Majo to Neko no Hanashi
The Story of Witches and Cats

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I'm surprised this little gem has no reviews. A soft, healing manga about witches and cats like this one should get some love, so let me tell you why you should read it:
It's a series of interconnected shorts about young witches, their ambitions and their familiar cats. You could accuse it of not developing a plot, but as a single volume series, the objective here was definitely sketching a setting through some characters and their lives, leaving the reader with a lighter heart, and the author excels at that. The stories are simple, but emotional and incredibly well executed (short fiction is a hard mistress; ... short comics with an emotional punch even more so). The art is just beautiful, specially the cats, which are characters on their own and, as such, have each their distinct character design.
I just wished there was more of it, and I'm pretty sure you'll wish that too after you read it.

Stories about young, cute witches practicing magic and having fun with their powers are a pretty popular subject in Japan. Famous anime such as Ojamajo Doremi, Sally the Witch, Kiki's Delivery Service, and recently, Little Witch Academia and Flying Witch, have capitalized on the idea of cute little girl witches messing with their powers and they've been very successful. Even some cartoons and books here in America have started to take part in this trend. I randomly found this manga, Majo to Neko no Hanashi, or Stories of Witches and Cats, online, and I decided to give it a read, as it looked quite cute ... and nice. It pretty much met my expectations and then some, and I have no qualms about recommending this manga to anyone who just wants to read a short, sweet, heartwarming manga about various girls, their cats, and their experiences.

The manga is very short, only being one volume long, and each chapter focuses on various girls, how they meet their cat familiars, overcome their insecurities, and come to bond with them. It mostly focuses on a group of four female friends, one girl's grandmother, and one of their teachers. There's no set main character, as the chapters always focus on one individual character each, giving them all a day in the limelight, from happy-go-lucky Suzu trying to cope with the fact that her cat isn't an elegant black one, to quiet, red haired Nina who doesn't like getting angry out of fear that people will hate her for it, and even Suzu's grandmother, Chise, who started off hating magic but eventually finding her calling in life. There's no real conflict in this manga, as every chapter follows a set formula. Unlike most series that use a set formula to use the same narrative over and over again, Witches and Cats uses the formula to flesh out each character, their motivations, their weaknesses, how they deal with the problems they face, and so on, therefore aiding the story and giving the audience a reason to care about the characters.

Speaking of the characters, they're all very charming and likeable, and even with the manga's short length, every character is given their fair share of the spotlight and clear development that shows them changing throughout the story. Suzu is your typical cheerful, energetic girl who wants to be like her grandmother and wants a black cat, but her assigned cat is nothing like her grandmother's, and the two often quarreled more often than not, but once they managed to meet each other halfway, they finally start to bond and work together. Kei, one of Suzu's friends, starts off as stoic and practical, and a little too blunt for her own good, but a situation with a cat she summons by accident teaches her to be more sympathetic to people and their problems outside of her own experience. I found all of them sweet and relatable, even with the magical setting, and even the minor characters have their own stories to tell, with multiple sides to them and all feel fresh.

I must admit, I'm not that great of a critic when it comes to actual artwork, especially going into detail about things like shading, linework, and chapter layouts. I'm trying to rectify this, but I don't think I've improved all that much. But I'll do the best I can. For the most part, the manga's art style is very simple, with thin linework for both the character designs and the setting. Some of it looks rather crude, and sometimes the way the characters are drawn look like unfinished pencil sketches. At the same time, the author does make certain things detailed, such as food, flowers, window panes, the weaving of a basket, and so on. It's not Witch Hat Atelier level of detailed, but the art style is nice and pleasant to look at, and the character's faces are all very expressive, showing exactly how the characters feel.

In terms of flaws, I can really only think of one: It's too damn short! I would absolutely love to read even more of this manga! I want to know more about these characters, the world they live in, the history of witches, and where the cats come from. It does leave quite a bit of questions unanswered, such as what determines which cat is assigned to what witch and the nature of their world, but the story's main focus is simply telling heartwarming tales about young witch girls, their cats, and the lives they live. As far as I'm concerned, that's perfectly fine with me. So far, the manga hasn't been licensed, but if someone like Seven Seas or Yen Press would release this, I'd buy it in an instant! If you're looking for a sweet, short, heartwarming read that's full of magic and charm, Stories of Witches and Cats is definitely a sweet treat to enjoy!

this manga could be even better.

The first 5 chapters are wonderful. Dealing with each of them individually and how the dynamic with the cat works is wonderful.

The fact that they are girls who are on the path to becoming a woman makes even more sense when dealing with their Ascension as a witch, because in a way, things start to get a little more boring when you have to choose a profession and think about the future, but that doesn't mean everything should stop being magical.

The following chapters are still good, but lose some of the shine from the beginning.