I, Nanalie, declare myself to be no longer an Ice-type mage, but a Drama-type.
The Sorcerer's Receptionist (Mahousekai no Uketsukejou ni Naritaidesu, literally "I Want To be a Receptionist of the Magical World") is a fantasy romcom Light Novel series by Mako. It was first released in 2018 and received an English translation by J-Novel Club in 2020. It also has a manga adaptation illustrated by Yone which began serialization in the shoujo magazine B's-Log Comic in 2019, which is licensed in English by Yen Press.
The series takes place in a Standard Japanese Fantasy Setting, where the Sorcerer's Guild assigns jobs to people based on their experience and magical ability. Staffing the guild are secretaries, skilled mages whose elegance is matched only by their composure.
Nanalie Hel has neither of those things, but, well, that's what school is for. Only three things stand in the way of her dream job; years of study, a demonic incursion into the Kingdom of Doran, and her mutually abusive rivalry-slash-courtship with Alois Rockmann.
It's going to be a long internship.
This series includes the following tropes:
- Amusing Injuries: Due to the prevalence of healing magic, practically no level of violence is taken seriously; authorities are more concerned by how Nanalie and Alois' brawls inconvenience or embarrass other students than the third-degree burns those brawls frequently cause. The Royal School of Magic has a test that outright requires students to get badly hurt, as a way of proving their suitability to be knights/aristocrats/scouts, etc.
- Anachronism Stew: The setting is mostly medieval-level with magic replacing a lot of technologies (including streaming video), but anti-aristocratic beliefs are common and Nanalie references "manspreading" at one point.
- The Archmage: There are six Ancient-class mages in the world, each reincarnated from the Anthropomorphic Personification of an element. Even before any sort of education, they are just flat out stronger than any other magician, able to shrug off deadly attacks and pour nigh-infinite amounts of mana into their spells. One Ancient is able to defeat Stadel, father of all demons. One. note
- Crystalline Creature: The Blanc Lykos are sapient wolves who can turn their bodies to crystal at will. This ability makes defense a lot easier for them, but they don't use it often because it makes them clumsy.
- Elemental Powers: Every human is one of six magical "blood types"; fire, wind, water, lightning, earth, and ice. Some spells can be learned by any type, but combat schools require that their students learn spells specific to their type. Naturally, magic created by several types of mages is always stronger than that created individually.
- Enchanted Forest: The kingdom of Doran is quite idyllic, but it is surrounded by deep forests where demons live. Flight magic is common, so the forests can be crossed safely, but the necessity of agriculture means that people still die.
- Everyone Is a Super: All humans have general-purpose magic that lets them do things like enchant animals, float objects, and create light (given the right incantation), on top of their elemental specialties. Their society is built around it, which is why the human characters are dismayed when their spells have no effect on merfolk and Stadel. They eventually switch to physical weapons, but it's quite a blow to their morale.
- A Fate Worse Than Death: Unnatural deaths are rare in the setting, usually only happening to people alone and distant from civilization. Instead, what the protagonists fight against are humans warped while they're still alive into demons, savage four-legged monsters who devour all thinking beings. Only post-mortem inspection of a demon's innards can reveal what it used to be.
- Floating Continent: Above each kingdom is a floating island, where the local monarchs live. It's also home to palace staff, notable aristocrats, and institutions like the Royal School of Magic. No one really knows how the isles were created, but stories agree that sorcerers lifted them from the land as a way of protecting their beloved royal family.
- Gambit Pileup: The ball at the end of the first book. Duke Rockmann wants to find out whether his son loves the fiancee suggested to him, Nanalie is being forced to help the Duke out (and trying to gather intel on demons), Corolla wants to fake feelings for Alois, and Alois wants to protect the identity of his commoner Love Interest, who's infiltrated the ball.
- Gilded Cage: Aristocrats can't have inter-class spouses, occupations outside of a very limited pool (they're legally banned from white and blue-collar jobs), or choose whether they learn how to fight or not. And in this setting, commoners are educated and magically capable, which means that a lot of them look for reasons to rebel and/or ways to upstage their "betters". At least one aristocrat has fled to another country so she could be with her commoner Love Interest. Another requests that, as her reward for fighting Stadel, the king have everyone's memories of her true heritage removed.
- Interservice Rivalry: The leaders of the Guild and the Knight's Order hate each other for many reasons, one of which is that their talent pools for recruitment overlap. Their proteges continue the rivalry because they attended the same school (at which they competed for grades), and because it's traditional."Nanalie!" the Director had told me recently, "You don't need salt next time you come across the Knight Commander, just grab some big bugs and fling them at him!"
"Understood. I'll be sure to carry some around with me." - Panthera Awesome: The Mavro Lynx species lives in volcanic regions, have size-shifting tails, and fur that makes anyone who touches it completely immune to fire. Many Mavro Lynxes become Familiars.
- Power Dyes Your Hair: When people manifest their magic type for the first time, it occasionally means their hair and eyes change to more elementally-appropriate colours. Unfortunately, this means the sorcerers affected are easy to identify as sorcerers.
- Proper Lady: Nanalie aspires to be one, but enjoys indulging her appetite and temper too much to ever get there. She does befriend several examples of the trope, however, like Nikeh and Maris.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Aristocrats must both administrate their lands and personally protect them from demons. Those who don't inherit titles go into the Knights' Order or work as palace functionaries.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Nanalie and Alois' relationship is mutually and unashamedly violent, except on the rare occasions they both feel like being mature adults. In fairness to Nanalie, Alois usually starts the punching- but Nanalie has never been anything but eager to continue it ("You better wipe your neck and get it nice and long for my axe when I return!"). This aspect of the series is its most criticized, if online reviews are any indication.
- Uniqueness Value: Ice mages are not any stronger than their peers, but they are much rarer because of what happened to Ice itself at the beginning of time. Because of that, the population ebbs and flows, just like Ice is faded and reborn periodically. The good news is that this makes it harder for villains to assemble all-type super magic. The bad news is that it's also hard for heroes to do the same thing.
- Utility Magic: The Gignesthai Nero is an orb of solid water that conjures, for anyone who touches it, clothes and a magical weapon suited to their powerset. It was created by Harre's founder to save money on uniforms.
- Weapon of X-Slaying: Ice magic is especially effective against demons; in fact, it's the only thing that can even scratch their creator. This reflects Stadel being a Yandere who cares about nothing except the character Ice's rejection of him.
- White Wolves Are Special: The "Blanc Lykos" species are white wolves that can breathe ice and turn their bodies to crystal.
