The Magic Touch is a comedy romance shojo title whose basic premise centers around a massage club at a high school where students train to become professional masseurs, although by volume 7 it no longer is the central theme. In volume 7 of Magic Touch we finally begin to get some serious loose ends tied up as Yosuke seeks out to awaken his repressed childhood memories in the hope that he might be able to touch the girl he loves, Chiaki, even if it causes him untold trauma. Meanwhile, Chiaki begins searching for Yosuke as she begins to worry about his extended absence. There is also a decently sized side-story (about 1/3 of the manga)  from Sanae's perspective as she begins to fall in love with Tanaka.

Overview:
Magic Touch looks to be heading to the finale as the series passes its first major climax and resolution that had been building since volume one. Yosuke, having fallen in love with Chiaki, decides it is finally time to uncover the hidden memories of his past as he believes they are the reason he has problems touching any girl. Meanwhile, Chiaki searches for him and runs into his younger brother, Katsuhisa, who she goes off on because of his attitude. Katsuhisa worries more about what the loss of his brother will mean for him rather than for the well being of his brother out of kindness. After being scolded though, he has an epiphany about his parasitic relationship with his older brother and begins the process of changing his attitude.

One thing that did seem a bit off was the ease in which Yosuke accepted his memories and the lack of any kind of lasting negative consequence for them (although those might appear in the next two volumes). The ease, even from the start of his quest, seems a bit too far-fetched for someone living with such a massive trauma for over a decade that their brain had to block it in order to function somewhat properly. It still makes for a great plot point, but I believe Tsubaki would have had a better story had there been more resistance once the memories resurfaced. Perhaps it is because there were a number of epiphany moments in this volume and of all them, this one seemed as though it should not have gone so smoothly by comparison.

After the arc concludes, Magic Touch continues with the side-story. At first, I was kind of unsure about its inclusion – after all, there was nearly 1/3 of the book left and here we were abruptly changing gears and going into another story from another perspective without any warning. However, by the time I finished reading the story, I ended up liking it more than the rest of the volume. It does a much better job at showing off Tsubaki's talent at a comedy romance and I believe having this kind of setup as the central theme would have led ultimately to an overall more enjoyable manga.

Tsubaki's drawing continues to be great quality this far into the manga. Her drawings of Chiaki, Izumi and Sanae continue to be superb. In addition, she really shows her abilities with being able to give even the purposefully medicore-looking and somewhat lathargic Tanaka some life.

The Magic Touch volume 7 still has some magic left in it. Although it lost some of it's uniqueness as it has moved into becoming another cliché shojo comedy romance title, Tsubaki volume 7 is an exception because of the focus on Yosuke's traumatic memories and the side-story with Tanaka and Sanae, which was probably the highlight of the manga. Those who have read Magic Touch will defiantly enjoy this climatic and charming resolution as well as the side-story; for newcomers, I would suggest to start by reading the side-story first as it doesn't require any previous knowledge of the series to enjoy, although it does enhance the enjoyment.

ComicsOnline gives The Magic Touch volume 7 3 out of 5 hand warmers.

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Related reviews:
Magic Touch volume 4
Magic Touch volume 5

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