Hi, I’m a Witch, and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion Volume 3 Review

“It goes to show how stubborn love harboured for years can be. Countless times, I’ve spent the night in tears telling myself to give up on him… But every morning, I wake up still loving him.” – Rose

In Volume 2 of Hi, I’m a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion we saw Rose successfully finish her order for the love potion before Harij quickly requested another as a way of extending their time together. Now we’re into Volume 3, let’s find out if anything is going to change between the two at least.

Now there’s a bite to the air signalling the coming of winter, so Rose is busy not only working on the love potion but making sure her preparations for the colder months are in order. It’s during this busy period that Rose receives a visitor, one she accidentally leaves sitting in the cold for hours after assuming her visitor is Tien or Harij who both know how to cross the lake to her small cottage.

The shivering guest turns out to be Princess Billaura, who has come to thank Rose for working on the love potion on her behalf. She reveals to our protagonist that she’s due to marry into another country and intends to use the love potion on herself to fall for her husband-to-be. He’s a widower and older than her, so Billaura is understandably anxious about leaving everything she knows and loves behind to move to his country and become his wife.

Through this discussion, Rose comes to realise that while some people look upon her work poorly, some see her potions as something that provides hope and happiness. But, she’s none the wiser as to why Harij wanted another potion and when he comes to visit and finds Billaura there, Rose can only assume he intends to use the potion to make the princess fall for him.

To his credit, Harij does try to clear up the misunderstanding but he’s in such a rush to return the princess to the palace (where everyone is frantically searching for her after she snuck out!) that there’s no time for him to say anything other than “you’re wrong” in response to her assumptions.

Even when Harij later returns to her cottage, he’s too preoccupied to set the record straight. For the first time, he learns that Rose rarely sleeps, always anxious that a customer may visit in the middle of the night (something Harij is not pleased to hear about, given Rose is a young woman living by herself). Rose already struggles to keep herself fed and works with hazardous potions and materials every day. Now hearing she doesn’t get a good night’s sleep drives Harij to throw her into bed and announce he plans to stay the night and will watch out for customers for her.

Volume 3 of Hi, I’m a Witch takes the time to develop the relationship between Rose and Harij. Although the misunderstanding between them has yet to be fully cleared up, it’s still heartwarming to watch over the two as they continue to grow closer to one another. Rose is gaining a lot from having Harij around too, not just in the sense that he feeds her and keeps the cottage somewhat tidy but his presence also gives her peace of mind in a way she hasn’t had since her grandmother was alive.

While it doesn’t look like Volume 4 of the manga is the end of this adaptation, we are quickly getting to the end of the material from Volume 1 of the light novel. So, naturally, things are beginning to heat up as they head toward the conclusion of the initial storyline and I can’t wait to see how mangaka Kamada brings that to life. Once again between Volumes 2 and 3, their work has improved noticeably with dialogue yet again scaled back to not overwhelm a given page. There are plenty of fun chibi versions of Rose throughout as well as great portrayals of the more romantically charged scenes. As much as I do like the original books, the manga has quickly become my favourite version of this story and the one I’d encourage others to start with.

Hi, I’m a Witch, and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion Volume 3 comes to the West thanks to Yen Press and continues to be translated by Alethea and Athena Nibley with lettering by Rachel J. Pierce. As always the release reads well with no problems and comes with colour pages to open and a bonus story at the end. The extra story revolves around Rose’s bookworm tendencies and getting her hair braided by Harji, who is annoyed about being ignored. It’s a very cute addition.

Volume 4 of the series is currently scheduled for an English release in June and then we’ll be caught up to the Japanese releases.

Overall Hi, I’m a Witch, and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion Volume 3 is another excellent addition to the series. Mangaka Kamada is growing in confidence and continues to deliver a heartwarming and entertaining read that readers will be eager to keep reading. I’ve certainly not grown bored of this blossoming relationship between Harij and Rose.

Our review copy from Yen Press was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.