'Flying Witch' is 'Kiki's Delivery Service' nearly grown-up. A slice-of-life manga that happens to have a witch in it; that is, a witch-in-training, a teenager named Makoto Kowata, highlighting the ways in which there is a little magic in the everyday things in life. The simple things.
Refreshing. Bedazzling.
There's family bonding, a female black cat familiar who doesn't talk but who Makoto understands, a flying broomstick, farming, a screaming mandrake, school girlfriends, an owl spirit harbinger of spring, daily walks, a ganguro older sister witch, and crows. No concrete plot or structure, just living the episodes of life in each chapter. I like how Makoto being a witch is like an open secret within her distant family and town, and the ways in which different people react to her identity.
There are funny moments as well, such as Makoto commenting on how riding a broom too much hurts her groin - I don't think I've ever seen or read anything before where a witch mentions that side of broom-riding.
'Flying Witch, Vol. 1' - no romance, no boring bishonen cliches, no fanservice. There's none of the things that made me stop reading manga for years. In a couple of days I've read two really good contemporary manga volumes in a row, and they make me proud to be a geeky reader of manga and comics again, especially of those starring female protagonists.
I feel light, like flying a kite, or flying high into the sky on a comfortable broom, if there could be any such magic for that.
I like to encourage and support original art. This is one of them. Recommended.
Final Score: 4/5
No comments:
Post a Comment