Spoilers ahead.
Artemis Crescent's graphic novel review of something she should have loved - that features practically everything she loves. But unfortunately, ultimately doesn't. Because bad writing - messy, poorly planned, problematic writing on a massive, moon-sized scale - shouldn't be brushed aside in favour of aesthetics and good ideas. For execution is everything.
Yep, right after my review of 'Fae and the Moon' (which can be read here) comes a review of a similar graphic novel from 2023 - ridiculously, unbearably cute magical girl power set in a fantastical world, that I desperately wanted to adore and keep. But my sound, logical brain won out over my heart. I know I've been repeating myself lately, but I will reiterate: 'Fae and the Moon' and 'Basil and Oregano' are middling, messy, random, confusing and baffling stories, and excellent artwork and ideas don't change that.'Basil and Oregano' is a step-up in that it is an LBGTQ+ story - lovingly so, in fact. No one is straight, and practically half the cast are not cisgender. Queer, trans and nonbinary people are the norm in this world that is a reflection of our contemporary age but with witches and magic. It is like 'Harry Potter' meets 'The Great British Bake Off', and it is set in a wonderful dream world where queerphobia doesn't exist. The graphic novel should have been revolutionary; it should have been praised to the heavens, and beloved by everyone on Planet Earth. But... well.Here is a list of things wrong with 'Basil and Oregano':• At the very beginning, the teen witch protagonist Basil Eyres is given an apron that belonged to one of her dads, before her senior year at magiculinary boarding school begins. The apron is special and important to them. You'd think it would come up again. But it doesn't. Basil only wears it in one exam scene, and that's it. In fact, the magical cooking students are hardly ever seen wearing aprons, just their uniforms. So what's the point of the aprons if they're not going to be worn for anything important - or for anything at all, really?• On the subject of pointless things being brought up - this time out of the effing blue - and nothing is done with them and then they are straight-up forgotten about, there's Basil's plant, named Poe. It suddenly appears in her dorm room eighty two pages into the book, but Basil treats it like it's her favourite and most constant companion and pet. It appears in two scenes, and then it is gone, never to be mentioned again. In the middle of the book, Basil experiences a magic burnout, which manifests in the form of greenery forming around her and on her as she falls into a coma. I had thought that the plant in her room had something to do with this at first, but no. There is no indication that Poe is anything but an ordinary potted plant, which gets knocked over amidst Basil's burnout, and then we never see it again. WHAT. IS. THE. POINT. OF. THE. PLANT? WHY INCLUDE THE PLANT? DID THIS COMIC NOT GO THROUGH ANY EDITING STAGES? ANY PLANNING STAGES?• As other reviewers have pointed out, how scholarships and tuition work in the Porta Bella Magiculinary Academy is effed up to all hell. To achieve in this school-- no, to even attend this school, you either have to be richer than gods, or be the top student at everything, in most of your classes, in most of your exams (which are numerous and constant), or else you lose your scholarship and will be kicked out of the system. It is not really a school: it is a competition, a winner-takes-all capitalist nightmare, culminating in an actual public baking contest that is the school year's final exam/round. Apparently, one person a year wins above all others and gets to win at life, while the other students who have worked just as painfully and dangerously hard (unless they're, again, richer than Midas) lose their chances for good, and can go eff themselves. It is not until the very end that this is called out on for the unfair system it is that only benefits shareholders, and it is changed (by rich people in positions of power, because of course), because it needs to, for how the hell will this society function otherwise? With its thousands of broke, disadvantaged, burned-out and jobless people, their dreams and passions destroyed and talents and hard work gone to waste? Every one of the teachers at the academy, as well as the Arch Chef and the rest of the administration, should be ashamed of themselves for putting so much pressure on teenagers. They expect them to be perfect at everything, all the time, and even that won't be enough for this single-winner-takes-all batter-royale school of misery and exploitation. These poor students are killing themselves with the stress, if not literally than through burnout and injuring themselves. And stress does kill, especially the young. In 'Basil and Oregano', in an LBGTQ+-friendly world, capitalism still runs rampant and uncontrolled. Like in the real world, too, it is also ableist AF.• How exactly does the magic in this world work? Does it only apply to magiculinary, the art of cooking and baking? But it is also used for cleaning clothes in a flash (dishwashing spells, they're called), and for hypnotizing dragons seemingly at random and making them attack a specific mark. Magiculinary is a huge deal, but it is unclear if it the only deal for every magic user in the world. If the reason why this specific type of magic is focused on so heavily and universally is because it is the singular, be-all-and-end-all of magic... for some reason. It is all anyone talks about, at any rate.• How is magical cooking any different from cooking without magic? Is it only that ordinary cooking without magical utensils (which resemble wands from various cute Magical Girl anime) is slower? Is it that the taste of the food will be better with magic? Or when the food is prepared using magic? Perhaps I am overthinking it, but I am confused.• In the climax, in the final magical chef exam/festival/public competition for the teen girls' lives that is out in the open, a dragon is summoned out of a mountain by resident mean girl Xynthia, to wreck and sabotage Basil's and Arabella Oregano (her love interest)'s cooking. It is literally the first ever mention, let alone sight, of dragons existing in this world. Familiars, cute magical creatures, and familiars that turn "dark", sure, but no dragons. No huge and potentially dangerous beasts like that.• To add insult to something that was already pulled out of the writer's backside at the last minute, after the rampaging dragon is tamed by Basil and Arabella using bonding over food, Arch Chef Spink recognises it as an ancient familiar from over a hundred years ago (they'd dated the dragon's owner's grandson in college), and they call it "Arrabbiata", like that means something, other than the name of a pasta sauce. The other characters act like they know the name and the legend, but it is the first time the reader hears of them! No hints, no foreshadowing, nothing. What should have been plot developments are, well, not. They are not developed in the slightest, and come right out of nowhere. It is unbelievably sloppy, and so poorly executed I have to wonder how the book got published as it is.• Basil starts her and Arabella's bond-over-food plan on the dragon by... insulting it and then whacking it in the face with her utensil. It is when she injures and brings it down that she executes the pacifying-it-gently-and-patiently-with-food spell breaking strategy. Counterintuitive, contradictory and self-defeating don't begin to describe it. It looks like abuse to me. Making it worse is the dragon is under a spell and not acting of its own free will. As aggressive as Basil is portrayed as being sometimes, including towards people she supposedly loves, often inconsistently, though it's mainly due to stress and pressure, this is by far the worst thing she does in the comic - and it is framed as the right thing to do!• Why is Xynthia being deliberately and obviously evil in her sabotaging plans for Basil and Arabella? She sends her familiar to stalk and spy on them, and to steal their stuff, and then she actually posts about it on her Prestogram (heh) account, bragging about how evil she is and that she's 'Totally not up to anything shady at all.' (Yes. She writes this. It is a direct quote. I am not making it up). And Basil and Arabella do absolutely nothing about it. They let her get away with it, and don't try to stop her plan. WHY?! GO TELL A TEACHER IF YOU CAN'T STOP HER YOURSELF - THERE IS EVIDENCE! XYNTHIA HAS WILLFULLY INCRIMINATED HERSELF! THE DRAGON INCIDENT WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED IF OUR "HEROES" HAD DONE LITERALLY ANYTHING TO PREVENT IT BEFOREHAND!• Why is Xynthia easily forgiven at the end? Why is Arabella's controlling mother, who is ashamed of her nonmagical daughter, easily forgiven, and redeemed at the drop of a hat? And so are Arch Chef Spink, the administration and the teachers? People don't change that quickly, and don't deserve to be forgiven that quickly after a lifetime of abuse.
• Xynthia's arm is in a cast after the dragon attack she caused. It is the only thing of consequence for her actions. She receives no punishment whatsoever, for the mass destruction and nearly getting people killed. With her light, little cast, she quite literally gets a slap on the wrist after everything she's done. One "sorry" and heavy family troubles - plus desperation and stress due to the school's impractical and inhumane competitive tuition policy - don't erase a terrorist attack brought on by mean girl pettiness!
• Why is the title of the graphic novel 'Basil and Oregano', and not 'Basil and Arabella'? Oregano is Arabella's surname, but she is never referred to as just Oregano, and certainly not by her partner in love, Basil Eyres. Is it because of the fame and prestigiousness of Arabella's family name? That's classist, and goes against the story's message of individualism and loving yourself for who you are, doesn't it? For consistency and fairness, the book should be called 'Eyres and Oregano'.
• Do two witches have to always share the familiar they've summoned for help for school festivals? Or is that only as a starting point, for sharing and learning, and a witch can bond with their own familiar later? But where would they get one? Will they have to inherit one from their family? But which is it - summon a familiar by magic, or inheritance? Does it depend on different circumstances? What if there are no inheritance familiars left, having died of old age? Is it okay for a witch to have no familiar? To have no "help" in their magiculinary? Another poorly thought out worldbuilding point, leaving behind so many questions.
• Basil's two best friends, Villy, who is nonbinary, and Addy, who is Black and trans, should have received more page time and development. And a resolution to their story arcs and partnership.
• During the dragon attack, Arch Chef Spink calls out to the teachers, "Let's get the townspeople and the kings out of here!" Wait, WHAT? WHAT!? WHAT KINGS!? There's been no mention, no indication, of any type of monarchy, nor royalty, existing in this society until that line. And who are the kings? Are they any of the male rich people in the background in a few panels? What makes them any different from the other rich, snobbish people we see? Why was the line included at all when it is dropped from nowhere, for no reason, and makes zero sense? ARGH! SO MANY ARSE PULLS IN THIS SINGLE SCENE! AND IT'S THE CLIMAX!
Easily fixable flaws, that weren't fixed. I am flummoxed, and disappointed. What a waste of potential.
However, like with 'Fae and the Moon', and other cute fantasy girl power graphic novels like it, there are good points. The diversity is fantastic. The artwork and colours are wonderfully done, and freaking adorable. It is like Paulina Ganucheau's body of work. The whole aesthetic of 'Basil and Oregano' screams cute and magical. Basil and Arabella's familiar, the puppy/tomato hybrid named, well, Tomato, is a cute mascot character, who isn't sidelined, forgotten about, or rendered useless to the story. Basil and Arabella's relationship is pretty much the most well developed thing in the comic. It is sweet, lovely, angsty, complex, and they work nicely together. They have chemistry, they have substance, and they spend a lot of time together; enough needed for their romantic relationship to develop naturally.
I wanted to love 'Basil and Oregano' and 'Fae and the Moon'. Badly. Incredibly. But I can't.
I'm truly sorry, really, to the writers and artists hard at work and lucky enough to have their work published. I don't mean to crush your dreams. I do appreciate and understand your efforts, and your art and passion. But I am a critic, and a critic's got to critique, and point out flaws. I believe the people who have worked on these graphic novels will, by jove, by hope, improve and get better overtime. They certainly show promise and aptitude.
I am Fantasy Feminist critic Artemis Crescent, signing out.
Final Score: 2.5/5
