There are multiple oneshots that manage to fit a satisfying story in 20-30 pages on this very website. The problem is that there are TOO many characters, and not enough time spent with already exsiting ones, every new character is an annoying interruption to learning about characters we already have. The sabbath story was introduced too early, the side characters started too numerous, it should have been a story of 90% 2-4 characters until the end of volume 1, with far more time being concentrated on the two main MCs and their internal development/goals.
Of course, if you are planning your work to be 30 pages, 3 chapters, or 10 volumes, you will plan for different pacing. A short story will be less complex, will have less buildup, and generally simpler structure and payoff. Something planned to be much longer can afford to introduce many concepts and characters early on and come back to them later. I think pacing was completely fine within those few chapters we got.
It's not like there were that many character - two protagonists, 4-5 side characters with any detail, and a good number of those that just passed by and can be fleshed out later. This is not excessive at all. Main storylines: Sadako's past, Sadako+Hanako, Sabbath vs outcast girls (minor conflict), Good witches vs Bad witches (major conflict). Also, completely manageable. Good amount of world building also introduced through events.
We can also assume that at least half of volume 2 was rewritten to some extent to fit into "ending", and we might have gotten a lot more space to flesh out the outcast group, and not just the initial 2 girls that were in the first half of it, with Sabbath and bad witches being completely left for later.
I feel like, again, you want to know too much, too quickly. That's not how you read a long-form story. Initially, you only get to know the characters on a surface level, and then you find out their goals and motivations through events. For now, we know that Sadako is very childish and enamored with the world, which she wants to explore. She is also interested in Hanako for, maybe, mysterious reason. Hanako, on the other hand, is lost in life, always feels out of place, etc. And is pulled by Sadako's childlike wonder and energy, and, maybe, also a mysterious reason. Good witches are split between "tradition" and "freedom" factions, and both of them oppose the Bad witches. I don't know, that just feels like a good amount of information introduced in a good amount of space. Assuming this was written for 10+ volumes, because that's how it reads. If the initial plan was to finish it in the next 2-3, then sure - it was a bit of a mess.
