Now, we’ve all seen that a lot of manga and anime have ended recently: My Hero Academia, Kyokuto Necromance, Dear Anemone, Fabricant 100, Tenmaku Cinema, The Ichinose Family’s Deadly Sins and possibly Psych House (although I both certainly hope not and would not be surprised).
Thank God Oda has confirmed that we should have another 8 years of One Piece to look forward to. And it doesn’t look like Spy Family is going anywhere, either.
Boy, a ton of manga that I’ve reviewed for this blog are on there, aren’t they?
But this also means that a lot of new manga must come out to take their places: Martial Master Asumi, Dogsred, Me and Roboco and today’s reviewed manga, just out last week: Ichi the Witch.
Now, as a writer, I am all for turning old tropes on their heads. For the longest time, men have enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) most of everything this world has to offer. And “warrior princesses” by this point have become so ubiquitous that the only way one could be different and paradigm-shifting anymore would be to go back to the pink, fluffy, singing, animal-loving, perfectly obedient princess that was always present in the early Disney movies.
That being said, my point is that, because men already have everything, I am wary of stories that tell of “male empowerment”. Nobody is going to cheer for a straight kid beating out a gay kid to perform in a musical or win in a drag competition. Men, and in particular straight white men already have everything, so having them come in and take over a place specifically made for women or minorities just smacks of disgusting greed and practically colonialism.
So the right-wingers would probably love the concept, but not me.
But the story, art and world of Ichi the Witch stand to speak for themselves. (Provided you ignore the massive elephant in the room.) The levels of detail and the stark black-and-white artwork remind me heavily of something from Clamp, or Black Clover. Ichi himself sort of resembles the protag from Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba as well (I’ve never read it).
Even the world reminds me of Black Clover.
But magic isn’t exactly freely available in this world, unlike Black Clover. Magical spirits appear before people like the Kwamis from Miraculous Ladybug, asking that people complete their trial rituals before they can access magical powers. These creatures are called Majiks, and women who hunt them to acquire their powers are known as Witches.
Only women, mind you-because it’s apparently next-to-impossible for a man to gain control of a magical power. (Hello, American Horror Story.)
Happy local hermit boy Ichi was abandoned in the woods when he was very little with only a knife. It had been meant for him to kill himself with, but the boy possessed too great of a subconscious will to live, and so he became an expert survivalist and hunter. But, like seemingly all other shonen heroes, Ichi has vowed to never kill anything except for sustenance or self-defense.
One day, he came upon the evil Majik known as Uroro, sleeping on the mountainside, and he set about preparing for the day when it might attack him, eager for the challenge.
And, lo and behold, Uroro does indeed awaken and go on a rampage one fine day, drawing the attention of the Witch authorities. Their strongest Witch Descarass goes in to engage him, but Uroro reveals that, while his ritual of forcing his heart to stop sounds easy enough on paper, he has also set the condition that his heart can never be harmed by a woman.
That is where Ichi comes in.
The series even indulges in a small amount of the traditional Japanese style of humor that I love, such as the intimidating Uroro thinking that Descarass is stalking him, or him pathetically begging for his life right before Ichi delivers the kill, and Descarass having over-the-top reactions to Ichi’s earnest yet silly behavior.
Now, again, the series has literally just dropped, so we have no idea where it’s going or what’s going to happen next. But I like most of it, aside from the whole “male empowerment” thing going on.
Maybe these cultural norm things are just different in Japan or something. But I fully intend to keep reading, and hopefully we will be able to see the series grow and change as we move into 2025.
That is, you know, if society still exists in 2025, following the election.
