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Now in Japan
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Written by maehara
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Thursday, 08 June 2006 00:00 |
 Good Witch of the West takes us into shoujo territory once more, with a story of a girl who would be Queen - so far, so standard shoujo fare. But this series has a few interesting things in its setting that do make it stand out from the norm. If only we could get rid of the bishounen...
1 - A Necklace of Edyleen
On the Queen's birthday, 15-year-old Firiel Dee received a gift from her father - a pendant that used to belong to her mother. Her first opportunity to wear it comes later that day, when Firiel gets the chance to attend her first formal ball, where she makes an instant impression on Eusis Roland, the son of a high-ranking noble. Not everything goes smoothly, though, as Lady Adale quickly recognises Firiel's pendant as the necklace of Edyleen, a piece of jewellery that used to belong to a member of the royal family who went missing years previously. Has Firiel been inadvertently handling stolen property? Not quite - rather, the missing Edyleen was her mother...
 
2 - Little Lamb's Traces
On the run from the Inquiry Service, Firiel collapses onto a path in front of Lady Adale and soon finds herself back at the mansion of Eusis Roland, where she relates her story and asks for Eusis' help. At first, he's reluctant - heretics are heretics, and evil should be dealt with - but eventually he agrees to do what he can. Despite that, Firiel decides she wants to rescue Roux on her own, so with Lady Adale's help sets off on her rescue mission, but things don't go according to plan...
 
The whole Fahrenheit 451 / "knowledge is evil" side of things is definitely different, and helps to make this series stand out from the crowd. It seems to be a theological restriction in the nation where Firiel and the others life - although I did have to wonder why Eusis and Adale were so quick to put that to one side to help Firiel out, as she's not that charismatic a person. Perhaps the hold of religion, or those in power, is weakening?
You do have to feel sorry for Firiel, whose father gets serious points docked for leaving her behind to face the Inquiry Service when times get hard - not exactly the perfect role-model. Roux at least gives her someone to latch onto, even though it's not hard to imagine him following in his master's footsteps at the earliest opportunity.
The story seems to boil down to conspiracy and scheming, though, with some powers lining up to change the way the Queen is selected, and Firiel's emergence as a candidate for the job threatening to thrown a spanner in the works. Adale and her family, which seems to include a high number of good-looking men in its ranks, look set to be the force for good in helping Firiel defeat the dark forces that are gathering.
But for all the good about it, Good Witch of the West just failed to really grab me. It's well put together and presented, with what should be a very good storyline, but there's just something missing that meant I couldn't get into the series as much as I would have liked to. Still well worth a look for most people, but not a series I'll be following myself. |
