In Volume 1, we meet Mari a girl at a school for witches who apparently has no magic. Assigned to help her in her studies is top student Alice who has a great deal of magic, and who has been warned to never fall in love. As I say in my review, ” Mari and Alice discover that they can transcend not only their personal limitations, but the strictures placed upon witches. Mari becomes a key and a lock, which Alice unlocks. In doing so, she finds herself changed.”

In A Witch’s Love At The End of The World, Volume 2, Kujira’s tale of magic and loss and love takes a shocking turn, as Mari and Alice find themselves wandering Mari’s old neighborhood…only to discover that all traces of her family have been disappeared completely. The situation is not at all cleared up when Madam Dolly finds them and sends them back to the school. Alice is feeling feeling she has been explicitly warned to stay away from and Mari, who doesn’t really care about being a witch at all, just wants to know what the heck is going on.

This book reminds me a great deal of a story from my childhood that I loved. The multiple perspectives of same events and characters trying to understand those perspectives. It’s not at all the same story, but it has a similar feel. As a result, I find myself probably more engaged with Mari’s quest to find the truth and make a path for her and Alice through this than maybe I might otherwise might have. In any case, I still enjoy the art – which has become much more filled in now that Mari and Alice are in the “real” world –  and the characters. I hope the story will hold up to through the end.

Yen’s edition is nicely put together, featuring the translation of Eleanor Summers and lettering stylings by Sara Linsley (who, relevantly, just had a great little Twitter thread about lettering over art.)

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – The jump comes from an unlikely quarter, but…yes
Service – Still not really

Overall – 8

Volume 3 will be out in May, and I’m hoping for the ending I want, not the ending it’ll probably get. ^_^

Thanks so much to Yen Press for the review copy and for bringing out this interesting story.