Ririka Kirise is dumb, air-headed, and apparently the most powerful sorcerer in the world. This is going to go well.
Creative Staff
Story: Yu Shimizu
Art: Kazuma Ichihara
Translation/Adaptation: Christine Dashiell
Lettering: Phil Christie
What They Say
Ririka Kirise’s a style-savvy high school girl who’s struggling to keep up in her chemistry class. Looking for some extra help, she opens the door to her teacher’s office-breaking his magic barrier in the process! Unbeknownst to Ririka, Renji is actually a sorcerer…and Ririka has the makings of a sorceress herself. Before she knows it, she’s wrapped up in the world of witchcraft as Renji’s apprentice – and getting into some sticky situations…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
On the surface, Ririka is a typical gyaru: she seems only interested in her appearance and having fun. School does not seem to be a priority for her. But she does harbor a deep desire to be a vet when she grows up, so while her outward personality has no patience for school, inside, she knows she needs to do well. There’s just one problem: she is every bit the airhead that the gyaru stereotype suggests she would be, and so she is failing chemistry. Hard.
Enter Renji Fuyumi, her school’s new chemistry teacher. Knowing that failing chemistry would ruin any chance she might have of ever being a vet, Ririka goes to his office after class one day hoping to get a few things cleared up. Well, hoping to get everything cleared up, really. When she enters his office, though, she catches him performing some magical rite. It turns out that Renji is a sorcerer, and her ability to break the seal he had placed on his office like she didn’t even know it was there (because she didn’t) shows that she has potential in that department, too. In fact, it quickly becomes apparent that she has the potential to be a prodigy, so Renji takes her on as his apprentice. He just has to hope that she can learn to control her talent before her enthusiasm and penchant for mayhem leads to disaster.
I had a lot of fun with this first volume of After School Bitchcraft. Ririka is an amusing protagonist, and Renji as her friendly but cantankerous mentor plays off her well. I think they are going to be very fun characters. Ririka’s gyaru friends and the student council president she has a run-in with could be fun ones to bounce ideas off, as well. The setup has a lot of potential, too, and I like the mysticism it’s playing with. The trip to Ireland to get material for her wand was a nice, unexpected diversion, too. Finally, I also enjoyed the art. I think the characters look great, and there were some really cool effects with the magic being cast, and it has a solid amount of fanservice without going over-the-top with it. All in all, I just had a really good time with this volume.
That said, as much fun as I had, I will also say that I am now at the end of it, and I think it can go in one of two ways. The first is that it stays fun and continues to do what it is doing well. The other is that it falls into the same cliched traps that a lot of similar manga do, and it quickly overstays its welcome. I’m going to be cautiously optimistic that it will follow the path of the former, but the latter would not stun me.
In Summary
The first volume of After School Bitchcraft is a lot of fun. The characters are great, and the setup has a lot of potential. It might not have been amazing, but I definitely had a blast reading it. Though this volume came out over a year ago at this point, and I assume it hit a COVID-related delay, it looks like it is up and moving again, so I will look forward to the next volume in a few months with the hope that it will keep up the fun and not fall apart as a series of this type can quickly do. Recommended.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: OT – Older Teen
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: March 3, 2020
MSRP: $13.00
