This light novel series (to be referred to as Hello, I’m a Witch) was one of the first series of this medium I ever read. I reviewed the first volume a while ago, and had the second volume sitting on my to-read shelf for a while before I had the chance to finish up the series. I remember loving the first volume and thinking the story was very cute, so when I was looking for more fantasy/ romance/ slice-of-life stories and comics to read, I thought I would circle back around to this series and finally finish the final volume. It wound up being a really quick read, and I finished it in an afternoon and almost wished I had taken my time. The second volume of Hello, I’m a Witch was just as good as the first, and maybe even better. I’m consistently surprised at the quality of the writing here. It really drew me in and made me love the characters and everything that was going on. It honestly made me wish there was more, but I can see how this final volume wraps up the story really well.
Hello, I’m a Witch volume two continues the tale of Rose, the Good Witch of the Lake, who has spent the majority of her life in seclusion, selling her potions to willing patrons who make the trek into her forest. After her lengthy one-sided crush on the Royal Knight Harij ends with her gaining the title of his Fiancee, she finds herself moving into his mansion and getting pampered by him and his staff. But Rose must now deal with living closer to humans, humans who have prejudices and preconceived notions about Witches. Things only become more hectic when a young girl comes up to her in the forest and asks to be her apprentice. She turns down her request, but things begin to become more complicated when a fake Love Potion begins to appear and cause problems among the nobility.
There’s not much to say about the art, but the light novel does come with a few full-color pages in the front that are very nice to look at. I love seeing how little snippets of this novel get translated into art, and the few color pages are all either important moments through the novel or scenes that show off the character’s personalities. One of them is a scene where Rose and Harij are at a ball and Rose is just obsessed with the desserts there. You can see Harij in the background giving her a face like, “Really??” It’s pretty cute. Another moment is when Rose gets interrogated about the fake love potion. It’s an important and emotional moment within the story itself so it was great to see it depicted here.
We also get a great depiction of Rose and Harij on their wedding day. I was having a little trouble picturing Rose’s dress, but I love how it was drawn in these full color pages. Their attire is much more elegant than I imagined, and I love how it looks on Rose. I’m still not fully used to reading light novels, but so far I’ve been enjoying seeing what moments get illustrated and how the characters are designed. For people who are used to reading regular prose, it might take some of the fun out of imagining what the characters look like yourself. However, sometimes it can also mean more mental energy to devote to reading and understanding the story.
This is the second and last volume in the series, though I hope at some point there will be more or even a manga adaptation. The first volume, I think, did a great job of setting up the main characters and their relationship. It gave us a look into Rose’s life and personality as well as setting up the world and general attitude of humans towards witches. This brings us very nicely into the story of the second volume where Rose makes her entrance into human society by moving into Harij’s home. This puts her in direct contact with people who have differing opinions on her status as a Witch, some good and others not so good. Where the first volume is Rose starting her relationship with Harij and becoming more confident in herself through his attention, this second volume is Rose making a place for herself within human society with Harij’s help, using her new-found confidence.
I loved seeing how Rose grew into herself as the story progressed. At the start, she is mistaken as a maid coming to work for Harij, but she doesn’t speak up for herself when she realizes the mistake being made. Probably from a combination of still thinking fairly low of her status in Harij’s and her own eyes and not being used to the glamour of living with humans and in Harij’s large mansion. It was really nice to see most of the servants be immediately accepting of her though, even when they knew she was a Witch. This comes off as another plus for Harij’s character that his servants trust him to make the right choices for who can join his household. With the addition of the new servant Mona, who is afraid of Witches, we see more development of Rose’s character as she has the chance to directly win someone over to trusting her. In time Mona even becomes a trusted confidant and someone she can go to for advice.
I think some of the biggest developments for Rose come in the form of discovering intimacy with Harij and how life at his mansion begins to increase her self-confidence. I would say that Harij is an ideal love interest. He’s supportive, allows her to continue to go out to her hut in the forest to make potions, knows she is fine with the simpler things in life but still loves to spoil her anyways. In the course of trying to increase their intimacy, we see just how patient he is with her. He doesn’t push, but he does make it known that he would like to be more physical with her, allowing Rose to choose the how and the when. In this way, I think we see just how much he cares for her. It’s the quality of the respect and patience he has with her that I think tells so much about how he sees her.
The biggest moment that we see character development with Rose is when she is accused of making the fake love potion that has made a few nobles sick. I think this becomes the final “aha” moment for her to truly cement how much Harij cares for her despite being a Witch. When Yasm traps her in the tower, she can’t help but backslide into thinking that it was wrong to trust humans, that maybe she should just go back to living in the forest. But as she’s thinking she’s going to be trapped in the tower, she regrets not being able to marry Harij. When Harij shows his love and trust for her by coming to rescue her, I think it finally clicks for her that she is loved, that people will be shitty, but she has the support of Harij to get through it.
I love how the story wound up ending, but I really do wish there was more. There’s a whole bunch more that could be done with the story now that Rose has an apprentice that just so happens to be a Princess. We could see more of her married life, training her apprentice, delve more into the history of Witches. It could be fun. Who knows if we’ll get more, but I’m certainly going to keep my eye out!
~~Thanks for Reading!~~
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