Majo no Geboku to Maou no Tsuno
The Witch's Servant and the Demon Lord's Horns

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As you might be able to glean from the title, The Witch's Servant and the Demon Lord's Horns (henceforth Witch & Horns), this manga is about a witch’s servant and their quest to obtain the Demon Lord’s horns. At the same time, Witch & Horns also explores gender identity and tolerance among different cultures.

The way Witch & Horns best explores these themes is through the characters. In the beginning of the manga, the reader is introduced to characters who are from different countries, may or may not practice religion, and are of different species. But, the main thing Witch & Horns focuses on is gender, ... which has multiple characters change their gender through magic. It’s such a relevant theme that it isn’t much of an exaggeration to say that one of the characters practically faces the reader when describing their own gender fluidity. Similarly, Witch & Horns also deals with romance between characters who can magically change their sexes, which is explored with the protagonist, Arsenio, and their potential suitors. Questions like “What gender should Arsenio be?” or “Which love interest will they pick?” end up being just as much as an important driving force for Arsenio along with still needing to obtain the Demon Lord’s horns.

And that is to say nothing about the world building! The ealry world building in Witch & Horns is done subtly, as it is effectively a magic version of Earth with countries that all have different views on the magic system, while basing it off of the same framework. The countries each have their own sets of tradition, such as Hispania being more theocratic compared to Eriland or Hyperborea. This goes a long way in making the setting of the manga feel lived in, and gives a lot of charm to the backgrounds.

On that note, the art of the series is something that’s difficult to segue naturally to. Over the course of the series, the mangaka makes many improvements in their art (which you could see by looking at the manga covers), but the early portion is undeniably stiff. For instance, side profiles always have an ‘off’ look to them, but it improves over time. This manga also has instances of going a little bit too horny with the art; which I didn’t enjoy, but I realize your mileage may vary.

Overall, Witch & Horns is a manga that is worth reading. While the initial premise and early chapters may be pretty rough to get through, once the manga gets going it becomes something special. The moral of accepting yourself and not putting others down is something that resonated with me, so if this sounds like something you might enjoy I recommend you give it a try!

CONTENT WARNING: This is a genderbend manga, so think twice before reading if you are made uncomfortable by this genre of manga, and please refrain from posting anything rude about the series beyond simple criticism in order to make the community as non-toxic as possible for people who just want to enjoy the series. Thank you in advance.

At first, Majo no Geboku to Maou no Tsuno, or Witch's Servant and Demon Lord's Horns in English, seems like a pretty normal fantasy manga to the average reader. Soon enough, though, said reader is thrown into a completely unfamiliar world unknown to even the story itself, and ... that is only a small part of the beauty of this title.

Story - 10/10 (Including a synopsis as the MAL synopsis hardly says anything)

The plot of Witch's Servant centers around the herbal witch Betty, whose teacher (also a witch) has come down with an unknown disease that can only be cured by procuring the horns of the infamous Demon King, the most powerful monster in the nation. Thus Betty sends her faithful servant Arsenio out to defeat him, eventually running into Rei, a young girl who was the heir of the most powerful hunter clan in this fantasy world's equivalent of Denmark. But she now cannot become the heir, as she was in fact originally a man, turned into a woman by magic! She then comes to live with Arsenio and Betty, and they soon run into conflict with other members of the hunter clan (some of which end up joining the group of protagonists), as well as other nations with different religious faiths (which is surprisingly relevant in this series). The beauty of the world of Witch's Servant is found in its openness, as our heroes frequently go out and about to interact with other people and monsters. What makes the story a 10/10, though, is the mangaka's willingness to take risks. There are many pitfalls that authors find themselves stuck in when it comes to genderbend manga, and this is the reasoning behind very few of them managing anything beyond simply mediocre. Because of all of these potential problems, many of these mangaka neglect taking risks with their stories, sticking to a more conservative plot and character-base. Mochi, though, does not bother to stay conservative, taking insane risks with their story, some completely unprecedented in the genre's history. The even more insane part is, every one of these risks pays off. The mangaka goes as far as to directly address themes pertinent to the LGBT community, equality and even religion, and yet absolutely none of it feels like it's being shoehorned in. Enough on that, though, I'll let you experience the rest yourself.

Art - 8/10

The art of Witch's Servant is very hit-or-miss, as a lot of it is rather rigidly drawn. This particular artstyle might please some viewers, but none can doubt the fact that it interferes with the series's fight scenes, as it harshly restricts motion. If this series ever gets animated this problem can easily be solved, so I won't nitpick about this one. As character design goes, though, every character is fresh and easily distinguishable. The mangaka gives each character a unique pair of eyes making them recognizable and giving them each their own sense of individuality. One of the appealing parts of the mangaka's artwork, though, are the hilarious reaction faces that never fail to make me laugh out loud.

Character - 9/10

Like their eyes and other features, every character in Witch's Servant has a perfectly distinguishable personality. And the mangaka doesn't slack off at all here, giving just about every character a complex personality that makes total sense based on their past experiences. The personality, of course, is not where the character ends, as the interactions between said characters are just as important. As each of these personalities intermingle, they become even more fleshed out, as the manga expertly clashes ideology against ideology and upbringing against upbringing. Each character is somehow relatable in their own unique way, and every character, even the annoying ones (Yes, you, Lloyd) are completely loveable. Every little character trait or transformation, physical or emotional, is fully fleshed out and pertinent to the plot.

Enjoyment - 9/10

Like I say for all genderbend manga, enjoyability is completely subjective. Because of that I'll be looking at it on a 'manga' standpoint and throw the 'genderbend' part aside for now. The early chapters aren't the most interesting, I'll admit, and I was very close to dropping it pretty early on before being encouraged to continue reading by a friend. The manga only really starts picking up during the Land of the North arc, but as soon as it does it never stops picking up, constantly improving with every passing story arc. Even still, you can't ignore those first chapters, and you always have to take even this enjoyability rating with a grain of salt, for how genderbend manga are read and enjoyed it almost entirely subjective to the reader. That being said, though, genderbend is not an entirely predominant aspect of the plot, though it still does have plenty of importance. Let the record state that the series is pretty funny, at least to me.

Overall - 9/10

If you have any questions or concerns about this review, want to recommend a fringe manga to me, or even simply want to chat about this title, please DM me or contact me at thefringereviewer@gmail.com for any and all inquiries. My door is always open.

The first few chapters were pretty weird and silly and made me kind of unsure about continuing this manga, but now I've gotten really into it. It's one of those mostly-comedy series that are also able to hit you with emotional parts and a developing storyline. Similar format to Gintama, I guess? I'm having a lot of fun reading it. There's also a prequel manga if you want more of the seriousness and less comedy, although that will completely spoil this one.

The characters have dimensions! They each have personal character arcs that actually hold weight and affect each other and the overall story. Their ... interactions and decisions are natural and believable and it doesn't feel like I'm being sold something, which I'm so thankful for.

I'm also a sucker for worldbuilding, and that's here as well. The characters come from different places, which each have their own flavor and history that tie into characterization and story. Basically, the locations feel alive. It's nice.

It is a genderbend manga. What really surprised me was that though there were some eye-rolling jokes near the beginning, the author later starts to actually address LGBT+ topics as part of the natural progression of the story. I'm not going to say that it's perfect or in-depth or anything, but it was really nice and unexpected that this silly comedy manga started saying flat out that gay people and trans people exist and are normal.