Publisher: Top Cow Productions

Author: Yasuko Kobayashi

Release Date: 5/13/2008

Pages: 430

MSRP: $19.99 (Paperback)

Recommended Audience: Young Adult

Witchblade appears as a Manga but is presented in an American comic book format. This version follows the events of Takeru who is a high school student who is drawn to the Witchblade. Her best friend, Kou, is a demon hunter whose family has had a demon hunter’s sword for generations. It’s interesting to see average students suddenly having to slay demons, but the story is so short that their personalities aren’t developed, and you don’t really care for anyone in the story.

Kou himself is weak and can’t find himself to kill anything. Instead, he spends his duration screaming at Takeru to not give in to the hunger for death that the Witchblade is forcing on Takeru. The whole story is almost the same as the anime in which the US government tried replicating demons (instead of Witchblades) and they want Takeru to hunt them all down. The story has a rushed and abrupt ending, and I would have liked to see some more day-to-day stuff go on in the comics. There are only a few fights, and Takeru seems way too powerful in this story and doesn’t seem to have any weaknesses.

The main reason to get this is to enjoy the amazing art. The female characters are very sexy, and some images are borderline softcore porn. Not that I am complaining, but it’s nice that the artist stuck to the art style Witchblade fans love. Overall, for $20 this book is a great read for fans of the anime, but it is seriously lacking in a more detailed story, characters you care about, and the ending is too predictable, and comes around too easily for Takeru.