Review: ACCIDENTALLY IN LOVE: THE WITCH, THE KNIGHT, AND THE LOVE POTION SLIP-UP

There are plenty of witches to be found in the light novel world, alongside the many reincarnated noblewomen and villainesses.  Are they any good, though?

ACCIDENTALLY IN LOVE: THE WITCH, THE KNIGHT, AND THE LOVE POTION SLIP-UP (Koisuru Majo wa Elite Kishi ni Horegusuri o Nomasete Shimaimashita: Itsuwari kara Hajimaru Watashi no Dekiai Seikatsu), based on the light novels by Harunadon and illustrations by Eda, written by Itsuki Azumaya with art by Shino Agetate.  First published in 2023 and first published in North America in 2024.

PLOT:

Cecily dreams of having a storybook romance of her own, but her status as a red-eyed witch makes her an outcast in her world.  According to her mother, the only way Cecily can find love is to hone her powers and make a love potion.  Cecily is reluctant to do such things, but after she falls for the kindly knight Zeke she gives in to the temptation.  She makes some major changes to the recipe, but it seems to work.  As Zeke draws Cecily further into his world, Cecily is torn between her growing affection for him and her guilt over building this relationship on a magical lie.

STORY:

I've noted before that a curious side-effect of the reincarnation/villainess isekai boom is a small but steady stream of non-isekai fantasy romances.  In theory I am all in favor of this because it's nice to have a wider variety of romance manga available in English, especially since these sorts of books tend to focus on adult heroines.  In practice it's been something of a mixed bag and Accidentally In Love seems to have gotten most of the bad and boring bits of that mixed bag.

I can't tell you what Cecily sees in Zeke beyond a handsome face and a bland sort of niceness.  Maybe that's all she needs, considering she herself is blandly nice.  At most he'll drop a suave line every now and then, but even then there's no feeling to it.  For all the fuss that's made early on about how oppressed witches are in this world, it really doesn't seem to matter to Cecily after the first couple dozen pages.  At that point Zeke whisks her off to hang out with nobility and she's basically treated like a princess after that.  That's nice for her, but it's not exactly fertile ground for romantic drama.

The only tension that can be found in the entire book is Cecily's guilt over the love potion.  Even then, there's no weight to it because anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see the twist coming: Cecily made so many substitutions to her love potion that it less like a potion and more like tomato soup.  Zeke is either aware of this stunt and is playing along to amuse himself and get closer to Cecily or he's oblivious and is just that smitten with her.  Either way, it undermines any pathos Cecily's guilt can muster and I grew exhausted with her constant bellyaching over it.  This is the sort of premise that should be played like a farce, but everything here is played with the sort of sleepy sentimental straightfowardness that renders it utterly dull.

ART:

I've frequently complained how most light novel-to-manga adaptations are drawn by online amateurs and Accidentally In Love might be the worst example of this phenomenon I've seen in a while.  The character designs and poses are flat and uninspired, and nowhere is this more evident than with our main couple.  Cecily is your generic anime girl, with big eyes, barely any nose, and a little flappy mouth.  Meanwhile, Zeke looks like he wandered out of some C-tier otome game with his generic officer's uniform, long gloves, and boy band hair.  Part of me wonders if he's meant to be a knockoff of Claude from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but frankly if so that's an insult to Claude.  That's not even getting into the fact that despite him being dark-skinned in the manga, he got whitewashed for the cover.  They don't look that much different in the light novel illustrations, but it's clear that more effort was put into the details and in cultivating a more romantic mood in general.

Most titles like this at least attempt to give the art some sort of Ye Olde Time-y flair to enhance both the fantasy and the romance, but it's virtually absent here.  There's no consistency in the costuming and it leans heavily on screentones for backgrounds (and those that are present feel very cut-and-paste).  The paneling is completely workmanlike and the poses are positively rigid.  Even the lettering is off, as it's often awkwardly fitted inside rather small word bubbles.  Either this was drawn by someone who was drawing manga for the first time or someone who simply didn't care.

RATING:

Accidentally In Love feels like a series where everyone involved was going through the motions, from the original author up to the manga's artist.  There's no charm, novelty, beauty, or effort to be found here, and if the creators couldn't be bothered with any of that then why should you bother with this?

This manga is published digitally by J-Novel Club under their J-Novel Heart imprint.  This series is complete in Japan with 2 volumes available.  1 volume has been released and is currently in print.