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Madan no Ichi
Ichi the Witch
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Alternative Titles

Japanese: 魔男のイチ

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: Unknown

Chapters: Unknown

Status: Publishing

Published: Sep 9, 2024 to ?

Genre: Fantasy

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Jump (Weekly)

Authors: Nishi, Osamu (Story), Usazaki, Shiro (Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.91¹ (scored by 9,781 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1098²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #518

Members: 40,234

Favorites: 596

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Reviews

Filtered Results: 20 / 23

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Filter Preliminary Spoiler

Dec 2, 2025

infinitegreen0

Recommended

Preliminary (61/? chp)

"For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn't give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have." - Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Madan no Ichi is a manga that proudly wears its heart on its sleeve. Storytelling tropes like "love triumphs over all" and "the power of friendship" are typically looked down on because of their seemingly childish roots, but the real reason is that almost all authors who use them fail to put in the character development needed to ground those messages in something that feels emotionally tangible and ...

Jul 10, 2026

BakaBoysClub

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (76/? chp)

What is the manga about?

Ichi, at age six, was abandoned in the wilderness by his parents. Their parting gift to him was a knife. Not to help him survive, but to help him end his own life once he gets desperate enough.

Against all odds, Ichi uses that knife to carve a place for himself in the forest ecosystem. He forages, he hunts, he fishes, and slowly but surely, he survives. Years have passed, and outside of his occasional visit to the nearby village, he lives as a hermit in a small shack in the mountain and hunts for a living.

What a grounded and thought-out foundation ...

Feb 6, 2026

miss_martha

Not Recommended

Preliminary (20/? chp)

Ichi’s characterization is inconsistent. Sometimes he is portrayed as sharp, wise, and capable, only to be immediately undermined by other characters calling him an idiot. This tonal shift back and forth makes it hard to understand who he is meant to be.

His relationship with magic also feels unexplored. Besides finding it “fun,” we’re given very little insight into how he truly feels about it. Considering he is the first male witch, first of his kind, this lack of introspection is especially disappointing.

Unlike many shōnen protagonists, Ichi doesn’t have a deep emotional attachment to his craft, making his journey feel less compelling.

Another thing is, ...

Oct 13, 2024

shunsinnerworld

Recommended

Preliminary (6/? chp)

Story is amazing. Art style is amazing. Character designs are amazing.

I really love Ichi's personality and his dynamic with the other characters is really funny and impressive. I truly think this is a new gem of Shonen Jump and they should take care of it. I find me out during each chapter imagining it animated and I really hope it has a good studio, high quality animation and pacing fair with its manga.

I would recommend it to anybody. Although being a world of magic theme, it's more original than I first thought, and entertaining. It has only 6 chapters right now and I can totally ...

May 12, 2026

Ufb7gn6_u08

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (81/? chp)

Up to this point, Ichi The Witch is standard Shonen and that’s ok, and while it’s definitely a series I enjoy to an extent I couldn’t with my full heart say that it is something that you should read. If you are simply looking for a solid fantasy adventure then go for it, there is nice art and an intriguing power system. If you are looking for something with a compelling cast of characters then you might want to read with caution as both the protagonists but mainly the antagonists are lacking in my opinion.

Let’s start this review with what readers might take away from ... it. The story has a solid premise and from my experience reading it, has a focus on found family, fighting against fate, love, etc. Of course the reader should have read the description of what this story is about but if what I took away from the story at all sounds interesting than you should definitely consider reading.

Now for the art, for me personally art style isn’t a necessity for a good manga and it shouldn’t, however Ichi The Witch blesses you with some fantastic art. One thing that I took away was how the artist, Shiro Usazaki, captures facial expressions, he is really good at capturing a wide arrange of emotions but it doesn’t seem to be what he is best at. His highlight to me being, how he drowns you in gorgeous double spreads of the scene at large and usually these spectacles happen back to back. Paneling is something that goes hand in hand with the art, and Ichi The Witch’s paneling usually helps to convey the small details and changes in the characters to help emphasize and enrich character moments. It’s clear and effective at progressing the story and something that is absolutely a strong point of this manga.

Another strong point is the humor, and while this is most definitely the most subjective criteria, even if slightly generic Ichi The Witch is also pretty funny. The chibi art style when used is super cute and really makes it that much more expressive. While there’ll be a section focusing more on the characters later, they are very quirky typically for any major Shonen.

A good power system is what any good Shonen needs and from what I take personally in a story, this is Ichi The Witch’s strongest point. Majiks and the hunts surrounding them, and how Witches themselves are only female, to me these are fantastic ideas and for around half the time I think this stories does a good enough job at executing them. For starters Majiks hunts aren’t based solely on strength they typically require a level of cleverness or trick to obtain them. These hunts are super fun, and truthfully I wish there were more of these to help showcase the creative talents of both the author and writer, though we are unlikely to get one any time soon because of how the plot is progressing.

Now while I am a male, I do believe it is incredibly important to understand why a women dominated witch society is really good. Typically in a lot of stories that I have read so far, they clearly treat women as lesser creatures and it is really upsetting to see, in Ichi The Witch’s there is none of that. It also serves as a critique to how women are treated in the real world, and also serves in general great representation for women who despite loving Shonen, a male dominated demographic, to find a story not seeped in misogyny. So this is definitely the make or break factor for how much you will like the series, because this series is woke and tries to challenge quite a few gender norms, not even just for the women. Obviously that alludes to the mc being a man, but other plot points later in the story.

This does bring about a massive criticism about this series, the writer Osamu Nishi, makes the characters so one dimensional that it is almost bland to read sometimes. Other than being quirky up till now they have shown little nuance that makes me compelled to like them beyond surface level. A big offender of this is Ichi, his whole mindset behind “Death for Death” is cool in concept but other than that there is very little to delve into with his character. But his character is most definitely written like that on purpose and despite at times being inconsistent it makes sense. And in general the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad, and the writer doesn’t make any attempts to try to question you. Now whether or not that is what you take away from this story or not is up to you, but to me the characters are painfully one dimensional.

This extends to the antagonists who are most definitely the biggest offenders of my one dimensional character critique. At this point of writing the review we have finished 3 major arcs so we have a fair enough idea of what kind of a story the writer wants to make, and if im right im going to be continuously disappointed at the poor antagonists cast. Because this story revolves around witches and their hunts against Majiks at the end of the day they are all evil just for the sake of it, which is fine, however antagonists are a major aspect of what drives a story forward and if you are lacking in that it makes it all kinda fall flat.

The writer also struggles with their build up and their execution of the plot to me. At times she sets up a nice idea and instead of letting it wait just a little bit, she impatiently decides to skip ahead leaving out potential emotional build up. But the problem is how inconsistent this is, I feel like if she was to make everything face paced then that would be fine, I could adjust how I view the story. However she is pretty inconsistent around 70% of the time she follows through on fast pace storylines, the other 30% is a weird kinda slog to get through. The writer needs to sort out and balance when exactly to let things play out and when to give things little breathing room, while this might have been because of fear for the axe, from this point forward I will hold nothing back when it comes to criticisms for this.

Now modern day manga and Shonen has been criticized for being unoriginal and bland, what exactly qualifies this I’m not too sure. Despite that I think Ichi The Witch is a case study of this, because in one of the early paragraphs I mentioned what the themes were of this story. The “problem” is that well… this just seems like any other Shonen series, found family, adventure, love these are some of the earliest ideas that Shonen has to offer, and Ichi The Witch tries to offer nothing more of value to me.

To summarize my thoughts I believe Ichi The Witch to be solid surface level enjoyment. it is something that I absolutely would recommend to someone new to anime/ manga as it has a creative power system, good humor (imo), great art, and a simple premise. However I find it harder to recommend it to someone who is looking for a well developed cast of characters (especially antagonists), worthwhile build up and execution of plot points, and overall something that isn’t just a regurgitation of the standard Shonen formula.
In my opinion to enjoy this series the most just read Ichi The Witch but don’t expect anything mind blowing or thought provoking.

Feb 21, 2025

Panda_Roll

Recommended

Preliminary (22/? chp)

Ichi is a mountain child. To survive he learns to hunt in said mountain where the law of eat or be eaten is all there is.

He accidentally acquires a magik one day and becomes a witch... in a society where only women can have magic.

The interesting part here is that this isn't a reset button. Ichi just shifts his focus from hunting animals to hunting magical creatures (magik) using the same principles. This contrasts with an entire society built on arcane practices.

I want to note that the author (Nishi Osamu) is also behind Mairimashita! Iruma-Kun, a story about a human boy in ...

Dec 19, 2024

Zize

Recommended

Preliminary (15/? chp)

If you like Black Clover, you’ll probably enjoy this manga too! The story has a unique twist with Ichi being a rare kind of witch in a world ruled by magic.

At first, it felt like the story wasn’t really going anywhere, but now it’s starting to pick up and get really interesting. The art captures the action and mysterious vibe perfectly, and Ichi’s journey is engaging. I just wish we got more depth from the characters that he met and learned his hunting skills from.

Overall, it’s shaping up to be a fun magic-action story with a lot of promise. Worth sticking with!

Mar 11, 2026

Umi19

Recommended

Preliminary (73/? chp)

Ichi the Witch was a series that had a lot of initial hype built around its initial release and for good reason, the beginning chapters and concept as a whole is extremely unique and well crafted, deserving of its praise. Using the MC, Ichi, to create an immediate foil to the power system was a great choice that hooks readers in and gets them interested in learning about the world.

I had actually started to lose interest in the series as it went in around chapter 30 or so as the fights weren't that interesting and the story as a whole was just telling us that ...

Sep 22, 2025

ssockett

Recommended

Preliminary (51/? chp)

It's one of those comforting shonen that will make you feel like you're back in 2015.

It's great; the art is wonderful, the story and world-building are incredibly entertaining and will keep you hooked. The characters and their personalities are the show's strong point, The characters have somewhat "cliché" personalities, but not in a bad way, the writing doesn't get lost in the characters themselves and they maintain their own ideals until the end.
The art in this manga is FLAWLESS! The fights are beautifully drawn, and I absolutely loved the dynamics of everything.
Reading this manga makes me feel so good because, so far, it's simple, magical, ...

Mar 31, 2026

fortite_man

Recommended

Preliminary (76/? chp)

Look, I'm gonna be honest, I just came off of Chainsaw Man wanting to be happy, and boy, this is really doing a great job of that. I gave this manga a shot because I saw how well it was doing on the charts, and I am absolutely seeing what the hype is about. From the art style to the character design and the dialogue to the actual characters themselves, I just thoroughly loved every moment of catching up on the manga. I think it is an entirely worthwhile read, and I'm SUPER excited to see where this manga goes from here.

Apr 17, 2026

R3p_ca

Recommended

Preliminary (78/? chp)

Absolute peak.
I'm so glad I gave this a chance. The first chapter already got me hooked, and it only got better the more I read. Every arc is so emotionally well written, and not gonna lie, it made me cry lol. The art is so good too, and don’t even get me started on the character design! Every character has their own unique personality, flaws, and strengths.

I was actually worried that the story would end up being a "harem" with only female characters, since only female characters had powers, but surprisingly it didn’t turn out like that. There’s a good balance between men and ...

Feb 18, 2025

drewdrawdrawn

Recommended

Preliminary (22/? chp)

Listen. Most of this review is just me talking about how much I love Desscaras. Thank you.

I love Desscaras and Ichi with all of my heart. They've already solidified themselves incredibly strongly in an already strong narrative of how dangerous this world of magic is as well as preparing us for some of the larger stakes they're up against. GOD every moment of Desscaras really is just perfect. What else can I say? Funny and smug with the power and know-how to back it up. Plus she's drawn drop dead gorgeous. Every single character in this manga is. Seriously, if you're looking for gorgeous visuals ...

Jun 24, 2025

Michaeloem

Recommended

Preliminary (39/? chp)

Ichi the Witch flips familiar shōnen fantasy conventions into something fresh and riveting. A boy outcast becomes the first male witch in a women only magic world, not through destiny but through his own hunter’s grit. The premise is recognizable, but the living Majiks, the trap driven magic system, and a protagonist who is equally primal and principled make it feel entirely new. Shiro Usazaki’s expressive, shojo tinged art amplifies every comedic and epic beat. Ichi feels real flawed, fiercely loyal, feral while Desscaras, the powerful mentor, balances swagger with vulnerability. Fans of fantasy grounded in character will find this a captivating ride.

Nov 10, 2025

curvedtree

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (58/? chp)

Considering MAL's recommendation concept, I mark this as "Mixed Feelings," however personally I would not recommend this to anyone.

Currently the manga is in the Demonic Ocean Arc and I finally decided to drop it on chapter 58 for a simple reason: it is too cliché, so you can easily tell what is going to happen next in the story and most of the times the author picks the most obvious outcome.

My first contact with this series was a Youtube video mentioning Descaras as this uber strong mage, I can not recall the context, but I liked her design and decided to give it a try. ... So it was weird she is more like a discount main character rather than the actual main character of the manga, so you have to get used to - as another reviewer mentioned here - Tanjiro 2.0. Despite that, what caught my eye were the early double spread pages, the art style WAS what pulled me in and maybe I kept reading because I knew what the artist had to offer, but maybe she only went all-out early on and eventually she started to slack off. It does not look bad now, it just is not what it once was, and why is this so important? Because the manga lacks depth.

Ichi/Tanjiro2.0 is an one-sided protagonist, the cookie cutter of the loveable goof that every major shonen has been using, dude is basically without a flaw and his motivations are shallow: "I have to hunt," that's it. He does not have aspirations, he is a feral child put in the protagonist's knee high boots and you have to like him. Which is ironic considering how even an overpowered Descaras would have been a better protagonist: she is way more complex, has a proper past that was hinted, her interactions with her Majiks and the other witches would make a young adult Descaras an ideal protagonist - which more likely will be a future arc in the manga - for this story. There are other members in their party, but I will not spoil them, besides they are quite forgettable.

Forgettable is also a word that can be used to describe the story so far. Boring, uninspired, more of the same. 58 chapters in and 5 complete volumes out, you would expect something more concrete or interesting, the manga lacks either, it reads the same stories I have read before, but under this Madan no Ichi filter, so there's nothing new in it. That includes the main antagonist of the story, which is introduced fairly early, and is quite simplistic in their main objective, just like our protagonist, so in the same way you have to love Ichi, you have to hate the main protagonist, even if their motivation is a "that's it?" moment.

Madan no Ichi does not need a twist, it just need good writing, but it does not have the latter and - from the "twists" shown so far - does not seem capable to pull the former out of their hat. It is plain and simple, if you want a read that does not require you to think nor are you strict with the quality of the material you read, you might enjoy this below-mid manga.

Jan 8, 2025

HenX

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (17/? chp)

This manga follow the successfull Shonen Jump model for manga, taking a bit from a lot of successfull stories in a way that even seems to be engineered to be the most generic possible.

The artstyle is good, not overly "edgy" as most of modern manga are, having a more a Magi-like one, with some things very commom in comedy mangas.

I'm all against the story starting with a already super strong protagonist, as he seems to be too stacked already in the 10 first chapter, and in this it really take any weight that anything in story could have.

For the worldbuilding its a magic world with ...

Sep 8, 2024

Weebookey

Recommended

Preliminary (1/? chp)

Seriously though, this has so much potential to be a massive hit in the shonen industry. It's not often we find non-male authors, let alone a female writer/artist duo in a Weekly Shonen Jump serialisation of all things. Previously writing 'Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun', Osamu Nishi staples herself with the legendary 'Act-Age' artist, Usazaki Shiro, infamously shunned from her spotlight due to her co-workers inappropriate actions. I'm happy to see her return in a new (and original) fantasy setting; this is the dream team.

I absolutely adored the first chapter! A good mix of character and lore with an equal amount of action. I think, ...

Sep 13, 2026

AshParth

Recommended

Preliminary (16/? chp)

So, this is gonna be weird as I don't blame y'all as I do write my reviews of each volume of a specific manga series. I don't control how many volumes there are. These specific reviews for each volume will all be from my GoodReads account (feel free to check them out along with the book reviews I write over there) that I would add them all in Google Documents like a collection. I will share what score I give each volume and the score I give here will change multiple times depending on what score I'd given the most recent volume. ...

Sep 6, 2026

XenonRadium98

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (97/? chp)

This isn’t anything you haven’t seen before. This is a story about a young boy with a demon inside him fighting a BBEG with an unconventional mentor alongside an organization. In fact this is the level of generic people thought Kagurabachi was gonna be. This series hits all the beats it needs to without being offensive or particularly unique.

Characters:

Ichi is a fake smoke demon. I cringe every time he says “bloodlust” and there isn’t much about him other than being a nice guy who kicks ass. His relationship with Uroro is just Yujis reheated nachos, which was just Naruto’s reheated nachos, which was probably someone ...

Sep 8, 2024

Hickykissy

Recommended

Preliminary (1/? chp)

I don't know in which time period is this set, because they mentioned trains so I guess it's in the 18th century at the earliest. The main character is a boy who was abandoned in the age of six, so he tried to kill himself but suddenly a wolf appears and in order to protect himself he kills the wolf. That's when he realised that he has a strong attachment to live. The magic in this world which is use by the witches are called "majiks" and they are living magic. In order to use a magic you have to first full filed the wish ...

Nov 4, 2024

Shironasu

Not Recommended

Preliminary (9/? chp)

New shonen jump series made by famous authors and artists and everyone is praising it like the coming of the second Jesus. So it should be good, right? Hmmmm, I think not.

First of all, this manga has terrible storytelling and pacing. chapters 1-3 were spent on a lot of infodumps and expositions with no actual progress. there is no such thing as a goal, premise, or even a protagonist's motivation other than "I want to hunt" ahh, so what ? that's all ?

Then, in chapter 4, the so-called world-building is introduced. which shows the capital city but then the author threw it away ... without explaination about it and wasted time with many unnecessary chapters with lame jokes and a few bland characters that I found very boring and had zero impact, nothing, nothing at all, just a fillers after fillers and finally, my patience ran out on this dumb shark chapter that (still) didn't do anything to the story or plot at all and decided to write this review.

Now let's talk about the characters, which is what people praise the most. I myself found them quite funny at first but they got old quickly due to the lack of stakes, tension, consequences. everything is convenient for them just because, and the result is that these characters seem more shallow than they really look

Seriously? why should I care or sympathize about these characters if nothing will happen to them anyway?

I mean, quirky character doesn't mean a good character and this series is an example of that

The setting is incredibly generic and just something I've seen a million times before. people hate exorcist manga and accusing them of being uncreative and uninspired, but of course, they will swallow this sh*t.

In terms of art, I think it's average and not as good as many people say and the action scenes and choreography still need a lot of work

I don't want to call this series "suck" right now, but if it doesn't get better, so I can't help

TLDR : This series has garbage pacing and below-average execution, there no direction, no substance, nothing happens. overrated art with poor action scenes and does not deserve to receive such high praise

Edit : I read up to chapter 11 and this manga is as dumb as ever that i decided to drop it. this series has no substance. there is no direction or plot other than things happening randomly. the characters besides the black woman have no characterization whatsoever and Ichi is an incredibly boring protagonist to me

If this is successful only because the author's (and artist) name is carrying its ass, then shonen jump is done for

Believe me, if something like Iruma that I quit after the first chapter because it was so bad was serialized in shonen jump instead of champion, which is considered the weakest of all Shonen manga magazines, it would definitely be canceled at volume 3.