Witch (character)

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Witch
Name
Japanese	魔女
Rōmaji	Majo
Profile
Species	Yōkai
Gender	Female
Home	France Jigoku
Abilities	Witchcraft
Affiliation	Western Yōkai
First Appearance
Manga	The Great Yōkai War (1966)
Anime	Series 1 Episode 10 (1968)
Portrayals
1968 anime	Akiko Tsuboi
1971 anime	Akiko Tsuboi
1985 anime	Katsue Miwa
1996 anime	Nanae Sumitomo Kuro (Movie 3)
2007 anime	Noriko Uemura Tomoko Naka (Ep. 68)
Video games	Kazue Komiya (2003 PS2)
The Great Yōkai War	Marina ZH.

A witch, known only as Witch (魔女, Majō), appears frequently as an antagonist of Kitarō, usually as a member of the Western Yōkai. She first appears in the Shonen Magazine story The Great Yōkai War.

Appearance

In the manga, Witch resembles most modern and traditional images of witches, with a long black cloak and large, pointy hat. She has a face with large, angry eyes, a smiling mouth with sharp teeth, a long, pointy nose, a triangular chin, and long hair. In the story, The Witch's Doll, she is shown to have teal skin.

Personality

In the manga, Witch is portrayed to be a wicked trickster, and an expert on hexes, often seen laughing maniacally. While she normally gets along with the other Western Yōkai, Witch is more likely to antagonize them in competitive games like the one seen in Yōkai Rally. She is often seen working for other villains like Backbeard, Magic King, or Shinigami, though in Zoku GeGeGe no Kitarō, she is also shown to be capable of fighting on her own. While often a villain, Witch in the story The Witch's Doll willingly accepts Kitarō and Nezumi-Otoko helping her.

In the 1985 anime, Witch is characterized similarly to her previous appearances, cackling frequently and being good at ambush attacks. After she was saved by Kitarō in episode 51, she now leaves on good terms

In the 1996 anime, Witch is shown to have romantic feelings towards Nezumi-Otoko. She also doesn't cackle as much or interact with the other Western Yōkai.

In the 2007 anime, Witch doesn't take into account how her old age might inhibit her fighting capabilities.

History

The Witch first appeared in The Great Yōkai War as a minion of Backbeard's in the war against the Japanese yōkai. She first battles and kills Ittan-Momen and then kidnaps Nezumi-Otoko. In the end, Kitarō kills her with his chanchanko. She would later represent France in the Yōkai Rally. Her car gets destroyed when Backbeard blinds her with his eye and she crashes into a rock. She is then disqualified for trying to finish the race on her broomstick. In The Witch's Doll, a witch comes to Japan to obtain life energy for the Magic King. She abducts several girls by selling them magic brooms and tries to turn them into witches with a potion, but she is soon thwarted by Kitarō. The Magic King punishes her failure by stripping her of her powers, turning her into a regular old woman. She is later seen selling hand-made straw dolls at a street stall.

In Shinigami, she teams up with Shinigami and poses as Kitarō's mother. She tricks him into drinking poison and tries to suck his blood, but Kitarō saw through the plan and fed her all of his poisoned blood, killing her (Kitarō's powers prevented himself from succumbing to the poison).

In Shinigami Tai-Senki, a witch appears as a minion of Satan. She leads the Western Yōkai Army with Dracula and Wolfman in an attack on Japan, but is repelled by Kitarō's army.

A witch appeared in Kitarō's World Obake Tour as one of the many yōkai gathered at Boss Dracula's villa and would appear throughout the series before being defeated along with the others in Duel Colosseum. In The Witch Circus, a group of 10 witches live as a traveling circus troupe, having escaped the European witch hunts of the 18th century. After capturing Kitarō in their cabin, he attacks them with ectoplasm, setting fire to the place. The troupe escapes in a hot air balloon, but Kitarō pops it with his Hair Needles and they fall to their death.

Another group of witches appears in Kitarō vs. Akuma-kun. These witches live to cause chaos and misery in the world, so when Ichirō Matsushita attacks the surface world they convince him to attack Kitarō and Japan in order to prevent the destruction of the world.

In Hakaba no Kitarō: Yōkai Lockheed, the Great Witch (大魔女, Dai-Majo) is revealed to be the actual mastermind behind the Lockheed bribery scandal. She captures Nezumi-Otoko and uses hypnosis to bring Kitarō to her side when he comes to the rescue. She orders him to melt Nezumi-Otoko with her newly-made Yōkai Solution, but Backbeard arrives and undoes the hypnotism. She tries to escape but Beard uses his dizzying glare on her, giving Kitarō the opportunity to melt her with the solution.

In the Zoku GeGeGe no Kitarō story, The Uninvited Guest, a witch comes to Japan to infect human women with her Witch Fungus and turn them into witches, with the overall goal of creating a society of witches. She later battles with the Witch Disease Girl in a fight so severe they destroy each other. Another witch appears in Neko-Musume , running a thrift shop where Nezumi-Otoko buys the Book of Solutions.

A witch appears in Yuki-Hime-chan and GeGeGe no Kitarō as the Euorpean representative in the Yōkai Bout of True Strength. She eats Kelpie after transforming into a fish, but is then herself eaten by Viy when he transforms into an even bigger fish. She is freed when a Mermaid chops Viy into pieces and later takes part in the flying competition. She comes in first but is disqualified once everyone realizes she actually died inside Viy and escaped as a spirit.

In the film GeGeGe no Kitarō: Yōkai Tokkyū! Maboroshi no Kisha, she cuts up Ittan-Momen with a pair of scissors and kidnaps Nezumi-Otoko. She is attracted to Nezumi-Otoko and tries to seduce him, but Nezumi-Otoko knocks her out with a fart he held in for a week.

In the fifth anime, she is the grandmother of Zambia, and her generation is said to have fought in the original Great Yōkai War 12 years prior. In episode #68, she reunites with the original Frankenstein, Dracula II and Wolfman and launches an all-out attack on Jigoku, where she blocks the way of the Kitarō Family.

In Shōsetsu Gegege no Kitarō ~Ao no Koku~, the Witch was mentioned as a minion of Backbeard and one of the participants in the original Great Yōkai War on Kikaiga Island. Konaki-Jijii commented on how ugly she was compared to modern witches like Agnès.

Powers and Abilities

Her powers include casting spells and controlling her broomstick telekinetically.