Witch Series of the Past: "Oz no Kakashi Tsukai" ("The Scarecrow of Oz") by Ichiharu Koma

We here at Omari's Sister are quite fond of cute witch stories.  This is one we finished nearly a year ago.  If you haven't read it, I encourage you to give it a try.  I promise that it will make you smile! Here are the links to the chapters:

"The Scarecrow of Oz" Chapter 3

I was planning to do a double release of chapters 3 and 4, but there was too much dialog and cuteness packed into this chapter that I got "Scarecrow of Oz" burn out.  Therefore, chapter 4 has been moved back to August and will be a low priority release, meaning that I'll finish it if I have time after all the other releases.

Delaying "Furou Kyoudai" and "The Scarecrow of Oz" Short Series

I've decided to delay "Furou Kyoudai" and "The Scarecrow of Oz" short series until July to allow for time for the release of compilation of the series and one-shots into a book (Hopefully, the books will come out way before July.  If so, we'll start when the books come out instead of waiting.).  The magazine print quality of the short series portion is atrocious and will take a long time to clean and edit (It's making my eyes burn and tearing up my mousing-wrist -- hello carpal tunnel...).

Even if we do our best, we could probably only bring the quality up to barely medium (too much missing "data").  If there's no sign of a book compilation by July, then we'll go with the raw we've got and do what we can.  In the mean time, instead we'll start short series "Depend on a Kiss" and "Duet with a Demon" in May.

The Scarecrow of Oz Chapter 2

Here's the second "The Scarecrow of Oz" one-shot.  It truly is a follow-up to the first one-shot and ties up the lose end with the Tin Man.  In March we will release "The Scarecrow of Oz" serialization.  The serialization will only be three chapters long and is currently running in "Hana to Yume" magazine.  The serialization covers the third witch who chose the beast.  (The little lion beasty is adorable!).

The Scarecrow of Oz is being Serialized

AUGH!!!  A pleasant hole has been blown into my plans :).  "The Scarecrow of Oz" has been picked up as a series in "Hana to Yume" magazine.  It will begin serialization in Hana to Yume issue 5, which releases in two weeks!  I LOVE the two one-shots, so we will be picking up this series.  Unfortunately, for you "Pika Ichi" fans, this is the last nail in the coffin for that series.  I'm currently actively looking for a good translator/typesetter to take it over. Until I do find someone, we will put out chapters when we have time.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for "Furou Kyoudai"!  I would love for that to become a series too.

Anyhow, I will try to do my best to get the second "Scarecrow of Oz" one-shot out in February along with the first chapter (it really all depends on how jury duty goes).

"Ozu no Kakashi Tsukai" ("The Scarecrow of Oz") Chapter 1

 

Here it is!  "Ozu no Kakashi Tsukai" or "The Scarecrow of Oz"
Link to "Ozu no Kakashi Tsukai"

This is one of those stories that kinda sneaks up on you when you start to think of its deeper meanings.  I think the key themes in this story are what is merit and what does it mean to have merit.  Also, this story is rife with references to the "Wizard of Oz" and the themes within that story.  See how many of them you can catch :).

I had a very interesting e-mail conversation with one of my proofreaders, Corgi, about this story.  I will post this exchange in a day or two after enough people have had the chance to read the story.  I don't want to spoil the story or color your opinions of the story before you read it.  Anyhow, check back in a couple of days and give your own opinions if you want.