Good Witch of the West by Noriko Ogiwara and Haruhiko Momokawa 
(amazon
I’d watched the first couple episodes of the anime for Good Witch of the West, so I wanted to check out the manga it was based on. Firel Dee grew up in the country. Her father spends all of his time locked up in a tower with his apprentice Rune, studying the stars. Firel is raised by a kind couple, Tabitha and Bo, while her father focuses on his studies. One day she has the opportunity to go to a ball at a castle, and she gets to wear her dead mother’s necklace. While at the ball, other women make fun of her simple dress, but Lord Eusis takes pity on her and asks her to dance. Firel discovers that her necklace identifies her as a possible heir of the Queen. Meanwhile, events start to happen back at her home that take away her idyllic former life.
I think I’ve been poisoned against the manga a little bit, because the anime seemed like a superior version of the story compared to the source material. Some of the character designs were a bit too childish for my taste, and the narrative leaned a bit too much on unspoken thoughts of the characters serving as exposition. I might give the second volume a chance, just because I am a sucker for fantasy stories with fairy tale elements. On the other hand, I could always just finish watching the anime instead.
[...] Tangognat gives three out of five stars Good Witch of the West but admits she probably liked it less because she saw the anime first. [...]
Actually I think the manga is better than the anime. The “childish” character design basicly disappears by the end of volume 2 and looks more mature as the series progresses. Story wise, I think the manga goes into more detail and developes the characters more than the anime. Still, I would say this is a series to stick with because it gets better later on.
Thanks for the tip! I’ll probably read volume 2 at least then, just to see how things evolve.
i love the manga sofar im on like book 4 and cant find the rest the anime is ok but not neerly as good!
I just barely discovered this series today when I visited the library to return some movies. I found it in their small manga collection and I don’t regret picking it up. Most of the time when I look at manga I don’t absorb it just for the story but also the art. Already I find the characters interesting and the story engaging and am definitely interested in adding this series to my own manga collection. Thank you for the helpful review =)