In a world where Mother Nature has abandoned everyone but the witches, one young witch must find safety from humans.
Before we start the review…
Who wrote this manga?
This manga was written by Yumeji.
Info about the series
- There are 6 volumes published in Japanese.
- There are 5 volumes published in Japanese.
You can check out this series for yourself below.
What happens in volume one?
A long time ago, all the creatures on earth lived together in harmony. They were able to hear each other’s voices, and could easily empathize with each other.
Things were indeed peaceful, until humans appeared. Unable to hear any of nature’s voices, humans were able to destroy nature without guilt or remorse. This greatly shifted the power balance in the world, and humans quickly rose up.
Feeling remorse for the pitiful creatures so easily killed off by humans, Mother Nature hid all of her children’s presence away.
Now, the only human-like creature that is permitted to live around nature are the witches. The humans, having long proved themselves to be unable to coexist with anything peacefully, now live in stony, barren villages. Most have never seen grass, trees, or animals.
Among the witches, we are introduced to our protagonist Pilli, and her mentor Toura. The two of them live together in a small forest hidden away from the nearby village. Pilli is still learning how to be a proper witch, and is feeling like a fraud due to not being able to hear Mother Nature’s voice—something witches pride themselves on.
She doesn’t have much time to lament her troubles, as Toura soon falls ill, forcing Pilli to run out to the human’s village in search of a doctor.
Upon entering the village, Pilli is shocked at the state of it. None of the vendors have any medicine, let alone the means to call a doctor, and she ends up being witness to a witch being burned at the stake in the middle of the town.
Pilli quickly learns that the humans view witches as selfish creatures who steal Mother Nature for themselves. As she’s watching the scene, she bumps into a strange man who offers his sympathy to the burning witch, claiming that witches ought to be protected, not burned.
Pilli takes this comment to mean that the man is a witch sympathiser, and invites him into her forest home to save Toura.
The man arrives the next day, amazed at the sight of the lush greenery surrounding her house. He then calls out a signal, and tens of soldiers make their way into her forest, and begin collecting all of her and Toura’s belongings.
It turns out this man is actually a researcher, and when he said “witches should be protected” he really meant “witches should be preserved as study materials”.
During the scuffle, a gift Toura gave to Pilli comes to life, appearing as a giant wolf-plant. This wolf is the first of Mother Nature’s voices that Pilli is able to hear, and it also protects her from the researcher and the soldiers.
Once the threat is momentarily gone, Pilli and the wolf agree to set out for Eden, a place where witches are safe from humans.
My thoughts on this volume
Prior to reading this volume, I had heard quite a few people compare this to Witch Hat Atelier. At first, I thought that the only similarities were that they are both stories about witches, but they really are quite similar in tone as well!
I think Pilli is an incredibly realistic character, and she can’t really be faulted for any of the mistakes that she makes throughout the volume. As a young witch who grew up without any contact with the outside world, it makes sense that she doesn’t think people would lie to her face. As she never had to doubt Toura, why would things be all that different with others?
Even after she goes through this betrayal, she keeps her kindness. I’m interested in seeing whether the events of the story eventually harden her, or if she is able to keep this kindness to the end.
Her wolf-plant travel partner is also a very interesting character. It’s alluded that they’re the personification of Mother Nature herself, as it was born out of the “key” to Eden. I think it will prove to be a good guardian to Pilli as she makes her journey, as it was a good voice of reason for her in this volume.
What I liked most about this volume
❤️ The artstyle – it’s a little bit dark and gritty, but still beautiful. I feel like it matches the tone of the story very well!
🧡 Pilli not understanding anything about the state of the town she lives right beside. It helps amplify the fact that even though they are right beside each other, she has has no exposure to the human world until now.
💛 Pilli and the witch making eye contact during the stake burning. It implies that witches are able to sense each other in a crowd, which would make sense! If they can hear nature’s voices, surely they can seek each other out as well.
💚 The researcher’s betrayal – he did such a fantastic job of deceiving and preying upon Pilli. I feel like he’s the perfect villain for a story like this, as he’s so easy to hate.
💛 The researcher being close to understanding, but still so far. He understands that witches are the key to living with nature, but doesn’t see the harm in killing and torturing them for his research.
🧡 The wolf-plant appearing out of its pot for the first time – it was absolutely unexpected, and incredibly impactful.
❤️ Pilli making friends in the mining town – I was happy to see that she is still able to bring herself to trust humans, even if some do betray her.
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