Tricks Dedicated to Witches: Research Notes

Tucker

NOTES ABOUT GERMAN IN GENERAL:

• Ӧ (o umlaut)
  • Represents a front mid rounded vowel, a sound that no longer exists in English. To make this sound, first make your mouth make an “ey” sort of vowel sound (kind of like the Fonz on Happy Days). Now, while the rest of your mouth is in the exact same position, make your lips contact/round, as if you were saying “oo” or “oh.” I find this sound pretty difficult, and my German exchange partner would make fun of me for not being able to do it right.
• Ü (u umlaut)
  • This represents a front high rounded vowel, a sound that no longer exists in English. To make this sound, first make your mouth make an “ee” vowel sound, like in the word “cheese.” Then, with everything else in your mouth being in the exact same position, add in lip rounding, like un o umlaut. I find this vowel easier to regularly pronounce than o umlaut. By the way, modern standard French also uses this vowel sound.
• ӓ (a umlaut)
  • Pretty much just an “eh” sound. A umlaut mostly denotes a common sound change I won’t get into here.
• Au
  • Represents the diphthong (sound that is a slide between one vowel sound to another) that sounds like the “ow” in “cow.”
• eu/ӓu
  • Both of these combinations of letters represent the diphthong (sound that is a slide between one vowel sound to another) that sounds like “oy.” The version with a-umlaut is a spelling thing that most often means that it’s the product of a vowel change (I’ll spare your the detail for now)
• EI
  • Always pronounced like English “eye”
• IE
  • Always pronounced like the vowel in English “tier”/”thief”
• EE
  • Pronounced like English “ey.” Think “Beethoven”!
• G
  • Always gets the “hard” sound (gap, grape, glue), unless it’s a word borrowed from French or English.
• W
  • Always pronounced like English “v.” English “W” sound no longer exists in German!
• J
  • Always pronounced like English “y” (as in yellow), unless it’s borrowed from another language. Just so you know, the English “J” sound doesn’t even exist in German, and they have a hard time pronouncing it!
• Z
  • Gets a “ts” sound, like the end of English “pots,” but like in Japanese, it often appears at the beginning of syllables!
• V
  • Almost always is pronounced like F, unless it’s a borrowed word
• CH
  • Represents a consonant sound that isn’t regularly in English words, but we use it for some non-word exclamations, like saying “ugh!” when we don’t like something. It’s like the “sh” sound, but the tongue makes contact with the same part of the top of the mouth as “K.” I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be the first consonant in the Yiddish pronunciation of “Chanukah,” so maybe that will help you!
• SCH
  • Like English “sh”
• TSCH
  • Like English “ch” (think “Deutsch”!)

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Author:

• Watanabe, Shizumu 渡辺 静（わたなべ しずむ)
  • Wah-tah-nah-beh, Shee-zuh-muh

Characters:

• Makito, Harii 針井マキト（はりい マキト）
  • Mah-kee-toe, Hah-ree
  • Or you can just call him Harry, since they stylize his name that way in his magician promos
• Mia ____
  • Mee-ah
• Liese Ganz
  • Note: word-final e in German is pronounced as /ə/ (character is called “schwa”). It is a neutral vowel pronounced with all muscles in throat being relaxed. It’s like the a in the English word “sofa”
  • “Lee-zə Gahnts”
• Helga Butgleit(?)
  • Hell-gah
• Brigit
  • Brih-geet
• Filippo
  • Fee-lee-’po
    • The ‘ there is a slight bit of silence before the p is released (yeah, laugh it up)
• Pietro
  • Pee-eh-tro

Places and Other Stuff:

• LӦwenburg
  • Seems to be the name of a castle in north-central Germany just west of Kessel, which is in turn just west of Leipzig (which they mention by name in the manga)
  • Means “lion castle”
  • LӦven-boork
  • G at the end of a word is usually pronounced like a K due to an old sound change

MaxyBee

Author: Shizumu Watanabe

• Prior works:
  • Chimes (2006, 5 volumes, 23 chapters, Magazine Special) DEBUT
    • Boy gamer with no friends plays a mysterious RPG alongside his classmates where if you die in the game you die for real. Chaos ensues. (Japanese preview and volumes here: https://bookwalker.jp/series/15585/list/ )
  • This Girlfriend is Fictitious (2011, 4 volumes, 33 chapters, Weekly Shonen Magazine) FLOP ELIGIBLE
    • Boy spends ten years profiling the life of a made-up girlfriend, who comes to life the second he might make a connection with a real girl. Chaos ensues. (Japanese preview and volumes here: https://bookwalker.jp/series/90656/list/ ) (unofficial english translation available)
  • Kigurumi (2012, 1 volume, 5 chapters, Miracle Jump, written by Kei Kurokata) FLOP ELIGIBLE
    • Boy makes stuffed toys, including one that looks JUST LIKE the one rumoured to be related to sudden deaths that are gripping Tokyo. Chaos ensues. (Japanese preview and volume here: https://bookwalker.jp/de9ac626a0-c944-483c-8125-520f8a5fdccb/ ) (unofficial english translation available)
  • Puberty’s Iron Maiden (2012, 5 volumes, 41 chapters, Young Gangan)
    • Boy who is a pervert follows his childhood friend when she has stomach cramps so he can learn what ‘that day’ each month involves, and gets a big surprise! Chaos ensues, (Japanese preview and volumes here: https://bookwalker.jp/series/8241/list/ ) (unofficial english translation available)
  • Real Account (2014, 24 volumes, 180 chapters, Bessatsu Shonen Magazine and Weekly Shonen Magazine, written by Okushou)
    • Boy with no life uses dominant social media platform as substitute for anything meaningful, gets roped into a death game by its creators. Chaos ensues. (English preview and volumes here: https://kodansha.us/series/real-account/ )
• Who they were an assistant for:
  • Akiko Higashimura (Princess Jellyfish, MANY OTHER SERIES)
    • An interesting one, as Akiko Higashimura has as many as 36 assistants on the go at once, which is WAY MORE than any other creator, but allows her to be as insanely prolific as she is. So it’s like… Sure, Watanabe was an assistant. Who wasn’t?
    • Confirmation here: https://twitter.com/shizumukun/status/1402449108472713218?s=20&t=JEpMkTczY1ZBqkvhEPaKLA
• Notable assistants:
  • Yousuke Kaneda (Boarding School Juliet)
    • Assisted on This Girlfriend is Fictitious.
    • Confirmation in volumes, but talks about Kaneda surpassing the master when BSJ’s anime got announced here https://mobile.twitter.com/shizumukun/status/974578102012489730 (congratulatory drawing here: https://mobile.twitter.com/shizumukun/status/975959468167938049 )
• Notable siblings:
  • Ryousuke Asakura (Val x Love, Shikisaki Shimai wa Abakaretai)
    • Younger brother, relation kept a secret until 2016, currently does a (technically) siscon series in Weekly Young Jump (interesting connection as Watanabe has contributed to a brocon anthology! Dem boys love incest!)
    • Confirmation here: https://mobile.twitter.com/shizumukun/status/745589852230418432?lang=ja

Publishing

• Series it replaced: Xevec by bose and Ryouta Shimouchi
  • https://bookwalker.jp/series/247701/list/
• Series that replaced it: Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister by Naito Marcey
  • https://kodansha.us/series/tying-the-knot-with-an-amagami-sister/

Manga Itself

• This ended SUDDENLY. Normally a cancellation or ending is announced the issue prior, but not with this. Just a sudden twitter post by Shizumu explaining that it’s on them,saying they were out of their depth. It was even abrupt enough that he included a profile for a character that had barely been introduced, a sort of “they were gonna be like this” thing. Bizarre. VERY rare
  • Link to author announcement of sudden cancellation and the character profile: https://twitter.com/shizumukun/status/1379616011431731202
• This series had a crossover set of illustrations with Hiro Mashima’s Edens Zero, with both authors drawing characters from the other’s series. Mashima wished for Witches to get an anime, which… Well, unlikely now, innit.
  • Link to that: https://mobile.twitter.com/shonenmagazine1/status/1333911252909907973
• The author ends things on an ‘end of part one’ note, but there’s no guarantee when that happens. He’s already doing Dead Account in Weekly Shonen Magazine as of January 2023, and I’ve seen it with other series like Zetman where a return just… doesn’t happen.