Witch Hunter, 22 volumes later – bonutzuu’s manga archive

Witches and humans have been at war for who knows how long. Caught in the middle of a great power struggle between them is a young man – Tasha Godspell, the “Marksman”, a Witch Hunter searching for his sister who turned into a witch.

I started Witch Hunter so long ago I cannot remember anything about the first few volumes aside from how Monica got her hat. Unlike Ubel Blatt, however, it’s not just that I felt responsible for seeing the end of the manhwa that kept me reading for so long. Witch Hunter is extremely slow-paced yet super enjoyable. It’s still one story I like a lot and get excited about every time a new volume is announced.

Story

The usual human vs witches. Mana is like poison, and so only witches are able to use magic, and only females can become a witch. That is, until our Tasha waltzes along and tadah! Being the MC, he somehow gained the ability to use magic despite being a man. What? Why? How? The author does a real good job at answering questions with even more questions, and at even volume 22, the latest one to be published in my country, there are loads of unanswered questions that just kept me on a perpetual cliffhanger.

The author kind of has a habit of making things up as he goes (he even said so in the Bailong arc where he’s like, well at first it was like this but then me and the editor changed it to that, and so that’s how this arc turned out), which means that even more flashbacks and explanations are needed to patch the holes up, which leads to more and more questions. The biggest ones are: who the heck is Edea, what is her relationship to West, why do Tasha at Ryuhwan have the same Jack-o-Lantern (yes, it’s been 138 chapters and we still don’t have the answer to that), how the heck is Tasha able to use magic, and is Tasha really West’s reincarnation? I mean, some of the explanation for some of these questions seemed to be pulled out of the blue but somehow makes sense, and I want to see just how far the author can take things and still manage to make it work.

It’s been years and the Bailong arc is still my favorite. Edea’s arc came close.

At volume 22, we’re done with the Edea flashback and it is revealed that with the seal broken, Tasha is now the level of a White Class (highest class) WH, while Halloween/Modred is also a White Class support because she is able to take the poison from the mana of a White Class. Tasha becomes this badass MC that rubs it in everyone’s faces that the guy they used to bully is now strong as hell. And then East flies in and said ‘Tasha, u gonna die soon’ and the volume ends, just like that. Talk about cliffhangers.

Character

Probably the part of WH I like most after the art. There are a whole lot of quirky characters and they’re all really likeable. There’s not much in terms of character development. If you’ve read Wuxia novels, it’s kinda like that – the characters stay who they are and retain their traits from start to end. (Maybe except Xing, I couldn’t even recognize the guy when he appeared in volume 22) Not to say it’s a bad thing.

Tasha and Halloween has good chemistry and they’re cute together. I feel that Tasha changed a lot since the first volume but I’m not sure, it’s been too long.

I remember that the author mentioned that during the planning, Tasha was a girl and Halloween/Modred was a boy (hence the names), so many character’s gender has to be changed. I guess he forgot about the boys unable to use magic part, but hey, it’s that question that keeps readers engaged.

Art

I love Cho Jung-man’s crisp art. It’s so clean. I also like how he draws anatomy: the big sharp eyes, the waist, the hands, the hair, the legs, they got style. And his lolis, man. So so cute. I’d say the author has something for lolis and weird hats.

I’d say the art improved so much from the first few volumes, especially the color pictures.

Enjoyment

Hell yeah I enjoy it. While the characters are badass for the sake of being badass and sometimes the plot feels like it’s trying to patch itself up by taking a lot of detours, it’s interesting and I can tell that it’s here for the long run. Witch Hunger is not a masterpiece-must read-magnum opus manhwa, but it’s definitely fun to see what kind of weird twists and turns the author comes up with next.

Overall

Well… It’s been 22 volumes and I’m still craving more volumes. While not the best and most interesting story, Witch Hunter is fun and even if it takes 10 more years to finish it, I’ll gladly accompany the author and the characters to the end.