Shiroi Majo
The White Witch

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

As a Finn, I found this manga absolute blast to read. The ridiculousness of the whole setting is a laugh inducing riot. It's almost sacrilegious in it's depiction of Simo Häyhä and the winter and continuation war. The story is a loose adaptation (to put it mildly) of a real history. It tells the story of ace sniper Simo Häyhä who fights along Finnish forces in the warfront against the red menace. Joining Simo we see a cavalcade of characters each equally loose and wholly fictitious Manga archetypes.
Most of the appeal comes from seeing how the real history events are adapted to this story, and ... if you are someone who either takes their history seriously or doesn't know the events of the two wars, then I'm afraid you won't get much out of this story. The story itself is quite average on it's own. Don't expect anything else than a dumb schlock.

As a finnish person I can say that this is bullshit. I almost find it insulting. First of all, Simo is a finnish name for males. The "real" Simo Häyhä (because yes, he was a real soldier who fought in Winter war) was a male. I have no idea why they made him a female in the manga.

I don't think I have ever disliked a manga this much. Especially because when I heard that there would be a manga about winter war I was really excited, so this was just a huge disappointment. At least the art is good.

Would I recommend this ... to anyone? Well, maybe if you like war mangas and don't really care about historical accuracy. But even then I'd suggest that you just go and find this in your local library, it's not worth the money.

It's a short and to the point manga starring none other than the deadliest sniper in history, Simo Häyhä, gender-flipped for the moe fanbase. The story revolves around the titular White-Witch (or White Death, as he was originally known to the Soviets) and her exploits during the 3 month Winter War from late 1939 to early 1940. This is a short manga numbering about half-dozen chapters and rather straightforward.

The artwork is great, but everything else is lacking. Characters have no depth, plot is simple, and while I did enjoy reading it (mostly for the art), it ended too abruptly and on an unsatisfactory note. ...

Now, I do note that some are offended by a gender-flipped version of Finland's national hero, but come on now, is this even anything new? Look at the entire Fate franchise, and remember how many times they flipped Three Kingdom characters? I'd say get used to it, because there are a lot more where that's coming from.

Lastly, on a side note, the real Simo used a Model 28 Finnish reworked Civil-Guard Mosin Nagant with a hex receiver, but the version in the manga depicted one with a round receiver. A very notable mistake for those who knows anything about him and his weapon of choice.

Or, how to make a legendary person's achievements seem insignificant.

Let's just ignore the fact that they replace Simo Hayha's gender for a bit, as that is par for the course when it comes to "historical" anime/manga. I have no problem with that.

What makes this series disappointing is how insignificant it makes Simo Hayha's achievements are. Anyone who has even read Simo Hayha's entry on Wikipedia or even TV Tropes will know that this man was practically a living legend at the time, well-deserving of a spot on any "Extraordinary Humans" list. While they do single out Simo Hayha in this series as an excellent ... marks(wo?)man, it's never properly conveyed how much of a force to be reckoned Simo was. Sure, Simo terrified the Russians to no end during the actual war, however they never manage instill a sense of fear to the whole Russian Army as most of the kills are generic red (hehe) shirts anyway. They even failed to humanize Simo by making her into a generic action protagonist with the ability to just one shot anyone. Seemingly never justifying WHY these kills are even commendable, therefore making these scenes unsatisfying, lacking in catharsis. This makes the sniper scenes seem unnecessarily intense rather than tense.

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TENSION AND BEING INTENSE.

That's not even getting to the Russian counterpart who is basically just a generic "I am evil. Hate me, reader" psycho bad guy (well, girl, but you get the point).

The short 6 chapter run doesn't help its case as I could not relate to anyone; not Simo, not the kid she took in, and not her Russian counterpart.