James Nicoll Reviews

2015’s Frau Faust, Volume 1 is the first tankōbon in Kore Yamazaki’s fantasy manga series. The English translation appeared in 2017. 

Legend speaks of a natural philosopher named Faust who long ago made a compact with the demon Mephistopheles. The demon will fulfill Faust’s every desire, but only for a set span of years. When the time is up, the demon will claim Faust’s soul. That will be the end of the corporeal Faust, but not of his soul, which now must suffer eternal torment in hell.

Per author Yamazaki, legend misleads. Faust did indeed make that famous deal. However, Faust is not dead. Furthermore, Faust is not a man.

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The Ancient Magus’ Bride, volume 1 collects the first five issues of Kore Yamazaki’s ongoing manga Mahō Tsukai no Yome.

Abandoned by her parents, despised by her peers, and plagued by visions she does not understand, high school student Chise Hitori decides to sell herself into slavery. That way, at least, she will have a place in the world. 

The bidding is heated. At the end of it, Chise is the property of mage Elias Ainsworth, a British person of sufficient means to pay five million pounds sterling for Chise. Well dressed and unflappably polite, Elias is a striking figure. 

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