Image: CBR

Witches get stitches, right? Especially ones that come from battling dragons and fighting off mayhem.

BURN THE WITCH! is a manga written and illustrated by Tite Kubo, first published in July 2018 in Weekly Shōnen Jump as a one-shot chapter with an anime movie adaption came out in October 2020 broken into three episodes. The world is set in the Bleach universe in a place called Reverse London. The protagonists Ninny, Noel and Balgo set off a mini adventure to defeat a Dark Dragon and figure out what’s going behind the scenes of the latest dragon attack. Now, if you don’t like movies or mini-series, turn the other way and go watch Bleach or One Piece with their hundreds of episodes. But I promise this little movie is worth the hour and a half it takes to watch it.

Although set in The Bleach universe, BURN THE WITCH! has its own charm and unique feel. The characters are a fun trio made up of hot-headed, confident Ninny; cool and collected Noel; and of course, comedic relief who can’t take his eyes off the pretty girl, Blago. Ninny and Noel go way back and are partners whose job as Witches is to detain or kill dragons. Balgo, a dragonclad, or someone-who-has-been-bitten-by-a-dragon, causes mayhem with the help of his adorable dragon friend, Osushi. This leads to a string of events from a dark dragon attack to a new character also causing headaches with their dragon-cladness.

Now with that out of the way, let’s get into my thoughts and feelings about this series. I’m a sucker for witches and dragons. Growing up, I always wanted to be a witch for Halloween (until the year I wanted to be Inuyasha) and loved anything to do with dragons. I even wrote the author of Eragon (The Inheritance Cycle for those interested) a letter telling him all about my love for his book and asked tons of questions about his writing process. He sent me a letter back AND an autographed picture of him AND a signed poster. To be fair, I also loved pirates, Vikings, fairytale creatures, folk lore and anything to do with mythology and legends. Call it nostalgia but when I saw the ad for BURN THE WITCH!, I had to give it a try.

Something the series does well is pack a good plot into a short amount of time. Yes, it has some holes and yes, it could do with a bit more time to really flesh out some character development. You can only stuff so much detail into a mini-series before it becomes a heaping garbage pile of… well, trash. In this series, you get a healthy dose of action sewn into little bits of character development that really make it feel like you’re watching a solid anime movie. The idea of a Reverse London reminded me of a book I love called “A Darker Shade of Magic” by V.E.Schwab, also set in “Londons” that are heaping with magical people and objects. The characters in the book pull you into the world versus the focal point being the world itself. The same goes for BURN THE WITCH!. You are quickly intrigued by Reverse London and what makes it different from whatever other London there is. I wanted to know more about dragons and Witches and the mechanics of Ninny and Noels world right away and appreciated that the series dove into those elements here and there, so you get a better understanding of why this isn’t exactly the world of Bleach.

Then there’s the characters. Ninny became my favorite character from the moment she showed off her sassy, hot-headed attitude. Arrogant characters are not usually my preferred flavor of personality, but Tite Kubo did a great job of making her likable – almost like Katniss Everdeen if she’s your cup of tea. Ninny gave me ‘I-will-hurt-anyone-who-dares-hurt-my-friends-or-anyone-I-care-about’ vibes. She may bicker with Noel and throw down tough love to Macey (another character), but it comes from a place of great trust and care. Otherwise, she wouldn’t give a crap and let everyone be attacked by dragons.

So, to watch or not, that is the burning question. I’d vote to watch it if you like action. Watch it if you like cute girls fighting dragons. Watch it if you like dragons or magic or something to turn on in the background while you zone out. It doesn’t hurt to burn some time watching a pretty good mini-series.