Ravina the Witch? by Junko Mizuno: a review

Picking up this book, I thought I was picking up a more traditional graphic novel. However, the layout of this is more of an illustrated piece of prose. It was unusual, especially when getting into the contents of the book; the style is somewhat like a children’s book but the contents most certainly is not. It was refreshing, I’d like to find more books such as this.

            Ravina the Witch? by Junko Mizuno follows Ravina on her unexpected adventures. She starts life on a trash heap, meets a magical witch, gets taken in by a wealthy man, eventually meets a lovely little man and truly discovers her powers as a witch.

            The art style is truly stunning. The colours sing on the page, the characters are beautiful to see, and everything comes to life. I love the prose, but it’s the art that truly carries this book, and it does it so well.

            Ravina meets a little man in the woods, who thinks people dislike him because he wears very pretty dresses. Truth is, he just has a very powerful smell about him. The fact that he wears dresses is never played as a joke, he just really loves his pretty dresses. I adore him, and I wish him all the best.

            Ravina discovers her powers because she gets black out drunk with the little forest man. I really enjoyed the romp, and I loved that Mizuno showed that magic often, if not always has some kind of consequence. The romp was fun, but was not without its issues afterwards.

            Most of this book was a fairy tale, and contained the expected within that. However, coming across a giant owl doing crosswords was superb. I’m not sure why it tickled me, but I’m glad it was there.

            I’m aware this is only a short one, but the book itself was only short. I definitely recommend that you find this book. I found it in my local library, so you may find it there for yourself, if you’re local to me. Definitely get yourself a copy of this, in some form or another.