as a huge doremi fan, this was a natural choice of light novel to read, especially since as far as i know it's completely untranslated. it also helped that i actually owned a physical copy, gifted to me one year by a friend, and i always prefer reading physical copies of books. it ended up being pretty much the perfect choice, as the difficulty was almost perfectly suited to my current levelcurrently not very high, and before i knew it, i was gliding undaunted through the previously-intimidating pages full of text. it still took a good couple weeks of reading an hour or two per day to get through it, but by the end i had finally finished reading my first light novel.

now, obviously, since it is my first light novel, i don't really have much to compare it to, at least among its peers. i've read a lot of actual literature at least, which is a stiff comparison, but i haven't even read any translated light novels beforei did once briefly thumb through like volume 7 of typical isekai schlock called "shield hero" that my roommate once left on the couch, and had a good laugh. so when i say, for example, that the novel seems to have been competently writtennot surprising since it was written by an actual writer who had a significant role in the staff of the original show, remember to take it with a grain of salt. at this point i'm good enough to tell the difference between japanese written by japanese and bad japanese written by foreigners, but can't really go much further than that. i'll try to do my best, but maybe i'll have to come back and rework some parts of this when i've had more experience.

as for the actual book, the first thing you notice is that it's written in first person, from doremi's perspective. it can be a bit jarring coming from the show, but then again the show was always focused around doremi so it makes sense. it also helps that it's easy to imagine most of the writing in doremi's voice, and i think it lends it more personality and charm than a detached narrator would have had. you get a pretty intimate view of doremi's relatable struggles as just the average, good-hearted schoolgirl, struggling with figuring out what to do with herself as her friends seem to effortlessly select and go down their respective future paths, moving past her towards maturity. it feels to me like a good continuation/elaboration of the themes from the original show, especially those from the final episodes.

but besides doremi trying to find her way forward, i found the other parts of what could be called the main plot a bit lacking. from the blurb i poorly translated aboveforgive me, it is my first time, it's probably pretty clear that it's based around onpu's disappearance and the MAHO-dou's coinciding reappearance. i don't want to spoil too much to those who have not chosen to view the synopsis above, but while the original reason behind onpu's disappearence is pretty valid, the rest just feels like it was according to contrived, soap opera-level dramatic logic. not the sort of fare us doremi fans are used to. then, to add insult to injury, after initially refusing to do so which makes sense following the last episode of the show, the main girls decide to become witch apprentices again to resolve the whole situation, which is not even particularly dire and which they could have resolved without having done so. as a result, them becoming witch apprentices again felt very anticlimactic, and i was quite disappointed with how it was handledi guess to be fair you could also read into this a different way, as them secretly being eager to be witch apprentices again, so any flimsy excuse was enough for them to relent. at the very least from doremi's perspective you do get that feeling somewhat.

other than the main plot, the book mostly consisted of three side plots that were very reminiscent of episodes from the show. however, both in terms of story and theme, they didn't have much bearing on the main plot that was interweaved with them, and could have easily been replaced with three different side plots. it made the book feel a bit scattered or unfocused, at least to me, as it was basically like three self-contained doremi episodes glued together by the underlying main plot, which mostly advanced only between them. at the very least, the three side plots resembled the plots of episodes of the show in a good way, albeit with more mature problems as the girls are now in high school, after all.

anyways, i think this light novel is certainly a must-read for doremi fans, although i have some difficulty recommending it to those who aren't. yes, it was pretty easy to read, and yes, there is some explanation of the backstory for first-time doremi enjoyers in the beginning of the novel, but i just don't think it's enough to replace watching 200+ episodes of the show beforehand. if you're gonna finally take that step and dive into light novels, it should be something that really interests you, enough to keep going and make it through the whole thing. if that's doremi for you as it is for me, then i can't recommend this one enough, but if it's not, then i would say shop around a little bit among easy light novels and see if you can find something that does.