Studio: J.C. Staff
Publisher: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: October 24th, 2017
Had enough battle oriented anime for the month? Need something relaxing, yet weird enough to sate your voracious need for insanity in anime? Look no further than Flying Witch. Published by Sentai Filmworks and distributed by Section23, Flying Witch takes a normal approach to the life of a witch in the modern day. No need for battles of epic proportions here. Get a cup of tea and enjoy the atmosphere presented in this show. Many thanks to Section23 for the review unit.
Flying Witch is the story of Makoto, an aspiring witch whose family breaks tradition and sends their young daughter to begin high school and live with relatives instead of living on her own. However, considering that Makoto wouldn’t be able to find her way out of a wet paper bag, that may be a good thing. Together with her cat Chito, her cousins Kei and Chinatsu, and her new friend Nao, Makoto lives out a peaceful life in Aomori… meeting tea-serving ghosts, the Harbinger of Spring, and a few other witches along the way. Find out what the fox has to say in this wonderfully relaxing, yet exciting slice of life anime.
Seriously, though, if it were 52-episodes long, had a bit more world building when it came to ‘the other side’, and had all character names start with the same letter, I could’ve mistook the relaxing atmosphere for another series of anime that I reviewed. However, what personally impressed me the most wasn’t the feel of the show, the awesome music in the series, nor the storyline. It was the characters. The character development was pretty much what kept me watching, especially as we found out more about each witch and the non-witches. Nao and her hard-working, yet easily shocked personality was a great contrast from Kei’s laid-back self.
At the same time, the English dub also captured the character’s personality through their voices VERY well. Chinatsu’s hyper self was definitely present not only in the animation, but also her voice. The characters were all a joy to listen to in the show. You could hear, and not just ‘see’, Chinatsu’s disinterest at eating veggies, the father’s excitement over trying to catch a pheasant, and Nao’s complete denial of Makoto’s ‘present’. The dub was much more pleasant than I was initially expecting.
Overall, Flying Witch is quite a slice-of-life show. Character reactions are realistic and not overly dramatic. The dubbing is easy on the ears for those who have watched the show in Japanese, and if you still don’t want to hear it in English, the subs and Japanese voice track are still an option. With a SRP of $69.98 USD, you can get the Blu-ray for this series from the Sentai Filmworks store (or Amazon or RightStuf). I highly suggest watching the series mainly for the enjoyable interactions of the characters rather than thinking you’re going to see a Level 8 Wizard summoning the Black Flame Dragon. Plus, you get an absolutely adorable little girl who gets amazed at everything and is super cute while doing it, so you ‘cute girls doing cute things’ fans get something, too.
Lolinia gives Flying Witch a Drastik Moé Measure of 7.9 out of 10.0 (79).
