Witch Watch

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From the creator of SKET Dance, we have yet another wild idea that JUMP occasionally accepts. It's already known that SKET Dance has been successful in it's run; especially it's comedy. Being awarded the 55th Shogakukan Manga Award for best shounen manga in 2009 is not an easy feat–making it stand alongside it's peers and alongside Gintama; being one of the best jack-of-all-trades anime serialized in JUMP. However, enough with SKET Dance.

Kenta Shinohara has risen back to his roots and released a promising manga in JUMP recently. Witch Watch is a wacky idea and starts off self-aware in it's randomness which is a small detail ... from SKET Dance. It's about this guy named Morihito and his childhood friend Niko. Morihito has the strength of an ogre and Niko wants to become a witch, it's a nice original idea from Kenta and I hope he does these characters well in the series. The art is nice and a modernized version of Kenta's old style. Characters seem promising and I hope it stays that way.

For now, I'll give this series an 8 for high hopes. I'll update if I change my mind.

I have not read SKET Dance, but after picking this manga up I definitely will read SKET Dance. I believe in the Shinohara magic.

This manga handles both wholesome comedy and action scenes in such a tasteful way I have not seen in any other manga. Usually the typical shounen got their comical characters that are funny and others react to them, then we move on into the "serious stuff" such as a tournament power ranking, yada yada. Shinohara does not subscribe to this format, because most of Witch Watch is rather slice-of-life and a comedy for stretches of dozens of chapters. But don't be caught ... off guard, because literally the next chapter might be a war brewing. You might think this sounds like an abrupt turn in mood which usually is a bad sign in other manga, but no, Shinohara is not just any other mangaka. He already left crumbs behind, setting up and hinting at the battle. During these more serious arcs, you will witness those crumbs and details woven into the scene - that one random spell shown in 20 chapters earlier as the butt of a joke now comes in clutch to save the day in the most awesome fashion, not shoehorned into the flow. This tells me Shinohara does plan everything deliberately, even as he writes his (amazing) comedy chapters. Nothing here is filler.

Witch Watch is both an amazing slice-of-life comedy manga AND one of the best shounen on JUMP's catalogue. Shinohara's art reflects that as well; very cute during fluffy scenes, and tune up 100 notches when the action hits. I read this manga first every Sunday, which has the likes of Sakamoto Days, Jujutsu Kaisen, etc.

Witch Watch is a manga for a very specific audience. The characters are straightforward, the plot is inoffensive and the comedy has a distinctly Japanese feel to it.

The manga has an episodic structure, with comedy being the main driving force in most of the chapters. Sometimes the story shifts to a darker tone, but in the end everything return to the usual formula.

The art style is clean and very readable, the action scenes never felt confusing or hard to follow. Although character design could have been a bit more creative.

I recommend giving it a shot if you're in a mood for a ... simple and wholesome slice of life manga that get a bit more serious at times.

This is the end of my impartial review. Everything below is my subjective experience with Witch Watch.

Personally I found this manga to be guilty of the gravest sin that any entertainment work can commit. It was plain old boring. It wasn't bad enough for me to keep reading and witness how much worse it could get (shoutout rent-a-girlfriend). But at the same time nothing in this manga is interesting enough to keep my attention.

The main characters are painfully one dimensional and the supporting cast is straight up annoying. The plot is very thin and predictable. And the comedy is just not my cup of tee.

I rarely enjoy comedy in fiction, but at the very least I expect the work to be "fun" to watch or read. And by "fun" I mean something like the recent Urusei Yatsura reboot. I don't think I found that anime funny even once. But at the same time it managed to create an enjoyable viewing experience by using over-the-top characters and ridiculous plotlines.

This manga demands the reader to take the characters and the story seriously. But at the same time it insists on being surrounded by the usual aura of weirdness that so many anime and manga works have. While I understand that many people like that kind of stuff, I'm certainly not one of them.

I like slice of life manga and I certainly enjoy simple but goofy stories. And I really wanted to like this manga too, but here we are. Maybe I will give it another shot one day, but for now I leave it with a 4/10.