 Hey everybody, welcome back to a Wicked Geekdom Geo here, and today we're going to be talking Taikubo's Burn the Witch. Historically, 72% of all the deaths in London are related to dragons, fantastical beings invisible to the majority of the people. While unknown to most, some people have been standing up to these dragons. Only inhabitants of reverse London, who live in the hidden reverse side of London, can see them. Even then, only a selected few become qualified enough as witches or wizards to make direct contact with them. Burn the Witch, do you guys remember in 2018 when the Manga One Shot came out, and everybody lost their collective minds when we learned at the end that it was linked to the Bleach Manga universe? That was really exciting. But nothing came of it. But now in 2020, Taikubo is back with this series Burn the Witch, it was previously that one shot, now we have this four chapter limited manga series, and an upcoming anime film adaptation of said series. So what exactly is Burn the Witch? There's a lot to cover here, so I'm going to be as spoiler free and as simple as possible. Basically, we follow the story of two witches, Noel Nihashi and Nini Spankoal, they are protection agents for Wingbind, it's an organization that is in the western branch of the soul society, in this case reverse London, which is the hidden side of London that regular people can't know about or interact with. And this is an area that is afflicted with dragons, where in Bleach they fought off hollows, here we have dragon like creatures, and it plays off the whole European fantasy mythology and all that stuff. And that is fantastic, I love that stuff. The art in this manga is breathtakingly awesome, Kubo has perfected his craft and his characters are fantastic, the expressions, the style, the aesthetic of the world and all that stuff, top notch material. The only thing I would say that I'm not a huge fan of when it comes to Burn the Witch is the actual story itself being a limited series, I think hinders the possibilities. Yes, I am aware that we are getting a season 2 if you will, more chapters later on, but I was under the impression that we were going to get a long running series or a continuing series and not just 4 chapters, because there is a ton of information we're thrown into this world from the get go, we're jumping in at a random time of these two characters as they're dealing with normal stuff and as they are going through the motions, things or captions are explaining this world to us in long exposition heavy dumps, which I'm not a huge fan of, because it's, I don't know, I just find it a little bit lazy when you have different texts just explaining to you, oh there are several hundred types of dragons, oh there are secret packs that the soul society or the wingbind have done to protect the citizens, there are dragon clads, which are basically people that have consumed or unknowingly consumed huge amounts of dragon toxins, what exactly are dragon toxins, I don't know, I assume mythical things that come from dragons, so when you are exposed to this stuff you become a dragon clad and you're sort of basically like a beacon or a bait for dark dragons and monsters and all that stuff to appear and not only harm you but harm the people around you, so then we learn about the character of Balgo who we saw in the one shot and we learned that he was exposed to a dark dragon, basically this dragon was inhabiting the body of a deceased friend, Balgo better know of this, he was hiding as his friend and bit Balgo, exposing him to the toxins and him becoming a dragon clad, now the wingbind doesn't like this because it's just a regular human that now has this knowledge and access which sort of parallels Ichigo's journey in Bleach where he was just an ordinary human who gained the ability to see things beyond what human comprehension if you will, so he has access to this and he befriends the two witches, he has a huge crush on Noel but Balgo happens to be not the purest of guys, he also has his pet dog Osushi who happens to be another dark dragon in the body of a small toy dog and it's crazy but in a good way, it's like we're throwing you in from the first chapter and explaining to you all the world-building aspects in that very first chapter instead of just focusing on Noel and Nini's journey and what they're gonna go through because the story is quite simple, if you take all of that out we have Nini Spankel, she wants to rise up in ranks and become better and a top-notch wizard witch and by doing their assigned missions they get points and I believe those in turn raise their popularity and all that stuff, she's into that thing whereas Noel she has this dry witty sense of humor that I really like and she's not into the glitz and glamour as Nini but they work well together and they get along, however the story focuses on a character from Nini's past that arrives later on and hijacks ensue, you could tell that story fine in four chapters however the series is inundated with a lot of facts that aren't necessary to know right away, maybe if the series was ongoing you could reveal these facts bit by bit, so in that regard for me personally, don't attack me guys, for me personally I feel the world-building and exposition was a little rushed and nonsensical at times, I didn't really need to know everything and at some point I was a little bit overwhelmed where the point where I understood what was happening but I didn't really care I just wanted to learn more about our two lead characters and what they're going through, there is a villain of sorts to the story but it's more about a big mission that they're involved with and that mission reveals the larger scope of this world and like the big enemies that these wizards and witches are trying to fight with the dragons and all that stuff, we also get introduced to the wingbind crew and all the captains if you will, there are no squads like in Bleach, just one organization with different leaders and I think there were like six or seven of them with really interesting designs, that is one thing that Kubo has always excelled at, the art is just fantastic, it is beautiful, the character designs and aesthetic, they're all top notch, he is at his peak when it comes to that stuff, it's stylish, it's very good to look at and you easily understand who is who, which character is doing what, the action is fluid and nice to look at and with no sense of urgency or rushness to it there are backgrounds this time around unlike the later portion of Bleach so it looks very nice, on the artistic side of things this book is immaculate, I loved it, it was fantastic, it's just several aspects of the story that I didn't really like a hundred percent, however knowing that we are going to get a season two or a second limited series I guess, I'm very excited to keep going and seeing how Nini and Noel evolve as characters, one of the main bad guys if you will or antagonistic forces of this book is the character of Bruno, he's not really bad, it's just that he has opposing views compared to the heroes, I really liked that character and he sort of obviously reminded me of Grimjow from Bleach so I was really excited about that because Grimjow is my favorite villain from that series but overall Burn the Witch is a really nice successor to Bleach, it gives you new stuff, new things to look at and enjoy and opening your senses if you will to a new soul society with different rules and norms, I happen to like that stuff, I just think it was a little bit too much for just four chapters but in further chapters of the story of Burn the Witch whenever we get that I'm sure we will get a more smaller bite-sized version of all that stuff, maybe it's me, maybe I'm the lame one that didn't get with the times, I don't know but what did you guys think about Burn the Witch? I thought it was fine, it was concise for a four chapter run and I'm very much looking forward to the anime because it looks just as pretty as the manga, I think the anime will have a simpler time animating this because it's just a very simple story of these characters, they are starting out in this random day that just things go horribly wrong and it escalates into a giant battle and it gets resolved but at the same time we're introduced to more mysteries and world exposition and that's sort of it so on that regard the story is just okay, I liked it very much and it's very beautiful but it's okay so I'm interested to see how the anime tackles that and how pretty all the fights will look and all that stuff so yeah what did you guys think of Burn the Witch, let me know in the comment section down below, as always you can subscribe, like, comment and be a part of or we can geek them, it truly does mean a whole lot to me and if you do happen to subscribe hit the bell icon so you know when new videos pop up, of course if you want to follow me on social media, twitter, facebook, all that stuff, links are down below, I've got to go guys I will catch all of you on our next video