"The Witch and the Beast 1" by Kousuke Satake is an enthralling manga that introduces readers to a dark and mystical world filled with intrigue. Satake's storytelling unfolds with a perfect blend of mystery, fantasy, and action, drawing readers into a captivating narrative where witches, beasts, and a complex web of secrets collide.

The art in this manga is striking, with detailed illustrations that bring the characters and fantastical elements to life. Satake's visual storytelling enhances the overall immersive experience, creating a visually dynamic and engaging world.

Hey fellow manga enthusiasts! Just finished reading "The Witch and the Beast 1" by Kousuke Satake, and it was a wild ride! 🧙‍♀️🦁

Satake's vivid writing paints such a detailed picture of Guideau, the feral girl with those long fangs and beastly eyes, and Ashaf, the soft-spoken dude carrying a coffin on his back. The character descriptions alone had me hooked from the get-go.

The plot is a real page-turner – a town under a witch's spell, with the twist of our ominous duo, Ashaf and Guideau, setting out to settle scores. The narrative is intense, with layers of mystery and a promise of some serious retribution. I found myself glued to the pages, eager to uncover the secrets behind the witch and the motivations of our enigmatic protagonists.

And oh, the artwork! Satake's illustrations are a visual feast. The dark and eerie atmosphere of the story is perfectly complemented by the gritty and detailed artwork. It adds a whole new dimension to the narrative, making it an immersive experience.

Now, let's address the elephant in the room – this manga is not for the faint-hearted. There are some pretty intense themes and content that cater to a more mature audience. If you're into dark and gritty storytelling with a dash of the supernatural, this is your cup of tea. However, it might not be everyone's taste, so be warned.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the first volume, it's not without its flaws. Some moments felt a bit rushed, and I wished for a bit more background on certain characters. But hey, no story is perfect, right?

To sum it up, "The Witch and the Beast, Volume 1" left me hungry for more. It's a promising start with enough twists and turns to keep any manga lover intrigued. Looking forward to sinking my teeth into the next volumes!

Delightfully gory and violent with an interesting and mysterious set of characters. In the world we are presented with, witches are evil and mages are good. Mages are tasked with destroying witches. Ashaf is a mage, but his partner Guideau is something... else. Angry, vengeful and feral, she seeks revenge.

This was a very interesting débute into a new manga series! An unlikely duo is on the hunt for a witches and to solve magic-related issues. The manga is very fast-paced, which made it a little hard to get into initially— but overall the premise sets up for a very fun plot.

Summary:

The Witch and the Beast, Vol. 1, is a dark story involving two protagonists, Guideau and Ashaf. Guideau has a vendetta against witches – to put it lightly. As you might have guessed, is heavily associated with magic.

Together, these two are about to go hunting witches. Specifically, one witch. She's taken over a town, and they intend to liberate it.

Review:

As much as I hate to admit it, I struggled to get into this one. I like the concept of The Witch and the Beast, Vol. 1, just fine, at least in theory. In practice, the series lacked anything to immediately grab my attention.

To be clear – it wasn't bad! It wasn't the compelling tale I had hoped it would be. On the bright side, the artwork is everything I could have hoped for. However, I did sometimes get lost during fight scenes (that may have been a "me" problem, though).

While I can't say that I'm fully invested in the story of The Witch and the Beast yet, I could be tempted into reading the second volume. You never know when a series will kick into gear at a later point!

I got about 50% through this ARC and put it down and never got back to it. The story just wasn't for me.

A really enjoyable first volume to a series. There was decent level of plot development even in this initial volume. So many times very little happens in first volumes, however this left the reader with a desire to learn more right from the start.

This is the first plot I've read in a while where witches are of the dark and evil stereotype so I'm interested to see the lore expand further.

Really enjoyed the artwork, it was stylistically very attractive.
Only slight drawback was that I found it slightly difficult to tell, at times, who was speaking. Although I was able to infer from context so it didn't detract from overall enjoyment too much.

We don't know too much about characters or their personalities just yet but I think there is a good amount of establishing the character's dynamics and relationships in this volume to start with.

While the premise is interesting I just didn’t vibe with the storyline. If you like edgy, witch hunter stories with a little horror and gore sprinkled in then you may like this one. It just was not for me.

Really good story, but sometimes really hard to follow. Climate and drawing style are a little dark, but they are matching to the plot.

Characters are interesting and I was surprised that the potential female character is a male, but it's fine.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to review this intriguing gothic manga. While I was a bit confused at first to what the story would center on, the more I read it, the more it made sense the type of quest and abilities this interesting duo possess.

I was more than surprised to discover that the supposed "heroine" was actually a guy, but I've read stranger things in manga so once I got past that initial shock reading the rest of the story made sense. One of the things that intrigued me the most was the different moral and social standards society placed on witches and magical beings. Some witches were hated, while others are revered and even treated like gods.

I'm still unsure as to whether the pair are indeed heroes or only heroes when the occasion calls for it. I'll have to see where the series goes, but so far I'm definitely intruged.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our library collection and will recommend it to students.

I thought the premise of this was interesting and some of the artwork was great, but unfortunately, I found the plot too jumbled and in places, a little difficult to follow.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I truly appreciate being able to read this before purchasing for my library, as I don't think it will be a good fit for our collection. The Witch and the Beast is a darker fantasy, with fairly gritty art. This series will likely do well in places where Puella Magi Madoka Magica is popular, but unfortunately that is not my library.

Such a unique drawing style, a little darker and more gritty than the manga I usually read, so it was a fun change. Will definitely recommend to some of my friends who prefer this style of art and story as it was well written and intriguing.

A really interesting, well paved manga.

The story gripped me from the start, an excellent mix of mythology, lore and dark magic - a potent mix!

I can't wait to read more in this series.

It fascinates me that magic in manga doesn't need to explain itself. It simply exists and we have to gather the details from context. There's no explanation of how the world works and who the characters are. That can make it difficult for western readers to understand but read enough manga and you figure these things out. While it's a bit dark and violent for my tastes, I can see the appeal.

The front half of this book is full of action and absolutely no world building. Once we get a little bit of character background and world building, it left me a little unsatisfied. I don’t really care for either of the two lead characters, so it’s going to be difficult to continue on with the story.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book in return for an honest review.

Warnings: Blood, Murder

This manga focuses on Guideau and Ashaf. They are pretty much the opposite of each other as Guideau is rather feral and beastly whereas Ashaf is more soft-spoken and logical which makes it interesting to see them on the page together.

I found this hard to review as I liked the manga (especially the beginning act) and found a majority of interesting but didn't love it and don't think I would reread it, but I do not want to give volume 2 a chance.


Rating: 3⭐

Would I Read It Again? No, however, I do want to read more

Would I Recommend it? Yes

Uh that was not what I was expecting at all...and I loved it!

It’s pretty gory so content warning for that, totally not what I would expect from the cover.

But, I love the dark academia atmosphere, supernatural elements, and dynamic characters. I will totally be checking the next volume. The art is beautiful and although the storyline isn’t exactly unique I really love our main characters and the dynamic between the two of them.

We have a violent woman under a curse and a mysterious man working for an organization that hunts witches. Guideau is rough and tumble, quick to anger and search for the witch that had cursed her; only the witch that cursed a person could remove it, or the witch's death. Ashaf is a lot more inscrutable, and we really don't know his story at all. The work for the Order of Magical Resonance, rooting out those with magic that would exploit and harm ordinary humans.

The art is beautiful, and highlights the action in the beginning of this volume. Very little is explained as we go, which makes it really hard to care about any of the characters. This is probably due to its slow start on the plot, but at least the art is wonderful to look at. Hopefully future volumes actually tell you more about the characters, because it's really hard to follow a story with people that don't matter to you.