Charmed: Magic School

Before I begin to bash this, let me just state that this would have been great as a story without it having to do with Charmed. A young witch coming into her magic and being sent to a school for magic is great to work with. Adding Charmed to it just made it worse. However, 

I appreciate the LGBT+ representation which was something not shown in the television show. Not sure if it was shown in the Zenescope comics either. The characters are one dimensional. They are either nice or mean. No type of depth.

As someone who has seen the original series and read S9 & S10 of the comics by Zenescope, I was thoroughly disappointed with this mess. First off this is a GRAPHIC NOVEL not a Manga in the slightest. I am also unsure where on the timeline this takes place. From what I gathered Wyatt and Chris are both in the story so it takes place after S6. Leo is no longer an elder but a whitelighter? Was he demoted? Paige is headmistress of Halliwell Academy. When did this open? What happened to Magic School?

The artwork isn't the greatest in regard to the Halliwell sisters because they look nothing like their TV counterparts at all. I couldn't even tell them apart.

If one other thing was done right, it was how they captured the essence of Phoebes ego. Here is a quote that is spot on! “And not to be a jerk or anything, but I am the most popular columnist at the bay mirror. My fans expect real advice”.

This has potential if they move away from Charmed and try to make it their own thing.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my my own.

Before I begin I should mention that I watched all, but the last season of Charmed. I loved the show, but by then it was repetitive and it lost its spark for me. I won't even go into my controversial thoughts on who Phoebe should have been with (they did them so wrong...).
That being said, I was really excited to see what this graphic novel would be like!

Unfortunately, I feel like it fell into the rhythm many comics have of being too choppy–jumping from one scene to the next with little segue or even development. As a manga fan, I'm used to a slow moving story with character development and feeling. Here I felt like the main character, lost and confused when tossed into a new world. (Yet, professors said she was taking like a fish to water???) Calling it “Charmed: THE MANGA” really made me think they would spend time flushing out characters and building up a story.... but no. Also, the art isn't totally to my preference, and knowing what the Halliwell sisters looked like in the TV show made it a bit harder to look at.

There is a pretty diverse cast, which I think is awesome. Love seeing all types of people become witches. What I don't like is calling someone by their name that they no longer identify with (sorry, I can't remember the right term). Honestly, I knew then or slightly prior who the bad person was and wondered why no one else thought the same! It isn't okay to do, especially if it isn't given the weight it deserves. No one should feel slighted because of who they are.

Because of my love for the show I had a hard time rating this. Originally, I gave it three stars, but the more I think about it the more realized I had to give it 2, even though I didn't want to. It was nice to catch up with the characters, it was a little fun seeing the magical school, but when I think about how I would feel about this had I not watched the show, I'd probably rate it lower.

By the way, you have to have watched the show to understand like any of what is talked about in the comic and understand who the characters are.
So, if you've watched the show, I'd maybe recommend this if you are feeling nostalgic, and if you like comics, then you might actually like this, otherwise I think you could skip it just fine.