Manga Details
Asahi Sakano
Notable people they were an assistant for
Yuki Tabata (Black Clover, Hungry Joker)
Other works
Kuro no Shinobi (2018, 3 chapters, Jump GIGA)
Back when Jump Giga ran six times a year, they would publish these three-issue miniseries. This one featured a modern day ninja, Zen Kurono, as he reluctantly takes jobs instead of living the normal school life he so deeply desires.
Fire Beast Alan (2019, 3 chapters, Jump GIGA)
Another miniseries. I wasn’t buying GIGA at the time, but considering the titular flame swordsman Alan looks EXACTLY like Fafner, it feels safe to say this is something of a prototype for Guardian of the Witch.
If I Can’t Find Love I’m Going to Die - How to Find True Love in 60 Days (2020, 1 volume, published by Bunkyosha)
A self-help guide to love, presented as a manga with accompanying essays as to the benefits of love. I dunno.
Beast King and Medicinal Herb (2023-present, 2+ vols, Manga One/Ura Sunday) written by Tatsukazu Konda, character designs by Momochichi
A bit of a breakout hit for Sakano, as the artist of this tale of Tina, an adventurer who forges a pact with the king of beasts to save her own life, and now she has to work for him as they… heal other monsters. A fantasy medical manga for fans of Frieren!
Publishing
Run Dates:
February 3rd, 2020 to June 22, 2020
Series it replaced
Dr. Stone reboot: Byakuya by Boichi (1 vol, miniseries)
Series that replaced it
Hard-Boiled Cop and Dolphin (5 vols, flop, Shonen Flop episode 41)
Series that started at the same time as it
Undead Unluck by Yoshifumi Tozuka (21+ vols, HIT)
Mashle: Magic and Muscles by Hajime Komoto (18 vols, HIT, Shonen Flop episode 9)
Chapters/Volumes:
19 chapters/3 vols
About the Manga
Plot
The world of Ouv is overrun by giant monsters called Evils. The city states within are protected by witches: teenage girls with strong magic powers given to them by seeds of evil which will one day turn them into evils themselves. Manasfa is one of those witches, specifically one with fire powers, and she is looked after by her maid Nahta and protected by her guardian Fafner. One day the leader of the rectory in their town commands Fafner to kill Manasfa because she’s about to turn into an evil. Fafner decides not to, grabs Manasfa and Nahta, and escapes, saying they’ll find a way to turn Manasfa into a normal human again. When they’re out of town Nahta says that there’s a witch in another town called Noir who rumor says was able to “retire” instead of dying as a teenager, so that’s where they set off to.
In the first town they reach they encounter Gen and Ruli, a guardian and witch combo which is apparently a “thing” now. Fafner, Manasfa, and Nahta have been branded deserters so they’ve been dispatched to kill Fafner and Nahta and bring Manasfa in. Even though Fafner and Manasfa can’t fight together like the other two can they still force a retreat. The team then leaves the town to continue on their journey and run into Mr Drake, an ex-guardian-turned-scientist who fell in love with, killed his witch, and seems to wear her skull around his neck. He trains them to use their powers together gooder and says that if Manasfa uses too much of her power she’ll turn into an evil. They soon reach another city where the guardian, Claude, immediately recognizes them because these fucking idiots were wearing cloaks that only guardians should have access to. Claude and his witch with gravity powers, Spica, try and bring them in.
Just then Manasfa remembers that Mr Drake gave her a magic pendant that acts as an HP bar for how long she has left before she turns into an evil. Spica uses too much of her power tho and starts to transform when the evil Rector shows up and tells Claude to kill her which he can’t do. Just then Manasfa remembers that Mr Drake gave her a device to temporarily keep witches from transforming in the form of a blood transfusion or something. Phew. They need 30 minutes of time for the transfusion to work but Fafner just punches him in the gut and all his grunts throw down their swords cuz they like Claude more than him and a few days later he’s arrested for tax fraud. Fafner Manasfa and Nahta then arrive in a new village to meet Aqua, a brand new witch with water powers. She’s gotta go soon to a city state and her dad, the mayor, is big sad because he never told her that witches gotta die. The team drag him over to her to say goodbye. He says she's gonna die but Aqua’s like lmao I already knew that cuz I read your diary. Flash forward five years and Manasfa stands in front of a crowd and puts on a ring that turns her normal again. the end.
Characters
Captain fafner
Fights with his sheif
Guardian
Aware of his limits
Manafsa
Witch
Fire power
Complains a lot bratty
Humgy
Nahta
Bookish assistant to manafsa
Has some cool skills
Team mom
The series really fights to make her relevant
Drake Mardock
Sora of the series
Legit badass has a skull of his former lover
Why it Failed - Jordan
Why is the bad guy called evils that's so lame
The storytelling is kinda lame like they needed all this exposition cut with exciting scenes so it felt like the plot couldn't explain things
Flashbacks in the first chapter always annoy me like just show the events in order
This really is an attack on Titan ripoff lmao
What a pointless shot of the mc in her underwear
It just feels so try hard like the author is inexperienced and you can tell
The fact that the author doesn't really think about the logistics of how powers interact - how do you block an exposition with a sword - is kinda emblematic of how the setting doesn't make a lot of sense
Fafner being aware of his limits is kinda weird when he's insanely powerful in
This really has some of the worst black and white morality
This went into a training arc way too fast
I’m disappointed Drake had to explain the teamup system it feels like an easy win for the MC to realize like drake could have just kept alluding to it
Seriously what is with this series not really explaining things, how did they get so close to the watchtower, how did they jump over it?
It really doesn’t seem like the 2v2 system was meant to be a thing from the get go. Why wouldn’t they know about it when the other guardians are already training with their witches? Why would the witches leave their tower? The series seems to contradict itself or go back on itself over and over again.
The evils are completely irrelevant.
Manasfa is constantly “almost” gonna transform but then nah it’s all good. A doctor fixed it. At one point a rector was like “Manasfa is less likely to transform than Spica” but wasn’t Manasfa already condemned to death because it was about to happen???
The art is not good. It’s almost good but it’s not.
What it Did Well - Brandon
Art is good enough
I do like the idea of the protector having to ultimately execute the witch
I like the 2v2 system
There's these hints of the psychological drain what they're going through has on the mc I wish was discussed more, especially with having a cool down chapter
Where it Could Have Gone
Why are there indicator images in speech bubbles in the first chapter when it's literally showing the character
Had some more buildup before the execution, really lean into what makes the world interesting
Build up the world and characters more it just feels too much is going on
It would have been cool to actually see a which turn into an evil like wow there really are risks to what they're doing
I think a much better structure was introducing drake further into the series like the MC goes from top dog to shit at the first possible opportunity, he even wins his first fight
This series badly needed cooldown time to actually explore the word like why instantly are they getting into fights in every situation
Misc Thoughts
Did the author just not have a way of them surviving the fall so he just kinda skipped it?
So does Northern Ireland exist? I wonder what caused the schism
How did the characters get blunt wounds from all the steel magic stuff that's clearly cutting weapons
Lmao aquas dad and her have the same hair
Maxy Bee thoughts:
This series has a remarkable amount of text handwritten in English, notable mostly for being clearly written and (mostly) making sense, and as this is also true of his early one-shots, it stands to reason that Sakano is pretty okay at English.
Volume extras include:
One-shots:
Flower on the Battlefield, 2014 (debut)
The original one-shot for Guardian of the Witch, 2016
Strawberry Punch, 2020 (drawn after Witch’s cancellation, but early enough to make the final volume)
Inter-chapter gag strips
Character designs
Character profiles
An illustration gallery
Preliminary cover design for vol.2
“Nahta’s hearsay memo”, notes building the world of the manga
Staff credits
A final note from the author thanking readers
Final Verdict
Community
Tucker: A business transaction in comic form
Maxybee: We have Double Arts at home
AuraPaladin: Bizarre, yet somehow not bizarre enough???
BigBubbaBass: Great Value Zeppeli Ex-Machina, Go! | Bad writing? Use a Time Skip™!
ChemyChems: Become a witch's pokemon, sword boy.
Chickenwarlord: Divinely talented school recruitment embarrassingly forceful
Diego The Phantom Seer: Strawberry Punch was the better one-shot | Claude and Spica were based actually
duderocks the earthchild stan: It’s a very DEwitchingly mediocre manga
GenericMan: Magical Girls become witches...déjà vu
Glornak Ironspawn: Kinda worse the second time around
Kpt.Kluless: Just go read witch watch instead
Meru (Commissions open!): Guard Underage Now Damming All Mankind | I miss Mágico God f---ing damn
Portal man: Attack on zatch bell’s bastard child
Quack.: Five years later, still not legal
Redblade: This manga was a training arc
Riel: I just wish Nahta was relevant.
Spike: Which witch was the witch which-
The Wolf The Wood The Trafalgar: Witches only live to suffer, eh? | Mangaka continually depreciates their world building
LordAnubis: Took the wrong lessons from BC
Brandon: Show ‘em a thing or three
David: Fire magic burns out the plot | Man, imagine if England was real
Jordan: guardian of huh I already forgot
Flop or not
David: yeah this is a flop, read witch watch