The first fight begins!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Asahi Sakano
Translation: Adrienne Beck
What They Say
In a world full of Evils, humanity’s only hope is the inhuman power of the witches.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The first three chapters of Guardian of the Witch got us to our baseline characters quickly enough, established a lot of setting material by riffing on other projects, and then got our lead trio on the road just as fast. That means we’ve got a number of villages to come across and experiences to have there in traditional shonen form, especially with the protected Manasfa that doesn’t know much of the world in general. Both Fafner and Nahta have a bit more real-world experience that lets them navigate things better but even Nahta lets Fafner take the lead more often than not. Of course, that’s only until Manasfa screws up something herself and alters the plan that he’s laid out.
The plan with the first village is to sneak around it and let Fafner explore it afterward but Manasfa does her thing and literally trips right into the village. Luckily, the village looks to be excited to have guests and they nearly throw a festival over it – though we do learn that there’s bit of a twist as to why this plays out as it does. A village so near the city-state of Berne is likely to have some secrets and ways of operating and while they do feed the trio well and put them up in an inn to get some good rest and time together, Fafner does learn the truth. Only those that are deemed to be good people get the treatment while the rest get beaten to a pulp. You can see that as possible going by some of the residents in the background images too! I do like that the group settles in well for the moment, with Fafner knowing what’s ahead, while he also takes point in watching out on the roof so as to make sure the others feel protected.
That also makes him the first target by the other team that’s giving chase in trying to bring Manasfa back. With the orders given to not kill her but not to worry about anyone else, we don’t get a multi-chapter chase before the first encounter but rather the first blows thrown down here. Gen is pretty solid with his metal weapon magic in coming up with pieces to use against Fafner while Ruli’s not bad either in providing support, though she keeps reminding him about not hurting the witch. The fight doesn’t end here and covers probably a third of the chapter but it has a good bit of intensity to a lot of it with how the two guardians face off against each other but also because Gen is enjoying the hell out of this fight, a chance to cut loose and see what he’s capable of.
In Summary:
Guardian of the Witch is moving at a pretty good clip overall and there are some fun bits in here. Manasfa is still mostly played for laughs even though we know the darker side to what it means to be a Witch in this context. The time with her and Nahta isn’t bad and helps to build some of the background narrative with how the world works and keep Manasfa’s innocence in place enough. Fafner continues to be a standard archetype character without too much to really make him stand out yet but hopefully, a bit with his fight with Gen and Ruli will help with that and as he shows whether he’s really leadership material or not in protecting his charges.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Shonen Jump
Release Date: February 23rd, 2020
