I won't lie, the concept for this story reminded me of parts of Gunslinger Girl and Little Witch Academia. There isn't quite enough substance to the story (yet?) to be either of those things. The main character is a girl who really doesn't want to be a magical soldier and isn't very good at combat. After her roommate dies on the field, she gets paired with another girl who shows up one day covered in blood. This story has some potential, but it feels like it doesn't know what it wants to do with itself right now. I had seen some people raise concerns about the way healing works in this world. I'll admit, I didn't realize THAT was actually how healing worked until one of the adults said it. I thought the explanation of "Oh, they're not kissing, she's just healing her with mana and that's the most effective way" was meant to be a lame cover story to excuse the two girls who got caught kissing in the stairwell. But uh, no. kissing is how you heal someone in this story's world. You hear a teacher/nurse in the background of one scene say something along the lines of "Oh she got injured so badly I'm going to have to kiss her to fix it", which is...hm. The mental image of an adult macking on a 13-year-old is NOT something I want in my brain. I honestly just don't think the author thought it through since you never SEE an adult kissing any of the minors. You only see the girls with each other. But really, that should have been thought through a little bit better and realized that making "kissing = healing" could create some hairy situations. All that aside, the art is gorgeous. I really feel that the biggest thing it has going for it is the art.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!