Is Burn the Witch Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read
Quick Answer
If you're a Tite Kubo fan who wants his art and action chops applied to something more compact than Bleach, yes. If you're hoping for a self-contained epic on Bleach's scale, this is a much smaller, leaner thing by design.
Quick Verdict
“Gorgeous, stylish, and over before it really gets going — a sampler plate, not a full meal.”
Best for: Fans of Tite Kubo's art and fight staging who want a quick, visually striking side project set in his trademark house style.
Not for: Readers who want deep worldbuilding and a long, developed cast rather than a brisk, compact story.
- Type
- Manga
- Genres
- Fantasy, Action
- Status
- Ongoing
- This review
- Minor Spoilers
- Author
- Tite Kubo
- Publisher
- Shueisha (Weekly Shonen Jump)
- Platform
- VIZ Media
| Quick facts | |
|---|---|
| Format | Manga, 5 chapters, 1 volumes |
| Run | 2020–2020 · ongoing |
| Community score | AniList 6.8 · MangaUpdates 6.1 |
| Where to read | VIZ Media — official |
Overview
Burn the Witch is Tite Kubo doing what he does best — sharp character design and stylish supernatural action — at a fraction of Bleach's scale. Set in a hidden corner of London where witches from Soul Society's Western Branch manage a population of dragons the public isn't supposed to know about, it follows Noel Niihashi and Ninny Spangcole, two witches with very different temperaments stuck working the same beat.
What it does well
If you've read Bleach, the art here will feel instantly familiar in the best way: clean, confident linework, striking fashion-forward character designs, and fight scenes staged with real clarity even when they're moving fast. Kubo hasn't lost a step, and if anything the smaller cast and setting let him put more detail into individual panels than a monthly shonen pace usually allows.
Noel and Ninny are a strong central pair almost immediately. Noel is the brash, confident one who talks a big game; Ninny is quieter and, it turns out, a lot more capable than her attitude suggests. Their back-and-forth carries the story even when the plot itself is still finding its footing, and it's genuinely fun watching two very different personalities get forced to cover for each other.
The setting is also a smart choice — rather than just recycling Soul Society's usual trappings, Kubo builds something that feels genuinely new: dragons as a hidden magical-ecology problem, witches as essentially magical pest control with style. It's a fresh enough hook that the Bleach connection feels like a bonus, not a crutch.
Where it falls short
The biggest issue is simply size. This is a short, relatively compact story, and it reads like one — plot threads and worldbuilding details get introduced with real promise and then don't always get the room to pay off before an arc wraps up. If you're used to Kubo working at Bleach's thousand-plus-chapter scale, the compression here can feel like watching a much bigger story got squeezed into too small a space.
It's also worth tempering expectations about the Bleach connection specifically: beyond some organizational lore and a few references, this isn't meaningfully a Bleach sequel, so don't go in expecting old favorites or payoff to Bleach's ending. And outside Noel and Ninny, the supporting cast doesn't get much room to become more than a type — a side effect of how little space the story has to work with.
Verdict
It's Tite Kubo's art and fight sense applied to a tighter canvas — genuinely good-looking and fun while it lasts, just don't expect it to fill the Bleach-sized hole in your reading list.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
- Tite Kubo's art is as sharp as ever — clean linework, great fashion design, and fight panels that read with real speed and clarity even in a smaller page count than Bleach ever got.
- Noel and Ninny make a fun lead pair: one brash and confident, one quieter and more competent than she lets on, and their dynamic carries most of the early chapters.
- The London-set setting and dragon-wrangling premise is a genuinely fresh hook — it doesn't just reuse Bleach's Soul Society trappings, even though it's technically set in the same universe.
- Being compact works in its favor if you just want a taste of Kubo's style without committing to a thousand-plus chapter epic.
Weaknesses
- It's genuinely short, and it reads that way — plot threads and world details get introduced and then don't have room to pay off before the story has to wrap a given arc.
- Connection to Bleach is mostly surface-level lore rather than meaningful story integration, so going in expecting a real Bleach sequel will disappoint.
- The supporting cast beyond the two leads gets little development, a side effect of how little space the story has to work with.
Similar Titles
Kubo's signature series and the universe this is technically set in, if you want the bigger-scale version of his style
similar stylish, Western-flavored urban fantasy with a strong central duo
shares the same sharp, fashion-forward character design sense applied to supernatural action
Where to Read Officially
| Platform | Format | Pricing | Region notes | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIZ Media | Print & digital volumes | Paid | Region availability varies | Open |
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to read Bleach first?
No. It's set in the same universe and nods to it occasionally, but the story and cast are self-contained and don't require Bleach knowledge to follow.
Is it finished?
No, it's ongoing, with a hiatus between its original one-shot/first run and a later continuation — check current volume counts before diving in if you want to binge.
Is this as long as Bleach?
Not even close — this is a much smaller-scale, shorter project, closer to a focused side story than a decade-spanning saga.
