Justin: This volume of A Witch’s Printing Office is gonna hit close to home for people. Obviously this manga has converted Comiket into a magical version of it, complete with many references but also the struggles that arise in running or taking part in it. Volume 4 obviously still continues doing so — as Magiket continues to rise in popularity that means more health issues occur, and Mika gets a lesson from Great Lord Hera on this happening throughout the event. But one thing takes place that Mika can’t stop:
The Olympia.
…Oh, I should include this event occurs every four years, huh?
So yes, volume 4 of A Witch’s Printing Office gives us how it’s like when the Olympics occur in your country, though in this case, Mika and her printing press crew are caught unaware that the knights in this world hold such an event, and between her heavy spending for the next Magiket, that’s left her with no way to return the registration money and no money for her workers at her job. Caught between a rock and a hard place, she chooses…to simply ditch everyone! But she makes one stop at The Holy Land, a.k.a the general location of Magiket, to see it one last time.
Well she thought — until she got roped into the actual Olympia! Now she’s gotta fight many fearsome foes, including an organization secretly entering for dark purposes with just her and the mighty cutter!
…Wait, the blade that can’t be removed from its stone?!?
So yes, many laughs were had during this arc, where a frightened Mika ends up facing these foes who show themselves as overconfident, and a general overview of what can occur when the actual Olympics happen. This can mean behind the scenes and what we can see publicly. But as soon as I got to this I couldn’t help but feel a bit sad — we already know what happened to both Comiket and the Olympics last year, so I couldn’t help but think back to that as I was reading this arc.
It was still one of the better arcs of this volume, which again has Mika or some creature get involved in her shenanigans. It actually begins with a backstory of Claire and how she met Mika, when Mika was atrocious with magic to the point where she had to learn with the kids Claire was teaching. It also has a story involving how fairies repay a debt — but due to their actions, it only creates more issues for Mika and crew!
But the other additional story that was interesting was one involving a tribe that exhibits strength and publicly decries magic, but unbeknownst to them, its leader is actually a big fan, and even runs a circle at Magiket. This can seem somewhat unrealistic, but we know a number of creators have pseudonyms for various reasons, and while this chapter wasn’t too serious — it even ends with said leader learning something new about her tribe — it does bring to mind those times where certain hobbies are frowned upon and you don’t want to make it known, but you find a way to engage in it differently.
Still quite entertaining and still pretty fun, with still compelling art to look at, A Witch’s Printing Office remains solid and continues to deliver on bringing a major fandom event into a fantasy world. Mika still continues to be entertaining, and seeing all these fantasy humans and creatures get into it so passionately is worth reading. Curious to see what’ll be up next for this crew.
Justin’s rating: 3.5 out of 5
Helen: The life of a printer never ends, or even lets up! Protagonist Press is as busy as ever, with new people discovering the joys of creating and sharing spells, but when Magiket is canceled will Mika and the others be able to survive or will they go into bankruptcy?
Writer Mochinchi said they were inspired by current events for this volume, with the Olympics causing Comiket to be rescheduled since they would both be using the same building, and now I’m wondering if Mika and company will have to deal with a plague canceling Magiket in a couple of volumes. Regardless, that conflict made for a very fun couple of chapters as Mika actually ends up at the Olympics, excuse me “Battle Olympia” and I was howling with laughter with how she fares in a tournament against the best fighters in the world.
I have to admit I am having a bit of a hard time figuring out the passage of time in this series. Even assuming that Magiket is held multiple times a year just like the real Comiket, I still have no sense how long Mika has been in this fantasy world. It doesn’t help that the story doesn’t provide any real cues in this regard; volume 4 begins with a flashback to when Mika and the witch Claire first met, about a year and a half ago, the story then jumps ahead by a month and then the story ends a year later, but clearly that doesn’t add up to a year and a half!
The passage of time isn’t vitally important to A Witch’s Printing Office but it still ends up bothering me a bit, especially given how the chapters seem to jump back and forth between “during Magiket” and “not during Magiket.” I can be sure that the chapters with Magiket being cancelled due to the Battle Olympia happen after the chapter where Mika gets a crash course in convention medicine, but most chapters don’t make such explicit references to other chapters. If we assume that the entire story is happening in order, and frankly there’s no reason to think it’s been told in a non-linear fashion, then it seems like Mika has already run six or more Magikets but each one of them seems to be held together with duct tape and gumption, you would hope that they had a more sustainable plan by this point!
Of course Mika is making progress in some areas, in running Magiket that is, not in returning to Earth. I got a kick out of the chapter where she ends up helping out at the improvised medic station, especially since it was an opportunity to show off some of the strange but surprisingly useful spells that people sell at Magiket. There are no conventions in my foreseeable future so until then I’ll be relying on A Witch’s Printing Office to fill that hole in my heart.
Helen’s rating: 4 out of 5