Tag Archives: Flying Witch

Flying Witch – Episode 7

Posted on by

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!

Continue reading →

Spring 2016 – Week 7 in Review

Posted on by

Our strong spring season continued to chug merrily along this week, offering a few new highlights and a clunker or two, as you might expect. My weekly list has been paired down to the point where even the disappointing episodes are only mediocre entries in fundamentally strong shows, which feels like a real luxury (I dropped Macross Delta, incidentally, which I realized I hadn’t really been impressed with for a good 4-5 episodes). And both Kiznaiver and The Lost Village actually seem to be improving as they go along, which I wouldn’t expect from such shaky and unpredictable productions. Top that off with the reliably competent My Hero Academia and the consistently stunning Concrete Revolutio, and you’ve got a season that never fails to at least entertain. Let’s RUN ‘EM DOWN!

Continue reading →

Flying Witch – Episode 6

Posted on by

Flying Witch had a bit of a dud episode this week, mainly because the second half’s big punchline moved swiftly from cute to irritating as the show drew it out. Flying Witch has generally been very good about not letting any given joke outstay its welcome, but this episode used a fairly weak concept as a load-bearing punchline, and the result was kind of disappointing. But hey, I’ve come to expect most anime comedies to have at least a few weak notes here and there. We can’t all be The Lost Village.

You can check out my episode review over at ANN, or my notes below.

Continue reading →

Spring 2016 – First Half in Review

Posted on by

The halfway point is here! I’m not the only one who feels like this has been a really fast season, right? I mean, it’s obviously going to feel like I’m running through anime faster if I’m enjoying it more, but it feels like Flying Witch and The Lost Village and My Hero Academia just got started a couple weeks ago, and suddenly here we are. As has at this point shifted from “it’s cute to say some silly blog thing is ‘traditional'” to “wow, this really is a tradition, I’ve been doing this crap for a substantial portion of my adult life,” I’ll be running down my current schedule from best to worst as your seasonal reminder that rankings don’t matter, we’re all going to die, the only truth is the abyss. I’ve got a lot of very fun and very different shows to get through, so let’s not waste any more time in preamble. From top to bottom, here are this spring’s very best cartoon contenders!

Continue reading →

Flying Witch – Episode 5

Posted on by

Chito was the star of this week’s Flying Witch, as both Chinatsu and Makoto let him take the lead on a pair of walks around the neighborhood. It takes a special kind of show to make “follow a cat around for a while and then take a nap” a compelling episode premise, but Flying Witch’s excellent cat animation and cat behavior won the day. I agree, Flying Witch. Cats are pretty funny.

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

Continue reading →

Spring 2016 – Week 5 in Review

Posted on by

We had a fresh new crop of anime roll in this week, and I’m here to sort out the top tier cartoons from the rest of the cargo. It won’t be easy this time – there were plenty of great episodes this week across the board, with a wide variety of genres and favorites pulling off excellent performances. The Lost Village’s fourth episode more or less cemented it as a ridiculous semi-classic, while Concrete Revolutio had another stunning vignette, and Flying Witch maintained its clean streak of strong episodes. This is the best season I’ve personally had in about a year, and I’m enjoying it to the fullest. Let’s dive right into this pile of nonsense and RUN ‘EM DOWN!

Continue reading →

Spring 2016 – Week 4 in Review

Posted on by

God damn is this ever a season of anime. I keep trying to drop shows, but they all keep being too entertaining. And now I check out Macross Delta and find out that’s a lot of fun, too? I really wouldn’t have minded one or two of these shows back a season ago, but it’s also great to log on twitter and see people enjoying such a wide variety of new anime. Even this season’s ambiguous productions are generally coming up solid – Kiznaiver had its strongest episode yet this week, and other borderline stuff like Haifuri is executing well, even if it’s not exactly my thing. It’s a fine time for watching too goddamn many cartoons, so let’s start at the top and RUN ‘EM DOWN!

Continue reading →

Flying Witch – Episode 3

Posted on by

Flying Witch had another fine episode this week, one that set up a nicely specific contrast between the beauty of rural life and the wonder of Makoto’s magic. The show is achieving a good balance so far, where the magic is understated enough to not dominate the production, and the farming and cooking and whatnot are all compelling enough to keep things moving as well. The cast has a great chemistry, the tone is consistently on point, and the humor isn’t always consistent, but still keeps things charming throughout. I would happily watch a slice of life this good every single season.

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

Continue reading →

Spring 2016 – Week 3 in Review

Posted on by

With this season’s extended preview week finally over, I found myself left with way too many fine shows to watch. Thus, this week was one more return to The Culling, that fun time of year when shows that would be reasonable watches in weaker seasons all get the axe purely for pragmatic reasons. Between full show reviews, Current Projects work, and other various media, I can only really spare the time for a bit more than half a dozen airing shows, and so anything that isn’t truly noteworthy had to be cut. That still didn’t make this easy, of course – this season is good, I want to watch everything I can. But I was able to trim some hedges here and there.

Continue reading →

Flying Witch – Episodes 1-2

Posted on by

Flying Witch is charming and solidly constructed and just a very easy time all around. I often had trouble thinking of things to say about last season’s Dagashi Kashi, but I don’t think I’m going to have that problem here – Flying Witch’s craft is strong enough that it’s actually easy and satisfying to talk about, giving me just a hint of that old Hyouka high. I’m also really looking forward to seeing the various ways the show integrates its light magical conceit into the storytelling; understated magical realism is one of my favorite things, so Flying Witch is definitely hitting a specific enjoyable note for me. Easily one of the highlights of the season so far.

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

Continue reading →