#The Witch and the Beast Reveals Key Visual, More Cast

Upcoming dark fantasy anime The Witch and the Beast has received a key visual and additional details pertinent to the cast. Like the teaser visual, the new visual shows off lead characters Guideau and Ashaf, albeit in a more threatening manner.

The newly announced cast members include:

• Hozumi Gouda as Jeff Enker
• Nozomu Sasaki as Necromancer
• Saori Hayami as Phanora Kristoffel
• Ryouta Oosaka as Johan
• Youko Hikasa as Ione
• Noriko Shibasaki as Marie

More of the staff members were also revealed on the anime’s website, including Yuuichiro Momose (My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer) as series composer, Kei Tsuchima (Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These Seiran co-character designer) as sub-character designer, and Hanae Nakamura (The Kingdoms of Ruin co-composer) and Natsumi Tabuchi (The Gene of AI co-composer) as music composers.

The Witch and the Beast will premiere in January 2024. The anime is based on the Kodansha-published manga by Kousuke Satake. Crunchyroll has licensed the show.

Kodansha USA describes the manga’s premise as:

Ashaf: a soft-spoken man with delicate features, a coffin strapped to his back, and an entourage of black crows. Guideau: a feral, violent girl with long fangs and the eyes of a beast. This ominous pair appear one day in a town in thrall to a witch — a ruler with magic coursing through her tattooed body, who has convinced the townsfolk she’s their hero. But Ashaf and Guideau know better. They live by one creed: “Wherever a witch goes, only curses and disasters follow.” They have scores to settle, and they won’t hesitate to remove anyone in their way, be it angry mob or army garrison.

A dark fairytale set in a steampunk world of magic and monsters, The Witch and the Beast will entice and entrap manga readers looking for their next fantasy action fix!

The Witch and the Beast manga began serialization in Young Magazine Third in 2017 before moving to Monthly Young Magazine in 2021. 10 tankoubon volumes have been published as of August 2022. The manga is currently on hiatus due to Satake’s health.

• Director: Takayuki Hamana (Rakudai Majo: Fuuka to Yami no Majo, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen)
• Character designer: Hiroya Iijima (Jujutsu Kaisen curse designer) 
• Animation production: Yokohama Animation Lab

Cast

• You Taichi as Guideau 
• Toshiyuki Morikawa as Ashaf