This is truthfully my first light novel that I have ever read, but I felt the need to branch out to a new medium recently. There are so many manga and anime being adapted from light novels, that I’ve kind of always thought I should at least check some of them out. However, I’ve always kind of thought the titles and concepts were a bit silly, so I’ve stayed away for a while. Recently, I’ve been getting drawn further and further into stories about magic and witchcraft, with all of the cool manga that’s been coming out, and it eventually led me to this particular light novel. Hello, I’m a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion (AKA Hello, I’m a Witch) has a similar story to a lot of the other manga I have been reading lately including The Alchemist Who Survived and many other witch related stories. It’s become a bit of a passion of mine, and I became very curious as to where going down the light novel rabbit whole might take me. As I jumped in, I was surprised to see how much I actually liked it and I’m actually looking forward to the second volume coming out later this year.
Hello, I’m a Witch follows the lonely life of a young witch, Rose, who has taken on the title of The Good Witch of Lake after her grandmother passed away. For the past four years, she’s had a crush on a certain royal knight named Harij after she witnessed him defending her name within the city. One night, Harij comes to her cottage and requests a particular potion, a love potion in fact. Wanting to increase the time she has with him, Rose sends him on repeated long quests for the ingredients, but gets more than she bargained for as the knight pays her repeated visits with food just for her. But what happens when she runs out of ingredients?
Obviously there’s not much I can talk about in terms of the art, though Vient certainly did a good job on the cover and the smattering of art throughout the novel. I like the character designs they came up with for the two main characters. Though we don’t get to see much of the art, what we do see, I did really enjoy. Rose’s character is really cute with her long pink hair and green robe. Harij is also pretty handsome, fitting the image of a royal knight who would be close to the royal family. I really like the idea of having a visual to refer to for the characters and a few scenes within the story. Though there are times where I like to build a visual of the characters for myself, the light novel style of providing character designs and scenes that depict the characters within the prose can be fun as well. I enjoyed seeing them pop up once and a while throughout the novel. I’m curious to see what, if anything, a manga adaptation of this might turn out to be.
I really did enjoy the story of this novel. Hello, I’m a Witch takes the concept of a shut-in, makes it into a witch, and adds in some romance. I guess you could basically describe Rose as the medieval equivalent of a NEET, though she does technically work. She lives by herself in a little cottage, in the middle of a forest, in the middle of a lake with only a little rowboat to reach her. She only goes into town once in a blue moon and basically subsists on lettuce until Harij comes along. She has a very low opinion of herself due to being so separate from the city and the low opinion of witches held by the people of the city. She lives by the code of witches who help those who come to them and do not ask questions about why these people need a certain item. But the secrecy of being a witch has created a very negative opinion of the profession throughout the nation. So when faced with her crush and a royal knight, it is understandable that she would have a tough time dealing with him.
Harij is a pretty interesting character. A royal knight charged with buying a love potion for his princess who is due to be married in a political arrangement. I don’t think he was quite expecting to have to deal with Rose, a very curious witch. At first he’s annoyed by her repetitive quests for items for the potion, and then he starts to see the humanity in her. Unlike the rest of the people in the village, he holds no negative feelings towards witches, and takes his role as a royal knight very seriously. It is one of the reasons Rose fell in love with him. His kindness is shown through food as he brings her baskets of bread, apples, and special treats every time he visits which becomes more frequent as she keeps delaying the completion of the potion. Overtime I think he gets swept up by her kindness and naivete, and begins to fall slowly in love with her.
The romance within the story is actually really sweet and I liked how it slowly built up between them over the course of the novel. Misconceptions were dispelled, Rose gets pulled out of her shell, and she finally gets to be with the person she’s been pining after for four years. I like romances where the characters support each other and help one another become better people. I think Harij is a good partner for her. He balances her lack of self confidence with his own overwhelming confidence as a knight. Rose isn’t by any means a push-over. She has her own inner strength that she uses to defend herself and her craft, but she can’t very well do everything herself like fend off angry villagers. Rose is very dedicated to her work and I think Harij is just the kind of person she needs to tell her to take a break and actually eat something once and awhile.
I’m really excited to see what the second volume holds for this series. I think there are only two volumes to the series, but from the first one, I think that should be enough space to tell the story these characters deserve. If you’ve had a chance to read this one, let me know what you thought in the comments below. I hope to be reading more light novels in the future. Let me know if you have any suggestions!
~~Thanks for Reading!~~
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