Flying Witch

abclemons May 13, 2016

8

EDIT: Nothing changes through the end of this anime. It's serene and wonderful. DISCLOSURE: Reviewed at Episode 6. Flying Witch embodies and embraces the slice of life genre. It's pacing and atmosphere can only be described as sedate and soothing. It's tone is light hearted, self-deprecating, and utterly enjoyable. STORY (9 of 10): In each episode, Makoto meets a new person who, through some action or plot device, allows her to reinforce or expand her witch skills. The show has a through story but can be viewed episodically (thus far) without any detriment. ANIMATION (4 of 10): I've been watching J.C.Staff since Toradora!, and the studio has a tendency to reuse model animations. I don't think this will bother a newer viewer, but seasoned viewers beware that you'll be seeing a lot of the same stock animation you've seen before. SOUND (8 of 10): This is one of the few animes in which I watch the opening every episode. It really sets the tone, and frankly, it makes me super happy. Otherwise, the in epidoe sound and VA acting is well done. CHARACTERS (9 of 10): Even as early as episode 6, there has been some serious character development. Side characters have well defined voice and depth. OVERALL (8 of 10): I honestly just ENJOY watching this anime. There's nothing spectular that happens in an episode, but everything comes together for a great show.

tollie01 Feb 4, 2018

3

Right, it's confession time for me. If you have been reading my reviews than you may have noticed that I tend to rip the anime a new one. There is a reason for this though and it has to do with the fact that I can't turn my brain off when watching anime. I can't ignore the stupid shown in the anime and this is a problem as most anime are very stupid indeed. In this case I'm not talking about a 90 pound girl catching a multi-ton cruise missile and throwing it back. Yes, it is stupid but it is a stupid that I'll allow. It's anime. Things like this are normal here and I'm pretty much fine with it. It annoys me to be sure but I will not rant about it. So, having explained this lets rip into this anime shall we? Just a heads up: There will most probably be spoilers. The more I hate an anime the more spoilers there will be. ART: Art is fine. I've said it before and I'll say it many more times: It is near impossible to screw this up these days. CGI is used a lot but not too noticable. SOUND: Again no complaints from me. I can no longer remember any of the music used but this is how I prefer it. Voice acting were decent even if they get to do the same thing over and over. CHARACTERS: Main character is Makoto. She is a very naief girl who is prone to getting lost a lot. Chinatsu is Makoto's niece, and her aunts youngest child. She becomes good friends with Makoto and becomes fascinated by the supernatural. Kei is Chinatsus' older brother and he is in Makoto's class. Very leverheaded and nothing seems to faze him. Akane is the older sister of Makoto and a highly talented witch. She is also very flighty and a bit irrisponsible at times. STORY:  As a witch in training it is time for 15 year old Makoto to head out into the world. Her parents arrange for her to stay with her aunt who lives in Hirosaki. There she goes on a number of adventures. RANT: Well, in my previous review I mentioned that Rinne was kind of boring. This anime is making me take that back, this is true boredom. Nothing of note happens, and I do mean nothing. How do you make an anime about a with in training moving away this dull and boring? This is exactly the same plot as Kiki's Delivery service! To be fair, that is a GHIBLI product and of amazing quality that comes highly recommended. This.....not so much. It is of course completely unfair to compare this to Kiki's Delivery Service but there are many similarities. Kiki told it's story in 102 minutes and managed to cram a lot in its run time. This anime has 12 episodes of 20 minutes and tells exactly nothing. You get glimpses of the magic world and that is about it. At some point I started thinking of it like this: Imagine Harry Potter's world where you spend the entire run time with Hermoine. As she is living with her family during the summer. Away from Hogswarts and almost anything magic related. The only time you see something of the magic community is when someone or something drops by for a few minutes. I must also comment on the art. While overall decent quality it is what goes on behind it that drew my attention. Nothing of note happens in the background. In fact nothing happens at all because there is nothing there. When you look at the first few minutes of the anime you'll see immediately what I mean. Makoto walks through the station and there is either nobody there of people are frozen in one position. The only thing moving and drawn is Makoto and when she gets in a bus even that ends. You see a CGI bus drive through a CGI world. While done well it does show how small the budget was for this anime. I really can't recommend this anime due to the lack of contect. The first episode is also the best one so watch that but skip the rest. If you want to see an anime about a witch in training then go watch Kiki's Delivery Service.

Superpao Oct 19, 2019

9

While at first you may think this is just another slice of life anime, well for me compared to other slice of life anime's this is pretty unique as it breaks several cliche's that we see not just in slice of life anime but in all anime in general.Here are some reasons.-Both parents have active roles in this series compared to the typical where they are missing or died or at work. we see our characters interact with them in their daily lives.- It's not High school-centric where most of the scenes are set in a school. no school clubs, school festival etc. we see our characters on how they spend their everyday life and that's it. we also see our MC Makoto do some witch stuff though i think we could have seen more.-There are are no romantic buildups here, no childhood friend promises or jealousy, they closest one you can get is Kei saying that Inukai might be his type. not to mention like in a typical anime girls always wonders what their guy is doing right now. it's not the case here in flying witch.Makoto and Nao can interact with each other without thinking about Kei.-There's no fanservice. no panty shots beach episodes or ecchi scenes.The only thing i hoped for for this anime is that I wish they could have shown us more about the witch stuff.-The setting is also unique, since unlike what we in anime set typical countryside. where witches and occult stuffs are treated like a bad luck. that's not a case here. Makoto is a witch and everybody knows and accepts it. they also had some few supernatural things going like the Whale who flies. the hidden cafe shop etc..When it comes to the characters, yes they all have active roles in which i like, they are not your typical characters, for instances Chinatsu is not your sis-con loli, Kei is not your charismatic brother, he just works and helps the family. the only cliche character here is probably Akane where we typically see the hyperactive big sister. i just wish we could have also seen more of the harbringer and Anzu.The Sound and the Art is nice it's refreshing. the opening was nice and so as the mandrake. the transitions from slice of life to comedy was well done and so as the facial expressions.overall if you want to relax, then watch this anime and thank me afterwards.