Welcome Mister Witch Ichi!
Chapter 1:
kicking off the theme of Halloween we have the first six chapters of Ichi the Witch available now on Viz Media’s Shounen Jump app!
To start off with the illustration in these chapters done by Shiro Usazaki is masterful and full of life and skill. Chapter 1 has this wonderful two page color spread that is just magnificent the detail on the feathers and Ichi’s cuff is so well done and while it can be seen as lot however the crosshatching does not overwhelm the image and just allows us to tell where the light is coming from. The decoration on the back arm cuff and on the sheath of the blade allows to get the image that these are hand crafted items for Ichi maybe not by him but definitely for him. The two gems are kind of hard to miss unless looking for them but in my opinion that is good as it doesn’t take away from the image itself and serves to add some foreshadowing.
Moving away from the art itself which is masterful we must also focus on the story by Osamu Nishi, Ichi is shown as this nice calm and sweet young man with a love for hunting and he’s good at it. Quite early on we are show that Ichi can and will hunt to live and is skilled at it with what he calls Death for Death being his leading ideology and what seems to be his killer instinct, claiming that killing what you don’t eat is just murder and is wrong to him, which while noble shows how also how he has survived. It is shown that he was abandoned and left with some food and his trusty knife and through one faithful encounter he saw how he clung to life and that’s how he began.
During the panel shown above we see that he does indeed love the thrill of the hunt in the literal sense. Once again I have to praise Usazaki for their masterful use of perspective and crosshatching. Either way during this panel it is shown not just how he wants to hunt his target but in a sense who this guy really is and that is a hunter.
Another set of characters introduced in the first chapter are King Uroro (The Giant bird shown looming in the panel)and Lady Dessecaras (The lady trapped in the bird’s talons) these two have such a large focus in the first chapter alone so it can be said that these two alongside Ichi will be the main cast that we as the readers will be following.
With this being the last panel that is the end of chapter 1! What shall we see next time!
Chapter 2:
Following the events of the last chapter we find Ichi trapped in a cage being given (us as well) the wonderful item that is exposition about this world and how much of a rarity he is because women are the only ones who can use magic hence the name of Witches! So we learn that Uroro is basically a misogynist, his secret is that only a man could defeat and obtain his magic. Moving along we also see that Uroro does amplification magic!
Which we see in these four pages how it works! This chapter seems to be more of an exposition type of chapter to showcase how the magic of Uroro functions and more so to recap and show the reaction of Lady Dessacaras and Uroro.
Chapter 3:
In this chapter we start off with a sneak peak of Ichi thinks and acts when it comes to Majik hunting, while the chapter is a nice little charming and slight comedic fashion it is also a massive insight into how Ichi views the whole new world he has been launched into, starting with the first hunt of the series the Raiko Majik as stated in the image shown above. It is a fox like being that seemingly wants to be fought and wants to be part of the witch vs majik culture which is expressed to be a genuine part of the allure for majiks as stated by Uroro later on in the chapter.
With these two panels we see just how vastly the difference in thought process the protagonist and the antagonist have about the Majik filled world, with that the last remaining part of the chapter goes on to showcase how Majik powers are obtained and it ends with Lady Desscaras taking Ichi and Uroro to the Mantinel Witches Association in the city of Natali.
Conclusion:
Read it. The panels shown here are only showing bits and pieces of the story that just started and these are the three chapters that are always free thanks to Viz Media’s Shonen Jump app. Remember to support the creators legally and justly to ensure we get the rest of Ichi’s tale in the land of Witches! I did want to save my rambling for the next post where I talk about the illustrations and Character Designs! I have been Anthony thanks for reading!
