Shuumatsu no Izetta: The Last Witch

[Munsu]

http://i.imgur.com/gyPoSFZ.jpg

Plot Summary: In 1939, the imperialist nation of Germania launched a sudden invasion of its neighboring countries. This conflagration engulfed all of Europe in one fell swoop, and the era was dragged into the maelstrom of war. Then in 1940, Germania set its sights on Elystadt, a tiny principality blessed with breathtaking greenery and water in the Alps. Izetta is a descendant of a clan of witches who had passed down mysterious powers for generations. Since she was little, she and her grandmother lived their lives on the road, traveling between European countries in order to hide these powers. Fiine is the sole daughter in line to succeed Rudolph III, the ruler of the Principality of Elystadt. Since her father has been stricken by illness, she has been busy preparing for Germania's invasion in his stead.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=18506


Shuumatsu no Izetta: The Last Witch has been promising so far and seems like most of you have enjoyed the early portion as well.

I thought this would fill a void left over for me since Allison & Lillia 8 years ago, and so far I think it looks like it'll do.

Two episodes are out so far:
http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=855426
http://www.nyaa.se/?page=download&tid=857777

[shinta|hikari]

Finally a dude.

Her magic kinda sucks. She'll die from blood loss before winning a war.

[Kraco]

Her magic kinda sucks. She'll die from blood loss before winning a war.

Not necessarily. She was encumbered by the bleeding princess plus she's probably simply not used to fighting. Yet. There ought to be plenty of ways open for her, once she gets down to it and used to it. Even aerial fighting will be easier once she realises the enemy fighters will stall if they have to climb too much too fast.

This looks like a promising show. I'm quite unsure of what the princess's role will be, but I'm optimistic.

[shinta|hikari]

Maybe she can replace her own blood by killing sacrifices, like puppies, kittens, and teacup piglets and using their blood to power he elemental spells.

[KrayZ33]

Sooo.. this is a no male/female romance story, isn't it?

OPs pic is troubling me a bit because girls on girls/girls only shows tend to be so overdramatic.

[Munsu]

Sooo.. this is a no male/female romance story, isn't it?

OPs pic is troubling me a bit because girls on girls/girls only shows tend to be so overdramatic.

I see you are a big believer in judging a book by its cover.

[shinta|hikari]

There is a dude right now, so he might get it on with Izetta.

[KrayZ33]

I see you are a big believer in judging a book by its cover.

Too bad animes aren't books though.
Most animes involving a prince or princess tend to be really, really shallow and boring to watch, because the "hime"-archtype is really just annoying most of the time.

It's always (or most of the time) the overworking-"I feel responsible for everything"-type
or the "I was sheltered my whole life - why would you hurt the bad guys - don't you feel any form of shame"-type

[shinta|hikari]

Not agreeing or disagreeing with anyone here, but you do know the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" isn't actually talking about books, right?

[KrayZ33]

You know that it is referring to things that are as deep and diverse as books, right?
Anime, most of the time, isn't.
It's like saying that to an apple - or something.

Just wanted to check if I can expect some manpower and manhandling.

edit: the first 5 second featured a corgi, I'm in and it can't get more savage than that.

[Kraco]

The witch was captured and trapped in a pod with life support just like the most famous green haired witch of any anime. Isn't that promising enough already? I don't really care at this point whether this has romance or not with the bloody war going on and everything. If it does have romance, I certainly hope the man would also be an asskicker.

[shinta|hikari]

You know that it is referring to things that are as deep and diverse as books, right?
Anime, most of the time, isn't.
It's like saying that to an apple - or something.

That's why I said I wasn't agreeing or disagreeing. You in fact mentioned books, so I thought you misunderstood. No need to be defensive. A simple yes would've sufficed.

[lelouch]

For the last 10 years that I've been watching anime, can someone please explain to me why every season follows the exact same pattern?

- 1x either good show (like this, arslan, etc..) or REALLY good show (Death Note, Code Geass, FMA, Shin Sekai Yori, Fate Zero, etc...)
- 1x pretty good show (gundam, zestiria, etc...)
- 1x barely watchable show that you watch to just keep time passing and avoid procrasterbating (bungou stray dogs, etc...)
- 1x weekly episode of naruto

and the remaining 30x shows that season are absolute shit that I can't imagine who the fk watches it.

Why can't they just have ONE season of like 10 actually good shows?? I can't imagine half the shit I see on Anichart gets even a third of the ratings of the good shows.

[shinta|hikari]

Because people like bad stuff, and that's okay. It's a truth you learn as you grow older.

[MFauli]

Not sure I´d call Izetta a good anime, yet. Just watched ep 2. I can´t help but constantly think "if this was done by Ghibli, it´d be such a great story". The setting reminds me a lot of Howl´s Castle. But instead of this whimsy, charming story, so far we have characters of the most generic attitude and the animation feels awfully stiff. The fight in the beginning was somewhat annoying. "Oh, they´re dying, aren´t they?" Yeah, no shit, when you pierce their bodies with 100s of spikes. The setting of this anime is great, but the characters feel like I´m watching shit like Girls und Panzer. I can´t stand it when Izetta is submissive to Fine, then switches to the most stereotypical "wait a minute, I sense danger. Lemme take care of it!"-mode I´ve ever seen. It´s like a trope telling you that it is a trope :/

I´ll keep watching because there hasn´t been anything fatally bad, yet. And the setting is interesting.

I guess it´s also my fault for having false expectations, because of my own mistranslation. I only read the romaji for "shuumatsu no majo" and thought it´d mean "Izetta, the weekend witch", which combined with the dreamy Alps setting had me expect the story of a lonesome witch, living life inmidst of a natural environment in the south European mountain aera and then one day something happens. Instead, "shuumatsu" can also mean "end", which, as I noticed in the intro this week, can be translated as "the last witch". Oh well.

[lelouch]

Not sure I´d call Izetta a good anime, yet. Just watched ep 2. I can´t help but constantly think "if this was done by Ghibli, it´d be such a great story". The setting reminds me a lot of Howl´s Castle. But instead of this whimsy, charming story, so far we have characters of the most generic attitude and the animation feels awfully stiff. The fight in the beginning was somewhat annoying. "Oh, they´re dying, aren´t they?" Yeah, no shit, when you pierce their bodies with 100s of spikes. The setting of this anime is great, but the characters feel like I´m watching shit like Girls und Panzer. I can´t stand it when Izetta is submissive to Fine, then switches to the most stereotypical "wait a minute, I sense danger. Lemme take care of it!"-mode I´ve ever seen. It´s like a trope telling you that it is a trope :/


I agree with your criticisms, however with all the critiquing I see on this forum, I'm curious to which magically perfect anime ya'll are watching every season that makes stuff like this not good. Realistically there's only 1 or 2 really good shows that come out all year. So while the criticisms above I definitely agree with, I don't think we can be benchmarking every anime that comes out against the rare unicorn that comes out. Which in my above post mention that I do find sad and unexplainable, but oh well.

[MFauli]

Well, I think that´s highly subjective. As for me, I have Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-blooded Orphans S2 that continues to be friggin great. And there´s also the extremely promising Occultic;Nine.

Ofc, I generally am more prone to mention criticism, because that´s what jumps into my eye. However, I try to make a concious effort of also mentioning positive stuff, ever since shinta´s rant thread.

[neflight86]

The first episode made me think this would be an adventure show with a totally not-WWII setting, but then we switch gears into a more generic 'persecuted magical girl with one true friend reluctantly saves the world during not-WWII' show instead. I suppose I can't be too disappointed when it was foreshadowed before the end of the first episode. Some attractive animation and at least, even if I feel like I know how this will end, I expect a few novel twists in the storytelling until we get there.

[Kraco]

I do have to wonder would a witch (suspect) have been persecuted anymore in the 30's in the central Europe region? Sure, people were still far more religious back then than nowadays, but it was still already a modern time of science and rationality with a concept of equality, laws, justice, and some human rights (at least within the country). Getting kidnapped by scientists, like happened later, kind of, seems far more realistic than torches and pitchforks.

[MasterOfMoogles]

Episode 3 was awesome!

I could watch Izetta doing her thing all day.

[shinta|hikari]

From anemic meh magician to OP bad ass white witch. We are going in the right direction.

[Kraco]

It seems to me Germania would need to use spec ops to get rid of Izetta since fighter planes and even tanks are useless against her.

Elystadt put up quite a pitiful fight. I would have wished to see a bit more from them before Izetta saved the day. The enemy was overpowering but this was too one-sided.

[Kraco]

Episode 4 - HS



- -- - --- -



That explained things. Aside from those technical aspects, I'm a bit annoyed by Izetta's extremely servile and humble personality. It means she can't be much more than a tool. I hope she'll be at least single-mindedly loyal to the princess only and thus it would prove impossible for anyone else to use her. That would give her a bit of personality in the plot.

[Kraco]

Episode 5 - HS



- - - - -- - - -


These guys have taken a lesson from H. Clinton: Discussing biggest state secrets in a random, unsafe place. Man, that felt so forced after the otherwise fine episode. The old mining tunnels aren't totally out there in convenience either considering they were only in that single place (at least suitably), and they built the strategy around that exact spot.

Orga's ancestor appeared in a significant role; let's hope Mika's ancestor won't or Izetta will be in a real danger!

[Buffalobiian]

Orga's ancestor appeared in a significant role; let's hope Mika's ancestor won't or Izetta will be in a real danger!

That part was even funnier than the "discuss secrets in the wilderness" scene. It made the guy sound so much younger and hot-headed.

[Kraco]

Episode 6 - HS



- - - - - - - -




And thus Jonas remembered for the rest of his life what happens to people with too big a mouth. At least it did seem like he didn't have time to tell the most essential piece of information unless the cutting simply masked it.

Not a whole lot else happened in this ep unless you are a huge fan of cherry pies.

The time is still so early Basler didn't get an ME 262 yet.

[Buffalobiian]

I don't think he said anything. There's no point in killing him otherwise if he's already spilled the beans.

This episode was to put a mark on the otherwise squeaky clean Izetta story, even if nothing was her fault. I'm rather intrigued at the Emperor having an Occult division after all.

I'm not a fan of sweet pies, but I am a fan of pies.

[Kraco]

I don't think he said anything. There's no point in killing him otherwise if he's already spilled the beans.


Of course there's a point. The first point is that a man who gladly leaks military secrets of the highest order once is likely to do it again. The second reason is that I can imagine the intelligence dude somehow using this as propaganda or just to affect Izetta (he'd undoubtly say the spy killed the poor soldier, not that he himself did it).

[Kraco]

Episode 7 - HS



- - -- - -- ---



I hope the basement with the map wasn't left open and unguarded for any spy to photograph. Elystadt has made so many mistakes in the past in this war that it would be the time for them to stop. There seems to be that one intelligent dude in their meetings, so it would be nicer if he had orchestrated fake data into the old castle for any spy to discover. That might be a bit too much asked, so just sealing the old chamber and guarding the place should be enough.

A somewhat decent episode otherwise. The fight wasn't bad.

[MasterOfMoogles]

What are those blimp things supposed to be in the capital city?

[Buffalobiian]

What are those blimp things supposed to be in the capital city?

They're for mourning the late king.

Episode 09

-----------------------------













I don't like the revenge-witch plot much. It's also very apparent that this is supposed to be wrapped up in the coming few episodes. I'd rather a slower reveal that fleshed the side characters out more.

[shinta|hikari]

When mods double post.

[Ryllharu]

I'm quite a few episodes behind so I hadn't been checking the thread.

The blimps are actually Barrage Balloons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrage_balloon). They're just floating cables up in the air, to make it very hard for aircraft to target specific things. In this case, they're protecting the castle and the historic buildings around it. Their presence ensures fighters/bombers are forced into the range of anti-aircraft guns.

London had them (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Balloon_Command#/media/File:Barrage_balloons_over_London_during_World_War _II.jpg) for just about the entire war.

Geez, Buff doesn't know combat history at all, even when he's from a Commonwealth country.

[Buffalobiian]

Hmm, good to know. I thought they were for mourning since they came up around the same time as the Archduke died.

As for Episode 10

-------------------------------------












Yep, revenge witch confirmed for shit story. It feels shallow. So next episode Izetta chooses to use the stone and beats Sophie. She either dies/goes missing and the Princess mourns her, or she barely makes it out alive and is still confined to a wheelchair. She lives happily ever after with the Archduchess.

/yawn.

[MasterOfMoogles]

They pretty much showed Germany is getting a magic nuke going.
I expect Izetta will have to carry it off into the sunset and have it explode.

[Buffalobiian]

Final episode

-----------------------------







I admit I enjoyed this ep way more than I expected to. Partly this is due to my low expectations, but also because they managed to channel emotions the right way here. Fine emotionally declaring they'd fuck over the Germans no matter what it takes is certainly the highlight.

This has been alright overall. I won't recommend it on a "must watch of 2016" list, but the setting and atmosphere gives it a different enough spin that I'd mention it for anyone looking for a WWII/magic-era show.

[MasterOfMoogles]

I was overall pretty happy with the fights and the conclusions for all of the characters.
The only part I didn't like about this finale was the "suck up all the magic in the world" thing, as that felt like a bit of a stretch.

Can I get a show with more witch vs. conventional weaponry? That was easily the best part. The witch vs. witch battle was pretty good too, but more interesting when they were amidst all the weapons and less interesting when they're just trying to blow each other up.

I'd put this on a must watch of 2016 list simply for the spectacle.

[KrayZ33]

Hmmm, if you like it, I might start watching it again.

didn't expect a lot of combat scenes, are they fighting among/against soldiers, tanks and guns more than just once?

[MasterOfMoogles]

Aside from the first few episodes, not really. There's Izetta vs. Aircraft Carrier in episode 7, and then the finale has a bunch of crazy stuff.
In between, the episodes are still pretty interesting though.

[shinta|hikari]

So how did Izetta survive? Makes no sense to me.

[MasterOfMoogles]

Through the power of her yuri love, obviously.

[shinta|hikari]

Yuri love results in reincarnations, not resurrections.

[Buffalobiian]

She was found washed up on some shoreline, and was then nursed back to health. With yuri love.