Pandemonium: Wizard Village (2024)

Pandemonium: Wizard Village (Japanese: パンデモニウム -魔術師の村- Hepburn: Pandemonium - Majutsushi no Mura-) is a manga series written and illustrated by Shibamoto Sho. The manga follows Zipher, a man carrying a mysterious box. After collapsing from exhaustion, he is rescued by Domika who takes him to the nearby village. As Zipher recovers from his injuries in the eponymous Wizard Village, it becomes apparent that he and the village both hide some secrets.

Pandemonium: Wizard Village was written by Shibamoto Sho^[1] between 2013 and 2014.^[2] An official English translation of the first chapter was produced by Simona Stanzani on January 11, 2013 and was updated on the second Friday of every month simultaneously with the Japanese version available on Shogakkan Monthly IKKI's WEB Comic Series [WEB Ikipara COMIC].^[3] The serialization ended after a month long delay with the release of the final chapter on January 30th 2014.^[4]

Shogakukan's Monthly Ikki magazine suspended publication on 25 September 2014^[5], although the domain stayed in use for three more years^[6] before being taken down^[7] and eventually relaunched in early 2019.^[8] The uncertainty of the site's future prompted Shibamoto to upload the English translation of the series onto his Deviant Art page in 2015.^[9] As of 2021, Pandemonium: Wizard Village has been made made available in Japanese and French in the tankōbon format. An official Japanese Facebook page exists.

Development[]

Active development of Pandemonium: Wizard Village was announced in late 2012 after the idea for the series got picked up by Shogakkan Monthly IKKI's WEB Comic Series.^[10] Shibamoto Sho was given a tight publishing schedule, having to release chapters monthly. The deal with the magazine gave the series a year to conclude, which resulted in multiple planned plot points being compressed or cut out as the whole story had to fit into 12 chapters.^[11]

The first chapter of the manga was published on January 11th 2013.^[12] Pandemonium continued being updated monthly, usually on the second Friday of every month until January 31st 2014 when it finished its publication. An official English release was made by Simona Stanzani and was released each month simultaneously with the Japanese version.^[3] The extended 12th chapter featuring an epilogue was delayed from December 13th 2013 to January 30th 2014.^[13]

Following the successful run of the web manga, the Japanese version of Pandemonium: Wizard Village was published in two tankōbon volumes.^[14][15] Volume 1 was released on January 30th and volume 2 on February 28th 2014. Both were published by IKKI COMIX, an editorial branch of Shogakugan, the parent company of WEB Ikipara COMIC.^[16]

The French edition of Pandemonium: Wizard Village was released by Ki-oon, a French manga publisher. Just like the Japanese release, it was split into two volumes consisting of six chapters each. They were released on November 13th 2014 and March 26th 2015.^[17][18] The cover art for the French release removed the backgrounds seen on the Japanese volume covers and changed the title font while keeping the same character artwork. Prior to the release of the first volume, Ki-oon produced a short video trailer for the manga.^[19] The French pre-order version of the manga was bundled with a bonus file containing three unique artwork prints by Shibamoto Sho.^[20]

WEB Ikipara COMIC magazine was suspended on September 25th 2014.^[5] With its closing, the website hosting Pandemonium: Wizard Village went defunct making the English version of Pandemonium: Wizard Village inaccessible.^[21] This prompted Shibamoto Sho to personally upload the English version of the series onto his Deviant Art page starting with June 1st, 2015 and ending on May 31st, 2016.^[22] Due to his busy schedule, the gaps between chapter uploads widely fluctuated. Because of this Shibamoto Sho produced new Pandemonium: Wizard Village artwork to advertise whenever a new chapter was about to be uploaded.^[23] The English version uploaded on Deviant Art features the same translation work of Simona Stanzani, but the release is of higher resolution than the original web release .^[24][25]

Chapters and volumes[]

Main article: List of Pandemonium: Wizard Village chapters

Pandemonium: Wizard Village was serialized between 2013 and 2014 and consists of 12 main chapters in total. The series is available as both digital and physical releases. In Japan and France, Pandemonium: Wizard Village was published in two tankōbon volumes. In English, the series is available only as a free digital release. The number of chapters is identical in all three releases.

The tankōbon volumes come with a few extras. Volume 1 contains a few additional sketches by the author. Volume 2 contains a six-page prequel story. These extras are available in both the Japanese and French releases.

Characters[]

Main article: List of Pandemonium: Wizard Village characters

The main cast of Pandemonium: Wizard Village consists of a dozen named characters with direct impact on the plot. In addition to them, a large number of recurring background characters appear throughout the story. The vast majority of these characters are the people living in the titular Wizard Village or the members of a roaming mercenary band. A few recurring outsiders mostly appear in the epilogue.

Plot[]

The story of Pandemonium: Wizard Village starts with the protagonist Zipher carrying a heavy box as he traverses an unexplored and polluted mountainous region known as The Land of the Variants. He is driven forward by an obsession to find the secluded variant people, legends of whom tell of unmatched magical abilities which allow them to control even the terrifying Sky Golems. Zipher finds himself at his limit and collapses from exhaustion. Unconscious Zipher is found by a mysterious woman named Domika. She takes pity on him and carries Zipher to her village despite the protests of multiple distrustful residents. Regaining his consciousness after being brought to the village, Zipher is startled by the monstrous appearance of many villagers. Despite being initially startled, he quickly turns ecstatic, proclaiming that he found the “Variant Village” and immediately asks to see the village chief. Still weak from the journey, Zipher collapses once again.

As Zipher recovers, Domika is shown taking care of him. After waking up, he starts asking about the whereabouts of the box he carried with him. Having reassured Zipher that the box is safe, Domika inquires about the wider world beyond her isolated village. While Domika is preoccupied with village affairs, Zipher slips out of the house and causes a ruckus in the village. Finding himself in the center of attention, he takes out the equipment he traveled with and launches a fireworks display claiming it’s his way of expressing gratitude. With this performance Zipher succeeds at impressing some village residents, but also attracts the attention of the village chief Ainu. Not amused, the village chief demands to know the contents of Zipher’s mysterious box. Countering the chief’s question, Zipher implores him to use his special “village powers to bring his dead lover back to life.

While waiting for a response, Zipher recalls the legend surrounding the mysterious variant folk. In the civilized regions around the Land of the Variants legends of the supposed Wizard Village are abound. People talk of mysterious mutant folk who hoard supernatural powers, including the power of bringing the dead back to life. Village chief Ainu declines Zipher's request, dismissing it as impossible. Not taking no for an answer, Zipher doubles down with his request which culminates in a fight. Zipher is beaten back by Kayoh, the mayor’s assistant. Zipher explains that his beloved had lost her life during a Sky Golem attack, yet that he has preserved her in a special box as if she were still alive, waiting to be revived. Having only angered the village chief, Zipher has to back off and return to Domika’s residence. Reflecting upon the strange physical properties of the village folk and the mysterious tools they use in daily life, Zipher’s resolve is strengthened. He promises to himself that he'll stay in the village until the chief grants him his wish. Meanwhile, in the nearby mountains, a mysterious militia is shown searching for the village.

Buying himself some more time in the village under the guise of recovering his strength, Zipher makes some effort to get to know the village. He associates with a few of its denizens, including Domika, Molte and Brow. Due to his constant insistence on talking with the village chief again, Domika relents and sets up a second meeting between the two. Zipher is told by chief Ainu in no uncertain terms that villagers don’t have special powers, yet he remains unconvinced. Seeing the exchange, Molte taunts Zipher to kill her and sees if she'll revive. Zipher refuses. Later that night it’s shown that Zipher's fireworks displays are being used by the mysterious militia as a guide to the village.

A short interaction between the militia and a mysterious wandering mouse Beatha is shown. He identifies them as a special brigade that researches Straight Thunders, attacks done of the Sky Golems, and searches for a way to end them forever. Meanwhile in the village, the tensions between Zipher and residents rise. A few aggressive villagers point out that he was supposed to leave as soon as he recovers from his injuries, yet that he persists and disturbs peace with his fireworks. Later on, Zipher tells Domika about the love of his life and how they spent time together. His tale makes Domika break down in tears. Their interaction is interrupted by a fire which traps Brow in a burning building.

Zipher decides to run into the burning building to save Brow. The fires make him vividly remember the death of his lover. Being put into a life threatening situation, Zipher reflects on the possibility that the villagers might not be able to return everyone back to life after all. Kayoh and Cosith are able to prevent further spreading of the fire through the village. Meanwhile, a heavily burned Zipher exits from the burning building carrying Brow. Zipher breaks down in Domika’s lap crying about how he wasn’t able to save his love.

Having to recover from injuries again, Zipher is taken care of by Domika once more. She laments being unable to help his life situation. After he's able to leave the house again, villagers confront Zipher, blaming him for the fire. Trying to help Zipher, Brow admits to stealing Zipher’s fireworks and trying to light them up. Zipher interrupts a heated argument between the villagers proclaiming that he’ll leave the village, but asks for villagers to heal his wounds in return. He is told that they already did what they could to fix his injuries, meaning that his left eye is going to stay ruined forever. His shock is interrupted by Domika who finally decides to show him the real secrets of the village. The pair descend into the mines underneath the village. Zipher is shocked to discover a graveyard of dead Sky Golems. Domika explains to him that all the magic used by the village denizens comes from technology excavated from these these decaying half-mechanical corpses. Domika points out that this graveyard runs deep with poison that taints the surrounding soil and sky. In fact, the variant people living in the village aren’t born in it. Considered freaks by the wider society, they gather in these uncharted and inhospitable lands to hide from the wider world. While Zipher and Domika explore the ruins, a village meeting is held. It is decided that Zipher should be allowed to stay in the village with Domika, after all.

Molte has a dream in which she threatens Zipher to stop spending time with Domika. After waking up, Molte overhears a conversation between Domika and Zipher. It is revealed that Molte is also an outsider who Domika took in a year ago. Domika worries about Molte’s parents to which Zipher comments that Molte told him she was Domika’s daughter. Molte is mortified with fears of Zipher taking Domika away from her. Meanwhile Kayoh is sent into reconnaissance around the village by the village chief to make sure Zipher didn’t bring any trouble with him. She finds a militia progressing towards the village. Kayoh is discovered by the militia and defeated in a fight.

Zipher is seen interacting with the villagers. Kobolgarde apologizes to him for her child starting the fire. She and Brow gift him a walking stick decorated in a firework patter to help him walk while he struggles with his injuries. Molte confronts Zipher about his relationship with Domika. She claims Zipher is trying to replace his ex-lover with Domika who is naively attracted to the outside world. Zipher realizes how misguided his original reasons for seeking out the village were and decides that he really shouldn’t be here. Later that day Domika finds out that both Zipher and his box are gone. Molte triumphantly proclaims she kicked him out, to which Domika retorts that Zipher has no home in the outside world to return to. Realizing what she’s done, Molte backs off. Domika runs after Zipher. Having caught up to him slowly dragging his box, Domika embraces Zipher and asks him to stay with her. The reunion is interrupted by the approaching militia. Crain, the leader of the mercenary group notices Zipher’s eye injury and attempted escape from the village, commenting that this wasn’t a part of the plan.

As it turns out, there is a transmitter attached to Zipher’s box which the militia used to track the location of the village down. His fireworks were signs that he had found the village. Zipher tries to convince the militia to abandon the plan to wipe out the village, but is unsuccessful. Domika finally learns the truth about the dead girl in the box. Crain reveals that the girl and Zipher were not lovers. They shared a special bond, yet their love was merely a one-sided affair. Crain dismissingly interprets Zipher's plan to resurrect Anna as an attempt to get her so indebted to him that she would be forced to return his feelings back. The militia rounds up villagers and Kayoh is revealed to be captured, but alive. Villagers try to resist by attack one last time. Cosith is defeated, ending the unsuccessful uprising.

During the preparations for the slaughter of the villagers, a rock slide caused by the previous fight reveals the remains of a Sky Golem. Domika explains that villagers neither possess any magic nor have anything to do with the Straight Thunder attacks. Crain seems unconvinced and is ready to continue the extermination, but Molte intervenes. She dares him to shoot her and prove that they can come back to life. It is revealed that Molte thinks she doesn’t belong anywhere and doesn’t have a real home, making her think she has no reason to live. Crain shoots her without hesitation.

There’s a long silence in the crowd while Crain waits for Molte to be resurrected. As Molte continues to lay on the ground, Crain realizes he shot someone who used to be an outsider and rationalizes his actions, concluding that the villagers would not resurrect someone other than their own. While Crain chooses his next target, Zipher runs towards his box. He opens it, ruining the pristine body of his precious Anna. Crain is shocked, realizing that Zipher ruined his only chance to resurrect her. Knowing that Zipher would never miss a chance to bring Anna back, he realizes that the village really does not have any special powers. The militia, now knowing that there is no magic in the village and that the villagers are powerless, decides to leave. After the militia leaves, Molte is found to be alive due to a locket which deflected Crain’s bullet. Zipher apologizes to Domika and confesses his love to her. After burying Anna he quickly leaves the village.

Sixteen years in the future Molte is shown to be a teacher narrating the story of what happened in the Wizard Village to her students. Following the events that Zipher put in motion, the separation between variants and regular people started to erode. Following the militia's destruction of the village, many of its inhabitants left and the wider world heard of what happened in the village due to Zipher’s efforts. The graveyard of dead Sky Golems and what used to be the village were rebranded as the Pandemonium Archaeological Site, now operated by those villagers who decided to stay. It is revealed that Domika went after Zipher. The two married, adopting Molte and having had another child of their own. Zipher is still out there, traveling the world to spread the truth about what happened in the village in an attempt to get the variant peoples more accepted into the mainstream society.

Gallery[]

Promotional Chapter Gallery[]

Videos[]

External links[]

Link to the first chapter of the English Pandemonium: Wizard Village release

Pandemonium Fan Discord

References[]