Daydream Sanctuary Features

Thursday, October 6, 2011

[ Manga Discovery ] Liselotte & Witch's Forest


Liselotte & Witch's Forest (Liselotte to Majo no Mori )
by Takaya Natsuki

[ Demographic: SHOUJO ]
They say that on the eastermost part of the country, dangerous witches dwell. And that's just where the heroine decided to live.
(5 chapters read as of the date this blog entry was posted)

POTENTIAL: C+ (NOT BAD!) FAVORITISM: 2.5 Hearts (NEUTRAL)

Motivation: (What Made Me Check It Out)
*sees white haired bishie* WHO ARE YOU, DARLING? xD
And oh... I see TWINS *_* And fairy tale references? *_* Count me in! xD
Curses: (What Seems to be Bad About It)
Everyone's either bland or stereotypical or simply irritating (especially the familiar, which is UNBEARABLY annoying. And Art/Alto's usually my type... but I'm getting sick of his tsun tsun acts). It hadn't been that fun to watch the characters interact.
And I really hope it will give up on the lame and the redundant jokes. It's becoming very annoying.
I'm not impressed with the storytelling and I hopefully the cliches lessen.
He rescued her at the right moment. He came to her life when evil forces just start to hunt her. He wanted to stay at her house to become her bodyguard. He happened to be the one she's looking for for a long time. Ugh, what wonderful timing. I can understand perfect timings in fairy tale themed stories, but this is just too much.
Praises: (What Seems to be Good About It)
It had a good main plot, and had interesting story and character background. This might've been even more interesting if it focused or involves the past events (or people from the past, like the brother) already.
I like its slight mix on the dark elements (the witches).
The heroine was thankfully not crying like a damsel-in-distress when she was in danger.
Bias: (What's Keeping Me Hooked to It)
Enrich/Engetsu
Fangirl: (What I Love in It)
Enrich/Engetsu's such a bishie.
And oh, I laughed so hard when Engetsu ate her hair out of hunger, bwahaha (the only part that made me laugh though)
Nostalgia: (What It Reminds Me of)
Tobenai Majo (the witch thing; heroine lives on her own w/ younger assistant/s; the couple have known each other since long ago)
Overall:
The main plot of the story is actually good. It's about a princess on exile, and there was a serious reason behind that. But the series focused more on how incapable the princess is in doing almost everything when she started staying in her new home. It was frustrating. She's the useless-but-so-nice-so-can't-hate-and-she's-actually-super-good-in-something-powerful-but-that's-secret-for-now type that is usually pretty adorable but... I don't like the Natsuki Takaya kind =_=
This actually has good background, story and character-wise. Characterization (putting aside the character background and the design, I'm more of referring to the personality, behavior, role, etc.) and storytelling just suck.
I admit that it wasn't as horrible as the others, and had done much better compare to many of the typical magical shoujo out there. But still...  it was promising, but it focused on not-so-cool things, making it disappointing.

I had enjoyed Fruits Basket, the mangaka's more popular work, much more than this one. But this one is written way more decently than Tobenai Majo at least.