Olivia Vieweg

When a new student from Japan shows up at Bibi Blocksberg's school, she fits in immediately. But Bibi's suspicious; she knows Miyu's hiding something, and she's determined to find out what! Bibi's journey takes her all the way

Bibi & Miyu, Vol. 1

Briar's Reviews

Ah, more manga. Manga seems to be an ongoing trend for me during the pandemic. It's fun, full of pretty pictures and relatively easy to read. It's the kind of guilty pleasure book that makes me forget about all of the insanity in this world.

Bibi and Miyu first pulled me in because of the absolutely gorgeous, pink cover! It brings joy, whimsy and fun to this TokyoPop title. Covers that look magical like this bring a lot of my attention to it!

Now for some of our characters, that are introduced right at the beginning of the book with little bios: Bibi Blocksberg, a young 13 year old, popular witch, is our lead. Miyu is our other lead, but we don't know much of her as the book starts. Wasabi is adorable. There's a guy named Bernard, which just gave me the Santa Clause vibes - I never hear about characters named Bernard! 

And time for the plot: Miyu is the new girl at Bibi's school. She's from Japan, has great hair and is passing out candy to people. But Bibi is suspicious... something is different about this girl! Especially when a small fox creature comes out of nowhere! As Bibi learns more about Miyu, she figures they can be friends. Oh, and lots of adventures happen along the way, like going to Japan!

This story is just loaded with cuteness and fun! The spells that are cast remind me of the fun I used to have watching 4TNZ Winx Club and Magical Melodies (yeah, you can totally place a date on my childhood. I'm a Millennial. Woo). The sweetness packed in this book just made me feel good. 

I can see anyone from middle grade all the way up to us good old adults loving this series. It's a fun, quick read with lots of magic and sweetness packed tight in it! It's the feel good book of 2020 that I needed! You don't need to be the typical manga lover to enjoy it either. It's simplistic and lovely!

Overall, this book is excellent! I need more books like this in my life!

Four out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

Lena

Thank you to Tokyopop for providing me with an arc for review! 

This was cute and I can definitely see myself loving future volumes but this one just didn't come together for me. 

There were a few things that just didn't make sense to me and everything seemed quite rushed. However it was cute and I like the characters and I'm hoping with further development and deeper dives into topics I'll be able to enjoy it more!