Manga Review | The Witch and the Beast: Not Your Average Fairytale

How do you break a witch’s curse?

With a loving kiss from a prince on a white horse

Or hope the wrathful witch has a change of heart.

Problem is, Guideau can’t find either.

In The Witch and the Beast, Kousuke Satake presents readers with a very unique spin on Beauty and the Beast.

The story follows Guideau, a feral girl with fangs and the eyes of a beast, and her partner Ashaf, a ghoulish man with a coffin strapped to his back. They both belong to the Order of Magical Resonance: a group that “works by magic, for magic, and of magic.” Their job is to hunt witches. However, for Guideau, it's personal. She’s looking for the witch who cursed her, and she’ll remove anyone in her way that tries to stop her.

First off, I have address to what first jumped out to me about this series, and that is its characters. Their dynamics are fantastic and they complement each other like peanut butter and jelly (or whatever condiments you like to pair together). One is cool and collected one while other is the hot-headed and reckless one. She rushes head on into a fight and he’s the one who gets her out of trouble. This story feels a little police procedural tropey, but if you’re into those kinds of trope dynamics, you’re in for a hell of a ride.

And it is one hell of a ride. Rather than a slow, winding first volume bogged down with exposition, the story gets off to an explosive start. Quit literally. This is a fast-paced page-tuner that I devoured in one sitting left. It was an hor d'oeuvres that left me craving more and wanting Volume 2 since the story ends on a serious cliffhanger.

I need answers.

The story goes out of its way to tell us that witches are evil, which hmmm ... makes me even more suspicious that things aren’t so black and white in this world and that we’re dealing with morally gray characters with complex motives here. That’s what I’m hoping for at least. Since this is only volume 1, only time can tell what shape this story will take.

Of course, I have also bring up the artwork. It’s gorgeously atmospheric and has a brooding, gothic quality to it (which I just live for). There’s these haunting panels where my mouth literally dropped and gave me goosebumps. There’s also the occasional gorgeous panel with filigreed borders, so it very much serves to frame this story as a grim and twisted fairytale. Because yes, this story does get gruesome at times.

There’s also something utterly unique about its world and it’s really hard to pin down. It feels almost timeless. I guess I can best describe it as steampunk with a dash of noir and magic. The closest fictional world I can maybe think of that it bears a resemblance to is Lyra's Oxford in His Dark Materials, and I can't wait to explore more of it.

Overall, Volume 1 of The Witch and the Beast bursts out of the gates with a promising start and it’s a great hook. I fell head over heels in love with the characters. Now, I admit I’m biased towards characters with piercings, but I’ve got to appreciate that it takes a certain kind of badass to bring a coffin to a fight and I just love my angry gremlin child. I love her. I want to find out more about them and the unique world they live in, so if you’re looking for Witch Hunter Robin in a steampunk setting, the Witch and the Beast might just be right up your alley.

Read a preview here.

Thank you, NetGalley and Kodansha, for providing me with copy of The Witch and the Beast Volume 1 in exchange for an honest review.

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