2023-04-16 10:59:30
Magda, intergalactic cook
by Mathilde Van Gheluwe (drawing) and Nicolas Wouters (script)
Sarbacane, two volumes, €21 each, from 9 years old
How long has it been since we had so much fun reading a children’s comic book? To forget the passage of time, to get lost in the contemplation of certain ornate plates, to smile at its tasty adventures… The first two volumes of Magda, intergalactic cook whet the reader’s appetite by offering endearing characters, exotic settings and enticing twists. All set in a sci-fi setting familiar to all fans of another famous interstellar trilogy.
In a galaxy far, far away, therefore, children oppose each other in single combat during the big tournament of the best cordon bleu under 13 years old. Magda, from the planet Azuki, has won her place in this “Top Chef” competition, whose tests broadcast across the universe are doubling in difficulty. The young candidates sometimes have to cook on the ground exotic ingredients unearthed in luxuriant forests: zebulon aubergines, apple blossoms and other “religious caimante” eggs…
The show is there, the budding chefs playing with knives like the samurai with sabers, these culinary jousts being staged like the fights of a Dragon Ball. In an explosive mixture, the graphic style of Mathilde Van Gheluwe also resembles the round and candid outline of Mimi Cracra immersed in the abundance of shonen mangaa kind of initiatory stories with lively features and dynamic framing.
Breathtaking plot
Like the colorful characters of these Japanese comics, Magda is a heroine with a strong character inherited from her grandmother, a touchy idealist who has already participated in the competition in circumstances that are still murky at this stage of the story. .
It is impossible not to think of the young girls with tormented destinies in the eco-humanist animated films of Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke or Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind). Because, the gastronomic competition hides another, whose stake is much more strategic: the control of the natural resources of the participating planets by the Imperium, the organizing power of the tournament.
A political statement skilfully distilled by Nicolas Wouters without being hammered, over a breathless intrigue. What to make salivate while waiting for the third and last volume. A dessert that we are waiting for, with shining eyes and water in the mouth…
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