Wistoria: Wand and Sword Volume 8 Review

Since I last reviewed Wistoria: Wand and Sword, the anime adaptation has been and gone, although hopefully not for too long as a Season 2 has already been announced. Until then, the manga continues, so let’s find out what’s next in store for our protagonist.

With Volume 7 having wrapped up the attack on the Terminalia festival, this book begins a new arc. We begin with Will and his fellow Magic Academy students graduating, but having failed his final exam, our protagonist’s path to becoming a Magia Vander and climbing the Tower seems to have come to an end.

However, at the very last second, the headmaster reminds students that earning enough credits isn’t the only way to advance to the tower. The privilege can also be earned by creating a new spell, something Will (sort of) accomplished during the festival. Although many object to the decision, ultimately this is enough for Will to move on with his friends but what awaits in the Tower is anything but a warm welcome…

Upon entering the Tower, those who have proven themselves worthy during their years at the academy are granted a colour which shows they belong to a particular faction within the Tower. However, those who have advanced without appropriately proving themselves are left on the first floor of the Tower, forever unable to advance further. Naturally, Will falls into the camp of needing to prove himself and odds are not in his favour for winning over any of the faction leaders, no matter what he does.

In many ways, this instalment of Wistoria is a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire for Will. Sure, he’s faced many setbacks throughout the series so far, but there’s something extra depressing about being allowed into the Tower as he’s dreamed, only then to be told he may be stuck on the first floor for the rest of his life.

He’s not the only mage from his year to end up in this situation either, as Julius has ended up unwanted too. However, in his case, it’s presumably due to his being antagonistic toward Will and earning Elfie’s ire, who is in charge of the ice faction and ordinarily would take on a talented ice mage like Julius. Unlike poor Will, that does feel like just desserts. Still, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for him, too.

Given we’re supposedly already over the halfway point of the series, I can’t see author Fujino Omori choosing to leave Will wasting away at the bottom of the Tower for too long. Especially as without progressing, he’s never going to be reunited with Elfie. So with that in mind, I suspect that in general, this will be a shorter arc before we get into something meatier.

To some degree, it does feel somewhat like Volume 8 spends the majority of its run setting up for the future as it places the characters we’re familiar with under different factions and introduces some newbies to get used to. Still, this isn’t a bad thing as Omori has long proven that taking the time to build up a solid foundation pays off later on down the road in arcs like the Terminalia Festival. And even if the story has slowed down, we still have Toshi Aoi’s wonderful artwork to admire which has some moments to shine in battle scenes toward the end of the release.

Wistoria: Wand and Sword Volume 8 comes to the West thanks to Kodansha and continues to be translated by Alethea and Athena Nibley. As always the release reads well with no problems, which is reassuring when the lettering still appears to be credited to a company rather than an individual. As usual for Wistoria, there’s not a lot to speak of in terms of extras here, apart from some character profiles and a 4-page bonus manga at the end. Still no colour pages, sadly.

The series is up to Volume 11 in Japan at the time of writing, while here in English we’ll be waiting until May for Volume 9 with #10 yet to slot into the schedule (understandably, given how far out May already is!). As mentioned at the start of the review, the first season of the anime has already aired and is available on Crunchyroll if you’re looking to catch up ahead of Season 2. It ended up being great, so I highly recommend checking it out.

Overall, Wistoria: Wand and Sword Volume 8 moves Will out of the academy setting and on a new path that’s just as troublesome as anything he’s faced before! It might be largely setting up for events to come, but this is still an enjoyable read.

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