Translated by Stephen Kohler
155 pages
Published 2020 (English translation published 2021)
Read August 5
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Both for budgetary reasons and to eke out the remaining volumes, I’ve been rationing how many I can order each month. For August, I’ve obtained volumes 8, 9, and 10. I’m saving 11 and 12 (where the extant run of translated tankÅbon ends) for September.
This volume begins a new story arc, with Coco (and the rest of Qifrey's atelier) preparing to go to the Silver Eve festival in Ezrest, to help out Tartah at his stationery booth. Tartah's childhood crush on Coco is perhaps the least interesting plotline in this series for me, so centering that crush (and Tartah) made this a middling volume at best.
I get that the focus on Tartah and Custas (who hasn’t been able to walk since the river flood way back in Volume 2) is to provide more of a commoner’s-eye point of view, a desire to change the world to help ordinary people, chafing against all the ancient restrictions on magic. The conflict between the desire to change the world for the better, and the very good reasons to restrict magic, is one of the core themes of the series, so it makes sense to highlight it this way, complicating Coco’s allegiances as we build toward the denouement. It underlines important concepts of privilege, accessibility, and equity.
Still, I just never clicked with Tartah as a character. It seems like a waste to focus so much on him when literally any of the characters in the atelier could use the airtime. Maybe that’s just my opinion, though. “This character isn’t my favorite” is a silly critique of a children’s manga from someone who’s an adult and not the target audience.
Shirahama’s artwork remains as impressive as always, though it doesn’t get the same chance to shine here as it did in Volume 7.
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