Majo (Witches) | Manga - MyAnimeList.net

Add to My List

Add to Favorites

Alternative Titles

Japanese: 魔女

More titles

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 2

Chapters: 7

Status: Finished

Published: Apr 25, 2003 to Nov 25, 2004

Genres: Fantasy, Supernatural

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Ikki

Authors: Igarashi, Daisuke (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.32¹ (scored by 2,664 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #4497²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2180

Members: 8,830

Favorites: 97

7.32

Ranked #4497Popularity #2180Members 8,830

MangaIkkiIgarashi, Daisuke (Story & Art)

Add to My List

Volumes: /2

Chapters: /7

Edit
Synopsis

On a visit to a city in the far west of Asia, a British girl named Nicola falls in love. The object of her affection is Mimar, a man who works at the city's bazaar—yet despite her attempts, he turns her down. Upon returning home to England, the ache of her unrequited love festers. After years spent obtaining wealth, fame, and the Secret of the World, Nicola returns to the bazaar to exact her deadly revenge upon Mimar and those he holds dearest.

(Source: Seven Seas Entertainment)

Edit
Background

Majo was published in English as Witches by Seven Seas Entertainment as a 2-in-1 omnibus volume on May 3, 2022.

More characters
Characters

No characters for this manga have been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding characters for this manga here.

Reviews

Aug 18, 2022

ExistentialUFO

Recommended

Witches is a remarkable work of vision and surrealism. I have previously read Children of the Sea by Daisuke Igarashi. They share many common themes. These themes include the inadequacy of words in describing the non-dual ultimate reality, myths of ancient cultures hinting at deeper metaphysical truths, and the ecological world possessing hidden spiritual essences.

There are four main stories in this omnibus. Each story focuses on a particular witch and includes oneiric, surreal plot twists; some of them can be quite striking, whereas others are haunting. Each story challenges the reader's sense of normalcy, making him or her question the nature of the universe and ...

Open

Gift

May 4, 2021

Buff_Moe

Recommended

Majo (also known as Witch) is a delightful masterpiece. I found about it for the first time when I heard Tatsuki Fujimoto was inspired from it while making the Chainsaw Man. So I was like "oh, so if fujimoto was affected by this then it sure has to be an interesting manga" and started it. Before I started reading the manga I had a little research on it if there is anything I gotta know about it. Unfortunately, Majo was a very little known manga so I barely could find any reviews or comments about it. One of the few things I learnt was it's ...

Open

Gift

Jan 23, 2023

lublei

Not Recommended

Informative

Preliminary (2/7 eps)

TL;DR: This manga misrepresents and bastardizes foreign cultures for the sake of a cool aesthetic. It spreads misinformation and is based on poor/no research. It is basically an orientalist work I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

I was perhaps fortunate to be familiar with the setting of the first story, Turkey, as it is so wildly off base that it read like a piece of orientalist literature. That meant I didn’t read the rest of the stories that would have misinformed me about cultures I know less about. This work is part of a style that bastardizes foreign cultures for outsiders to gawk at, and one ... that I find no value in. Elements of the story and the setting are cobbled together from disjointed information. It mixes time periods in Turkish history and presents a nonsensical version of Turkish culture. The story apparently takes place sometime in the 70s but nothing is consistent with that period in Turkey.

The most egregious example is Istanbul being called the capital, which is not only a mistake no Turkish person would make but shows that the writer apparently couldn’t even bother to look at a map. We are shown the story of a girl with a spindle, living 1000km away from the “capital,” Istanbul. So she isn’t even Turkish, but a Kurdish villager. We are then told that their “tribe” is nomadic and shown that they dress in Central Asian style Turkic clothing. She then takes a truck alone to the capital and is ordered to buy “rennet” by her mother while there.

Now, none of this makes any sense. By the 70s there weren’t any nomadic tribes in Eastern Anatolia, and if they were they wouldn’t be herding sheep in Central Asian clothing. A small Kurdish girl wouldn’t be allowed to travel to Istanbul alone, as the Kurdish society is highly patriarchal and at that time in a remote village familial bonds and rules would govern that kid's life. Also, those poor villagers couldn’t afford to make leisure trips to Istanbul, they just wouldn’t have the funds. Even though the age of the girl isn’t stated she is clearly over 6 years old meaning her family doesn’t send her to mandatory primary school a family like that isn’t going to tolerate a woman, let alone a girl, going to some faraway city alone. She would also be taken in by a state official to be returned to her family when her papers are checked since she would be a runaway, and she couldn’t leave her province, let alone enter Istanbul without having that happen. And finally, she would not only not need to buy “rennet” from Istanbul she would also know what it is. Because it is called “peynir mayası,” literally meaning “cheese yeast,” in Turkish. It is produced using the stomachs of cows and sheep etc. So it would be produced in the provinces where this girl originates from, where animal farming is done, and she would be more likely to sell it than buy it in Istanbul. Of course, if she were speaking Kurdish maybe this wouldn’t be the case since it is also called “rennet” in Kurdish, but not only does she speak Turkish, as she has no communication problems, that would still mean she wouldn’t need to buy it from Istanbul.

This is all the issues in just the first few pages. The Istanbul storyline of a witch trying to buy out the grand bazaar and build a shopping mall there is also nonsensical. The grand bazaar is a shopping district, not a corporation. The stores there would deal in gold, foreign currency, spices, clothing, etc. It isn’t something someone controls or something that can be demolished without state approval and probably great protests. So the villain's motivation doesn’t make sense.

Now we come to the weirdest part where the villain attempts to give a history lesson based on orientalist books and tourist brochures and apparently nothing else. We see the Hagia Sophia where she is criticized for being in because it is a place of faith, and then she goes on about the changes that happened there when it became a “temple.” But in the 70s the Hagia Sophia was a museum, she would have had to get in line and buy a ticket to enter. It wasn’t a place of faith. She also talks about how the last byzantine emperor is buried in the Basilica Cistern and that is why it is called “sarayı,” meaning “palace,” and not because of the pillars. However, it isn’t called that at all, it is called the “Yerebatan Sarnıcı,” which literally translates to “Yerebatan Cistern.” It also wouldn’t have any statues, or even water in it in 1970, and doesn’t today. This truly baffles me as they must have picked up a Turkish dictionary to look up “saray” but apparently either lacked the ability to read or didn’t even do the most basic research.

There are more mistakes in her “history” lessons for example Empress Anastasia wasn’t murdered, even though her husband was murdered. How Janissariers weren’t bodyguards but were the standing infantry army of the Ottoman empire under the direct command of the Sultan. Literally, every single piece of "information" about Turkey or Turkish culture is either wrong or misrepresented in some way.

Now there are also general mistakes in the manga like a street seller selling mineral water, and a girl from Eastern Anatolia, where mineral water is produced, not knowing what it is. Also, she pays “50 Lira” which equated to ~3.5 USD, nearly 20 USD in today's dollars, and around half a week’s wages for a salaried employee at the time for a glass of it. Also, the tea trays shown in the manga are inaccurate, they aren’t literal trays they have a handle on top, and they are quite distinctive. And there is a hilarious example where the villain purchases sheep heads and while eating them says she is eating “koyun başı” which is the literal translation of “sheep head” but is incorrect. The correct translation would be “kelle” which also means head. However “baş” is also used to indicate the head of a penis in Turkish, so since you wouldn’t say “baş” for the sheep’s actual head she is saying she is eating a sheep’s penis.

I haven't talked about the story as there is barely any besides the villain being rejected then dishing out misinformation and then being defeated by the girl. The main draw is clearly supposed to be the bastardized version of Istanbul and Turkey since the story is so incredibly simple when you remove that "flair." That is what an entire culture is reduced to in this manga, a cool mysterious foreign background for a simple story and a shoehorned message.

I would recommend this to no one and would recommend something that takes its setting seriously and bothers to do research about it instead of misrepresenting a foreign culture and reducing it to a cool aesthetic for foreigners to gawk at. I rate this manga sheep penis out of 10.

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

by Libuhover

37 Entries · 179 Restacks

Tatsuki Fujimoto Manga Recommendations

by GerardoVerdugo

33 Entries · 14 Restacks

Manga Somehow Related to Tatsuki Fujimoto Part 1

by PomPomPossum

50 Entries · 144 Restacks

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

Q3 2021 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 9/29]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime and manga licensed in the second quarter (Jul-Sep) of 2021. Summer 2021 anime which were licensed befo...read more

Jun 25, 2021 3:43 PM by Snow | Discuss (36 comments)

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Majo Chapter 7 Discussion Ranxomare - Nov 24, 2016	2 replies	by Stacias »» Oct 16, 2022 9:24 PM
Poll: Majo Chapter 6 Discussion Ranxomare - Nov 24, 2016	3 replies	by Stacias »» Oct 16, 2022 9:12 PM
Poll: Majo Chapter 5 Discussion Ranxomare - Nov 24, 2016	1 replies	by Stacias »» Oct 16, 2022 8:50 PM
Poll: Majo Chapter 4 Discussion Ranxomare - Nov 18, 2016	1 replies	by Stacias »» Oct 16, 2022 8:50 PM
Poll: Majo Chapter 3 Discussion Ranxomare - Nov 18, 2016	2 replies	by Stacias »» Oct 16, 2022 6:02 PM

Majo
Witches
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Edit
Synopsis

Edit
Background

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

More characters
Characters

Reviews

Interest Stacks

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

MajoWitches Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

EditSynopsis

EditBackground

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

More charactersCharacters

Reviews

Interest Stacks

More recommendations Recommendations

More newsRecent News

More discussionsRecent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Majo
Witches
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Edit
Synopsis

Edit
Background

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

More characters
Characters

More recommendations
Recommendations

More news
Recent News

More discussions
Recent Forum Discussion