She seems dry, but he’s also a hero
The main character, Irena, is not very much like a witch, but one of her most prominent characteristics is that she does not always have a sense of justice.
For example, in Witches’ Travels, there is an episode …… where Irena suddenly stops by a country where prices are abnormally high due to the king’s own massive circulation of counterfeit coins.
When encountering such a situation, a normal magical girl/witch protagonist would naturally be angry and either complain to the king or try to find out his true intentions.
However, in Irena’s case, she was short of money, but she also took advantage of the high cost of living by posing as a fortune teller and selling mere strings as “magic strings that bring fate to you” (although she did follow up by assigning the opposite sex to the strings to make them look like fate).
This person, Irena, is not on the side of justice.
For better or worse, she is honest about her feelings and has no qualms about causing disadvantage to others, such as retaliating, albeit lightly, with magic for a third party’s slight slander.
This aspect of her can be described in one word: dry.
She is not the type to aggressively attack others, but she does not want to be an exemplary human being, and she does not have the self-consciousness that she should be a great person since she is the highest-ranking witch. They take a stance of not forcing themselves to help others.
This dry side may be close to the common image of a witch.
But on the other hand, she is not a heartless witch either.
Basically, she doesn’t seem to dislike people who work hard, and will spare no time or effort to help those who are in trouble.
Her reaction to the inevitable tragedies she encounters from time to time is also far from dry.
One of the most popular episodes of the Witch’s Travels, “The Princess of the Land Without People,” is a notable example.
In this episode, Irena steps into a ruined country and meets an amnesiac princess, Mila-Rose.
Mila-Rose doesn’t remember anything, but the letter she leaves behind says that she is a princess and that the only way to solve the current devastation in the country is to defeat the monster “Jabalier” that has been running rampant outside and destroyed the country. ……
Mira-Rose is both a princess and a witch, and she has the power to easily defeat the Jabalee, a monster that Irena judges to be impossible at first glance.
Irena judged the contents of the letter to be unreliable, and pleaded with her not to take part in the battle, but to offer only minimal assistance.
However, Irena ended up spending time with Mira-Rose and felt compassion for her, so she decided to help defeat the Jabalee.
She is a very compassionate person.
This episode ends in a way that most readers would not have expected.
Jabalee’s true identity is that of Mira-Rose’s father, the king.
Moreover, it was none other than Mira-Rose who turned the king into a monster.
Mira-Rose once fell in love with a servant, but the king, enraged by the love between two different people, brutally murdered the servant and also had the child in Mira-Rose’s stomach killed.
In revenge, she made her father destroy her country and finally slaughtered him, who had become Jabalee, with her own hands.
She wanted to make her father understand the pain of having his loved ones uprooted from him.
After witnessing such a fierce act, Irena is saddened that the friendly Mira-Rose she met when she first met her is no longer there, but she cannot forget the time she spent with her, and is driven by sadness.
Her appearance was far from the common image of a witch, and it was difficult to say that she was dry, which really described the essence of Irena.
Irena is different from the existing magical girl/witch protagonists.
However, she is not an evil character, and there are many people who sympathize with her and anime fans who love her.
There is a good chance that she will be able to stand out from the many witches and magical girl protagonists in the anime world.
Summary
The more mature Irena is attractive, but the more emotional Irena that we see in her reminiscences of the past is also very cute.
I’m looking forward to seeing how Ms. Motowatari will play her in the anime!
