I really did not have time to read this manga, so I can not do a full review on this book. However, I did like the art and will order it when it is publish.

4/5

I received this book in exchange of an honest review, from the lovely people at Kodansha Comics and Netgalley.

One of my favorite setting in every fantasy story is about magical schools or prestige academies teaching the arcane arts. To witness the cool magic system, engage with the plot and be enamored by the cast of characters and The Dawn of the Witch is hitting the margins.  It's a pretty straightforward idea, a not so great student is failing miserably at his classes due to his lack of control of his magical capabilities and is a breaking point of dropping out. However dropping out from the school is barley unheard off, so the headmaster sends him along with a party of colorful characters to the country side. A pretty queer teacher who volunteered herself to a job due to her amusement, a beastfallen classmate struggling to belong and the only other student in the academy that cares for him who will care once his gone. It is a fun first installment to a new series that I'm fully going to follow because things are heating up and the artwork is admirable for its story and I can't wait to see what's comes next. Try it out!

Saybil is a magic student with no memories of his life before he met a mysterious silver-haired woman in an alley. Now he travels with his teacher, Loux -- another student, Holt, and the beastfallen Kudo for "special training"... but this field trip may not be as routine as it seems- Goodreads

Unfortunately, I couldn't get into this. Only the first volume and there wasn't anything attention grabbing or anything that made me want to read more. The artwork and its flow within the story is great but I see this maybe being a more successful anime.

*DISCLAIMER* I received a free copy of this book for review purposes. I only accept books I think I’d like because life is too short to waste on bad books. That said if I don’t like a book, I’ll say so, free or not. With that out of the way, onto the review:

Mixed feelings about this one. It starts out incredibly slow and boring, which is very bad for a fantasy book especially. You need to pull a reader into this world that they don’t live in and grab them from the start and this book fails at that.

On the other hand if you can force yourself to make it through the first half, the second half is actually a really decent concept, pitting an extremist church against witches. This volume is focused on witch hunt that separates some magic students from each other. Saying much more would include spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that. I will say we learn that not every character is what they initially seem to be.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to read on, but if the next volume fell into my lap, I would likely give it a chance.

I enjoyed this but I wasn't super attached. I'll definitely look our for the authors next work because it was enjoyable, I just wasn't blown away

We get to go on an adventure with Saybil, a magic student with very low grades and who can barely use his magic, Holt, a very talented magic user and quite the opposite personality to Saybil, and their teacher/protector Loux, a powerful mage with quite a loud and exciteful personality.

This volume makes a perfect start to a hopefully long story line and it makes for an easy read. I got through this in one sitting without wanting to put it down for a break! The world-building is very interesting and the characters have deep backgrounds. One thing I would like to know more about is Saybil's history. He doesn't have any memory of before joining the magic academy. Why is that? Who took them or how did he lose them? I hope this will get explored a bit more in the next volume.

Quite surprisingly I've seen a lot of negative reviews for this manga, and I honestly do not share those reviewers' opinions! The Dawn of the Witch is interesting, exciting and very well written! It is fast paced and likes to play with memories of the past, so that we aren't stuck in one timelline. I quite enjoyed the storytelling and the art is exactly the kind of manga art that I like! I am definitely going to keep an eye open for the next volume.

I knew, going into it, that this wasn't one of my preferred genre of manga but I'm trying to keep an open mind. I really couldn't get into this one, though. The story had a decent amount of promise, but I was far too distracted by the peculiarities in the illustrations. Like one character's giant breasts which were far too often the central focus of the panel. Or the number of crotch shots. It's too sexualized, to the detriment of the plot.

The Dawn of the Witch follows the journey of Saybil, a rather dull magic student thanks to his memory less and expressionless face, who is on a quest for a special training. He is joined by a teacher, Loux, a seemingly non-threatening woman because of her childlike form, but is actually quite deadly, and two other students, Holt, a cheerful girl with huge...breasts, and Kudo, a human-sized lizard. After reading the somewhat negative reviews of this book, I decided to read it without any expectations.

Surprisingly, I quite liked the premise of the story. The main character, Saybil, may be a tad boring because he is unable to form any kind of expressions on his face, but I find the secret behind his past that caused his memory loss to be quite intriguing. It is also proved that he is not entirely emotionless, as there was a time where Holt noticed his hands shaking when they were in danger, although his face remained stoic. And another time when a betrayal takes place, Saybil forces himself to smile and accepts his fate, which I believe can be seen as a character growth, or perhaps his true emotions slowly emerging.

Despite having no problems with Saybil and the rest of the characters—Holt and Kudo appear to have dark pasts as well and it made me like them more—the main reason as to why I can only rate this book as 2.5 stars is because of the way the artwork was drawn. I admit that in some sense, the artwork is beautiful, BUT the way female characters were depicted is just too much. The characters were sexualised so unnecessarily that I find myself feeling disgusted almost throughout the whole story. Holt was drawn with breasts so big and her scenes were always drawn in a lewd way; her chest was always in the focus to the point I could not take her character seriously. Despite having a small body, almost resembling a child, Professor Loux was also sexualised. Her scenes were drawn from a low angle, just so that her underwear can be scene.

These extreme sexualisation to the female characters helped nothing in the plot, and it was absolutely unnecessary. Even though I find the plot to be acceptable and I am curious about what Saybil and his friends are going to face next, I do not think I will be able to continue this series. I just hate that the female characters are being made to be viewed as sexual objects.

Got this for my boys to read since they love Manga.
They read for 10 or 20 minutes and lost interest completely.
I picked it up and tried to read it but didn’t make it far before being assaulted with chesty women busting out of their shirts. Now I’m glad my boys quit reading. This is one book I didn’t bother finishing.
If you can look past the boobs then the artwork was pretty good.

DNF'd after 10 pages

I was really curious about this story line and plot but thea rt and fan service was not for me overall. I opted to DNF instead of giving a star rating and review.

This manga has such beautiful art, the first volume is somewhat backstory dense as it is about the main character and it explains about why he is studying magic and how he ended up under the care of his current teacher. I have somewhat enjoyed this manga though it was mostly for the art I am not sure why I was unable to connect to the manga or the main character.

Hopefully as the story continues I will be able to enjoy the story more, so I will still keep my eyes on this manga.

The art style is so so so gorgeous but again the story and everything else about this book just attracts me to put this down and never read it again. Too ecchi and the fan service's just MEH for me.

There is a full length review forthcoming on my site, MangaLibrarian.com and on my YouTube Channel! I go in depth on my analysis there.

Magical academy stories sure have become popular lately, especially in the last five years or so. The Dawn of the Witch follows those same footsteps, but with a slightly unusual twist: rather than taking place in the school itself, it follows a group of students and their eccentric teacher on a special assignment that sees them travelling the world, trying to challenge the widespread anti-magic sentiment.

At the centre of all this is Saybil, a boy with no memories who was taken in by the school at a young age. Magic is the only world he knows and the only future open to him, but he’s also… terrible at it. With the lowest scores in the whole academy, his only hope of passing is to complete this special assignment. He’s joined by a few others: Hort, the top student who decided she needed a bit of extra credit anyway; Kudo, a reclusive “beastfallen”—half-human, half-beast—who’s a victim of frequent bullying and discrimination; and Loux Krystas, “The Dawn Witch”, whose childlike form, and petulance to match, belie the fact that she’s hundreds of years old and a powerful force to be reckoned with.

This special assignment is far from a simple field trip. This is a world where, due to the relatively recent memory of a great war, magic is despised by most of the populace and magic-users hunted by the church. The academy itself and surrounding villages are a bit of a safe place, where everyday meetings between mages and non-mages have helped to pave over prejudices and let the practical benefits of magic be shown, but the further afield you go, the more hated magic is. The aim of the assignment, then, is to travel the land, bringing regular folks into contact with magic, and helping to normalise its use and fight back the discrimination—but with witch hunters that even the church distances itself from out on the prowl, that’s a dangerous task.

This setup lends The Dawn of the Witch plenty of exciting possibilities for adventure, action, and humour. It’s like a magical road trip, where you never know what’s coming around the next corner. Each character comes with their own motivations, dreams, and baggage, complementing one another well and opening the door to plenty of interpersonal moments—both humorous and dramatic, but always with the humanity of its characters at its core.
That said, there’s a lot going on, and the pacing suffers for it. In the space of a single volume, we’ve got full character arcs for three different members of the cast, flashbacks to how everyone met and came together, the usual volume-one scene-setting, a handful of big twists, budding romance, and the sort of decisive battle that you normally wouldn’t expect to see until the end of a full story arc. It’s a lot to cram into 200-odd pages, and that means nothing really gets as much attention as it should. Moments that should be huge and shocking instead get glossed over in the space of a page or two; scenes that would be powerful given a proper build-up instead fall flat; what should be heartfelt moments lose impact without the necessary investment in letting readers get properly attached to these characters.

Tatsuwo’s art does a lot of heavy lifting to make up for those shortcomings in pacing, with detailed scenery and attention to the composition of each panel that does a fantastic job of setting each scene. Action scenes feel fluid and full of energy, and expressive characters bring a wealth of emotion to every page. Takashi Iwasaki’s vibrant character designs, too, overflow with personality. There’s a weird obsession with oddly-placed, fanservice, though—I don’t object to some suggestive imagery, as a rule, but in The Dawn of the Witch it feels forced and wildly out of character. Beyond the obvious aspect of titillation, good fanservice can inject a lot of character, humour, and cheeky fun, but here, it just comes across as a distraction—and in the case of Loux and her whole “she’s not really a child” thing, a rather uncomfortable one.

If you like a good magic academy story and can tolerate some crass, out-of-place panty shots, The Dawn of the Witch is a wild and enjoyable ride to take. There’s a little too much going on for one volume to deal with, and pacing suffers for that, but this is an intriguing world that’s home to some curious folk, with the potential for plenty more excitement going forward.

To be honest, when I first started this graphic novel, I did not have high hopes due to the fan service shots in the beginning. It was a complete turn off and combined with a dull main character, I did not think I would last long. We start out with Saybil and Hort who are student at the Academy of Magic, along with the Dawn Witch, Loux Krystas while they are out on their special course to become mages. While out on their course, they run into another student, Kudo, who barely escaped from witch hunters who are now after all of the students. Throughout the entire storyline of this first volume, Saybil did absolutely nothing and cannot use magic. The last thing I had a problem with was the down shot of Horts chest, it did not seem like it was necessary for the direction of the shots, including a crotch shot in the beginning with Loux. With that being said, I really enjoyed where the story ended up, while Saybil did not have much depth as a character, another character caught my full attention and this is Hort, a powerful mage-in-training. She had the most development through the story and is the most relatable character. She is kind, small, but powerful. I also really enjoyed their guide and sort of headmaster from the school Lous Krysta

s. She is always there for her students no matter the situation and is the motherly type but full of sarcasm.

A generally cute manga with a unique storyline and good hook that makes you want to continue reading!

DNF at 64 pages, I could not jive with the world building and there was a little bit to much fan service for my liking.

I unfortunately did not enjoy this title, and found myself struggling to get through it. The artstyle was alright, but I did not enjoy the plot or any of the characters. I feel like there were a lot of instances of info dumps, and it made it difficult to remember all of the lore of the story. Overall, I sadly will not be picking up the next volume.

Cervil travels with his teacher learning magic. He has no memory of his life before. The background art is beautiful. A lot of time in manga you only get detailed backgrounds when there are battle scenes, but this book had the most beautiful panels while they were in the woods. I loved how the stars and trees looked at night. The book is very fan servicy. At first almost every girl is sitting legs spread. The characters didn't really have much of a personality. I love the idea of the book, but so far it was heavy on fan service and light on character development. It is possible that it is because it is the first book, but I feel like a lot of stuff happens, but the characters aren't very dynamic. I might have liked it more if less things happened and more time was spent helping me get a sense of who the characters were.

3 stars

Parts of this manga were okay but overall I found it very confusing and I feel like not much actually happened.
This is probably the first manga that I've read where I'm not bothered about reading the next installment.
It might just be a case that it's just not for me and others might enjoy it but overall I wouldn't recommend it.