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I have feelings about Nunnally and volume 7 of the manga I Want to be a Receptionist in This Magical World. It’s been a fascinating fantasy and shojo series so far! The heroine is a really strong individual. Her goals and life often are prioritized over the romance with Alweiss. We really see her work for her role. So now that the seventh entry is here with some pretty major revelations about her and her background and hints at her place in a larger story, I’m conflicted. Yes, she’s the heroine and this is expected. However, the decision to bring this sort of thing up so many volumes in and in the way it does also makes it feel a bit out of nowhere.
Editor’s Note: There will be spoilers for volume 7 of the manga I Want to be a Receptionist in This Magical World and its heroine Nunnally below.
Okay, so throughout some of the volumes of I Want to be a Receptionist in This Magical World, we already know that Nunnally is some degree of “special.” She has ice type magic, which changed her hair blue when it emerged. When that comes up, there’s hints that its original isn’t exactly natural and something resulted in that connection, but it isn’t explored right away. Once we get to the fifth volume, it’s confirmed that she is part merfolk. Her mother Mimmilly was basically royalty, and here in volume 7 it’s again confirmed that Ice helped her transform to be with Nunnally’s father. We then learn that is how our heroine got her strong ice powers. Ice went with Mimmilly and, when Nunnally was born, went into her.
Now in volume 7, Nunnally is being set up as even more special and exceptional. I feel like this, after the revelation she’s been secretly half merfolk and noble all these years even though there was never any indication, feels like a bit much. Part of this is due to the nature of the storytelling in the manga. While there was the passing suggestion when her element came up when she was at school, these others about the merfolk background and nature as something of perhaps an “ice avatar” feels like springing things up out of nowhere just to make a certain type of plotline work and show she’s even more “extraordinary.” Perhaps I would have taken that more in stride of this had been telegraphed further, rather than a lot of the story showing Nunnally becoming intelligent and skilled enough to work at Harre’s on her own merits, hard work, and talent.
But the other part of it is I sort of worry this type of plot twist could, in some way, also invalidate that effort. I’m concerned what kind of storylines could come after this. Will she be harassed by coworkers who will now say part of how she got where she was is because of that icy inheritance? Will she be treated differently at Harre’s? Is this going to turn into a situation where suddenly the receptionist is going to become the world’s savior somehow?
If this were a different sort of manga series, I’d almost be interested to see how this would go. Perhaps if we saw Nunnally come to terms with the fact that she does have this additional lineage and gift that might even be considered divine could be something explored in fascinating ways. Does it result in an existential crisis? However, given the past nature of this shojo series and how other situations were handled, I’m thinking we wouldn’t be able to expect that sort of nuanced approach and exploration of how this knew knowledge about her power would affect her goals and future. Especially considering how the final chapters here are looking. It instead looks like an immediate turn to deal with a new crisis.
I suppose the revelations in I Want to Be a Receptionist in This Magical World leave me feeling conflicted about the manga’s story and Nunnally. I’ve loved this shojo because of her personality. She’s always been a hardworking individual. While her nature as an ice-type magic user is somewhat rare, especially considering the degree of her gift, the narrative didn’t always throw in our faces that it was important. So it’s worrying me a bit that this is going from her developing as a Harre’s receptionist and coming into her own following pushing herself in school to a story that seems to be setting her up as a perhaps legendary sort of heroine. I’m hoping the next volume handles it well, but I’m a little disappointed this shojo story didn’t stay more slice-of-life like.
Volume 7 of the I Want to Be a Receptionist in This Magical World manga is available now, and Yen Press will release volume 8 on April 28, 2026.
