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
Just curious, did you see the after-credits scene? I thought it was a really well-executed little gag.