Sep 21, 2017
A beautiful, fun and fluffy semi-slice-of-life manga with a lot cute moments and surprisingly great world building and fantasy elements. If I had to compare it with something, I might describe it as "Yotsuba in fantasy land," but obviously there are still a ton of differences.
The story is about the daily adventures of a newly retired knight captain, who has bought a house and settled down, and an adorable little witch girl. It follows the classic episodic formula you'd find in other slice-of-life manga of problems appearing/events happening and being solved once every chapter or two, although there are quite a few important story and ... character elements in the background that are addressed and develop multiple times. Along with these important story elements comes drama at times, but the overall feel of this manga is undoubtedly light hearted.
The character themselves don't feel overly cliched and it's just generally great to see them interact. Especially the (somewhat classic) dynamic between the fatherly, but fun knight captain Astra and the hilarious and cute Noah. Special mention goes to Astra's interactions with his former bosses and subordinates too. So far we've seen friendships blossom and rekindle, and hints of romance as well.
Another special mention also goes to the numerous side characters of different races. Many of these characters have some interesting personalities and customs that shows that the author has put effort and thought about the characters and races themselves, even if they don't get much screentime. Harpies have a fun greeting custom. Nidhoggs are blind dragons that are actually mostly scavengers despite their fierce appearance.
The author even draws some complex and pretty magic circles and explains that each spell has its own, and many other little interesting details about the world are given, including in the extra pages -- so be sure to read it all.
This shows a quality of world building that's sadly unexpected of manga nowadays that follow the japanese-high-fantasy-esque genre of swords and magic. It's not super detailed everywhere, but there are loads of little fun things here and there. It would be way too much to expect crazy deep levels of detail while still keeping the cute and comedic pace going anyway. Even if the world is influenced by other works such as games that the author's played, it's still refreshing to see rather than the same old generic creatures and races being thrown at you over and over again from other jap-high-fantasy manga.
The author has also included their personal music loving flair as an influence, and it shows. The chapter names are based on rock and metal songs. The characters' names and designs are sometimes based off of music genres or musicians. Even if it's not an immediately obvious thing, it's great to see an author's own personal influences be included in their work and make it just that much more refreshing.
The art also needs to be talked about. While the general quality of the art is pretty good but not absolutely spectacular, and a few panels here and there are done with less detail, the author gifts us with loads of beautiful watercoloured pages and coloured digitally(?) painted pages, which are a feast for the eyes.
Overall, this manga is a great example of funny and fluffy slice of life in a surprisingly great fantasy setting that isn't totally generic like so many before. Coupled with the beautiful watercoloured pages and the author's fun personality reflected in the details of the world, I really thoroughly enjoyed what I've read so far.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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