The Witch and the Beast

The Witch and the Beast is a 2024 Japanese television anime adapted from Kousuke Satake’s manga Majo to Yajuu. The manga began serialization in Kodansha’s Young Magazine the 3rd in November 2016 and later moved to Monthly Young Magazine. Its anime adaptation was produced by Yokohama Animation Lab and broadcast in Japan from January 12 to April 5, 2024, running for twelve episodes. The story follows Guideau, a ferocious young woman whose appearance and strength conceal a curse, and Ashaf, a composed, coffin-carrying magician. They work for the Order of Magical Resonance, an organization that investigates incidents involving witchcraft. Guideau is searching for the witch who cursed her, because the curse can be broken only through a particular condition: a kiss from the witch responsible. Ashaf, meanwhile, approaches cases with methodical knowledge of magic, contracts, and the Order’s resources. Their contrasting temperaments—Guideau’s impatience and physical aggression against Ashaf’s calm calculation—drive the series’ investigations. The opening case takes them to a city that venerates a witch credited with saving it from disaster. Guideau immediately recognizes that the celebrated figure is not the witch she seeks, yet the encounter establishes the show’s central suspicion of public legends surrounding witches. Subsequent episodes expand the setting through necromancy, magical tools, vampire-related threats, and the Order’s internal specialists. Ashaf’s coffin is not decorative: it is tied to his combat methods and to the dangerous power available when Guideau’s curse briefly changes her form. Takayuki Hamana directed the series with Yuichiro Momose handling series composition. Hiroya Iijima designed the characters for animation, while Hanae Nakamura and Natsumi Tabuchi composed the music. Yo Taichi voices Guideau, and Toshiyuki Morikawa voices Ashaf. The Japanese broadcast used “Soumonka” by Sokoninaru as its opening theme and “Hikari no Trill” by Yoshino Nanjo as its ending theme. Rather than presenting witches as a single faction, the anime treats them as individuals whose powers, motives, and relationships shape each investigation. Its episodic cases also feed a continuing search for Guideau’s unnamed target, keeping her curse and Ashaf’s guarded past in view. The televised adaptation therefore introduces Satake’s dark-fantasy setting through procedural encounters while retaining the larger mystery of the witch who transformed Guideau. Outside Japan, Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired. The production’s twelve-episode run covers early material from the manga, ending with its central conflict unresolved and Guideau’s quest still ongoing. That outcome matches the source manga's continuing narrative at publication.