What do you think?
Rate this book
Ciel / 씨엘 #1
Ciel: Der letzte Herbst 1
Yvien Magnolia ist eine bitterarme Dorfschönheit. Als sie mit dem hässlichen Sohn eines Adligen verheiratet werden soll, flieht sie in die Stadt. Dort landet sie in der Magieschule des Könighauses und versucht unter größten Anstrengungen, die Aufnahmeprüfung zu bestehen. Zudem macht sie Bekanntschaft mit dem mysteriösen January Lightsphere, in dessen Vergangenheit dunkle Gehimnisse liegen...
184 pages, Broschiert
First published January 1, 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 18, 2025
Honestly don't know how to feel about this one there are some things I liked a lot and some I didn't like at all. I will continue to read.
October 3, 2014
One of the best manhwas I have ever read, it is a josei if I had to categorize, so yes, it is intended for older readers, especially an older female audience (but men might enjoy it as well).
This is a story following Yvienne, a talented young witch who's only recently come into her powers. She's enlisted in a noble's magic school and leaves her impoverished agricultural life to head into the city and train to become a witch, and for a future she never knew she had.
If you think this sounds like Harry Potter - that's about as far as the similarities go.
What sets this manhwa apart from other magic manga/manhwa is its rich characters. Yvienne is beautiful and refined in character, she is a very strong heroine. Yvienne is someone who has a great deal of natural charm and maturity to her, she's the refined lady (with some wise cracks now and then).
Her partner, (witches need partners to do magic) Larry, is a girl desperately hoping for acceptance and she finds it in Yvienne. Raised in a very noble family, she too is a polished young woman, who was always missing a close friend to complete her.
January is a very handsome and effeminate boy who is kind and quiet and very thoughtful about life and magic - and yet.... his 'ability' makes him a monster. He was born for a purpose, a cruel purpose...
Daughter is a man with secrets he hides well behind his trained smile...
Krohiten is the professor of Yvienne's class, he is a powerful man capable of great magic. He's been teaching for a long, long time...
As for romance? Yes there is romance, but it's a romance that is hinted at and very slow in developing. It is very complicated and spawns novels as to how it's gone about. I will merely say that on the subject, it's a romance you desperately want to happen, but....
It's important to remember that in the end this series will have some tragedy in it, the author is known for it, but at the same time it has a very lively and cheery atmosphere. The author blends the perfect amount of joyful tones with dramatic when need be and develops her characters in a fantastic manner.
The secrets and plot twists (there is a HUGE one that stunned me) will really get you, and that's rare for me in the manhwas I've read, they're not something you can easily predict.
This, in summary, is a manhwa that is definitely worth the read and will leave you eager to get the next book in the series, give it a few chapters, you will be more than pleasantly surprised.
This is a story following Yvienne, a talented young witch who's only recently come into her powers. She's enlisted in a noble's magic school and leaves her impoverished agricultural life to head into the city and train to become a witch, and for a future she never knew she had.
If you think this sounds like Harry Potter - that's about as far as the similarities go.
What sets this manhwa apart from other magic manga/manhwa is its rich characters. Yvienne is beautiful and refined in character, she is a very strong heroine. Yvienne is someone who has a great deal of natural charm and maturity to her, she's the refined lady (with some wise cracks now and then).
Her partner, (witches need partners to do magic) Larry, is a girl desperately hoping for acceptance and she finds it in Yvienne. Raised in a very noble family, she too is a polished young woman, who was always missing a close friend to complete her.
January is a very handsome and effeminate boy who is kind and quiet and very thoughtful about life and magic - and yet.... his 'ability' makes him a monster. He was born for a purpose, a cruel purpose...
Daughter is a man with secrets he hides well behind his trained smile...
Krohiten is the professor of Yvienne's class, he is a powerful man capable of great magic. He's been teaching for a long, long time...
As for romance? Yes there is romance, but it's a romance that is hinted at and very slow in developing. It is very complicated and spawns novels as to how it's gone about. I will merely say that on the subject, it's a romance you desperately want to happen, but....
It's important to remember that in the end this series will have some tragedy in it, the author is known for it, but at the same time it has a very lively and cheery atmosphere. The author blends the perfect amount of joyful tones with dramatic when need be and develops her characters in a fantastic manner.
The secrets and plot twists (there is a HUGE one that stunned me) will really get you, and that's rare for me in the manhwas I've read, they're not something you can easily predict.
This, in summary, is a manhwa that is definitely worth the read and will leave you eager to get the next book in the series, give it a few chapters, you will be more than pleasantly surprised.
October 25, 2014
{October 25th, 2014} MINI REVIEW TIME
TITLE: Ciel: The Last Autumn Story (씨엘)
SYNOPSIS [from MyAnimeList/Wikipedia/etc]:
With the author's characteristic humor and creativity, the work describes one girl’s fantasy adventure. Yvienne Magnolia lives in a small village and her beauty turns the villagers' heads, yet she would never have imagined the grand future destined for her. Because a count tries to kidnap her, Yvienne flees to the Lowood Institution for wizardry and witchcraft, forced to leave her family. In the school, she meets interesting people, like January Lightsphere who comes from a noble but peculiar family, or Lariatte, an heir to an orthodox fighter family, who might yet become her closest friend.
5 stars.
I'd figure I should provide a little detail and information attached to this series. It's a manhwa, hence it's Korean description above here and artistic style being more realistic in a sense. Gorgeously beautiful art and colour is what attracted me to this series in the first place, coupled with the title-- Ciel: The Last Autumn Story ; it is also known by it's German counterpart being-- Ciel - Der letzte Herbst . There's influnce of the Victorian age, French aspects mixed with Korean and German as well, which really adds to the story especially when you throw in magic into the fray too.
This series is set in a late nineteenth-century French type of atmosphere, coupled with everything that really attracted me--art, story, characters, intrigue, mystery, magic, and more. This art style happens to be one of my favourites and truly illustrates the unfolding story remarkably well. The characters retain their mysteries, only demonstrating what you need to know thus far and getting familiar with their personalities.
I look forward to seeing how it plays out!
TITLE: Ciel: The Last Autumn Story (씨엘)
SYNOPSIS [from MyAnimeList/Wikipedia/etc]:
With the author's characteristic humor and creativity, the work describes one girl’s fantasy adventure. Yvienne Magnolia lives in a small village and her beauty turns the villagers' heads, yet she would never have imagined the grand future destined for her. Because a count tries to kidnap her, Yvienne flees to the Lowood Institution for wizardry and witchcraft, forced to leave her family. In the school, she meets interesting people, like January Lightsphere who comes from a noble but peculiar family, or Lariatte, an heir to an orthodox fighter family, who might yet become her closest friend.
5 stars.
I'd figure I should provide a little detail and information attached to this series. It's a manhwa, hence it's Korean description above here and artistic style being more realistic in a sense. Gorgeously beautiful art and colour is what attracted me to this series in the first place, coupled with the title-- Ciel: The Last Autumn Story ; it is also known by it's German counterpart being-- Ciel - Der letzte Herbst . There's influnce of the Victorian age, French aspects mixed with Korean and German as well, which really adds to the story especially when you throw in magic into the fray too.
This series is set in a late nineteenth-century French type of atmosphere, coupled with everything that really attracted me--art, story, characters, intrigue, mystery, magic, and more. This art style happens to be one of my favourites and truly illustrates the unfolding story remarkably well. The characters retain their mysteries, only demonstrating what you need to know thus far and getting familiar with their personalities.
I look forward to seeing how it plays out!
February 1, 2012
I read these in scanlation for quite a few volumes and am finally getting around to collecting the series in print. German manga/manhwa being cheaper I decided to go with the German edition.
It is a crisp reproduction of the beautiful art (manhwa usually has that but not all story lines interest me in the long run, so I mostly read manga) with a strange mix of translated and untranslated sound effects thrown in. The translation itself usually fits very well and then suddenly uses a completely inappropriate slang - but I have found that the German manga have that problem in general - shoddy copy-editing, I fear.
This is the prologue to a fantasy saga centring about one girl from the country coming to a school for magicians and finding out how powerful she is - this has "inspirations from Harry Potter" in many ways, but the manhwaga is really good with creating interesting characters. What magic there is, is nice, but it really isn't the focus, and so far it hasn't turned into a fight-only fantasy series - the books really slowly reveal the connections between all the people being seen in the first few volumes and the overall plot for this world - and who is playing a part in it (and how major that is) and who isn't.
I think I read up to volume 10 and I still don't quite see how the story is going. I just enjoy getting to know the characters some more.
Said in a different way: If you don't enjoy the characters (and the manhwaga's humour) then the pretty art won't keep you reading for long.
It is a crisp reproduction of the beautiful art (manhwa usually has that but not all story lines interest me in the long run, so I mostly read manga) with a strange mix of translated and untranslated sound effects thrown in. The translation itself usually fits very well and then suddenly uses a completely inappropriate slang - but I have found that the German manga have that problem in general - shoddy copy-editing, I fear.
This is the prologue to a fantasy saga centring about one girl from the country coming to a school for magicians and finding out how powerful she is - this has "inspirations from Harry Potter" in many ways, but the manhwaga is really good with creating interesting characters. What magic there is, is nice, but it really isn't the focus, and so far it hasn't turned into a fight-only fantasy series - the books really slowly reveal the connections between all the people being seen in the first few volumes and the overall plot for this world - and who is playing a part in it (and how major that is) and who isn't.
I think I read up to volume 10 and I still don't quite see how the story is going. I just enjoy getting to know the characters some more.
Said in a different way: If you don't enjoy the characters (and the manhwaga's humour) then the pretty art won't keep you reading for long.
February 28, 2014
beautiful manga , ^.^
January 28, 2018
I didn't like it at all, and by the end I loved it
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews