(L) Witch Watch

[Blaat]

by Shinohara Kenta (Sket Dance and Astra Lost in Space)

Originally Posted by plot summary

Morihito, a boy with the strength of an ogre, is about to start living together with his childhood friend NIko, who is training to be a witch. Niko's magic leads to all sorts of unpredictable trouble, and with two teens under one roof the fantastical antics begin.

[Blaat]

With the start of a Sket Dance crossover I thought it's the perfect time to create a thread for this manga.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Blaat

With the start of a Sket Dance crossover I thought it's the perfect time to create a thread for this manga.

After reading this chapter I wanted to do exactly that!

This was such a nice surprise, never expected. There are plenty of cameos of Sket Dance characters sprinkled throughout the chapter. And man, Roman and Himeko look so beautiful!

Hopefully these chapters will "fix" the ending of Sket Dance. Although it's a bit different, I wonder if Shinohara is taking a page out of Yabuki's book (they're brothers in law) who recently revealed Ayakashi Triangle was the sequel of his very first serialized manga and may use it to give it a conclusion (it was axed after two volumes).

[Blaat]

I thought you were talking about Black Cat and I got all excited but then I realised oh yeah Black Cat has way more than two volumes.

I do think we're going to at least see how every one is doing plus some hi-jinks interaction. Not sure if we're going to get more than that.

Originally Posted by Kanon

This was such a nice surprise, never expected. There are plenty of cameos of Sket Dance characters sprinkled throughout the chapter. And man, Roman and Himeko look so beautiful!

I don't think either Himeko or Roman has ever looked this beautiful, you can tell Shinohara has improved as an artist.

[Kanon]

How high do think chances are Himeko will be revealed to be an ogre too? There's going to be a joke about it at the very least, but it might be played seriously.

Fixing the ending requires only one thing: confirmation Bossun and Himeko are together. That's the one thing that left a sour taste in my mouth regarding Sket Dance's ending, everything else was perfect especially Switch's development. I am aware Shinohara drew a picture of the group and Himeko and Bossun were wearing rings in it, but it'd be nice to get an outright confirmation.

Regarding Witch Watch, it's been fun to follow, but the jokes are nowhere as funny as in Sket Dance and what little story there is is nothing to write home about. It's a bit of a shame Shinohara couldn't hit a home run a third time in a row.

[Blaat]

I'll be genuinely surprised if we don't get to see Bossun and Himeko together during the crossover unless Shinohara pulls a Star Wars and Bossun and Himeko are divorced like with Han and Leia.

Now that I think about it there is also a possibility that Shinohara is planning more Sket Dance crossovers in the future and because of that we only get to see Himeko for now.

Originally Posted by Kanon

Regarding Witch Watch, it's been fun to follow, but the jokes are nowhere as funny as in Sket Dance and what little story there is is nothing to write home about. It's a bit of a shame Shinohara couldn't hit a home run a third time in a row.

Best part of the manga is the art, I kind of like the characters but the jokes or chapters don't work for me most of the time although sometimes a chapter pique my interest like this one or recently where one of the characters got invisibility magic. But overall it feels like the manga is less than the sum of its part. Definitely not as good as Kanata no Astra or Sket Dance.

[Blaat]

Well Himeko and Bossun aren't married. Himeko talks about the occult lady from Sket Dance and we'll probably get to see her next chapter but more importantly we get to see Bossun well not his face but still means he's definitely involved in the arc. The thing I'm wondering if he's living in USA or Japan, the brick office doesn't feel Japanese.

Also looks like Sket Dance and Witch Watch are definitely in the same universe, not some multiverse travelling shenanigans like with the Gintama crossover. I wonder if Kenta going to retcon that Sket Dance teacher into some alchemist or potioneer, as it would explain his crazy de-aging/aging/invisibility/personality switching drinks he created.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Blaat

Well Himeko and Bossun aren't married. Himeko talks about the occult lady from Sket Dance and we'll probably get to see her next chapter but more importantly we get to see Bossun well not his face but still means he's definitely involved in the arc. The thing I'm wondering if he's living in USA or Japan, the brick office doesn't feel Japanese.

Also looks like Sket Dance and Witch Watch are definitely in the same universe, not some multiverse travelling shenanigans like with the Gintama crossover. I wonder if Kenta going to retcon that Sket Dance teacher into some alchemist or potioneer, as it would explain his crazy de-aging/aging/invisibility/personality switching drinks he created.

It was heavily implied Himeko and Bossun are dating and she's getting tired of waiting for him to pop the question, so I'm sure he's in Japan. He seems to have settled down and become... Gintoki but in modern Japan, basically. He got way too much hype in this chapter, he's definitely going to make a dorky/gag entrance next chapter.

So far far this doesn't feel like a cross-over so much as Sket Dance taking over the manga.

[Blaat]

Well...

I like the twist that the entire class was behind it and they're were trying to send a message to Miki. We got to see Bossun and Switch, the latter just randomly appears at Bossun's office and the occult girl got a panel. But didn't expect the crossover to end this soon, which made the entire thing feel rather anti-climactic. Also no progress on Bossun and Himeko's relationship Ah well.

Looks like Bossun was definitely in Japan so I was totally wrong on that.

[Kanon]

I was disappointed too. Sure, it was nice to see the trio again but Shinohara didn't do anything with them. At least this cross-over did get me to buy the Sket Dance volumes I was missing (offical French publication only went up to volume 19 back when I read it in 2015/2016, so I switched to pirating) and I started a re-read. Just as fun as the first time around.