MANGA: Majo to Neko

Majo to Neko – Kuroi Yodaka

Outwardly, Sudo is a delivery man, but at night he is a “courier” for the underworld. By chance, he gets together with his neighbor Uno, whom he has been interested in, over a potluck. The next day, he sleeps with Uno, who is drunk, and the next day, Uno becomes very distant from him. While he is worried that he might be onto his ulterior motives, he sees Uno being tangled up with some unscrupulous men on the street, and he reflexively takes Uno by the hand and runs away. The dying Sudo, under attack from the enemy, is saved by a contract with Uno, a descendant of witches. Sudo learns that Uno has been living in hiding from the world because he is a witch. To escape his pursuers, Sudo returns to his home to retrieve money for his escape, only to find his pursuers waiting for him…?

Witch and Cat is a gritty paranormal romance that is as violent as it is steamy as it is heart-wrenching as it is so freakin’ good!

This is a world where witches are the most sought-after commodity, able to heal and give extra lives to people they contracted with, known as familiars. These witches are so valuable that even their body parts are sold for exorbitant prices.

A witch can contract multiple familiars, but it would drain their life energy in the long run. The contract had to be done with mutual consent with both parties present and with exchange of mana through physical contact. A kiss can give a short burst of mana, but we all know there are more fun ways to exchange body fluids.

The witch is Uno, a scowl-y guy who rarely smiles and keeps to himself. He frequently bumps into his neighbor Sudo, a smiley, friendly guy who always seem to sport an injury. Right off the bat, it’s obvious that he is that kind of character who smiles even as everything falls apart.

Sudo is strongly attracted to Uno and was determined to see the guy smile. Their lives is such that they cross paths with a yakuza who turned out to be a witch hunter, hellbent on capturing Uno.

As you might guess, Sudo becomes Uno’s familiar and protector. While on the run, they realized their feelings towards each other were more than just witch and familiar. As Uno’ familiar, Sudo has cat qualities since Uno is affliated with cats. Ironic that he has a doting dog personality as a seme.

Sudo frequently suffers horrendous injuries while protecting Uno, even lost several lives (he has 9), that Uno helped heal later. One thing that was puzzling to me was why Sudo was already healing so fast even before he became Uno’s familiar.

The main antagonists are Natsume, a dog familiar and his witch, Keigo, son of the yakuza boss. These two are as compelling as Sudo and Uno, and I want their story so bad!

There are plenty of uber violent fight scenes and a lot of blood shed. I’d love to see this as an anime. Not just because of the fight scenes but because the story is poignant and angsty. Also, their world is ripe for more stories about the complicated relationships between witches and their familiars, and the rest of the humanity.

One of my top manga of the year!

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