The Secrets of the Silent Witch Vol. 1

Set in a world where seven great sages defend the people from magical creatures, we open with a black dragon attacking the the lands of Count Kerbeck - a singular dragon can be powerful enough to level entire towns, and as the creature bears down on the population, the Count's daughter Lady Isabelle vows to stay behind and face the danger with her people.  So she's astonished when a young boy runs in and claims that the dragon has been slain by The Silent Witch, one of the seven sages acting alone - overjoyed at this almost unbelievable news, she's then devastated to see an incursion of twenty ptero-dragons, the moment of elation turned to despair as all seems lost. Rushing to the balcony she spies a lone, caped figure standing alone, and in one fell swoop, the crazed lizards are caged and felled with a feat of extraordinary magic.

Yes, it seems the Silent Witch is a force to be reckoned with. A shame then that her ability to cast powerful magic without chanting is actually a result of Monica Everett's crippling social anxiety.

This sets the stage for a magical adventure, as Monica is tasked by her fellow mage Louis Miller with attending the elite boarding school Sendria Academy to work as an undercover bodyguard for the second prince of the kingdom. To aid her in providing a believable cover, Monica is given an assumed identity as an orphan taken in by a rich family, rejected when her benefactor dies and sent to away to serve a young mistress of the family. To further sell this tale, Lady Isabelle herself has been in training to be the ultimate villainess to publicly torment the reluctant sage, regardless of her huge admiration for her. It's a cute setup which allows for some playful back-and-forth between the two later.

Once we get to the academy, it's clear that there is indeed a threat to the prince, so Monica must do her best to both guard the young man and find out who and what is in play against him.

For once, my interest in The Secrets of the Silent Witch wasn't piqued by the art (though it is very nice) but instead because the soundtrack album for the anime made its way into my recommended playlist. Chinmoku no Maju (literally "Silent Witch") is an incredibly epic piece of music that mixes sweeping orchestral and choiral arrangements to elicit a feeling of fantasy and wonder. After listening to that a few times I popped the soundtrack in my playlist, the anime in my watchlist and the manga in my Kindle library. 

Whether or not the sudden rush of enthusiasm was justified I'm not entirely sure yet. The manga is fine and sets its stall out well - a powerful sage restricted only by her insecurity on a mission that might help build her confidence is a perfectly solid foundation on which to build a series. Some of the character interactions at the school are surprisingly subtle which I appreciated. The humour lands, the characters are all fine, but so far it doesn't feel as though it does anything exceptional.

Recently I've fallen over some marvelous first volumes - Girl Crush, The Barbarian's Bride and The Executioner & Her Way of Life have all been instant attention grabbers, while I find Silent Witch to be just a pleasant read. In fairness, magicians at school is hardly groundbreaking these days so I expect the series to take a volume or two to bed in. There's nothing bad at all here, but nothing that makes it stand out particularly when compared to similar titles in the genre.

The soundtrack suggests some heinous intrigue, light comedy, magical battles and awesome feats of heroism, so on that basis I'll be back perhaps a tad more enthusiastically than I might be otherwise.