Itsuki Nanao continues to chronicle Elaina’s adventures in manga form with the third volume of Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina. This particular set of tales sees her meeting a princess, a beast-girl, and reuniting with a familiar face.
This volume contains chapters nine to eleven.
The wandering witch Elaina sets out on the road again to seek new places and meet new people. After encountering a princess who has fled from an unwanted marriage, as well as the prince and knight who are pursuing her, Elaina comes across a young, orphaned beast-girl living with her sister. Later, Elaina finds herself in a land where objects have a will of their own, and there she reunites with the apprentice witch Saya.
Out of the chapters in this particular volume, the one that focuses on the beast-girl is definitely one of the darker ones. Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina doesn’t particularly shy away from those kinds of things, and that holds true of this manga adaptation too.
That particular tale is all about perception; it’s rather interesting how something from one person’s point of view is seen by someone else. Things seem pretty unfair for the beast-girl, but Elaina’s involvement brings several things to light.
We do have some more light-hearted stuff going on with this volume. In fact, one of my favourite chapters from the light novel has been adapted into this volume – the one that involves a princess, a prince and a knight. This is a story that also plays with reader’s expectations, although in a more positive light.
Then we also have a series of events resulting in Elaina reuniting with Saya. Elaina may have done a lot of travelling in her time, but it seems she can still wind up in some pretty bad situations. So much so that she has to enlist some help through the use of a particular magic spell.
Inanimate objects may actually be a little more animated then you’d think, and it is a wise idea to treat with them respect.
Some really great chapters from Elaina’s travels here. We get a mix of lighter and heavier stories, which goes to show that you can never really know what Elaina will encounter on her journey. Itsuki Nanao definitely did a great job adapting these tales from the original light novels into manga form. Good stuff here.
Rory Muses 