tiny witch from the deep woods

By Yanagi and Yoh Hihara. Released in Japan as “Mori no Hashikko no Chibi Majo-san” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Nathan Macklem.

Last time I was wondering if this would turn out to be a disgraced noble book in disguise, or a slow life book, or a mystery, and it leaned more on the mystery at the end. This second volume is, till the nasty cliffhanger, a far more relaxed affair. Misha has moved to another kingdom, and for the most part, gets treated like a savior. She responds to this well, by… well, if there is a problem with this kingdom, she is going to solve it, as she takes on princesses with poor health, herb gardens with weak effects, and secret royalty who are kind of tsundere. (She may have more difficulty in the third book – see aforementioned nasty cliffhanger.) But after the trauma of the first book, and while she’s still dealing with her mother’s death, with affects her throughout, this book is all about making Misha happy and content. Everyone loves her.

Misha and her entourage finally arrive at the Kingdom of Redford’s palace, where she greets its king, who was not expected to be king but became one after a combination of a plague – which no one ever really figured out – and various countries trying to take advantage of all the death. He’s a young man who affects a sunny, pleasant personality but is not above using people for his own ends – though he knows before he even meets her that Misha needs to be handled with kid gloves. She makes a great first impression, as it turns out that medicine in this kingdom is not all that great – the idea of a stethoscope astonishes them. That said, can she win over tougher customers, like the King’s sister, who has been ill for most of her life – wait, is she still ill? Are we sure she’s not just spoiled?

I will note that folks who are somewhat tired of the sunshine girl arriving in a new community and magically healing everyone through a combination of niceness and gumption may find this book hard going, as it leans into that cliche pretty hard. Misha does arrive with her elf – sorry, person of the forest – mentor, but she quickly goes away to do other stuff, mostly leaving Misha on her own. The kingdom does its level best to make her happy – sure, you can stay in the gardener’s shed out back instead of our lovely palace, just try not to pay attention to how expensive your “simple” furniture is. I also enjoyed the scenes with Caro, who is suffering from a classic case of child with too many expectations, and finds Misha treating him like the kid he is – complete with the standard “let’s play around with the poor commoner children” scene – a breath of fresh air.

So the first book was somewhat fraught and tragic, and this book was mostly relaxing and happy. There is that cliffhanger, though, and I’m pretty sure the third volume will swing things the other way. For fans of cute girls doing cute medical things.

By Yanagi and Yoh Hihara. Released in Japan as “Mori no Hashikko no Chibi Majo-san” by TO Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Nathan Macklem.

This is an excellent book, which tends to wander around genres, but about a third of the way through I reasoned that it’s a disgraced noble book in disguise. Which the first half almost is, but then once she sets off on her journey to another country that has requested her (also very disgraced noble), it suddenly becomes a slow life feel good sort of book. At its heart is Misha, who is the tiny witch on the cover, and her journey from innocent child to grieving, stricken child (it’s not a spoiler, one of the chapter titles is literally “Sudden Tragedy”) and gradually trying to come to terms with that grief and live on. That said, all of that has to war with the insatiable curiosity that permates everything Misha does, which makes her a great apothecary, but like so many other fictional heroines also makes her prone to stumbling on the mystery of the week, which is the genre this eventually settles on.

Misha is a young girl who lives, as the title might suspect, deep in the woods, where she learns medicine from her mother, who is from a people who specialize in medicine. Her father visits every month or so, and they seem happy, till after a couple of months of no visiting it turns out her father was in a war and is on the verge of death… and is also a duke. So her mother takes Misha and rushes to the castle (where, years earlier, her mother had been severely injured by the duke’s wife) to try to save his life. She does this, but, alas, the wife is still around, so you can probably guess what happens. Worst of all, now that Misha is here she’s bound to get involved in… sigh… politics. Fortunately, she’s not only a terrific apothecary but has the ability to charm anyone who spends more than ten seconds around her.

This is a fantasy, sort of. Misha’s mother comes from a people who really, really made me think of elves but are not actually elves. Late in the book there’s also a dragon god, who acts exactly like you’d expect a dragon god to act in a light novel written for women. But it’s also grounded in the reality of Misha’s entire life being upended and her never really being allowed to stand still. She leaves the woods via horse (she’s never been on one before), has to treat all the wounded soldiers (she has very little hands-on experience), and then she’s sent as a student (she avoids concubine when people figure out who her relatives are) to another country, where she comes across attempted murders, attempted sacrifices, and wolf puppies who she heals through the power of goodness and niceness. No, really, it’s hinted that she literally has some sort of magical calm healing powers. The reason this works is that Misha is written terrifically, never getting too cloying, and remembering the grief that she’s still processing all book.

So, to sum up: this is a winner, and you should go get it.