The Spring 2022 Manga Guide

Witches: The Complete Collection

What's It About? 

On a visit to the capital of a small country in the far west of Asia, a British girl named Nicola falls in love. The object of her affections is Mimar, a young man who works at a bazaar—yet despite her attempts, he doesn't notice her. Back at home in England, the ache of her unrequited love festers. After years spent obtaining wealth, fame, and “the secret of the world,” she returns to the bazaar to exact her deadly revenge upon Mimar and those he holds dearest. This story is just one of many in this dramatic collection, which features tales of witchcraft across the globe and even in the far reaches of outer space.

Witches: The Complete Collection has story and art by Daisuke Igarashi and English translation by Kathryn Henzler. Seven Seas Entertainment has released this two-volume omnibus both digitally and physically for $13.99 and $24.00 respectively.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Jean-Karlo Lemus

Rating:

Witches is an enrapturing read, plain and simple. Taking advantage of the varied cultures' ideas of magic and those who wield it, the stories in this anthology follow women with an affinity for mystical from different parts of the world as they pursue their own goals. A jilted woman seeks revenge upon the family of the man that rejected her in Turkey!. A shaman seeks to defend her home in the rain forest. A little girl ventures much farther than she expects as she looks for her missing cat. All of these stories deal with women and how their relationship to the natural world coincides with their relationships with themselves; as with nature, sometimes it's beautiful, and sometimes it ends with death. And sometimes, there's beauty in death.

As always, Daisuke Igarashi excels with their spreads, showing off the vast forces of the natural world as they overwhelm the comparatively-diminutive human form, and the innate peaceful beauty of animals going about their business. There is even a perverse wonder in the raw, chaotic maelstrom of life willing itself to existence, even if it's premature and unsustainable. With its eyecatching art, globetrotting stories, and memorable writing, this is for sure a book to keep on your shortlist.

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Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

The word “witch” has many connotations. They run the gamut from positive to distressingly negative, but in the context of this book, the definition seems to be, primarily, someone who forms the link between the human world and the natural world. It's understood that humans voluntarily separated themselves from the natural world, something particularly driven home in the second story, which takes place in a South American rainforest, and the fourth, which is set in a mountainous European country. In both of these pieces the “witch” in question is working to save humans from themselves, and in doing so, she also tries to preserve the natural world in its proper condition. The woman in the rainforest fails. The woman in the mountains succeeds. Both pay a terrible price that, perhaps, to them feels not so bad after all.

If this sounds a bit confusing or lamely philosophical, those are valid reactions, because at times Witches absolutely gets caught up in its own schtick. While both of those two stories that I mentioned are strong, they actually aren't the most interesting because they're so very on the nose; the opening piece, set in a country that I suspect may be Turkey!, is much more engaging and intriguing because it plays with the concept of witches and the uses of power for good or for ill. The second piece tries to do that as well, but it doesn't quite work in the same way, at least in part because it lacks the two contrasting characters, Nicola and Shiral, that the opening story has. This use of a duo is used well again in the mountain witch piece, and again in one set in modern Japan, where a girl is possibly tricked into giving up her name and blessing, but may have freely given them without the machinations of the presumed witch.

The art is really the biggest draw here, with intricate designs and a very clear (and largely successful) attempt to make different parts of the world distinct. It does feature some nonsexual nudity complete with pubic hair and there are also some elements of body horror to be aware of, as well as just a general sense of the pages being overwhelmingly full. This is best used in the final, and second shortest, story, which plays with Okinawan mythology, but honestly it's a great strength throughout the omnibus volume. If you enjoyed Children of the Whales from the same creator you're probably going to pick this up anyway, but even if you didn't, it's a neat book, even when it's trying too hard.

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MrAJCosplay

Rating:

Witches is definitely an acquired taste. I think no one can dispute how gorgeous the artwork is; extensive pencil strokes and shading accompany anatomically correct character designs to give the book a grounded feel. However, the same couldn't necessarily be said of the stories in this volume, which dip into the more abstract and macabre aspects of the world of witches that it attempts to portray. The collection is divided into a multitude of stories that are all similar in their intentions despite focusing on different characters from different parts of the world. This is one of those collections that I can definitely say accomplishes what I think it's set up to do, but your mileage may vary on whether you find that enjoyable or not. There's a lot of abstract dialogue informing or referring to events that aren't always spelled out, and while I appreciate that the book doesn't try to hold your hand and overexplain its more supernatural elements or the dark emotional implications of what is going on, it is very easy to get lost in what exactly the overarching theme or intention of somebody's actions are. If you are someone who is very enamored with the dark and occult, then I think this is right up your alley, but for a more general audience, I can see how this can be a bit harder to appreciate.