BY SOFIA CIARLO (@naoscifra)

A review by mari-m-rose

I promised @naoscifra​ several months ago that I was gonna write this review, which in fact I did for her in Spanish the moment I got her beautiful doujin.
As time passed by and I didn’t find the time to sit down and write it properly, it occured to me to choose a special occasion……and what better occasion than her birthday! Especially since as usual I’m running late with gifts. 
So, happy birthday Sofi, sorry for always being late, but I hope you like this!! While you wait for your proper gift.

Again&Again is a sinja doujin written and drawn by @naoscifra​ back in 2016. Before its release I had the priviledge of seeing a few panels ♥ which left me really excited. 
The first thing I remember (mid spoilers ahead) is the appearance of assassin Ja’far with Mahad and Vittel. 
As someone who has been in this fandom for a couple of years already and has seen several sinja doujins, I was really excited for an accurate portrayal of assassin Ja’far. After all, most sinja doujins were released in 2013 or before, when no one knew how the actual assassin Ja’far was and thus his protrayal in them is sometimes really far from reality. They often featured Ja’far as a cute poor baby (which he is but he doesn’t let anyone see that side of him) instead of the aggressive, vocal and rude Ja’far we all know. 

So I was looking forward to it, moreover the addition of Vittel and Mahad not only makes it more canon but also more interesting, because I personally love them.
That first part didn’t disappoint at all, it felt like an actual moment that could have happened during Ja’far’s life. Really accurate characterization I have to say!
Moreover we are introduced to the theme of destiny, really important in the Magi world. There’s seriously nothing I didn’t like about this start.

The next part was a surprise for me tho. (Actual spoilers begin). We are soon interrupted by a young sinja having a conversation in bed. The fact that Ja’far is telling a story and not Sin is unusual? After all Sin becomes an author and loves to create his own stories based on his own adventures. Of course that was only my first impression. It actually makes a lot of sense for Sin to love hearing stories,the whole seen resembles the time when Darius /Daraias/ told his adventures to little Sin, even the poses are similar, it was a really nice touch. I absolutely love the idea of Sin being excited about hearing Ja’far’s adventures, after all he has a lot of experiences he could share. My only objection would be that maybe he could be reluctant to share stories about his murder jobs. Tho then Ja’far also mentions about how he didn’t use to eat for days and how life, even in a chasm, is better than being in the organization. So, maybe he can talk about them without details. 

I also love the conversation going on about stories not having endings and changes no one can forsee. I think that is the kind of reply Sinbad would give and I also found the theme really interesting.

Then the premise of Ja’far telling stories every night begins, which is an intentional reference to 1001 Nights. As someone who knows Naos I’m not surprised since I know she is a fan of the original story. This is also a new portrayal of sinja dynamics which works well thus I like it very much.

What comes after is more complicated since the story is progressing. We get 3 pieces of info. One being that Sinbad has trouble falling asleep and finds comfort in Ja’far’s stories. The second being that as time progresses it’s not enough for him. And finally there’s also the inclusion of the crystal ball. 

We find out the crystal ball is the same one Ja’far breaks at the beginning (or we suspect it)  and that Sinbad picked it up in the past. We are also shown a flashback of Ja’far telling Sin he killed the fortune teller old lady which was obvious, but the important part is that he tells Sin the truth and he comforts him.
This is important for me because it shows Ja’far leaning on Sin, after we saw Sin leaning on Ja’far. Sinja leaning on each other is definitely a key theme in the doujin and I love that it shows it’s mutual. 

Then as Ja’far’s story wasn’t enough for Sin he desires to be with Ja’far.
I have to say that art wise this is my favorite part, tho I admit there are a lot of other beautiful and more complicated panel compositions, I still love this part the best.
Naos did an amazing job there, the panels are impregnated with feelings and they melted my heart.

The symbolism of Ja’far being Sin’s light is also brought up, by Sin himself. Overall the fact that we see Sinbad acknowledging this makes me really happy. We already know Sinbad is sort of Ja’far’s light, but seeing Sinbad’s point of view, how he feels about Ja’far, is basically denied to us. Ja’far being important to him as a source of comfort and dependance only makes sense thus I really agree with this portrayal and enjoy it.

After this we get their first argument ♥. I like sinja having discussions because the make up always involves them being honest with each other and developing their relationship into a better one. This one didn’t disappoint at all either.
Soon they have a second argument in which we see Sinbad having a sort of emotional breakdown and Ja’far being ready to comfort him. This is not only a parallel to the situation we witnessed not many pages before, in which young Ja’far has to be reminded that he is not an assassin anymore, but also something unusual for Sin’s character, even tho it’s very realistic, we almost never see him breaking. We only did on slave arc and tbh I like Ja’far is there to help him in both situations.

We get to the core of the doujin which connects a lot of things: the stories, the crystal ball, sinja comforting each other and being light to each other. I love how Sofi tied all these in a few panels. Ja’far’s answer is very believable and shows Sin how he can be reminded of his own good by only looking at Ja’far, all connected to the crystal ball. I think this is the best part plotwise and makes the doujin gain a lot of worth, thus I won’t spoil further about this one.

The doujin soon comes to an end with a touch of comedy and thank yous. It’s a really beautiful work, it really shows Naos put a lot of effort in this.

Overall the themes and references come together really nicely and honor Magi, sinja and 1001 Nights in the best way possible.

I may have missed a few more comments I did in the past but, without a doubt I love this work and can’t recommend it enough.

Thanks for this beautiful story and congrats on your hard work Sofi.
I hope we get to see more of your works, even if it’s not about the same ship.

This is all, hope you all guys can read Again&Again some time.

If you have read Again&Again and think I missed something or you want to add something, you can totally add it here ♥ I’m sure Naos will love it.

I have to say my English becomes worse and worse as time passes by so I’m really sorry if there are several typos/grammar mistakes in this.