Flying Witch Collector’s Edition Review
Makoto is a city girl who’s just moved to the countryside to live with relatives and start her training. What kind of training? To be a witch! In this world, witches aren’t well known but are useful members of society, and it’s customary for witches to move away from home to learn more about their powers and figure out what kind of witch they want to be. As Makoto takes flight into her new life, she introduces her cousins to the wonderful, magical world that exists alongside their quiet life.
‘Iyashikei’ is a genre in Japanese works, a sub-genre to ‘slice of life’, which portrays characters living out peaceful lives in calming environments, and it is intended to have a healing effect on the audience. The most famous examples we have in the West include Azumanga Daioh and Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbour Totoro. After watching all twelve episodes of Flying Witch, ‘healing’ wasn’t the right feeling for me, but I found it ‘nostalgic’, which is weird because I’ve never watched this series, or read the manga by Chihiro Ichizuka (Vertical) that it’s based on. But a lot of the elements in the anime made me think of myself watching older anime. The art style is cute and basic (not unlike Azumanga Daioh), it has eye catches (which are becoming less frequent these days) and a lot of the story elements reminded me of other older anime like Kiki’s Delivery Service. The anime is also very slow and has no set plot; there’s no on-going drama, or enemy to contend with or anything like it, we’re literally just following the days of a young girl who happens to be a witch and how she starts to grow into her powers.
So, if you’ve seen the title Flying Witch and were hoping for an epic fantasy show like the Fate franchise, you won’t find it here, at all. But if you like the idea of a magical world filled with spirits, charms and spells, seen as a part of everyday life, then this is worth checking out. In fact, I found myself enjoying the anime the most when it’s just Makoto discovering new, mundane parts of the magical world and reacting to them. For example, there’s an episode where Makoto, and her cousins Chinatsu and Kei, discover a café owned by a local witch, hiding in plain sight in what looks like an abandoned building, but it’s cloaked with a spell. The café has many mythical spirits that come by, and they just chill with cake and tea. It makes the world of magic feel lived-in and fun to discover, making you imagine fun scenarios such as what other witches order there and if there are other places out there in the world like it. The POV of the show isn’t just relegated to Makoto either, we also get visits from more veteran witches like her sister Akane, who’s a famous and powerful witch, plus Inukai, who specialises in fortune telling but also holds a grudge against Akane. We see how full the world of witches is, and because they have their own relationships and back stories, they’re fun to watch even if they don’t take up much screen time.
The whole series isn’t like this however, despite being called Flying Witch the ‘flying’ aspect is only a small part of what Makoto does, with the other 50% of the anime showing other aspects of country life, such as farming, school and making your way around a small town. Some of this they try to justify; for example Makoto begins growing her own fruit, vegetables, and herbs as it’s supposed to be useful for witches, which makes sense. However, most of the time I found myself struggling to pay attention; whilst it’s all easy watching and cute, it’s also something that I didn’t tune in to watch Flying Witch for. Makoto’s cousin Kei I found to be the weakest character overall, being the one who’s less phased by the magical world around him, and therefore less interested in partaking in it. The other characters like Chinatsu and Nao offer a bit more to the show, with their unique reactions to the magic of world, as well as having their own personalities to make up for the rather bland nature of Makoto, but I can’t say I will be remembering these characters long after I’ve finished this show.
Animation is provided by J.C. Staff, obviously veterans in anime who have made fantasy shows in the past; however this isn’t their best work. You can tell that they had little budget to work with as outside of Makoto’s flying, the other characters who fly have no weight or airlift in their animations; they look like the graphics designer just drags the character across the screen. There’s also subtle use of 3D, mostly for transport like buses, but also for some magical creatures, which blends in fine, but obviously not as smoothly as it could have been.
Score is provided by Yoshiaki Dewa (Call of the Night and A Lull in the Sea), who created a nice soundtrack overall; fitting for the anime with its easy-listening vibes but whimsical undertones. English dubbing-wise, I was less impressed; I found Stephanie Wittels performance of Makoto to be quite bemused and flat most of the time, whereas Makoto’s Japanese VA had more energy in the performance. Adam Gibbs’ rather phoned-in performance as Kei also didn’t help sell me on the character either. I was surprised to see Tiffany Grant in the cast…as a cat of all things (not a talking cat, even in this magical world, they still meow!)
The Blu-ray collector’s edition from MVM comes with six art cards as well as an art booklet. On-disc extras are only on the second disc, but it does contain all eight episodes of the ONA Flying Witch Petit, which are mini episodes in unique chibi art style, with Makoto and others talking about their daily lives. There’s also clean opening and closing, plus Japanese promos and commercials.
If you like your fantasy shows to be filled with whimsy but with less action and drama, like Kiki’s Delivery Service, then you’ll find a lot to like in Flying Witch. It’s an easy-watch, cute show that portrays a wholesome, detailed world of witches just living out their daily lives.
