Manga Review - 'Little Witch Academia, Vol. 1' by Yoh Yoshinari and TRIGGER (Story), Keisuke Sato (Artist)

I decided to reread this manga, after many years now.

It's been even longer since I saw the first season of the 'Little Witch Academia' anime (I should get around to rewatching the whole series), and the first volume of the manga is similarly magical, cute and funny. The characters are especially funny, memorable, and stand out as unique, daring and endearing individuals. Look at these witch girls: Akko Kagari is just like a female version of a Shōnen Jump hero - headstrong, determined, one-track minded and obnoxious - and Sucy Manbavaran is like Wednesday Addams fused with a poison-type Pokémon, and the regal, sophisticated rival Diana Cavendish, who is secretly a fangirl, in actuality isn't a mean girl at all!

How I'm reminded of how similar 'The Owl House' is to 'Little Witch Academia'.

However, the volume is a mess. Narratively, thematically, and in planning in general. It starts out well, and exciting, in how it adapts the anime introduction to the series. But after the second chapter, 'Little Witch Academia, Vol. 1' practically abandons its main plotline and becomes serialised and anecdotal. It includes stories episodes that are not that interesting, and that matter very little by the end. It should be too early for filler content already! It glosses over and brushes aside side characters, such as the entire Luna Nova Magical Academy staff (apart from Ursula Callistis and one or two bit-part professors, their names are not even revealed). Poor Ursula is underutilised, and then plain forgotten after the third chapter. MacGuffins, props and motifs are similarly discarded. I mean, seriously, what happened to Chariot's Shiny Rod after Akko used it to portal to Luna Nova? It's never mentioned again, as is Akko's living Alcor bird plushie, and her Shiny Chariot card.

Stuff that happens in the anime are referenced, but they are not included in the manga itself; such as Lotte Jansson being able to communicate with spirits, which apparently everyone somehow knows about. Why is there suddenly a dragon at the end, and what the heck is the Sorcerer's Stone and why is it so important? Very confusing and frustrating. The introductory volume has too many details missing from it. It's an adaptation that does not competently stand on its own.

Akko can be a selfish, inconsiderate and thoughtless pain in the backside, too. And sometimes her stupidity can be too much, too puzzling, too baffling. Not to mention that she is at fault for a lot of trouble, as in she starts her own problems, and doesn't end up resolving them - it's usually one of her friends who have to bail her out and fix the messes she caused in the first place.

At least Lotte and Sucy receive stories that reveal their backstories and develop their characters.

There are so many witch boarding school stories and franchises out there, it can be hard to find one that stands out. That strikes the eye, and is slightly more original than the last (and the next). I think what makes 'Little Witch Academia' distinct is its emphasis on humour. It's a comedy, while retaining its magic, and magical, shining heart. Plus it's cute! A cute all-ages anime. We're barely shown any actual schoolwork and themes of an academic nature - ironic, given its title!

Sadly, the manga version is too scatterbrained, confused and random (and surprisingly mundane with little stakes) for me to enjoy, despite liking the characters and comedy. I'm sure others will really fancy it, hold it to high esteem, and be entertained by it, toad warts and all. But I'm afraid I am not one of them.

Oh dear.

Oh well, maybe the anime will fully replenish my witch-loving heart. My magical girl child heart.

Final Score: 3/5

Book Review - 'Cinder & Ella' by Barbara Slade (Writer), Lucia Soto (Illustrator)

It's an LBGTQ+ retelling of 'Cinderella', that's diverse, and where there are stepbrothers instead of stepsisters, the fairy godmother role is given to a magical, midnight-blue horse, and of course, the "prince", who ran off at midnight and lost a shoe that won't fit any man in the kingdom, is a girl - a poor girl who loves the princess... and her feelings are reciprocated.

Cinder is a poor ragamuffin girl who is not conventionally attractive, but she is a courageous, determined and heroic dreamer; and Ella is a sad princess who yearns for more than the traditional life of marrying a prince.

Together, they will be each other's happiness.

That's true love.

Basically, if you like 'Princess Princess Ever After' and 'Maiden & Princess', then you should check out the 2023 UK picture book, 'Cinder & Ella'. I can't believe I only stumbled across it today in a big bookshop on my trip to Brighton. The art is spectacularly pretty, colourful, soft, sparkly, lovely, and beautiful. As well as a magical horse, there's a mouse who's all about the pride flag!

It is a short story, and some parts are rushed, and the ending will leave you wanting more. And seriously, near the end, why did Cinder's stepmother nail the stable doors shut while Cinder was inside? There is no indication whatsoever that she ever knew the missing 'handsome young "PRINCE-ESS"' who danced with the princess was her stepdaughter. Did she just want her out of the way during the shoe fitting with her sons at the palace? Why?

But 'Cinder & Ella' is still a nice, wonderful addition to the ever expanding sea of LBGTQ+ content for children, in picture books and other media. I'm glad for effortless diversity and inclusivity. I'm glad that stories like these are being normalised now more than ever, thus LBGTQ+ kids can see themselves in them, and know they are normal, and they can be accepted, and happy.

Live happily ever after, that is, in any fairy tale.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Age 16' by Rosena Fung

Full of honesty, pain, spirit and hope, 'Age 16' is a beautiful graphic novel about coming of age, and generational trauma.

Sort-of autobiographical, it is about three generations of women, and their stories - there's our main girl Rosalind in Toronto, Canada, in 2000; her mother Lydia from Hong Kong in 1972; and her mother Mei Laan from Guangdong in 1954. They all reach a critical change in their lives at the tender, vulnerable age of sixteen. It is also all about cultural and societal misogyny throughout the ages, and how internalised misogyny, the obsession with weight, dieting and impossible beauty standards, and eating disorders, are linked to it.

It is all about women, and mothers and daughters, and female friendships. There is nary an important male figure in sight; most are MIA, or misogynistic POS's not worth the time and space in this graphic novel.

It is a tragic universal truth that a girl's first hater is too often her own mother. As Rosena Fung says at the end in her Author's Note:


'This book is about all the ways we are taught to deny our bodies tenderness, and mothers can be especially critical of their daughters' bodies. They hold the ways the world has been cruel to them as girls and women and pass it on. I recognise now that my mom wanted to protect me from our society's hatred of fatness but in doing so ended up reinforcing it. It's taken a lifetime for me to figure out that I can accept her love but reject this inheritance.'


Overprotection or not, this kind of upbringing is cruel and inexcusable.

Between 'Age 16', and 'The Joy Luck Club' and 'Turning Red' (also set in Toronto in the early 2000s!) and many others, mother-to-daughter generational trauma stories do predominately resonate with Chinese people and their culture. Although, again, this topic is universal, thanks to the rampant misogyny in every fundamental culture in the entire world.

In 'Age 16', I like the use of colouring - a purple palette for Rosalind's time, and orange for Lydia's time, and green for Mei Laan's time. In the end, beautiful-as-she-is Rosalind will come to wear all these colours. The art is round, bouncy, manga-esque, simple, and expressive.

The book doesn't ever compromise and betray its own morals - f*&$! beauty standards and dieting, eat what you want! Be big! Take up as much space as you want! And I love the scene where Rosalind starts to embrace her geeky side when she stumbles upon a con by accident. So much copyright-friendly pop culture stuff and fun! She will love this side of herself, too. F!$£*! what anyone else thinks. She's a photographer, and Lydia is a dancer, or she wishes she were, if only Mei Laan would ever let her be herself, and love herself in her own skin.

Cat treat/meow mix inclusion: Rosalind has a fat cat named Millie. So cute!

'Age 16' is light and somewhat hand-wavey and dismissive of the LBGTQ+ community, but that could be reflective of its timelines, especially in 2000 (a new age of deeply shallow and sexist marketing strategies, like in magazines and advertising everywhere, and things would only get far worse from there...)

Anyway, 'Age 16' - highly recommended. It is a raw mother-and-daughter, generational trauma story that I can stomach, without hating the older generation. Well, not too much. I really like 'Living with Viola' by Rosena Fung, and I like this too. Also recommended if you like graphic novels such as 'Persepolis', 'Huda F Are You?', and 'Anya's Ghost'.

Remember: 'A girl like you... Maybe you're already... Who you're supposed to be.'

Extra quote from the Author's Note:


'Being a girl can feel like you're hauling this psychic pain with you every day, the pain of the world telling you you're too much and not enough. I wrote Age 16 to give voice to that pain but also to show all the ways we can unlearn it. To help us realize we're already who we're supposed to be.'


Final Score: 4/5

Scribble #130

To everyone who has ever suffered, who has ever been oppressed, marginalised, mistreated, disrespected, and/or abused, simply for being who you are:

You matter. You are important. You are amazing. You are loved. Someone does care for you.

Everyone has a voice. A story to tell. Every human is equal.

All are equal. All are unique, beautiful, exciting individuals, whose differences should be embraced and lauded.

There is no limit, no barrier, no restriction, to the human experience.

Being human is about freedom, to be who you are.

Let us, please, always treat each other with kindness and empathy. Never, ever dismiss empathy.

And remember compassion and giving, charity.

Create, build, connect. Commune.

Listen.

Love.

Love can save us. Love can save the world.

Scribble #129

I am beautiful.

Or I try to tell myself that.

You don't know my mind,

and how much I suffer in it.

Book Review - 'magnifiqueNOIR Book One: I Am Magical'' by Briana Lawrence (Writer, Artist, Creator), Various Artists

I should have loved this. After all, it's about Black queer AF magical girls - it aims to break every tradition, convention and expectation in terms of rep in the genre - and for the most part, it's charming and well written. Included in the novel are illustrations of each of the four magical girls of magnifiqueNOIR (plus their mentor who's a former magical girl) by different, prominent artists, and their bios, and one-page comic panels, furthering its adorable, independently-made charm. Each magical girls' place on the LBGTQ+ spectrum is reflected in their colour schemes; in their hair and fabulously fashionable outfits.

'magnifiqueNOIR Book One: I Am Magical''s geeky heart is in the right place.

Sadly, there is one problem. Wait--more accurately, it's the first problem: The confusedly-placed flashbacks at the beginning, which become too long and overstay their welcome, and which also create a nonlinear style of storytelling that doesn't continue or flow well with the rest of the book. Add in the inconsistencies between the flashbacks, and what happens and what is said between the past and the present day scenes, inadvertently giving the impression of an unreliable narrative device, and I was having a jarring reading experience. The "This is how I got here"/superhero origin flashback scenes should not leave me scratching my head and flipping back pages, to see if I'd missed something, only to find I hadn't; there are contradictory and nonsensical details and dialogue, in need of proofreading.

Other flaws include: Some of the characters, as well realised and well developed as they are, had their sudden selfish arsehole moments that made me want to tear my hair out. Or some other (or the same, actually) characters are just arseholes and are never called out on it. It annoys me.

While I'm on the point of inconsistencies and characters, one of the magical girls of magnifiqueNOIR 

(always in bold in the book) once refers to an ordinary civilian character as one of the most important people in her life (page 152)... when she'd only met him three times by then (that we know of), and each time very briefly. And the last time she met him he was screaming at her and being suddenly and frighteningly hysterical - an out-of-character moment that is never remarked on again. WTF?

There's also the changing of POVs being given new characters later on in the book, which might have been okay and acceptable if we'd met and gotten to know these people a bit more earlier on.

The monsters that the magical girls fight are generic, often slimy and oozing things that are easily and quickly defeated. Some fights even happen off-page - they are skipped over; not helping the impression that the monsters are an afterthought and nonthreat overall. Nothing about their origins, what they are, where they come from, and why they are attacking this specific (nameless) city now, after a generation ago, is explained. The origins of magnifiqueNOIR's existence and powers are not revealed, either. I've heard everything will be clarified in the sequel, though. I guess I'll have to take the blurb's and book reviewers' word for it. A lot of info is left out, to be explained and explored in the sequel, in fact.

Aaaaannnnd to point out another inconsistency, although this time it's due to a miscommunication between writer and artist, one of the comic panels (Page 161) has one of the girls fighting a female-in-appearance monster that is designed to look like a spider with horns on her head, but in the prose, in that same chapter, the monster is not described as anything like that - she's just a hideous, leaky, pimply, pus-filled mess of a creature ('pus' is incorrectly spelled as 'puss' every time it is mentioned in the book). It's a shame because a lady arachnoid, a giant black widow spider, sounds like an awesome monster for the magical girls to battle.

The chapters get increasingly, overly long, to boot. There are many typos - more editing and proofreading was needed - but then again, these days I've seen more typos in books from renowned publishing houses; this isn't only a problem in self-published works.

Yet, in spite of these flaws...

'magnifiqueNOIR Book One' is a geek girl's dream, and is full of heart and style. It is brimming with pop culture references, especially those of the video game and anime communities, and most of them are charming and cute instead of annoying and forced. It's like a better, feminist, more-loving-and-enthusiastic version of 'Ready Player One'. However, a few of the references, and the political and social climate of 'magnifiqueNOIR Book One', like in the attitudes towards queer people existing (wow are a lot of the older generation bafflingly ignorant and irritating), do give away that it came out in 2017.

How sad is it that nowadays I consider 2017 to be a long time ago? These last several years have been long, heavy, exhausting, regressive, worrying, dreary and deeply depressing, haven't they?

Oh look, positivity! And 'magnifiqueNOIR Book One: I Am Magical' is bursting with glittery, explosive positivity.

There's the wonderful inclusivity, the memorable, bright, literally colourful characters, and baking and cupcakes, and 8-bit pixels, as well as magical girl awesomeness! The magnifiqueNOIR girls' names are Galactic Purple, Cosmic Green, Radical Rainbow, and Prism Pink (who appears much later on and whose identity is a mystery)! They're great, vibrant, kaleidoscopic, magical Black queer heroines!

Maybe it would have been better if the whole thing had been a comic book instead of a prose novel.

I wish it could have been a bit more careful and thoughtful in its editing and characterisations and character consistencies (not to mention how it handles its flashbacks at the start).

But the passion, the commitment, the love for the characters, it's on every page. I don't know, maybe my love for the magical girl genre and diverse representation is clouding my judgement, but I think I might like 'magnifiqueNOIR Book One: I Am Magical' after all, when it is far from a masterpiece.

I've decided I will keep it. It's cool, cute and charming. And totally unlike anything you'll find in your average bookshop.

'magnifiqueNOIR Book One: I Am Magical' - A fangirl-made, western Magical GirlTM hidden gem.

Add this to the list of (legit) Magical GirlTM books I read and enjoyed in 2024. Others on the list are 'A Magical Girl Retires', 'Hovergirls', 'Flavor Girls', 'Save Yourself!', 'Sleepless Domain', 'Magic Girls: Kira and the (Maybe) Space Princess', and 'Winx Club' and 'W.I.T.C.H.' stuff.

Final Score: 3/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Pilu of the Woods' by Mai K. Nguyen

A lovely, sweet, sad, raw and heartfelt little all-ages graphic novel.

'Pilu of the Woods' could easily be a Cartoon Saloon film - there is a lot here that reminds me of 'The Secret of Kells', especially. A bit of 'Where the Wild Things Are', 'Bridge to Terabithia', and 'A Monster Calls' also come to mind.

It's the coming-of-age story of a young, grief-stricken tomboy named Willow, who goes to her favourite place, her escape - the woods near her home - after a fight at school, and a fight with her older sister at her house. It's in these woods where she meets a lost child forest spirit named Pilu. Willow sets out to take Pilu back home, determined to save her - and herself, from her own inner monsters. This symbolises Willow projecting her own feelings of loss and loneliness, and trying to fix her broken family and home, on her own.

'Pilu' explores themes and issues of grief, dealing with emotions in a healthy way, emotional instability, family connection and love, appreciating your loved ones, friendship, the woods and the wonders of nature, and how hard life is for a child - a lonely child, burdened with, and internalising, so much.

You'll learn a lot from reading 'Pilu of the Woods', and not only about plants, flowers, trees, mushrooms, fairy rings, and recipes (like mushroom rice!).

Mother Nature has more than one meaning in this story.

The art is gorgeous, adorable, rustic, dramatic, and suits the graphic novel brilliantly.

I had read and liked Mai K. Nguyen's latest work, 'Anzu and the Realm of Darkness', and I'm glad I finally checked out her previous book, which has made its mark in the graphic novel world.

The moral of 'Pilu of the Woods' is:

Bottling up your emotions, like anger and sadness, and grief and guilt, and trying to ignore them and keep them to yourself, never makes them go away. It makes them worse. It will make you miserable, irritable, and lost and helpless; even lash out eventually, like a stoppered volcano. You can't run from your feelings, for they are a part of you. It is not being kind to yourself, nor is it forgiving yourself, if you avoid confronting them. Calm down, and listen to them. Being a child who is carrying all this weight, all this pain, all these memories and broken promises, all by their lonesome, is especially harmful.

Be kind to yourself and others. Open up to your loved ones, and trust that they will understand you and what you are going through. That they love you. And the people you love and have lost are never really gone, as long as you remember them, and keep on loving them.

It's difficult, seemingly impossible. But it will get better. For life moves on, moves forward. You should never be alone in your suffering.

Plus, 'Pilu' has a cute dog in it!

It is iconic, as well as very sad and harrowing, yet uplifting and hopeful by the end.

What a woodsy, flowery, shroomy (not a word, I know), rainy, beautiful, pygmy-mole's-star-nose of a comic.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'The Final Girls' by Cara Ellison (Writer), Sally Cantirino (Artist), Gab Contreras (Colourist), Joamette Gil (Letterer)

'The Final Girls' - created by a whole team of female comic book writers and artists - is like a 2020s feminist version of 'Watchmen', that tackles themes and topics such as rape culture and the MeToo movement head-on, but abridged to just 168 pages. I really wish it could have been longer, and the characters developed and explored more. But as it is, this comic is good at what it sets out to achieve. Something like it needs to exist.

This gritty, political little superhero indie comic delves into "female empowerment" in ways both overt, and nuanced and understated. It highlights how there is no true definition of the term; it is all about complex and flawed women - real women, powers or no powers, immortal beings or not - who have been hurt, damaged, used and abused often and in varying degrees of traumatic, devastating weight.

It says: No matter the era, as long as the patriarchy rules over everything, it is impossible to be a woman. The (double) standards are too high. The hatred of them too great. There is no "acceptable" way for women to exist. For a woman to live her life however she damn well pleases. For herself.

A content warning for sexual assault, self-harm, and attempted suicide, is needed, if you decide to pick up 'The Final Girls'.

It acknowledges and shows how the patriarchy hurts men as well. It traps them. It stunts them. Stunts their growth - their emotional growth, their maturity. And their empathy.

As well as superheroes, the not-so-weird-and-implausible world of 'The Final Girls' contains vampires - there is a lesbian vampire, who is with the Asian, eyepatch-wearing, divorced bisexual lead heroine, whose power is absorbing people's emotions and hurt (that cuts deep) - and heroines who are from mythology and legends, and a heroine with a strong Scottish dialect (Doric, to be precise). The comic is also social media fab-and-fad - if you get my drift - in conjunction with its social commentary, and it includes the heroines' favourite playlists.

I praise 'The Final Girls' for its diversity in terms of race, sexualities, and body types. And for the majority of it being set in Scotland. I love Scotland and Scottish people! It is the Final Girls' get-together place, their safe space - one of which is at Falcon Hall, and the other is a pub, The Styx, at the Arse End of Nowhere.

I like that the women's comradery, and group and friendship support, as well as the fact that they were and still are a superhero team, is made clearer by the end, when it wasn't really developed at the beginning. Some things about the comic are confusing, and confusingly paced.

But you know what? Any comic nowadays that attempts to set right what so many lauded male comic writers (and male writers in general) have done hideously wrong in the past - in their stories and in their personal lives, and quotes - and who continue to be praised by the world for it, gets a huge thumbs up from me.

The MeToo movement simply means having abusers face the consequences of their actions. It is a decent, moral and common sense thing that sadly too many men will sink to any and all depths to desperately avoid. The long-overdue movement and rallying cry - that is heartbreakingly even more relevant than ever in 2024 - means at least trying to get these men to do the right thing, to see, and to think about and understand their victims' feelings... no matter how futile this may be, no matter how many mistakes and fuckups are made along the way in trying to do what is right - that is the heart and goal of 'The Final Girls'.

The Final Girls are heroes, and survivors.

They are not the final ones out.

But, er, are they all immortal? This is another confusing point that's left unaddressed.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Jupiter Nettle and the Seven Schools of Magic' by Sangu Mandanna (Writer), Pablo Ballesteros (Artist)

'Learning magic isn't always as bewitching as it sounds.'

'Jupiter Nettle and the Seven Schools of Magic' - there isn't much I can say about it. It's a simple children's magic boarding school graphic novel, about believing in yourself, appreciating what you have and what you can do, appreciating nature and the earth, patience, figuring out where you belong, and how everyone is special and important.

There is a lot of 'The Owl House' in it, as well as Archie's 'Sabrina', 'The Worst Witch', and, ahem, that other children's magic boarding school series that shall not be named. 'Jupiter Nettle' has been compared to 'The Okay Witch', too, which I see, and adore.

There's a sarcastic talking black cat (of course), unicorns, dragons, ghosts, a two-headed dog that's strangely never acknowledged by the characters, and a (useless) monarchy. Additionally, 'Jupiter Nettle' contains a pleasantly surprising number of feminist themes, angles and twists. The comic stars many great female characters, and it has two female witch/mage school professors who are married to each other! We need more LBGTQ+ inclusion and normalisation in middle grade books like this.

The art is cartoony, colourful, and terribly, terribly cute.

Overall, 'Jupiter Nettle and the Seven Schools of Magic' is cute, charming, funny, and is rife with super important messages. It could have had more depth and originality to it, with no need to be limited by its young target demographic; who are smart, and who understand, are thrilled by, and who feel inspired by, more than we give them credit for. Oh, and the magical stardust flower power plot point doesn't really go anywhere.

But oh well, it's nice as it is. This middle grade magic boarding school comic about magical farming contains an abundant growth of beautiful, enchanting, feminist elements and tastes that I love, so I'm keeping it.

I haven't liked anything else by rising-in-sudden-popularity author Sangu Mandanna in the past, but I do like her first children's graphic novel writing outing. I wonder if there will be a sequel...

Huh. It turns out I did have much more to say about 'Jupiter Nettle' than I'd thought. I always end up writing longer reviews than I thought I would. It all just comes out of my heart and mind, to my fingertips!

Well, never mind. I'll write one more thing for now:

What else is 'Jupiter Nettle' about? What are its other themes? - I know! Finding magic in the mundane, the unexpected, the "unmagical", in life. And friendship and community.

Everyone belongs somewhere. Everyone deserves magic in their lives if they want it badly enough. And kinships.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Sleepless Domain - Book One: The Price of Magic' by Mary Cagle, Oscar Vega

'Sleepless Domain' is a Magical GirlsTM webcomic that definitely wears its 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' influence on its sleeve. Its puffy, ribbony, yet tragic sleeve.

It looks like a 'Pretty Cure' series, or even 'Ojamajo Doremi', but there is a darkness to it, that lurks, and then pounces, blows, shocks and shatters at the middle of the book, and after that, nothing is the same again.

There's also a bit of 'Mystery Men', 'Silent Hill', 'Nimona', and school drama (a school for magical girls!) in 'Sleepless Domain'. I love the art and aesthetic of the whole comic - so colourful, bold, sparkly, and alive, which makes the tragedy, grief and guilt turn all the more effective. Together with its claustrophobic fantasy city setting - where everyone is boxed in for their "protection" from monsters from the outside world (or so it seems), and where practically every one of the limited cast of characters is a magical girl, and not by choice - there is a feeling of doom and entrapment throughout. This major theme has even been spelled out to readers from the very beginning with the comic's rather ominous title.

'Sleepless Domain' is really diverse. There are people with different body types and faces, and of different races, and there is a subtle sapphic inclusion and bloom. Bright anime hair colours, eye colours and costume colours are not the only things that matter here.

Disappointingly, the first published volume is four chapters long, and it has no real conclusion. Loads of plot points, threads, and characters are left hanging. Loads of mysteries. It feels like an introduction to a series more than anything else. It is a webseries that started in 2015, and this volume was published in 2018, but as far as I know, 'Sleepless Domain - Book One: The Price of Magic' has no Book Two. It is supposedly continuing, but is it? Does it have an ending? If not, will it ever get one? You can't leave us hanging like this! It's not fair!

'Sleepless Domain' - at the risk and danger of spoiling anything further, I'll leave off by saying, admittedly depressingly, yet fittingly enough, that it is a Magical GirlsTM story that twists the "pink magical girl is always the leader and the most powerful and saves the day by herself at the end" cliché on its decapitated head, and it asks the question, "What would happen if Sailor Mercury suffered the worst tragedy of her life?", with the beginnings of an answer.

Highly recommended for magical girl fans and readers of webcomics.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Graphic Novel Review - 'Meesh the Bad Demon: The Secret of the Fang' by Michelle Lam

A fun, dynamic and relevant sequel to 'Meesh the Bad Demon', with many callbacks to the first story (seriously, nothing is forgotten about), expanded worldbuilding and history, and actual stakes and threats. It continues the story of young Meesh and her friends, and feels like it needs to exist.

There are themes of friendship, family, community, believing in yourself, and overcoming your insecurities - the usual, predictable fare - but also deforestation, destitution, prejudice, scapegoating, displacement, homelessness, classism, late stage capitalism, creation and destruction differences, and weapons of war. It's about how division for any reason destroys us all in the end. It is a violence, a poison - in this case, it is literal.

There's a clear divide between the children who are passionate fighters and want to help and do something, and the adults who have lost hope, are jaded, and have become complacent (or who are just too embarrassed to admit their mistakes, and won't do anything about them now). Scared. Helpless. Angry. Silent. Under the guise of "protecting" the youth, aka the next generation who will suffer the most from the previous generation's dangerous, shortsighted, colossal errors in judgement (and plain old ease and laziness, hindering progress). They need to take responsibility, as well.

Like its first volume, 'Meesh the Bad Demon: The Secret of the Fang' is not as wholesome as it appears, but it's still cute! The characters are cute and likeable. The artwork is wonderful - colourful, sweet, shady, shadowy, dramatic, expressive, and plum fresh! - as is expected, and it suits the book so well.

In this subsequent, final (?) volume, we find out what happened to Meesh's mother, and why Meesh lives with her grandmother. And - slight spoiler - the big bad problem is not sorted this time by magic. Not the way you'd expect, anyway. It's not an ultimate-magical-girl-transformation-waves-wand-and-sparkles-fix-everything solution at the epic climax. The ending may surprise you.

Kindness, compassion, understanding, working together, and learning from past mistakes and building bridges must be the answer, for us all to survive.

'Meesh the Bad Demon: The Secret of the Fang' could have done a little better with its character development - especially in regards to Meesh, as the protagonist fighting for attention in the sea of so many other characters. Scenes, events, plot elements and plot threads happen fast; the pacing - throughout the book on its own and in its transition from volume one to volume two - isn't quite as smooth and seamless as it should have been.

But it's an adorable children's action fantasy comic that doesn't get too dark, that isn't too violent, with a 75% satisfactory ending, with a bright, hopeful future for this fantasy world. A world where a girlchild at heart like me would love to live in.

Wonderful, wonderdust stuff, containing vitally relevant real life messages.

I hope 'Meesh the Bad Demon' becomes a cartoon series or movie someday.

Link to my review of 'Meesh the Bad Demon' here.

Final Score: 3.5/5

Book Review - 'Sunday The Sea Witch' by Andrea Stein, Cayce Matteoli (Illustrator)

A positive, magical review on Friday the thirteenth.

About a book where the main character is named Sunday.

Oh my good goddesses and queens, what a lovely picture book 'Sunday The Sea Witch' is.

It has practically everything I love and things I didn't realise I loved before: redhaired witch girls, wicca imagery, spellcasting, the sea, the crescent moon, seashells, mermaids, otters, jellyfish, octopi, seals, dolphins, the woods, frogs, pinecones... so much sea life and woodland life!

I want Sunday's life!

It also made me feel nostalgic for the houses and cottages I used to visit on holidays when I was a young girl. Some of those houses were by the sea. Like Sunday, I used to collect shells and stones from the beach, and stuff from wherever there were trees near my home. How wild and magical and dreamlike things are when you are a child; full of possibilities, and opportunities to get down and dirty.

'Sunday The Sea Witch' is at its core about finding yourself, and your inner spark and magic again, after a big change in your life. Change is good, and you're still you, no matter where you are. Whatever your change in affinity is - like with your magic and/or childlike wonder - it is always a positive thing to explore and expand your horizons; therefore you expand on your craft. You still have your heart, as you continue to grow and experience life.

Never lose yourself; what makes you you. Never lose your confidence.

There are beautiful illustrations and rhymes, as well.

'Sunday The Sea Witch' - what a me picture book!

Final Score: 5/5