MARI THE UNWONDERFUL WITCH

You don't have to be "wonderful" for someone else anymore. If you can be true to yourself, you can be a "witch" too.

Mari, an 11-year-old witch who lives with her two witch moms, is a girl who loves food and fashion (she uses magic to change her hair and eye colour every day as suits her mood). There are not very many witches in this Stone Flower Town, but they nonetheless live in harmony with other, non-magical people. In the past, witches have had to overcome the prejudice by becoming "wonderful" witches who have lovely cats instead of scary bats, and who use their magic only for the benefit of others. Mari's grandmother, Momo, was a legendary wonderful witch who had achieved the current harmony. Mari's mother, Gwendolyn is also a model witch, who is very useful to non-magical people through her fortune-telling. Mari's other mother, Yuki, is a humble witch with weak magical powers, but she is kind and a great cook and Mari adores her.

Mari attends the local school. Today's lunch is Mari's favorite a jam donut. Once again, she has forgotten the rule that "you can't use magic for yourself" and has used "multiplication magic" to make the jelly donut bigger- but its expansion never stops, and the donut is now as big as the school playground!

Mari's two non-magical best friends, Suji, who is good at maths, and Rei, a transgender girl who loves witch culture, somehow save the day, but Mari is scolded by her mother Gwendolyn. The adult witches keep telling Mari that she should become a "wonderful witch" who helps others, but she is not entirely convinced..

Asako Yuzuki was born in Tokyo in 1981. She won the All Yomimono Award for New Writers for her story "Forget Me, Not Blue," which appeared in her debut novel, published in 2010. She won the Yamamoto Shugoro Award in 2015. She has been nominated multiple times for the Naoki Prize, and her novels have been adapted for television, radio, and film.