I’m always on the look-out for new manga to read and often make it a point to check in on all the major publisher websites at least once a month to see what new volumes are coming out. The Alchemist Who Survived popped up one day and its description intrigued me. The full title of the manga is The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life. It’s quite a mouthful, so I’ll be using the shortened title throughout the rest of the review, but the full title does give you some idea about the nature and the story of this particular series. After reading through this first volume, I can predict that I’ll be falling in love with this series as more volumes come out. It reminds me so much of a combination of Snow White with the Red Hair in its focus on herbology and daily life and Ancient Magus Bride in its creation of the magic system. I have a deep love for series that focus on the daily life of mages, herbalists, or people in a magical setting, and I’m really interested to see where this series goes. 

The Alchemist Who Survived follows the life of one of Mariela who wakes up from a magically-induced sleep to find that her former home has been destroyed by a monster stampede. To make matters worse, the spell has kept her asleep far longer than she wanted, finally allowing her wake after 200 years. In those 200 years, she finds that the city she used to live and sell her potions in has been decimated by the monster stampede, reduced to only part of its original size, and that she happens to be one of the last Alchemists in the area able to make potions. Mariela sets out to make a place for herself again, selling her potions, and trying to lead a quiet life. 

As you might think, the manga is adapted from a light novel, with artists Guru Mizoguchi and Ox coming on board to adapt the manga and do the character designs. I really love the character designs Ox came up with, the outfits are detailed and give more support to the overall worldbuilding. I love what they came up with for Mariela, and if I was still into cosplay I would definitely consider making her costume. She’s just adorable, but I digress. I would say that Mizoguchi’s art is really strong in this volume. I didn’t really have any problems with the art nor did I notice any issues with the panels or pages. I don’t think it’s especially attention grabbing, but it suits the series as a whole.