魔女

MAJO

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
2
RELEASE
November 25, 2004
CHAPTERS
7

DESCRIPTION

On a visit to the capital of a small country in the far west of Asia, a British girl named Nicola falls in love. The object of her affections is Mimar, a young man who works at a bazaar–yet despite her attempts, he doesn’t notice her. Back at home in England, the ache of her unrequited love festers. After years spent obtaining wealth, fame, and “the secret of the world,” she returns to the bazaar to exact her deadly revenge upon Mimar and those he holds dearest. This story is just one of many in this dramatic collection, which features tales of witchcraft across the globe and even in the far reaches of outer space.

(Source: Seven Seas Entertainment)

Note: Won the Excellence Prize in the Manga Division at Japan Media Arts Festival in 2004.

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

lublei
10/100
Orientalist garbage reducing foreign cultures to a spectacle to be gawked at and spreading misinformation
I was perhaps fortunate to be familiar with the setting of the first story, Turkey, as it is so wildly off base that it reads like a piece of orientalist literature. That meant I didn’t read the rest of the stories that would have misinformed me about cultures I know less about. This work is part of a style that bastardizes foreign cultures for outsiders to gawk at, and one that I find no value in. Elements of the story and the setting are cobbled together from disjointed information. It mixes time periods in Turkish history and presents a nonsensical version of Turkish culture. The story apparently takes place sometime in the 70s but nothing is consistent with that period in Turkey.

The most egregious example is Istanbul being called the capital, which is not only a mistake no Turkish person would make but shows that the writer apparently couldn’t even bother to look at a map. We are shown the story of a girl with a spindle, living 1000km away from the “capital,” Istanbul. So she isn’t even Turkish, but a Kurdish villager. We are then told that their “tribe” is nomadic and shown that they dress in Central Asian style Turkic clothing. She then takes a truck alone to the capital and is ordered to buy “rennet” by her mother while there.

Now, none of this makes any sense. By the 70s there weren’t any nomadic tribes in Eastern Anatolia, and if they were they wouldn’t be herding sheep in Central Asian clothing. A small Kurdish girl wouldn’t be allowed to travel to Istanbul alone, as the Kurdish society is highly patriarchal and at that time in a remote village familial bonds and rules would govern that kid's life. Also, those poor villagers couldn’t afford to make leisure trips to Istanbul, they just wouldn’t have the funds. Even though the age of the girl isn’t stated she is clearly over 6 years old meaning her family doesn’t send her to mandatory primary school a family like that isn’t going to tolerate a woman, let alone a girl, going to some faraway city alone. She would also be taken in by a state official to be returned to her family when her papers are checked since she would be a runaway, and she couldn’t leave her province, let alone enter Istanbul without having that happen. And finally, she would not only not need to buy “rennet” from Istanbul she would also know what it is. Because it is called “peynir mayası,” literally meaning “cheese yeast,” in Turkish. It is produced using the stomachs of cows and sheep etc. So it would be produced in the provinces where this girl originates from, where animal farming is done, and she would be more likely to sell it than buy it in Istanbul. Of course, if she were speaking Kurdish maybe this wouldn’t be the case since it is also called “rennet” in Kurdish, but not only does she speak Turkish, as she has no communication problems, that would still mean she wouldn’t need to buy it from Istanbul.

This is all the issues in just the first few pages. The Istanbul storyline of a witch trying to buy out the grand bazaar and build a shopping mall there is also nonsensical. The grand bazaar is a shopping district, not a corporation. The stores there would deal in gold, foreign currency, spices, clothing, etc. It isn’t something someone controls or something that can be demolished without state approval and probably great protests. So the villain's motivation doesn’t make sense.

Now we come to the weirdest part where the villain attempts to give a history lesson based on orientalist books and tourist brochures and apparently nothing else. We see the Hagia Sophia where she is criticized for being in because it is a place of faith, and then she goes on about the changes that happened there when it became a “temple.” But in the 70s the Hagia Sophia was a museum, she would have had to get in line and buy a ticket to enter. It wasn’t a place of faith. She also talks about how the last byzantine emperor is buried in the Basilica Cistern and that is why it is called “sarayı,” meaning “palace,” and not because of the pillars. However, it isn’t called that at all, it is called the “Yerebatan Sarnıcı,” which literally translates to “Yerebatan Cistern.” It also wouldn’t have any statues, or even water in it in 1970, and doesn’t today. This truly baffles me as they must have picked up a Turkish dictionary to look up “saray” but apparently either lacked the ability to read or didn’t even do the most basic research.

There are more mistakes in her “history” lessons for example Empress Anastasia wasn’t murdered, even though her husband was murdered. How Janissariers weren’t bodyguards but were the standing infantry army of the Ottoman empire under the direct command of the Sultan. Literally, every single piece of "information" about Turkey or Turkish culture is either wrong or misrepresented in some way.

Now there are also general mistakes in the manga like a street seller selling mineral water, and a girl from Eastern Anatolia, where mineral water is produced, not knowing what it is. Also, she pays “50 Lira” which equated to ~3.5 USD, nearly 20 USD in today's dollars, and around half a week’s wages for a salaried employee at the time for a glass of it. Also, the tea trays shown in the manga are inaccurate, they aren’t literal trays they have a handle on top, and they are quite distinctive. And there is a hilarious example where the villain purchases sheep heads and while eating them says she is eating “koyun başı” which is the literal translation of “sheep head” but is incorrect. The correct translation would be “kelle” which also means head. However “baş” is also used to indicate the head of a penis in Turkish, so since you wouldn’t say “baş” for the sheep’s actual head she is saying she is eating a sheep’s penis.

I haven't talked about the story as there is barely any besides the villain being rejected then dishing out misinformation and then being defeated by the girl. The main draw is clearly supposed to be the bastardized version of Istanbul and Turkey since the story is so incredibly simple when you remove that "flair." That is what an entire culture is reduced to in this manga, a cool mysterious foreign background for a simple story and a shoehorned message.

I would recommend this to no one and would recommend something that takes its setting seriously and bothers to do research about it instead of misrepresenting a foreign culture and reducing it to a cool aesthetic for foreigners to gawk at. I rate this manga sheep penis out of 10.
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juni41
90/100
Quando profundos sentimentos afloram, a magia desperta.
Spoilers a seguir.

Sempre me interessei e gostei de fantasia, porém é um refresco encontrar obras que as tratam de forma quase que "realista". Realista eu digo no sentido de trazer uma lógica interna que funciona para a magia da realidade, um exemplo seria o filme As Above, So Below (2014) que representa o Inferno de forma bem pé no chão. Por isso, ler Witches do Igarashi Daisuke foi uma ótima experiência.
Ele trata a magia e o irreal ainda como algo obscuro, secreto, do qual poucas pessoas possuem acesso, e claro que ainda existem seus momentos exagerados, como o exército dos mortos no final do primeiro conto. Mas no fim a magia se torna apenas a natureza, as leis do universo e mulheres que conseguem enxergar e lidar com isso.
Algumas das histórias aqui são melhores do que outras, mas todas tocam em detalhes interessantíssimos sobre a natureza humana e do planeta, acompanhado das ilustrações magníficas do autor. Minha favorita provavelmente foi Petra Genitalix - acho que não posso negar ser uma fã de ficção científica nessas horas - mas eu tirei algo de todos os segmentos, incluindo os curtos.
Witches, ou melhor, Bruxas, como o nome implica, tem sempre uma ou duas mulheres no foco, com seus conflitos. Uma mulher que quer vingança por uma humilhação do passado, uma garota que só quer enviar uma mensagem. Um quase espírito que só quer proteger o lugar que chama de casa, uma xamã que quer o vender. Uma bruxa experiente que se encontra na situação de salvar o mundo, e sua aprendiz que sacrificaria o mundo por ela. Uma garota perdida e uma mulher que pode ou não ter se aproveitado disso. Esses conflitos e mostragens de personagem permeiam a obra inteira, lhe deixando para julgar e decidir o que pensar sobre, mas deixando claro que a natureza segue suas leis, independente do que humanos pensem. Nicola achou que sabia de tudo, sendo que ela não sabia nem de 1% da verdade do mundo.

Você, que pensa em palavras, não consegue pensar além delas. Não consegue alcançar aquilo que é maior do que você mesma. Mesmo que conseguisse expandir o seu mundo... Ainda assim, não conseguiria aventurar-se no seu interior.

Além de claro, demonstrar a sociedade cristã do momento, com os padres não querendo aceitar a ajuda da bruxa só por ela ser uma bruxa, mesmo que, naquele momento, ela fosse a única pessoa que pudesse ajudá-los.
Witches é uma incrível obra curta e com várias experiências além de nós, meros humanos. Mas, mesmo não atingindo o título de Bruxa, acho que podemos aprender aqui a olhar para a natureza e nós como uma coisa só - e a mensurar o mundo a partir de nossos olhos.

Quando profundos sentimentos afloram, a magia desperta.

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