Joke aside, oh oh OH Witch Hunter, what a slow-paced manwha but surely you have grabbed my interest. Must you have patience getting into this manwha, lest you end up hatin’ it for not tellin’ you nothin’ at ol’. (damn is there really the need to differentiate between manga and manwha?)
Story: 9
Long long time ago there were human, and there were witches.
They lived happily together, if not for a new formed religion.
Snared at stakes, burnt were these witches.
This is witch hunt, led by human of power and might.
Oh ohh proud human, they are the Witch Hunters!
And of course human lost, that was the setting of this story. Sorry for that dramatic introduction as well, felt like doing it (teeheee). Witch Hunter centered around a human witch hunter named Alan Wal.. I mean Tasha Godspell. Tasha is a black class (second highest class) Witch Hunter (abbr. WH) who is in search of his sister, Aria whom was turned into a witch, and apparently killed Tasha’s master. Story so far mainly revolve him being caught in between the concocted plan by great witch, the North, WH central headquarter (which is infiltrated by South’s personnels) and lone wolf, the East.
Witches are once normal females who heeds to the whisper of a hat. “Do you wish for power?” Such is how they become one, and there can only be females who can become witches (duuuuh?). Therefore, only females/witches can generate mana and their hat is their mana storage; their hats are far more important than their lives. One trait of being a witch is having a supporter, which can be in any form (Elmar’s Thirving – a sword, East’s Sutr – a giant, Monica’s Parvati – a third eye on her forehead). It seems acquisition of these supporter are not always immediately after one becoming a witch, eg. East – 1500 years and Monica – immediately after becoming one.
Mana is poison and drug. All but witches could withstand the use and channeling mana through their body, doing so otherwise would drive one to madness and get drunk in power, however of course that’d be boring. As the manga/manwha rules stated otherwise- our MC is one of the exception! Tasha is able to channel mana, initially with the help of his gloves, later being able to generate mana after a seal broken placed on him by his dearest master, Edea Florence. What fate awaits Tasha and his supporter, Halloween/Mordred, who is in fact a mysterious girl and not a pumpkin? Will Tasha be able to control his mana, being only one of the two males ever having to learn to do so?
[Analysis]
Witch Hunter is a perfect example of a story that is bandaged with ideas and development. What I mean to say is that the story is only thought up when it is time to deliver, it is obvious (even the mangaka himself stated so – Bairong’s arc). In a way the story hence becoming inconsistent, and there are disconnections between story development. What the story truly lack is foreshadowing of events, if the author is to make it better. There are many instances where the author simply throw in a characters out of nowhere in the middle of a story or a fight, that or an event just occur with no foreshadowing. Take for example a well done manga in this respect would be, say Attack on Titan, there are images, conversations that connects to the unknown.
One strong point of Witch Hunter however is its many yet unknown info. That intrigues the reader’s interest into continuing the manwha. But it is depressing because after 7 years of publication, all that increases is the sheer amount of questions and unknowns that are yet to be disclosed, or maybe that is author’s way to attract readers, or maybe to prolong the lifespan. Many things were stated as facts and were never been bothered to have explanation to be done, maybe not until much much later. Some of these question marks are for example, who exactly is Edea Florence, death of Edea and its connection to Aria, North, Ryuhwan, the significance of Halloween being Mordred, why bother doing fights between Vihyungrang and East only to have him gone from the picture for so long, why the hell would the author bother to put Guinevere into the story only to have her spout “Ah” um twice?. . . . . . . these, I am sure are questions some of the readers may come to think of. So far, the only thing I can say was concluded is Emperor Yue (originally Xing) arc in Bairong, who wasn’t even a main character, and took up 13 chapters (1 year materials).
It seems that I hate the story, but it’s quite the opposite. All that I can say is Witch Hunter is definitely interesting, it has rapid development which sadly doesn’t move the story much. But at this point (86 chapters) it seems to me the introduction of casts are finally in place, I am hoping to see more from this manwha. So those of you willing to follow a story like this, be prepared to have patience! I'm guessing this one will last for another 10 years.
Art: 7
The art style of Witch Hunter is best described as clean and tidy. Every panels are just fine with clearly expressed emotions and poses. It’s really easy to follow each panels (and BTW the manwha reads left > right, just misc. info to you). A very distinctive feature is the author’s tendency to draw chibi characters bickering at each other, well, a joke elements that give a few laugh.
To criticize it however I’d say some of the story element lacks design, but that’s definitely not a big deal. I’m referring to Tasha’s gun, colt and desert eagle which, well, just look like a gun. It’s unfathomable to me how a gun look so simple could have blasted out impacts bigger than its barrel. But well, like I mention, it’s no biggie. On the other hand, prepare to see much better design on most witches, exotic dresses, and weird hats. Did I mention that the author loves boob?
Character: 7
I really wish to give more points into this department. But I couldn’t.
As mentioned before, the story seeming only finished its introduction of all casts a while ago, a big casts at that. For this reason, and as of now, the characters aren’t very well developed yet. There a lot to say about each characters however, interesting, unique and more importantly we’d like to see more of them in future development. We’d like to see how Tasha is going to become stronger now, we’d like to see his arsenal of guns other than colt and desert eagle, why is he so obsessed with money and where exactly did those money go (despite being so crazy about earning money, he hadn’t used it on himself), what is going to happen to him and Halloween whom he may have something for, the past of Tasha with his master and his infatuation to her, there are a lot and a lot and a lot that will develop from now on, or at least that is what I am thinking.
Other main chars probably include, from the WH side, Xing and Taras, buddies of Tasha (or maybe not quite). Xing the WH who uses fists and chi, and Taras who utilize mother-earth manipulation: the likes of ground spikes, earth walls, etc.. Others are, girls like Monica, Ran, Linda, three of whom apparently shows some affection to Tasha, Cougar, Words, the two WH who are rivals of Tasha, and may have something in store for future massive development. There are a lot more but you gotta read to know!
From the witch’s side we have the four great witches, apparently all glamorously sexy babes (or at least East used to be). Witches are the main power that moves the story, almost all conflicts in the story occurs due to witch’s invasion and behind all these are plot meticulously planned by North and South. They are the antagonists who are at this point, still mysterious and the extent of their power are yet to be known. Another thing I’d point out here is that, being a witch doesn’t mean they are bad guy (or witches?). It wasn’t clearly explained, but apparently witches who does not agree with harming humans, could join WH instead.
Enjoyment: 8
There are always title that one could enjoy despite some flaws. Witch Hunter is exactly one of those kind. The main thing I like about Witch Hunter is its light mood that are sometimes funny, sometimes engaging (battles), always making you craving for more since there will always be something new in store for you. That but I don’t quite enjoy story that doesn’t move much, and I find that Bairong arc is a bit forced onto the story, these two reason minus 2 marks. Otherwise, the large casts and alluring witches, the background story of each characters being slowly revealed, the under-the-table plots, it’s something everyone can enjoy.
Overall: 8
Hence an 8. Witch Hunter is definitely one with some flaws to it, mainly due to its incoherent plot development (stories sometimes jump around too much leaving you with more questions). Another thing would probably be a big mystery never answered on how WH are using their abilities, since most of them shouldn’t be able to generate mana. There are also fights that sometimes you may find slow and stupid (for example, move behind an opponent and say: HAHA I GOT YOUR BACK WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW? COME ON DO SOMETHING, COME ON DO SOMETHING, PUSH ME AWAY WHY DONCHA’ (it happens so many times)... well it doesn’t make much sense but I guess it’s just a manwha). Despite this, it has a lot of potentials packed into it. Anyone with patience (and I mean a lot here) to follow this manga to its end, which is something I’m looking forward to seeing as well, may give this manwha a try. I recommend you to do so.
Thank you for reading! Again I hoped this may help to shed some light on you who are reluctant in picking this one up, well, Good Reading!
