Shonen is the most well-liked style in manga, with its audience being largely adolescent boys and younger males. Over the a long time, this style has produced a number of the most profitable manga in historical past, together with Dragon Ball, Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, and newer hits like My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen. When the latter two each led to 2024, there was a lot dialogue round the truth that Weekly Shonen Soar, the flagship journal of writer Shueisha, would have a tough time discovering worthy successors that might assist the unshakable pillar that’s One Piece.
Nonetheless, followers of Shonen Soar, and of manga basically, can relaxation straightforward, as a result of the captain of a brand new technology of nice shonen is right here. Anointed by its victory within the Subsequent Manga Award 2025, Ichi the Witch is a superb new collection that mixes darkish fantasy, motion, comedy, and a fragile but detailed inventive model. If that wasn’t sufficient to influence you to take a look at Ichi the Witch, then know that this manga would swimsuit the tastes of any fan of the legendary late Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball and Dr. Hunch.
The Subsequent Manga Award is an annual prize for manga collection introduced by Kadokawa Company’s Da Vinci journal and Niconico web site. Sequence eligible have to be at the moment serialized and with not more than 5 volumes in print, that means the award is normally a very good highlight for brand new collection which can be making waves. Notable winners over the previous 10 years embody My Hero Academia (2015), Kaguya-sama: Love Is Struggle (2017), The Apothecary Diaries and Spy x Household (2019), Oshi no Ko (2021) and Kagurabachi (2024).
This 12 months, Ichi the Witch grabbed the primary prize within the Print class, adopted by COSMOS at quantity two and Tremendous Psychic Policeman Chojo at quantity three. Ichi the Witch comes from an all-women workforce of mangaka: Osamu Nishi (Welcome to Demon Faculty! Iruma-kun) is the author and Shiro Usazaki (Act-Age) the artist. It is clear that is the work of two mature creators moderately than a debut to long-term serialization, because it typically occurs with new Shonen Soar collection. Ichi is aware of the place it is going and the right way to seize readers week by week, crafting a compelling story that hits some fundamental shonen tropes whereas staying recent and unique.
The titular character, Ichi, is a feral boy who lives alone within the mountains in a implausible world populated by magical beings known as Majiks. It is doable to seize and tame Majiks to acquire their powers, however solely girls have the capability to do this — or, a minimum of, that is the widespread perception. When Ichi manages to subdue the extraordinarily highly effective and unruly Majik Uroro, the witch Desscaras is pressured to recruit him in her affiliation, making Ichi the primary male witch.
Ichi stands out instantly because the “odd protagonist”. In a world imbued with magic, he hunts counting on his instincts alone. He is the basic feral baby, which creates limitless comedic moments when he’s launched into the delicate world of witches as a part of workforce Desscaras. As he retains buying Majik powers, he integrates them into his searching approach. His killing intuition is such that even scary magical creatures are compelled to concern and obey him. In the meantime, a world-ending risk seems within the type of the World-Hater Majik, a being of unfathomable energy who’s bent to do precisely what his identify spells out: hate and destroy the world.
On high of the basic motion shonen parts, Ichi the Witch incorporates a number of levity. The characters are naturally humorous by advantage of their excessive personalities: they goof round in the course of the motion, and the manga offers area to gags and comedy reduction, one thing that isn’t quite common in shonen these days. Levity additionally comes within the type of exploring the emotions of the characters and the bonds which can be forming between them. Ichi and his workforce showcase the basic “discovered household” trope, with Desscaras because the mom. It is nothing new, nevertheless it’s executed rather well.
In reality, Ichi the Witch‘s largest advantage might be that it is not making an attempt to reinvent the shonen wheel. It is a collection that appears on the classics (each fashionable and from earlier generations), including sufficient to make the story unique and attention-grabbing. The world is whimsical and light-hearted, far faraway from the darkness that permeates Jujutsu Kaisen and the vast majority of My Hero Academia, however with hazard nonetheless looming proper past the horizon. The relationships and backstories usually are not too complicated, however they’re developed meaningfully and successfully: I problem anybody to not really feel moved on the climax of Gokuraku’s arc.
I can not assist however assume that Akira Toriyama would love Ichi the Witch and its basic fantasy setting. He labored on basic JRPGs like Chrono Set off, the Dragon Quest collection, and Blue Dragon. A lot of his post-Dragon Ball works, akin to Sand Land and Kajika, had a particular fantasy feeling too. Furthermore, one in all Toriyama’s emblems was using comedy. Dr. Hunch is as hilarious as it might probably get, and even Dragon Ball has a number of levity, particularly in its first half. Whereas it is not a comedy manga, Ichi the Witch strikes an excellent steadiness between motion and humor.
Dragon Ball just isn’t a very complicated or refined work, nevertheless it resonated with generations of followers due to its writer’s potential as a storyteller. It’s easy sufficient that anybody can take pleasure in it, nevertheless it additionally reaches deep to faucet a few of our most real and highly effective feelings. It might be quickly to say, nevertheless it looks like Nishi has that very same potential, and the abilities he refined throughout Iruma-kun will likely be in full show with Ichi the Witch, with some added nuances, in comparison with Toriyama, that come from the evolution of the style.
One other factor that Toriyama is remembered for is revolutionizing manga artwork together with his practical model. Whereas I do not wish to make extreme comparisons, Usazaki is a superb artist who was rightfully praised for her work on Act-Age, a promising collection reduce brief because of a scandal involving the author. Her stroke right here is delicate however, on the similar time, not sparing within the particulars. The uniforms worn by Ichi and the opposite witches are significantly dazzling, and the world involves life vividly by means of the artist’s model.
Dragon Ball is probably an important shonen collection in historical past. Toriyama’s torch was carried by a brand new technology of artists who crafted successes like One Piece, Bleach, and Naruto. When two of these collection (generally known as “the large three”) ended, a brand new technology stepped up, giving us Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, and Jujutsu Kaisen. Now that these have all additionally ended, that void have to be crammed in Shonen Soar, and I feel Ichi the Witch has the whole lot it takes to do this. In any case, Eiichiro Oda must relaxation in some unspecified time in the future. Proper?
