The Fall 2024 Manga Guide

The War of Greedy Witches

What's It About? 

At the moment of her execution, the holy martyr of France, Jeanne d'Arc, is transported to a mysterious new world. There, she comes face-to-face with thirty-one heroic women who carved their names into the annals of history as “witches.” Now, with the thirty-two witches assembled, Walpurgisnacht can commence―and the deadly tournament that pits its competitors against each other in the name of their selfish wishes is about to get underway...

The War of Greedy Witches has a story by Homura Kawamoto and and art by Makoto Shiozuka, with English translation by Kevin Gifford. This volume was lettered by Viet Phuong Vu. Published by Yen Press (November 19, 2024).

Is It Worth Reading?

Enough talk about women's rights—it's time to talk about women's wrongs!

Homura Kawamoto dealt a major salvo to anime fandom with Kakegurui, a series about crazy women going into wild game-of-death gambling matches that would make Kaiji faint. And in true form, Kawamoto has decided to stick with what works: a manga about crazy women in another game-of-death tournament! Only this time, we have a fun historical twist: all of the 32 participating witches are women from throughout history: from Tomoe Gozen to Amelia Earhart to Elizabeth Bathory and Agatha Christie—not to mention our protagonist, gentle Jeanne d'Arc (not that one). It's a regular monster mash.

The thing that sells this series is that it isn't holding anything back, especially with the first match-up featuring Elizabeth Bathory doing the patented Kakegurui scary-arousal face as she gloats over ripping off one of Tomoe Gozen's fingernails. This is a manga about messed-up women doing messed-up things to each other. It's fun to see some fictionalized exploration of each Witch's background and how that ties into their superpower, like Bathory summoning countless implements of torture she can control at will or Marie Antoinette summoning a gigantic magical guillotine. Honestly, I'm waiting to see how Amelia Earhart's magic manifests.

The biggest issue is that poor Jeanne d'Arc is overshadowed in her own series for so much of the first volume. We only get an inkling of what her witchy Desire might be on the very last page of the volume. That so many fascinating women are essentially erased from existence from their fights is also a bummer—especially if Elizabeth Bathory is some kind of standard for what these characters might be (my heart goes out to her stans). But The War of Greedy Witches is a series that knows exactly what it's about, carries it out to the letter and with tremendous aplomb, and promises all kinds of wild insanity. The title promises “32 of the wickedest women” and by God, that's what you're getting. There's room for great characterization, the powers and characters are fascinating, and the gas pedal is on the metal with the passion of someone who is not afraid to die at the hands of a woman who knows what blood tastes like. You absolutely are not going to fix anyone here, and that's okay. I want that second volume, now. Strongly recommended.

Being the mind behind Kakegurui, Homura Kawamoto is no stranger to ridiculous stories about terrible women. The War of Greedy Witches deals in decidedly more direct confrontations compared to the complex competitions of those compulsive gamblers, however. The subtitle of this manga is "32 of the Wickedest Women Duel to the Death," and it aims to deliver on that promise. This is a fantasy fight bracketmania in the style of Deadliest Warrior or Death Battle featuring not-necessarily historically accurate versions of famous ladies, so if you've everwondered who would win in a fight between, say, Cleopatra and Himiko, then this will be the series for you.

I say "will be" because Greedy Witches takes a bit to get going despite the blunt simplicity of its premise. The famous Jeanne D'arc is the viewpoint character getting drawn into this time-traveling tournament, reflecting on themes of desires and promises of power at the behest ofbAgrat Bat Mahlat. Multi-tiered magical powers for each villainess are detailed, motivations are questioned, and you do get to see Marie Antoinette summon a giant guillotine to decapitate an equally giant lion while you're waiting. But it can seem like a bit much when it's been 100 pages and the tournament announcer is still dragging things out introducing the first two proper combatants with overblow pro wrestler promotional posturing.

That is all in the interest of the absurd spectacle that Greedy Witches is building itself up for, however. Because once that opening fight between Tomoe Gozen and Elizabeth Báthory does get going, it does not stop, taking up the entire other half of the volume and not even being fully finished by the end. Both ladies are constantly whipping out new power-ups and abilities to keep turning the tables on each other, and there's plenty to revel in with such sites as Báthory pulling a "Gate of Babylon" maneuver with torture devices or Tomoe yanking up the very stakes she ends up chained to and swinging them around as huge improvised weapons. There isn't a ton of character here beyond trying to drive home what badasses these ladies are, but I don't know that it needs to do that in this early phase of the story. It does also mean Jeanne winds up basically forgotten for the rest of the book until the very end, making the series come off like a too-distant ensemble piece at times. Maybe it'll develop into something denser as it goes on and escalates, in the grand style of Kakegurui, but this first volume is still worth a look on its own if you share Kawamoto's predilection for unwell women fighting each other in insane ways.