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"Taco, taco, tacos, delicious tacos!"

El Cazador de la Bruja (which means The Witch's Hunter in Spanish, NOT The Witch Hunter) tells the story of Ellis, a young girl who finds herself chased by bounty hunters, the most skilled of whom is Nadie. Luckily, Nadie is not about to kill her, but instead sets herself up as Ellis' bodyguard on her journey to find out more about her Mysterious Past. Ellis has some mystifying powers, such as setting things on fire or freezing them; throwing people around with force fields; and inhuman strength, which allows her to jump several meters in one go. Unfortunately, she doesn't have complete control over those powers yet. Ellis is also haunted by memories of the killing of her former foster parent, whom she calls "the professor". Did she actually kill him? What is the role of the organization that sends one bounty hunter after another to obtain her? Who is the creepy guy who keeps stalking her all the time? And what is Nadie's role in this web of intrigue?

The series is produced by Bee Train and is the Spiritual Successor to Madlax, which in turn is the Spiritual Successor to Noir. Together, the series form Bee Train's "Girls with Guns"-trilogy, with noticeable plot similarities. El Cazador de la Bruja is generally lighter in tone than the other two series and shares neither their ambiguous endings nor their particular focus on female gunslinger action. The relationship between the two female leads is also much less ambivalent and clearly develops a romantic slant. Fans who loved the dark, puzzling plot twists in the two first series might be disappointed by the comparative straightforwardness of El Cazador de la Bruja, since it focuses on the relationship between the main characters. The series should best be seen as a story of two people who find themselves and each other against a backdrop of the Mexican desert, crazy (and ineffective) bounty hunters, and of course, tacos.

Not to be confused with the short-lived CrossGen Comics pirate title, El Cazador.


El Cazador de la Bruja provides examples of:

  • Adaptational Attractiveness and Adaptational Curves: Inverted. Nadie is very attractive in the manga, gifted with a mature and womanly figure. In the anime though, her attractiveness is toned down, giving her a nearly flat chest, with characters constantly calling her mannish and unattractive. Her design is still rather cute, though.
  • Adapted Out: The manga diverges from the anime due to it catching up, so the fact Ellis has an Evil Twin is never mentioned in the anime.
  • Always Save the Girl: Unusually, by another girl. Nadie always goes out of her way to protect Ellis.
  • Ambiguously Brown: Nadie has darker skin, could be Hispanic or Amerindian or just really tan, and has blue eyes.
  • Andean Music: The series has a few pieces by Yuki Kajiura that were inspired by Andean influence, notably Inca Rose.
  • Angel Unaware: In the middle of Mexico/South of Mexico, there is an inn run by an old man; who apparently is really the Hopi Fertility Deity Kokopelli. He takes the form of a white author who died 3 years prior to the plot.
  • Anime Accent Absence:
    • Despite taking place mostly in Mexico and South America, there are rarely any accents.
    • Partially averted in the dub where some accents get used, and even some lines of Spanish in the first episode, to establish the world of the story.
  • Artificial Human: Ellis and L.A. are two of the Witches, beings created with power over temperature and gravity.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: At various points, Nadie and Ricardo both pretend that they don't really care about each other, but it's clear that they have a strong friendship.
  • Badass and Child Duo: It has two: one is the main couple, Nadie and Ellis (at least until the latter learns to use her magic effectively); the other is Ricardo and Lirio, whose similarities to Lone Wolf and Cub are lampshaded early on.
  • Bait-and-Switch Credits: The opening and ending both count. Nadie and Ellis never visit any floating land, no masked man ever follows them around, and there is never a cat with a sniper rifle.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Ellis was already considered this, but in episode 16 she consciously beats the crap out of L.A..
  • Big Bad:
    • CIA Director Douglas Rosenberg is the head of Project Leviathan, which aims to create a race of humans, known as Witches, with power over temperature and gravity. He aims to capture Nadie and Ellis to complete this project and seek revenge on the higher government for driving his father to suicide, and manipulates the Witch Coven, a competing sub-faction, for this purpose.
    • In the manga, Rosenberg is Adapted Out, so the antagonist role goes to Alice, a “sister” Witch of Ellis who is Driven by Envy to steal her powers and get revenge on Project Leviathan for abandoning her.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: The Witch Coven are antagonists on more or less equal footing with Rosenberg for most of the series, and in fact Nadie and Ellis spend most of their time fighting them after the CIA shuts down Rosenberg's department. However, they eventually back off when Blue-Eyes decides to help the girls reach Winay Marka instead, while Rosenberg remains as the main threat. They also become less menacing after the reveal that Rosenberg manipulated them into chasing after Ellis in the first place.
  • Bloodier and Gorier: The manga is a lot more violent than the anime.
  • Blood-Splattered Innocents: The flashback of Ellis at the murder scene of the Doctor shows her with sizeable bloody stain on her white dress.
  • Blush Sticker: Lirio sports them permanently to emphasize her innocence and naivety, but it'sseen on other innocent young children, including Hispanics.
  • Bodyguard Crush: Nadie is designated to protect Ellis and the latter qickly falls for her. The feelings gradually become mutual by the end of the series.
  • Borrowed Catchphrase: Nadie uses Ellis' "Yes, sir" on two occasions. Ellis says Nadie's Pre-Asskicking One-Liner right before shooting Rosenberg.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Let's just say Rosenberg's conditioning of L.A. did a real number on his sanity, seeing how he's obsessed with Ellis to a disturbing degree.
  • Brand X: Amigo Tacos is a recuuring brand throughout the entire series.
  • Butt-Monkey: The two transvestites who pursue Ellis and Nadie in early episodes are ridiculously incompetent and whine constantly. Nadie effortlessly dupes them off their jeep and later totals their other car, sending them on a long-term hospital tratment in the process. When they make their return in the final episode they even put on weight and much to their dismay, their endeavor is rendered pointless at that point because Ellis is no longer a bounty.
  • Catchphrase:
  • Cat Girl: Sort of — a few characters put on cat ears in episode 11, including L.A and Ricardo.
  • Cheerful Child: Lirio, despite traveling around with a Bounty Hunter
  • The Chessmaster: It is revealed that Rosenberg manipulated his rivals, the Witch Coven, into going after Nadie and Ellis.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Ellis for Nadie. Particularly noticeable in episode 19, when she mentally dubs a couple's conversation over the conversation between Nadie and Ricardo.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Ellis has rather loose grasp on reality. Most of the time she's Literal-Minded, too honest and her logic is completely straightforward. She has no problems jumping into a river to save a random lizard or picking a fork as a weapon against enemy with a firearm and another one if she's told it's won't be enough.
  • Code Name: L.A.; it is implied that "Ellis" is actually an acronym for "L.S." As for L.B to L.R., it is very censored, but Nadie finds their charred bodies near the city where the project took place, and L.A outright states that they died due to the inhuman conditions Proyect Leviathan put them on. Ellis and himself were the only survivors.
  • Cute Mute: Lirio. She pretty much communicates with giggles and little noises. She does say "Kitty!" in ep 22, referring to a cougar.
  • Disney Death: Happens to Nadie and Ellis in Episode 25. Nadie shoots Ellis at her request and dies herself, but they are resurrected by the temple.
  • Distant Finale: Episode 26 acts as an epilogue to the main story, showing Nadie and Ellis trying to live a normal life before deciding to hit the road again.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Ellis uses her powers, she starts breathing heavily, and her expression and demeanor are rather... suggestive. It doesn't help at all the first time she does this that L.A. is watching her, also breathing heavily with the same expression, and the camera keeps switching between them.
  • Doing In the Wizard:
    • Inverted. Ellis is the product of genetic engineering, but her powers seem to be genuinely supernatural.
    • Not to mention episodes involving a woman who can read the memories of others, the harvest spirit Kokopelli, and it is probable that the old fortune teller in the first episode was the real deal.
  • The Dragon: L.A. and Melissa are this for Douglas Rosenberg, head of Project Leviathan; the former constantly stalks the heroines with the intent of taking Ellis for himself, while the latter is his secretary and a high-ranking member of the Witch Coven. Both play the part of Dragon with an Agenda, as L.A. only cares about Ellis and Melissa plots to betray Rosenberg.
  • Fanservice: Sufficiently more of it than in Noir and Madlax; there's more in the manga adaptation.
  • Finger-Suck Healing: In thir episode, Ellis cuts her finger while opening a can. Nadie first chews her out for this, then applies the standard finger-sucking procedure despite having access to running and hopefully clean water.
  • For the Evulz: Rosenberg arranged the whole road trip through Central America so that Ellis and Nadie would get close enough that when he killed Nadie the grief would trigger the final awakening of Ellis' powers: just as the shredding of her favorite teddy bear initiated her first breakthrough and the murder of Dr. Schneider triggered her second. Blue-Eyes suggests that he's seeking revenge for his father who was Driven to Suicide by the government after seeking the witches' power. He flat out denies this, but it's hard to tell if he's being honest or not.
  • The Glasses Come Off: Jody Hayward a.k.a. Blue Eyes ten episodes in decides to ditch her specs and also lets her hair loose, and the look stays for the rest of the series. Rosenberg says that she looks hotter without them.
  • Going Commando: When Nadie mentions showering to Ellis, she casually slips off both her sleeveless jacket and dress with a single move and stands before Nadie buck naked. Unless she didn't also somehow take off her panties in the process it strongly implies she's not wearing any. Perpetually.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: L.A. gets mocked by some bar patrons in episode 7. He makes a Slasher Smile, and then the scene cuts to some minutes later, with the police at the scene trying to radio in "someone good with puzzles" so they can find out how many victims there were.
  • Gratuitous Spanish: Justified, since it is set in Latin America.
  • Groin Attack: In ep 20, when Ellis sets L.A.'s crotch on fire with her powers.
  • The Gunslinger: Nadie is very skilled with her Colt M1911 despite apparently hardly receiving any gun training.
  • Hair Memento: In the 6th episode, L.A. cuts some of Ellis' hair in her sleep and makes a small doll out of it. Several times he's seen brooding over it.
  • Half-Identical Twins: Being the only surviving specimens in an experiment to clone Witches, L.A. and Ellis look very similar to each other.
  • Healing Factor: Sort of — Ellis can only remove foreign objects from the body without harm. She can do absolutely nothing to the wounds caused by them, let alone to any kind of illness.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Episode 21 is pretty much dedicated to Blue-eyes deciding to help Nadie and Ellis for real.
  • Hidden Depths: Antonio: mild-manner taco stand manager, and also former contract killer.
  • Hot Springs Episode: In the Mexican Desert, no less! in Episode 15. Justified, in that it's a spa with an onsen theme.
  • Hotter and Sexier: The manga compared to the anime. Nadie is given a bigger bust, gets stripped naked about three times, breasts are shown in full detail, and there are numerous panty shots of both Nadie and Ellis in every chapter.
  • Hypocrite: In the hotel room when Ellis wants to throw herself on the bed, Nadie tries to hold her back, reasoning they are too dirty and should take a bath first so they won't dirty the bedcloth. There would be much more weight to Nadie's words, if before saying that, she actually didn't throw herself on the bed too. Not like Ellis actually listened to her argument. Or any arguments whatsoever.
  • I Cannot Self-Terminate: In the finale once Ellis' powers go out of control due to Roseberg's tampering, she asks Nadie to shoot her, as there's nothing she can do to stop herself.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: With the sole exception of "Maple Leaf", every episode begins with "A Woman" or "A Man" and then an adjective phrase to describe them.
  • In a Single Bound: In the first episode when Ellis and Nadie are running from a mob of bounty hunters and accidentally wander into dead-end backalley, Ellis being an Artificial Human, just casually jumps on top of the 2-meter tall wall leaving Nadie in speechless amazement. L.A. being basically the same as Ellis baring his gender and lack of supernatural powers, is implied to be capable of the same.
  • Innocent Flower Girl: In Ep. 21 after suffering a breakdown L.A. encounters a young hispanic girl selling flowers in the country. He draws his thread and she gasps in fear. A Smash Cut makes it seem like he murdered her only to reveal later, that not only he didn't harm her, he bought all her flowers.
  • Killed Off for Real: L.A. and Rosenberg; though in the final episode they fake us out with Jody's assistant.
  • Last of His Kind: The witches have died out and Ellis is actually a last human-made attempt to rebreed them.
    • Subverted later on, as the Witch Coven scenes reveal, that Witches are still very much alive and just went into hiding. Also only a handful of them can actually use their powers anymore.
    • After pulling her Hell Face Turn "Blue Eyes" reveals, she's also a witch by descendance, just can't use her powers. It is actually being foreshadowed by the Inca Rose jewel on her necklace.
    • In the finale [[spoiler:it is revealed that Melissa (Rosenberg's secretary) is a witch too as she seems to channel herself through Lirio and actually brings Ellis Back from the Dead.
  • The Men in Black: In the OP only, there is one guarding a brainwashing facility for Rosenberg, but given he's wearing a sombrero and smoking a pipe, that sorta takes away the mystique. He's only in one episode, and doesn't do anything. Blue Eyes does utilize a couple of WIB henchladies though.
  • Meido: Ellis and Nadie don maid outfits several times. First in Frida's Diner, later in an Amigo Tacos branch restaurant run by Antonia and Margarita and later in another restaurant of the same brand.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Nadie in the manga, she has a much more mature figure in comparison to the anime, with large breasts, flared hips, and thin waist.
  • Mundane Utility: In episode 26, Ellis uses her witch powers to cool down a drink.
  • Mythology Gag: In episode 4, Ellis brandishes a fork as a "weapon". In Noir, Kirika killed Chloe with a fork.
  • New Old West: It's clearly infulenced by westerns, and takes place (probably) somewhere near the US-Mexico border, but is set in the modern day as of its 2000s production.
  • No Delays for the Wicked: Nadie and Ellis are constantly struggling with poverty through the course of their journey. The villain side however:
    • When Rosenberg wants to get something done, all he needs to pick up the phone and call the right government person. About the only person who doesn't immediately comply to his demands is Ricardo, because he has standards and cares deeply for Lirio's well-being. Even the arresting of Rosenberg's accomplice senator and the bribery investigation is just a minor setback in carrying out Rosenberg's schemes.
    • The Witch Coven only needs to issue their demand to "Blue Eyes" and she does everything in her competence to get it done. That is until she decides to ditch working for them.
    • A minor example is the separate group of assassins from the Witch Coven assaulting Ortega's armored van in which Nadie and Ellis take temporal refuge. The assassins pull no stops relentlessly pursuing the van and keep shooting it without ever having to worry about ammunition.
  • No Full Name Given: Primary heroines, no less: Ellis and Nadie. Also L.A., Lirio, and Ricardo.
  • No Name Given: The transvestite bounty hunters. Even in the credits, they're only known as Transvestites A and B.
  • Odd Name Out: "Maple Leaf" is the only episode title which doesn't abide to Idiosyncratic Episode Naming.
  • Our Hero Is Dead: Nadie is forced to shoot Ellis in the penultimate episode, then dies shortly afterwards. It doesn't last long.
  • Our Witches Are Different: Witches are a Mage Species-type of Human Subspecies who mostly lost their powers in modern times. Ellis is an artificial witch, created in an attempt to restore the magical bloodline. Jodie, on the other hand, is a pure-blood witch but has about as much magical potential as any baseline human. It is also suggested that there were further artificial witches besides Ellis (possibly including L.A.) but they all died/were killed off.
  • Product Placement: this Pemex fuel station, where Pemex is Mexico's national oil company. The public phones also look pretty much exactly as Telmex's phones, though this might be Scenery Porn more than anything else, since it would be nearly impossible to depict Mexico without Pemex stations or Telmex phones.
  • Razor Floss: L.A.'s weapon of choice is a thread of unknown fabric capable of slicing through virtually anything, including bedrock and reinforced steel. Or rather anything L.A. wants to as the thread is never seen to hurt him or the bracelet, it's stored in. He's also capable of slicing bullets fired at him using it.
  • Real-Place Background: When in penultimate episode, the heroines finally reach the place designated as Winay Marka, it looks suspiciously like Machu Picchu.
  • Reflectionless Useless Eyes: Ellis whenever she unconsciously manifests her powers. Her eyes still change even after she gains full control of her powers.
  • Roof Hopping: Ellis jumps inhumanly high, leaping up balconies in ep 17. Jumping from one to the one directly above it shouldn't be possible. In her case, A witch did it.
  • Scary Shiny Glasses: Rosenberg. The nameless bounty hunter in episode 9 also qualifies.
  • Shipper on Deck: By the end of the series, Ricardo is shipping Ellis/Nadie.
  • Shout-Out: In 2nd episode there is probably a very stealh one - Frida's daughter Maria who left her mother and went to an orphanage of her own will looks very much like John Matrix' daughter Jenny.
  • Shown Their Work: The portrayal of Latin America is generally good, at least tonally ringing true despite the artistic license taken in some particulars.
  • Sinister Southwest: Follows a bounty hunter named Nadie who, instead of killing her assigned target, decides to become the bodyguard of a young witch named Ellie as they both seek their own freedoms. As the two slowly move further south through Mexico, they find themselves being chased by other bounty hunters and getting involved in a sinister conspiracy from an ancient witch coven. The setting never strays too far from desert and cactus environments and small towns.
  • This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Toyed with in various ways throughout the series.
    • In episode 10, when a thug is holding Ellis hostage, Antonio thinks he has to go out and save her since he and his wife are the ones the thug's boss wants. At the same time, Nadie thinks she has to save her, since she and Ellis are so close. By the time they finish arguing and agree to BOTH go rescue her, Ellis has already knocked the guy out with a pair of maracas.
    • Averted when Ellis briefly tries to run away, since she doesn't want to be part of Rosenberg's plot or hurt anyone she cares about with her powers. Blue Eyes tries to tell Nadie that Ellis has to work it out on her own, but Nadie gives her a Shut Up, Hannibal! and refuses to let Ellis run off a second time.
    • Played straight in episodes 24 and 25, both when Ricardo goes to finish things with Rambo L.A. and when Ellis and Nadie decide to finish their journey before the others catch up.
  • Together in Death: Nadie is forced to kill Ellis, after killing her, she shoots herself and uses the last of her strength to crawl to Ellis and die beside her. It doesn't last long, though.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Ellis, once she gains full control over her powers.
  • Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Apparently common with witches. Rosenberg engineered Nadie and Ellis' road trip so that Ellis would bond with someone, so that he could traumatize her into further awakening her powers by killing Nadie.
  • Unexplained Recovery: Both Ellis and Nadie die in the penultimate episode. However, they only stay that way for about five minutes.
  • The Unreveal: Just as powerful as The Reveals of Noir and Madlax combined.
  • Villains Out Shopping: Once Rosenberg gets to his lakeside villa, there are plenty of cuts to him just fishing or playing chess. Of course, these scenes are often still set to his evil-sounding theme music. It doesn't help that he eventually ends up looking at a picture of Ellis a lot.
  • The Voiceless: Lirio (except for two instances at the end of the series). Despite this, she acts as a link between Nadie and Ellis and Ricardo, seeing as Ricardo isn't exactly the sociable type. Any interactions between them for much of the series is caused by their interactions with Lirio.
  • Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Antonio & Margarita in episode 10. A tubby taco stand worker married to one of the hottest women in the series. Apparently, he reminded her of a puppy she had as a girl.
  • Unexpectedly Dark Episode: The show consists mostly of light-hearted wacky adventures, but "Maple Leaf" is an extremely moody Origins Episode for Ellis, revealing her childhood as a living genetic experiment and her apparent murder of her handler-slash-father figure when she lost control of her powers.
  • Villainous Breakdown: L.A. in ep 20, not that he was tightly wrapped in the first place.

Alternative Title(s): El Cazador

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