Witches declare war against people, decimating two thirds of the civilized world. They summon monsters called Supporters and devastate human residences... but why?
The surviving humans gather those with extraordinary powers into an organization dubbed 'Witch Hunter'. Aided by a Jack O Lantern-esque supporter, Tasha Godspell is one of the strongest Witch Hunters around. True to his moniker, The Magic Marksman, Tasha crushes Witches with devastating accuracy — yet he cannot come to hate them...
An ongoing manhwa written and illustrated by Jung-Man CHO. Witch Hunter is equal parts comedy, drama, action, and intrigue, fueled by Rule Of Cool and a truly lovable Power Trio. Despite its epic scope, Witch Hunter favours character dynamics over politics; Tasha and his comrades (and enemies, and in-betweens) spend more screentime interacting than playing Mr. Exposition. Also: Every man is Badass, every woman a Hot Librarian or Cute Witch, and awesome binds the universe together. You'll find little Angst here — unlike that other Asian graphic novel about hunting witches, Jung-Man Cho's title never takes itself too seriously.The series has been licensed by Seven Seas Entertainment where it will be released in Ominbus format starting June 2012. It's also part of the ZOOM line of webcomics, with its own webcomic page.Here's the character page. If you're looking for a trope about a type of character, it's The Witch Hunter.Not to be confused with Witch Hunter Robin.This manwha provides examples of:
Though she gets brutally beaten by said witches in the span of two chapters and needs to be saved by Tarras anyway. This is also comes as Crowning Moment of Awesome from Tarras who make embarrassing short work of said witches.
Adult Child: Guinevere, to the point Tasha calls Lancelot out about it in an omake. Tarras and Xing, being in their twenties and thus ancient by Shonen standards, count as well.
Ascended Extra: The author notes that Tarras was originally supposed to be a 'no-name extra'. He changed his mind partway through the first volume, and Tarras has been the Ego to our Power Trio since then.
A Love to Dismember: Used as a joke in an omake. Two witches suspect Lancelot is a necrophile when Tasha's severed arm falls out of his cloak.
All Myths Are True: Let's see... We've got characters of Arthurian legends running around, a Chinese dragon, the Greek Moirae, the Hindu goddesses Parvati and Prithvi, an old Korean kingdom in the sky, the Norse god Surtr and a few more references to Norse mythology with Cooga's emblem and attacks. And then, of course, witches.
All There in the Manual: Some volumes include character profiles, which detail everything about the featured characters from height and weight to the author's personal thoughts, as well as Q&A sections giving lots of information about the world and the WH organisation.
Almighty Janitor:Visul is more powerful than a squad of elite assassins or a regular A-Class though she still needed to be saved by Tarras.
Then again, She saved him when her brother appeared. It was really more who the opponent was.
Anachronism Stew: 'Guns in a medieval occidental country' barely scratches the iceberg's tip.
If it's set during the witch-craze, it's likely to be 1400's-1600's, and yes, that means guns and plate-armour.
The steam train is a little harder to explain...
Word Of God has stated that it's all magic running everything, from the lamps to the laptops and cellphones. Notice there are pentagrams on most machines.
The hair blow-drier at least is specifically stated by Tasha to have been created by witches.
Art Evolution: While maintaining the same proportions, the characters are drawn with somewhat sharper angles towards the sixth volume. Cho himself noted a change in art style on his blog. One Korean blogger put up a chart of Tasha's face as drawn over the course of several volumes.
Asskicking Equals Authority: The WH are ranked by strength, with big leaps in power from one rank to the one directly above: D-Class just do paperwork, C-Class are the Red Shirt Army, and S-Class Vihyungran and Tania scare the crap out of the A-Class. Probably also the case with the Four Great Witches, if South is any indication.
Author Appeal: To the point the author's editor supposedly warned him against putting too much of his 'personal tastes' into the comic. (And by 'personal tastes' we mean large breasts.)
When the yet unnamed WH D-Class dared to insinuate something... unbecoming of Cooga (whether it was the pet or the bastard part is left vague), Words reacted rather... harshly.
Big Brother Mentor: Subverted, in that Tasha wants none of Xing's friendly guidance. Cho intended Xing to play the role straight, but claimed it gave him an 'awkward, heavy air' and thus reworked his character.
As of Vol 7, Xing's played this trope straight at least once. His bro, Lee, seems to play the same role towards Lancelot.
Break the Cutie: Becoming a witch didn't do much good for Aria. She is torn between her wish of being with Tasha and the hard facts that what she has done and what she is make it impossible for her to return.
It is implied that the corruption from magic power both initiates and prevents this, as the lack of mana resulted in Aria's old personality resurfacing, utterly broken and woobifying her. The exhilaration and mania coming from the power keeps the witches relatively sane. Kinda throws a different light on the witches being kept in Alcatraz.
Yue, Well, Xing got broke hard. He loved his people and yet within a year, someone was trying to kill him. He made peace with his assassin, and over two years were falling in love...and then she gets assassinated.
Brother-Sister Incest: Aria's fondness for her brother Tasha goes above and beyond the call of duty.
Butt Monkey: Tarras. He's mocked by his own sister, teammates, personal assistant, and the Witch who tramples his attempts at a CMOA. The author lampshades Tarras' Buttmonkey status in an omake, where Tarras mopes in a corner about his lack of good scenes. If you revisit Monica's arc, where at least Xing respects him, you'll see just how much of a Buttmonkey Tarras has become.
And now Xing has joined the "Slap-Yue-Around" game.
The Caligula: Hint: Do NOT become the emperor of Bailong.
Call Back: When Tasha sees Tania using her Flower of Earth, destroying the scenery trying to beat Lancelot, he remarks that it's just like "burning down the house just to catch a flea". Later, Tarras, her brother, uses the same technique against a witch, destroying a few houses in the process, and Visul uses that exact same line against him.
Can't Catch Up: Only one of the reasons for the three-way Sibling Rivalry between Yue and his brothers... although 3 years later, it seems Lee's got scarily good.
Catch Phrase: Quoth Words, "Feel the weight of your sins."
Chainmail Bikini: Halloween's uniform. Handwaved as "allowing her complete freedom of movement" and occasionally lampshaded (Halloween is vaguely uncomfortable at first, and Aria later has a jealousy fit over the thought of her brother hanging out with a girl 'dressed' like that).
Cool Shades: Xing's entire collection of eyewear. He's even got spares in his coat! Lee wears similar ones (which they remark upon in an omake, wondering where the other found such cool glasses), Ryuhwan has magical goggles, and Poine wears aviator/bug goggles.
Crack Fic: A plethora in Korean (and perhaps French.) Vihyunrang/Ryuhwan Slash Fic is second only in crack-ness to a Witch Hunter cooking contest fic.
Demoted to Extra: Poor Monica's made less than five appearances since her arc ended.
Determinator: Tasha. Getting beaten to the point where it is physically impossible to move and having his arm which supplies him with magical energy cut off does not stop him from continuing to fight Lancelot. Or from using his magic-fueled gun.
Any female WH getting to actually fight is going to be this, but chapter 52 notably ends with Visul facing three witches. All odds are in favour of a Curb-Stomp Battle though...
Dropped a Bridget on Him: Tania initially calls Tasha "Miss Godspell", which Cooga of course finds hilarious. That's because only females are supposed to have a mana source in their body. The official French translation adds the sexual-orientation issue and even more hilarity by having Tania call Tasha a flirty (and feminine-only) word for "my cutie". Just a little later, Merlin drops one on Tasha by revealing he's in the same situation.
Elemental Powers: Vihyungrang can command the spirits of Earth and Fire.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: This leads to a witch's downfall in Chapter 9 when she tries to convince Monica, now a witch herself, to help her escape. She forgets to take into account that she just spent the last month or so killing villagers including Monica's best friend. Monica tells her to piss off.
Evil Twin: Xing's got/is one, depending on how you look at it. Two of them, in fact.
Exactly What I Aimed At: Tasha pulls this off very nicely in chapter 12: Ryuhwan has proved very good at dodging bullets, but notices that Tasha completely missed one particular shot, and looks back to see the bullet has hit his supporter... and gone through its head to hit Tasha's real target: one of Halloween's seals.
By that logic Merlin and Tasha won't have to worry about ever being lonely, since they are mages.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Cho makes explicit references to Britain and Arthurian legend around Vol. 6. The Bailong Empire is more-or-less analogous to China.
Flat What: Tania's reaction when she learns that Tasha is actually a boy. (Probably also many a reader's reaction to her mistaking him for a girl in the first place.)
Foe Yay: In chapter15, Tasha dreams about Varete. The current Fan Wank is that she's his mother, however.
Not according to Chapter 5. Alternately, Varete is a sexy woman and Tasha is a teenage boy.
Lee's glee about fighting Yue is rather... suspicious.
Aria and Tasha (the foe thingy is one of perspective, the yay thingy not) as well as Tasha and East.
Some saw a bit of this between Ryuhwan and Aria as well.
How We Got Here: Used often, the most mindbreaking example being vol 5, which treated us to a sudden three-chapters long flashback and immediately followed by a flash-forward showing Tasha with his arm ripped off. Then vol 6 picked back up to before the flashback started, and the next three volumes or so show us the long way to getting Tasha in this predicament.
Ho Yay: For a skirt-chasing fiend, Xing's attachment to Tasha seems a little bit conspicuous. (Shamelessly admitted to in the French official translation, Squee!.)
Lee's manservant, Eunwon, shows a depth of understanding and devotion towards him that may raise eyebrows.
Words and Cooga. This pairing used to be the stuff of Slash Goggles, but this page seems to have added some substance. Who's your little 'pet', Words?
Palgeuk and Vihyunrang have amassed enough Foe Yay to warrant fanart. Go back ~10 pages at one of JMC's blogs and you'll find a goldmine of Witch Hunter fanart.
Hypocritical Heartwarming: Don't compare Tanya to her "stupid brother"... but don't call her brother stupid. She'll show you exactly why he's so afraid of her.
I Didn't Mean To Turn You On: Indirect. When Tarras comes up with a plan to get back at Tasha for all his abuse, Xing gets... really excited at the thought of Tasha getting furious at him. Tarras is creeped out.
If It's You, It's Okay: In the French publication, Xing cheerfully explains to Tasha that "I've never liked men, but know what ? I'm willing to make an exception just for you~ !", securing him a spot in the heart of the yaoi fangirls upon his very first appearance. (Not in Tasha's, though.)
Important Haircut: All three of the Bailong Princes (also a Close-Call Haircut in one case), which makes things interesting since they're triplets, initially only differentiated by their hairdos.
Insufferable Genius: Tarras, oh so much. For all his power and skill, the first part seems to blur the second to oblivion thanks to his constant status as Butt Monkey.
Informed Ability: Both subverted and, erm, inverted, due to No Export for You. Visul is revealed to be actually stronger than a Black Class in #52, which was a surprise to most readers... but actually it had been mentioned in the extra character file a few volumes in advance. And #57 makes it straight it again as for all her reveal, she needed a Black Class to save her... which he does with almost embarrassing ease.
The Blackstar Brothers are A-class hunters. The only time they get to do some Kung Fu action they get utterly destroyed.
It Runs in the Family: You thought Tarras was bad? Check out Tanya. There's also a case of taking Sibling Rivalry too far in the Bailong family, but that's almost Family Curse territory... there's a good chance having 50+ voices in your head makes you a little loopy.
To be fair, the characters' shocked reactions are probably mostly due to the backstabber saying he'll kill all intruders, which seems to include them, too.*
Interestingly, though, this might be the first time Tarras sees someone die
YMMV, the witch in question has been thoroughly beaten, captured and was about to be sent to Alcatraz. Considering that it might in fact be a fate worse than death to witches,it might've as well been an unnecessary kill or a Mercy Kill.
Living MacGuffin: Tasha himself is a crucial part in the plans of North, East and Varette. Aria, Diana and Vihyungrang also have a special interest in him.
Nice Hat: The witches' hats. A witch's hat is the source of her mana.
Witch-hater Cooga wears lots of very nice hats, too. He makes them.
Not So Stoic: The only thing that seems capable of deeply affecting Words is a good wine.
No Fourth Wall: Tasha takes Tarras down a peg by mentioning he barely did anything until Volume Two.
Tarras is also called out on the fact that he was just intended to be an extra by Xiao and Myun, which leads him to suspect the author of spreading lies.
One of Us: JMC is a master of Memetic Mutation. Three Times Faster, Objection!, Gaijin Yonkoma...
Panty Shot: Oddly enough, far from as many as you'd expect with the sheer amounts of sexy females in skirts, but still a few - so far, always Visul. Seems her skirt is the only non-magic one.
The amount of panty shots increased dramatically in volume 11 - again mostly Visul, but Myun got a couple, as well.
Pastimes Prove Personality: Subverted, in that the characters' Informed Attribute hobbies seem mismatched with their personalities. For example, the egotistical Tarras is a loving gardener who names his plants and Cooga is a big follower of fashion who makes his own hats.
Physical God: The fourth Witches had shown to be beyond mortal comprehension in power, being armies unto themselves. Hell, East posses Surtr, The king of the Jötunn, Primordial of all living flames and deicide extraordinary as her support, for crying out loud.
Power Limiter: Tasha and Ryu Hwan, most prominently.
Slasher Smile: Aria, Cooga, Lee, Tyrfing, Rose and South are all prone to those. Tasha also often has more comical ones, and more seriously when he removes his limiter and upgrades to S-Class. He sports one as well during his recent battle with Lancelot. And of course, it's Halloween's default expression until the seal is broken, but then Ryuhwan's is there to pick up the slack. (After all, what would WH be without a grinning pumpkin ?)
Slash Fic: With the amount of Les Yay (and, to a lesser degree, Ho Yay) in this series, this is inevitable. There are already a few Xing/Tasha fics floating around, though they're written by French and other ESL fans.
Spell My Name with an S: Until the first three profile pages were scanlated, most of the English fandom misspelled Tasha's surname, Tarras' first name, and Xing's full name.
Often the result of the translators not getting mythological and/or cultural references. For instance, the Doberg family worships an Earth deity which has been referred to as "Fribity" in the French publication and "Prevhiti" in English scanlations. It just might actually be the Hindu goddess Prithvi. Aria's supporter is known as "Isis" (as in the Egyptian goddess) or "Aegis" (some sort of weapon/shield in Greek mythology), with the latter making more sense. (It should be noted that translating names from Korean isn't as easy as it looks... though apparently that doesn't explain how Prithvi was translated into Fribity.)
Subordinate Excuse: Strongly hinted at between Visul and Xing, that is, Yue. She's actually an absurdly good fighter and only stays a D-Class so that she can keep an eye on him. Chapter 52 shows she'll go to great lengths to keep Yue's secret, and chapter 54 shows she ruthlessly killed a dozen men to save Lee solely because Yue wanted Lee to survive.
Technical Pacifist: The WH are contractually forbidden from killing witches, but it's a personal decision in the case of our Power Trio. Yes, even and particularly absurdly-violent Tasha.
Ted Baxter: Surprisingly subverted with Tarras. While he has amassiveego and is the end of mostaccidents, he has demonstrated to be actually a superb warrior and had singlehandedlybeaten extremely powerful witches over and over again like his fight in Chapter 57. The BadassBoasts make everyone in-universe hate him but they're completely justified.
The Faceless: North and Edea Florence until chapter 31, anyway.
The Mole: As of Vol. 9, we're still unsure whether or not Words is The Mole or a Double Agent. Eunryu seems to be this, what with being an S-Class WH and North's henchman.
Theme Triplet Naming: The Bailong princes Lee, Yue and Xing are Sun, Moon and Star, respectively.
Trigger Happy: Tasha. Ryuhwan on a slightly lesser degree, but his first reaction to people sneaking up on him is still aiming his gun at them, then look surprised.
Vanhelsing Hate Crime: Discussed. The witch in Chapter 9 emphatically states this to try and convince Monica that WH will not let her live free. Rather refreshingly, WH is, as Tasha said, only in the job of hunting evil witches and is indeed largely staffed with witches willing to fight for, rather than against, humanity. However, there are a number of people that appear not to care too much about the distinctions, such as Cooga in the WH and Ryuhwan outside it (despite being taught by a witch himself).
Walking Shirtless Scene: While he doesn't go entirely shirtless, Xing's post-uniform upgrade outfit shows off his abs and biceps (and scar). Fanservice at its finest!
Wham Line: Volume 11 ends on Badass Emperor Xing, fresh as a rose, easily stopping the deathmatch between his two brothers... and grabbing Yue by the throat.
What the Hell, Hero?: Tasha is this trope. Tarras also routinely destroys villages while on mission; Xing often calls them both out on it.
Whip It Good: Tanya apparently owns a whip... or maybe Tarras was being overdramatic, but somehow I doubt that.
Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: In chapter 52, Lee tells Yue he's responsible for the Bailong Empire being destroyed, thus ruining Xing's life, and in general it's all Yue's fault Lee ended up killing Xing. Worst thing? Judging from Yue's reaction, he probably agrees. We got a master Manipulative Bastard here.
As it turns out, he's not entirely wrong. It seems the reason the rebellion happened anyway is because the kingdom and its officials thought Xing was Yue and rebelled because of it.
With Friends Like These: Tasha routinely shoots his allies. Sometimes just with anaesthetic bullets. Xing gets that particular treatment so much that he's apparently got himself an antidote for the anaesthetics for the times when he gets to team up with Tasha.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Seems to be what happened to Aria. Magic is stated to take its toll on the human user's mind and body. Temporarily happens to Tasha in vol 8.
Yandere: Wai halo thar, Aria! Visul just might be a lighter case in regards to Yue, though thus far she hasn't killed any nice guy.
Yaoi Fangirl: In one omake yonkoma, the author's assistant comments on a very Les Yay picture and suggests doing another one, but with guys. She then starts listing possible yaoi pairings, to the author's annoyance.
Yonkoma: Jung-Man Cho treats us to a funny one the end of every chapter.
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