Flying Witch upped the ante a bit this week. The episode’s first half was pretty much exactly the sort of competent, easy-going rural adventures I’ve come to expect, but the second half leaned into the show’s magical premise in a way that conveyed a far more textured and ambiguous tone. There were elements of mystery, danger, and wonder in Makoto and her friends’ exploration of the very strange cafe, sub-threads that made it hard not to compare to Miyazaki’s stuff. I’d really like to see more of that going forward, but I’m happy enough with this episode as it is.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

A nice, cheerful opening starring Chito and Nao

Strong music here, great Chito animation, and the very relatable activity of messing with a cat’s fur and scrunching it up

Chito’s gotten fat

Makoto sure has doesn’t much flying in this show, in spite of the title

They’re going herb picking in the mountains

Chito defiantly standing on Nao. Good stuff

Chito has a very cat personality – easily offended, easily pleased

Nice forest backgrounds. And the Chito animation remains excellent

Once again, Kei’s farming knowledge actually becomes far more important than Makoto’s witch knowledge

Nao versus frogs

The use of soft focus for the closeup environmental shots is a nice touch

“The fact that it’s frowned upon makes beer taste even better”

Chinatsu forces herself to eat one

They decide to go to a cake place owned by a witch

The building is a ruin

They have to do a special prayer to make the building reveal itself. That plus the western-style mansion interior make this feel almost like a Ghibli sequence

A ghost server

Akane humming the OP, lol

“She doesn’t show herself because she’s shy”

This is a very improbably successful restaurant

An extremely shy ghost