Diamond Diving tells the story of a girl who learns that she is a witch and goes to a school to hone her magical abilities. There, she finds more than just her magic, like new challenges, crushes, and obstacles to overcome in this girl’s love story.
Chez Madameka Diamond Diving is the story of Karta Kloss, also known as Pinky, who is drawn to a school of magic, Montgomery College of Witchcraft. There, she meets a girl she falls in love with, and as the story progresses, the two grow closer and become more attracted to each other. Although this webcomic is primarily a romance, it also has its wonderful comedic moments.
The story begins with a witch casting a spell, who learns a “special” one: Karta, who couldn’t get into college, has parents who divorced, and a disbanding garage band. She has her own unique style. She hears a melody and learns that she is a witch, obtaining a stack of books. Karta thinks it is a dream and panics. She does not tell her parents or her friends where she is going. She takes tests to discover her magical abilities, is impressed by the school itself, and meets her roommates: a pessimistic girl named River Styxx and a more helpful girl named Kelpie “Kelps” Abott. The name River Styxx could be a reference to Styx, which is a deity and a river, in Greek mythology, which forms a border between the underworld and the surface world (Earth), or the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club song, “River Styx”, or something completely different! Either way, River saves Karta on the first day of an enchanted prank by another child.
Karta goes to the library to collect school books, helped by a librarian, and meets an heiress named Bailey Montgomery. She soon falls in love with Bailey, trying to impress her with her magical skills, but ends up hurting herself and Bailey, the two being bored with each other. This soon changes when Bailey carries Karta to her room after she passed out. Later, she has a dream about the future and learns that she has the magical ability known as “Dream Dive”. She meets Bailey on her first day of class and invites her out for coffee the next day. She chooses her gem, a moonstone. We later learn of Bailey’s past trauma, her full name, and she agrees to meet Karta, claiming it’s not a date.
Bailey later puts the gem on her necklace and they spend the day together. The two realize it could have been a date, her friends at a coffee shop find Bailey’s real Instagram account, and Bailey confronts her mother, who threatens her into a relationship with Karta. Her roommates help her study, while River gets upset about Karta and Bailey’s date. Karta hilariously asks Harlow, Anne, River and Kelpie to help him get a second date with Bailey i.e. “Operation High-Class Waifu”, Kelpie letting Karta know that there are rules to let Karta date Bailey, learning that she must defeat Bailey before she can date her.
After Karta asks Bailey out on a date, Bailey says if Karta can hold out for a minute, she’ll go on another date with her. Later, Bailey tells Yvonne that Karta is cute and wants to play it safe before she can be with Karta, so her mother won’t hurt her. And the story continues from there, with many twists and turns.
Diamond Diving has compelling characters and storyline. Besides Karta and Bailey, there are Karta’s roommates Kelpie and River, and other characters like Yvonne Bisset, Ericka Rangulf, Annelise “Anne” Combe, Harlow Park, Cecilia, Karen, Nia, and Suzy. Many of these characters have brown skin, such as Karta and her roommate River, among others. This webcomic is not the only one in this case. Webcomics, like MagicalMashup!, Butterflies in her hair, Pandora’s choice, My valentine demon, and everywhere and nowhereto name a few, also have such representation among their cast.
In a recent Q&A, Karta revealed that she considers Bailey to be “cool and mysterious” but easily confused, while Bailey considers Karta to be “full of life”, a go-getter and wishing she could be “more like that”. The comic was recently nominated for the Webtoon Canvas Awards’ Outstanding Fantasy category, with voting closing on October 31, 2021. If Diamond Diving is among the top 4 nominated series, which will be announced on November 29, 2021, and then users will be able to vote for the series again between December 6 and December 12, 2021, with the winners being announced early next year.
Diamond Diving, which has more than 50 episodes, is written and illustrated by Madamka. She is also known for her wonderful three-part webcomic titled Her name was Sunny. In one of the scenes from the webcomic, the “Princess Prom” episode of She-Ra and the Princess of Power is mentioned, which is why this webcomic will always stay in my mind. In a recent Q&A, Madamka said that the use of crystals in Diamond Diving was influenced by Hazel Raven’s book sacred crystalsand that the webcomic is two-thirds into Season 1. She also noted that Yvonne is aromantic and asexual, Harlow is homoromantic bisexual, Karta is bisexual, Max is polyamorous, and Bailey is lesbian.
In the same Q&A, Madamka noted that she was in a romantic relationship with fellow webcomic artist Soya S. Holm, creator of Susuhara is a demon!. She further described this work of art as Sailor Moon, Revolutionary Girl Utena, The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the King, Bayonetta, WITCH, and monster raised served as influences on Diamond Diving, while saying that the character’s outfits in the webcomic are based on K-pop outfits, designer clothes, her own wardrobe and other ideas. Madamka also described the comic as a mixture of themes from Harry Potter Revolutionary Girl Utena, monster raised1990s anime like Yu Yu Hakusho and Kiddy level. In another Q&A, she said most of her character designs came from daydreaming, her favorite anime was Yu Yu Hakusho, and explained the illustration process for the comic. I’m delighted to hear in this Q&A that Madamka will be starting a new project, whether it’s a continuation of Diamond Divinga magical comic or fantasy adventure centered around a vampire and his apprentice.
Diamond Diving is one of many recent stories that have focused on or featured characters with magical abilities. This includes characters in Grand Jahy will not be defeated!dragons in Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maidthe witches in The owl houseFrida in hildaand the protagonists of Tales of Arcadia trilogy. However, this webcomic, in some ways, reminds me Little Witch Academy, an anime series that had yuri undertones, even though they aren’t explicitly stated. Other webcomics like Tanya Tinks’ Tea for twoMerryweather everywhere and nowhereand Olivia Barone Calia Nova, to name a few, also include characters with magical abilities.
Diamond Diving is available to read on WebToon and Tapas.
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You can find Madamka on Twitter. The webcomic can be supported on Patreon.
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For more great webcomic recommendations, check out our Wednesday Webcomics Archive!
Author: Burkely Hermann
Burkely is a declassified document indexer by day and a fan fic writer by night. He recently earned an MLIS with a concentration in Digital Preservation from the University of Maryland. He currently voraciously watches anime series and reads too many webcomics to rely on Webtoon. He enjoys swimming, hiking and researching his family roots in his spare time.
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