Magic Artisan Dahlia Wilts No More – Volume One Manga Review

After being reborn in a world full of magic, Dahlia promises herself to never again bow her head. Will she be able to follow in her new father’s footsteps and become a magical apparatus inventor, or will she fall back into her old habits?

Scroll to the bottom for a link to sample and buy volume one!

Author

This series was written by Hisaya Amagishi X, Megumi Sumikawa, and Kei.

Genre & Tropes

Isekai, fantasy, romance.

Info about this series (ongoing)

This series is ongoing in Japanese with nine volumes currently released.

It is ongoing in English with eight volumes currently released.

TL;DR rating

While I did overall enjoy this volume, I think this series would shine more without any romance. I want to see Dahlia thrive as a magical inventor!

Official synopsis

Reincarnated in a fantasy world, Dahlia immerses herself in the art of crafting magical items. Using knowledge from her old life and the skills her new father has taught her, she invents specialized tools, finding pleasure in everyday activities. Dahlia won’t hang her head in misery like she used to. She’s determined to enjoy her second chance at life!

My thoughts on this volume (Mild spoilers!)

After being worked to death in her first life, Dahlia promises herself to do what she wants in her second. She lived her first life with her head constantly hung down—be it because she was apologizing to customers at a job she hated, or feeling ashamed that her work caused her to lose contact with her loved ones, she lived a life full of regret. So, she sees a new shot at life the perfect excuse to try to be just a little more selfish.

She discovers her calling at a very quick age—she wants to create magical inventions, just like her new father. I thought their bond was so sweet, as her father really seemed to cherish her! We really need more good father daughter relationships in manga…

I ended up having rather mixed feelings about her father by the end of the volume, but that doesn’t change the fact that I really liked how he treated Dahlia when she was a child. Though she was a prodigy, she needed to be constantly kept in check—otherwise she would have almost definitely blown herself up. Her father’s loving but strict nature surely saved her life more than a few times. Her having good ideas but failing in the application also felt very realistic! Having a father around who could see the potential in her, and who could properly teach her the fundamentals of the craft, in my opinion, are what allowed Dahlia to grow as much as she did.

My favourite thing about this volume was how in-depth it got about all of the various magic creations and their patents. Rather than focusing on all of the magic and wonder behind the creations, it instead focuses on the logistics. So you want to make a waterproof raincoat… How would you go about procuring the materials? Where would you even begin? What would you do once your project is complete to protect it from would-be copycats? This volume touches on all these subjects and more.

Because this is a fantasy series, a good majority of the process is different from how I would assume it would be in the real world, but it still feels very realistic. For example, Dahlia goes about purchasing various slime monsters and dries them out, trying to decide on the best material to use for a coat. She then has a friend do market research on all of the potential slime skins to figure out which would be most well received by the public. Once the whole product is completed, she has to find a company to help her with distribution, and files for a patent.

As the majority of Dahlia’s inventions are inspired by her first life, none of them felt all that groundbreaking to me. That’s why I was so happy to see the story focus more so on the act and result of creation, as that was a whole new world for me. I certainly never thought of how long to wait before creating a derivative of a product already on the market. The fantasy setting just makes it feel all that more interesting!

To me, there was just one thing holding this manga back from becoming a favourite of mine: the “romance“.

I feel like this volume would have shined just a little brighter had there been no romance subplot. Well, can you really call it romance if it’s a forced engagement started by two fathers? This setup by Dahlia’s father really had me confused. We went from him proclaiming that he would never give Dahlia up to another man unless he could prove himself a worthy protector… to him signing her up to marry the first seemingly decent boy that appeared in her life. His reasoning for wanting the two of them to get married was just “you’re both inventors, you’ll support each other,” and that was it.

I had whiplash from just how quickly he flipped on her. Dahlia, who had claimed to want to live a life where she would no longer hang her head surprisingly agreed to the engagement, and slowly allowed her fiance to change just about everything that made Dahlia, Dahlia. I was so frustrated watching it all go happen, as who enjoys watching strong women get forced to fit inside a box!?

Thankfully the engagement subplot ends rather quickly, but it lead me to be confused as to why it happened in the first place. Was it to give Dahlia the push to finally take drastic measures to show her talents off to the world? I’m choosing to believe so, otherwise it just feels like she suffered for nothing.

I have a strong feeling that the now ex-fiance isn’t the only romantic interest in this series, so we’ll have to see if the next man that comes along is actually worth Dahlia’s time.

Check out a free sample below!

You can check out volume one of this series for yourself below!

Adabana / 徒花 – Volume Two Manga Review

If you thought volume one was dark… you haven’t seen anything yet.

Scroll to the bottom for a link to sample and buy volume two!

Author

This series was written by NON. You can find their X here.

Genre & Tropes

Psychological horror.

Info about this series (ongoing)

This series is completed in Japanese with three volumes. It is ongoing in English with two volumes currently released.

TL;DR rating

I was rather conflicted with this one. The storytelling, pacing, art, hopeless atmosphere… Everything was amazingly crafted. My only problem with it is that it was so dark that I can only recommend it to a very specific audience.

Trigger warnings

This volume is rather heavy, so please only read if you are comfortable with the following topics being discussed:

• Sexual assault by a family member
• Hidden cameras
• Sexual blackmail
• Exploitation of a minor

My thoughts on this volume (Mild spoilers!)

Volume two kept the same overall dark and depressing tone of volume one, but this time we follow around the disappeared best friend, Mako. I say “disappeared” and not “murdered”, as I refused to believe that she is actually dead until we’re shown either her murder, or her body. Until then, I’m choosing to believe that Mizuki (the would-be murderer / best friend) somehow helped her escape this hell hole. While in volume one we follow the story of Mizuki and the detectives who are looking into the murder, volume two takes us back six months before the arrest.

As I wasn’t the biggest fan of the police storyline in the previous volume—I think this series works better when it tells us the story through the eyes of the girls, not when it follows the police trying to make sense of things—I was very happy with this change of pace! We still get to see some of our potential murderer, Mizuki, but the focus is overwhelmingly on Mako. Because both girls were forced to go through so many traumatic events, I think their perspective is by far the most interesting. I care less about the police members who failed to help them, and who still aren’t doing the best job of figuring out exactly what happened—at least in volume one.

We learn quite a lot about Mako in this volume, and every new thing made me feel more and more sorry for her. Her familial situation is one that no young person should ever have to go though, and then on top of that her creepy uncle… How he hadn’t been caught by the police by this point in the story, I’ll never know. The author did a wonderful job of making him an absolutely disgusting character, and I found myself cheering even more the second time we were shown his eventual death.

Every male character introduced in this series seems to range from incompetent to downright evil. The story focuses more so on the later, as we are shown some truly evil men. This volume focuses a lot on what I would refer to as realistic worst case scenarios. I found it to be so disturbing because while they were clearly amped up for the sake of drama, I could still imagine it happening in real life.

For example, Mako’s seemingly kind saviour-boyfriend slowly growing more and more controlling? That’s something commonly found in abusive relationships, right? Him filming her with his phone without her consent? Again, that’s absolutely something that could happen. Him going out of his way to set up spy cameras so he can still record her without having to hear her complaints? More outlandish, but again, realistically a deranged pervert could do it. And then, when it all blew up, threatening to release the videos should she try to leave him? It really doesn’t feel all that unrealistic.

This particular sequence of events is just one instance of the trauma that poor Mako is forced to endure in this volume. Even after she goes to the police, they aren’t able to do anything besides saying “leave it to us!” Like… Arrest the man who was filming sexually explicit videos of a minor maybe? Look into the home life of said minor, to figure out if she’s being properly taken care of? Do… literally anything??

By the end of the volume, I was ready for it to be over. The horrific situation Mako was in found a way to continue growing worse and worse, with no solution in sight. To comfort myself, I’m choosing to believe that Mizuki was able to help her erase all of the videos taken of her, and sent her away to another country to start a new life. Please, let them have at least a neutral ending…

In the next volume, if that perverted boyfriend doesn’t get what’s coming to him, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to handle it. My opinion on him from volume one to two could not have changed more drastically. While I had been finding him to be a suspicious character, I actually thought it was because he was cheating on Mako with Mizuki in some capacity. I was not ready for what actually happened. I need him in jail in place of Mizuki.

A theory I have: maybe the girls set up things for him to be sent to jail eventually, so Mizuki turned herself in even though she’s innocent, just to make a few allies in jail in anticipation of his arrival. She would tell a prisoner or two to “look out” for the monster, and get released when the police realize she’s innocent. That way she’ll get a little bit of revenge for Mako, and won’t have to endure any jail time for it!

With the depressing tone of the overall story I doubt this is where it’s going… but a girl can dream.

Check out a free sample below!

You can check out volume two of this series for yourself below!

New Manga Read - Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You, Volume 2

After feeling uncomfortable about the age gap in Volume 1, when I saw Volume 2 at the library, I decided to give it another shot.

It's cute. It's a slow burn, pun intentional. It's still weird, to me, the strange obsession with our female lead in cashier mode.

But, it's well written, love the art, and the characters are engaging.

So, even as I find the age gap dynamic a little odd and unsettling, I still enjoyed the second volume.

We'll see if I read 3.

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New Manga Read - The Muscle Girl Next Door

Skinny guy Daria lives next door to the incredibly muscular Ruby and he's head over heels into her. The entire series follows as he slowly tries to befriend and hopefully get her to notice him in a romantic way.

Daria is shy, nervous, and very skinny. Ruby is outgoing and very muscular. Daria's super into his muscle mommy neighbor.

It's largely a harmless and cute slow burn romance between these two characters with some friends along the way helping them actually get together.

Cute read I found at the library.

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New Manga Read - I Wanna Be Your Girl (Volume 1)

I Wanna Be Your Girl is the story of two teenage girls. One is cis-gender (Hime), and one has decided to be out as transgender (Akira) as she enter High School.

The primarily follows Hime as she tries to protect her friend facing transphobia. It also hits Hime facing her own feelings.

She has been in love with Akira for as long as she can remember. However, Akira is a girl. And she's grappling with what that means about her.

It's well done exploring these topics, so far. Checking out volume 2 if my library has it.

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New Manga Read - My Sister, The Cat (Volume 2-3)

This weekend, my oldest took the SAT's and I ended up waiting for him at the local library near the testing center. So, I finished up reading My Sister, The Cat.

It does not disappoint in a very cute story of found family with a human living with a cat family.

I don't know what else to say. It's a very cute story about family and sibling dynamics.

If that sounds cool to you, feel free to check it out.

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New Manga Read - My Sister, The Cat (Volume 1)

At the library with my youngest, when she found this. The premise? After a teenage boy's Mother dies, he's taken in by an all cat family, the Mom of whom was close friends with his late mother, as he finishes high school. Of note, he is the only human in the household.

The entire first volume introduces us to Nekota, the teen boy, and his little cat sister Neneko.

It's very cute story with a much older sibling and a much younger sibling dynamic. Plus cute cats.

It's very cute and sweet, which is all it needs to be.

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New Manga Read - Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution (Series)

Did you watch Pokémon: The First Movie? Did you watch the mediocre all CG remake from 2019? This manga is kind of a tie in to the remake from 2019.

The manga tells the story of Mewtwo. The origin of Mewtwo, him turning to Team Rocket for a while, then going off on his own. Also, the power of friendship saving the day.

I loved the original movie, so I was excited for a manga adaptation. It...was okay.

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New Read - Neon Genesis Evangelion, Omnibus 5 (Volumes 13-14)

Wow. Okay, so that's the end of Evangelion.

This is the final volume of the manga and a content warning, there's a lot of non-sexualized nudity that mirrors that which was shown in the anime.

But the ending. It's...different.

Shinji makes a different choice at the end, the world ends differently and honestly, I like this ending better than the original End of Evangelion movie ending.

All in all, I'm glad I read the manga. Glad I got into this series.

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