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?
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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.
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