What's It About?

Zoe, Shishka, and Eliza have very little in common. Zoe is a failed witch and a hopeless romantic, Shishka is a shop owner with a mysterious past, and Eliza is… well, a scarab beetle. However, the three of them do share something important: they are all recently widowed, and none of them is willing to give up on their beloveds!

From spells that go hilariously wrong to uncovering their island home's hidden past, this story of romance and friendship is truly magical!

Merry Witches’ Life has a story and art by Menota, with an English translation by Katie Kimura and lettering by Vibrant Publishing Studio. Published by TOKYOPOP (May 13, 2025). Rated T for Teen.

CONTENT WARNING: Suicide contemplation.

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Is It Worth Reading?

MrAJCosplay
Rating:

Sometimes manga will tell a story that almost feels like a fairytale, or in this case, it feels like the sequel to a tragic fairytale story. A young witch and her friend leave their old village to explore the world. Our main character falls in love and leads a happy life with a young man in a small village. That man tragically passed away, thus leaving our poor witch all alone. What if there were a way to bring their lover back from the dead?

While I think the introduction of the story could have played up the tragedy a bit more, considering that our lead was ready to end her life within the first five pages, I think that extreme opening was part of the point. Our story follows three young widows, who all recently lost their husbands and are now studying magic to bring them back. However, there is more going on in this village than just that. We have mysterious newcomers and established veterans of the village working their plans or trying their best to deal with their own uncomfortable situations. There is a relatively dark tone that permeates throughout, but the innocence of our three leads counterbalances it. One of them is a bug that is also trying to figure out how this new element of the world works.

The girls all genuinely feel like good friends fighting for the same thing. We don't see much in the way of how expansive this world of magic is, but I like a lot of the darker implications of some of the things going on behind the scenes. The art style also feels weirdly nostalgic, with some backgrounds looking picturesque. I wouldn't say there's anything in this story that's mind-blowing, but something about the atmosphere really draws you in. It's both comforting and unsettling at the same time, but rather than those tones conflicting, they mesh well to create a unique experience. Even if we don't know the overall direction of the story, we have a goal and a unique vibe. Sometimes that's all you need.

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Dee
Rating:

There's nothing egregiously wrong with Merry Witches' Life. It begins with tragedy, but develops into a laid-back fantastical slice-of-life about three widowed gal pals learning magic together. There are touches of comedy, the macabre, and more than a few touches of mystery about the tiny village of Berlebagille and the supernatural elements that swirl around it.

Given all the talking animals, spooky spirits, and magical mishaps, I can imagine a version of this story that charms my socks off. And some parts come close, especially during its more humorous moments of shapeshifting beetles and grouchy owls. But there's a lack of depth and vitality to the pencil-sketch art that often struggles to convey the wonder inherent in this world. There are ways to make black-and-white comics burst with life, but this one often feels as gray as it looks.

So instead of charming my socks off, it's just nice. Not good. Not bad. Just nice. And with such a relaxed pace and disjointed storytelling style (plot points get mentioned in one chapter, then seemingly forgotten, then picked back up again) this series needed to be able to coast on its charm. Without that, it tends to drag, to the point where I kept checking the page count, shocked I wasn't closer to the end. Fewer speech bubbles and more expansive panels of magic and nature would have gone a long way towards expanding the world without slogging through it.

Merry Witches' Life has enough solid components (and no exceptionally weak ones) that it could develop into a respectable iyashikei. And maybe readers with more patience for its meandering pace will have a better time than I did. For me, though, this first volume lives at the center of the Mediocre Valley, a sadly unremarkable place to be.