Charmed: Magic School

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.