The Dawn of the Witch, Vol. 1 by Kakeru Kobashiri and Tatsuwo

 
The Dawn of the Witch, Vol. 1 by Kakeru Kobashiri and Tatsuwo
My Rating: ★★★

I received a copy from Kodansha Comics through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Saybil, known as Sayb, is a magic student on his way to becoming a mage. At least, he hopes being a mage is in his future because he’s the worst student the Academy of Magic has ever seen. Horrible at magic and unable to remember his past, Sayb’s last shot at not having his memories from the academy sealed away is scrape by with a passing grade in a special class. Unfortunately, he and his classmates may never make it to the class when things go awry, and they find themselves in danger while in transit.

I went into this book expecting magic school hijinks. I supposed you could say there were magic school hijinks, but it was definitely not what I was expecting. We follow Sayb, who is one step away from flunking out of the Academy of Magic. He also suffers from amnesia and doesn’t remember anything from before he was discovered by Professor Los, who is leading the way to the special class.

The synopsis described their adventures as a field trip, but is it really a field trip if the class can last up to eight or so years? I’m not picky about that, but if you’re expecting magic school shenanigans on a field trip, just expect less shenanigans while the characters are traveling to their long-term destination. That said, the book does go back and forth between comedy and serious drama. One of the main plots of the book has to do with witch hunters. How they appear to the characters is quite serious, as expected, so prepare yourself.

I thought that the core story was quite interesting. I loved the world building and learning about the character’s backgrounds. The book is also exposition heavy at times to establish the story, which makes a lot of sense since this is setting up a series, so it didn’t bother me much. I will say that one of the info drops is very text heavy, so if that’s not something you want to see in your graphic novels, this may not be up your alley.

My only complaint about this book is that there is a lot of panels devoted to randomly sexualizing the female characters. Hopefully this is something that gets abandoned because it makes absolutely no sense and just comes out of nowhere every time it happens.