his life was in chapter 21, where he was determined to control a magic item he has received; despite fighting against a physically superior opponent and Hyde's attempts to help, Shunpei asked to fight alone and eventually he managed to master the item and use it to win the battle.