Ichi the Witch Wins Next Manga Award 2025 — Meet the Feral “Male Witch” Shonen Dragon Ball Fans Will Devour

Ichi the Witch won the Next Manga Award 2025 in the Print category. The series is published by Shueisha and is written by Osamu Nishi with art by Shiro Usazaki. It mixes dark fantasy, action, and comedy and is currently a new, serialized manga that met the Next Manga Award eligibility rules.

1. Award and eligibility
2. Premise and main characters
3. Creators and past work
4. Art style and visuals
5. Context and notable past winners

Award and eligibility

The Next Manga Award is presented annually by Kadokawa Corporation’s Da Vinci magazine and the Niconico website. Series eligible for the award must be currently serialized and have no more than five volumes in print, which means the award highlights recently launched series. In 2025, Ichi the Witch placed first in the Print category, followed by COSMOS in second and Super Psychic Policeman Chojo in third.

Premise and main characters

Ichi the Witch is set in a fantasy world with magical creatures called Majiks. In-universe, Majiks can be captured and tamed to grant powers, and that ability is generally believed to be limited to women. The story follows Ichi, a feral boy who lives in the mountains and who manages to subdue a powerful Majik named Uroro. After that event, the witch Desscaras recruits Ichi into her association, making him the first male witch in the series’ setting.

The plot includes action and threat elements: one notable antagonist class in the story is the World-Hater Majik, a being described as extremely powerful with a goal to destroy the world. The series also presents team dynamics, with Desscaras acting in a parental or leadership role within the group.

Creators and past work

Writer: Osamu Nishi — credited for prior work including Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun.

Artist: Shiro Usazaki — credited for work on Act-Age. For more on the Act-Age situation, see reporting on the writer-related scandal.

Art style and visuals

The series is noted for detailed art, character designs, and costume work. The artist’s stroke is described as both delicate and detailed, with visual attention to uniforms and environmental elements. A colored first page of a chapter is available as part of promotional materials for the manga.

Separately, Akira Toriyama is often mentioned in discussions of manga art history for having revolutionized manga art, and some readers compare modern artists’ approaches to those historical innovations.

Context and notable past winners

The Next Manga Award has highlighted several series that later became widely known. Past winners include:

• My Hero Academia (2015)
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War (2017)
• The Apothecary Diaries and Spy x Family (2019)
• Oshi no Ko (2021)
• Kagurabachi (2024)

Because the award focuses on recent series with limited volumes, it serves as a spotlight for works that are early in their serialization run. Ichi the Witch’s win in 2025 places it among those early-career spotlighted titles.