Flying Witch

[Ryllharu]

Genres: Slice of Life, Fantasy, Daily Life, Humor

Themes: witches, family, daily life, exploring nature

Plot Summary: The comical story follows the 15-year-old witch Kowata Makoto and the other people of her daily life. With her black cat Chito, the perhaps too easygoing girl moved from Yokohama to live with her second cousins in Aomori Prefecture (second link) .

Links: AniDB | ANN | Official

Download: HorribleSubs


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To me, this series is the Kiki's Delivery Service version of Yotsuba&. That alone should be endorsement enough to at least try it.

I'm a big fan of the manga, not gonna lie. This first episode was a very faithful, well executed adaptation of it.

Makoto in particular is a wonderful character. She's so in love with doing what she's doing that she doesn't even really stop to think about how others might perceive it. "Aloof" doesn't quite seem to cover it. The others serve well in playing off Makoto's demeanor to extract the comedy in the way she acts and her casual approach to pretty much everything.

Character designs are nice, but before you think, "Oh, she's just Chitanda from Hyouka!" look at Makoto's figure...and wait for her to put on some jeans. Also keep in mind that she has already briefly gestured that flying on brooms makes her thighs and...more private places sore after a while.

It's also worth noting that this series has been co-sponsored by Aomori's tourism board (the manga was endorsed by them as well).

[David75]

I was also pleased to hear some north japan accent quirks. That follows "Erased".
Someone flying on a broom should create a ruckus, but not in that anime ? My guess is that they will not explain why true witches are still secret, even when an aloof one does everything she wants in public.

It was a nice and easy watch, so I guess I can watch it even if nothing much happens

[Ryllharu]

About not creating a ruckus, my best guesses are that a flying person is relatively small compared to a plane or balloon, and honestly, how often do most people look up?

The conversation with Nao at the opening ceremony explained the other part of it. Makoto is a bit of an airhead at times. She shouldn't have been doing it, but it stop Chinatsu from being suspicious of her.

[Kraco]

There might have been more fancy mandrakes around in stories before, but this certainly was the most amusing one with its endless "Ööööööö" moaning and the rather lethargic but obviously painful squirming motions.

This show does look promising for sure. The MC dude's VA sounds like a total newbie, and I guess he is based on his number of roles, but I'll get used to it, I reckon.

[shinta|hikari]

I am loving this show. The laid back realistic feel is really refreshing, if that makes sense.

And the loli is cute. Shorts ftw.

[MasterOfMoogles]

I thought episode 1 was kind of boring and too slow paced. I hope something interesting happens and it isn't them just killing time around town.

[Buffalobiian]

The male lead's voice is the weakest part of the episode. He just sounds so unenergetic. It's almost like he's lacking in voice projection or something. Other than that, this is an easy watch.

[shinta|hikari]

I actually think his laid back, I don't give a shit voice fit the show pretty well. It's pretty different, which is valuable in and of itself nowadays.

[David75]

My only little complaint is that I was hoping both male and female leads were in their early twenties. It was plausible in the first minutes of the ep, and even that male voice gave some hope.... Only to understand our aloof witch probably is 15...

[Kraco]

As a matter of fact, I was also thinking they were older. It really was a bit of a disappointment she simply moved there to attend a high school. It would have been more interesting if she was there to set up a lab or run some other kind of business, like in Kiki.

[Ryllharu]

Her parents forced her to move in with relatives (so they'd feel better) and stay in school (as a career backup).

As she explained, it is typical for witches to go off on their own to become independent at 15 (when they are deemed adults), very much in the Kiki tradition.

If you watched some of the Petit mini-episodes, it is pretty obvious what Makoto's focus is.

edit:
Petit episode links
01, 02

[Kraco]

Episode 2 - HS



- -- - -- -



Utility pole is obvious, but to be honest I'd never pick anything from right next to a road/street either. If those plants are so ubiquitous, the dude could have went to a cleaner place.

I can't really blame Chinatsu for being suspicious of the harbinger. The dude looked dubious enough. Who knows, without the mask he might have looked like a real monster, so this could have been still better.

As I predicted, I'm getting used to the male MC's lackluster voice.

[David75]

I looked into the butterbur flower and don't really know what it compares to, eventhough it seems we have those in Europe too.
The only thing I got from wiki is the extract, what it does and the potential dangers. But nothing culinary.

With that ep, I understand the witch in training approach. It's weird a witch who already knows about spring harbinger and masters flight, wouldn't be proficient about vegetables, sprouts and everything mother nature has to offer. Worse, she was told by a 15 years old male teenager.

[Kraco]

I looked into the butterbur flower and don't really know what it compares to, eventhough it seems we have those in Europe too.
The only thing I got from wiki is the extract, what it does and the potential dangers. But nothing culinary.

Now that I googled a bit, it seems so. The only uses mentioned are medicinal, which seems to be why it was purposefully cultivated in Finland centuries ago. The Japanese variety might have been brought just for ornamental purposes here. Funnily enough I do know this plant well enough, I just didn't know its English name. I certainly didn't know people would eat it.

With that ep, I understand the witch in training approach. It's weird a witch who already knows about spring harbinger and masters flight, wouldn't be proficient about vegetables, sprouts and everything mother nature has to offer. Worse, she was told by a 15 years old male teenager.

She's does know something as made evident by the mandrake. It's a good question why she didn't know this butterbur flower considering it's an ancient medicinal plant (maybe it wasn't in Japan?). But then again, she's still quite young and quite absent-minded, so who knows. I guess she knows some things well and others not at all. Apparently she didn't need to cook her own meals back home, she only made sweet snacks, so she wouldn't have known pure food related things so well.

[Ryllharu]

With that ep, I understand the witch in training approach. It's weird a witch who already knows about spring harbinger and masters flight, wouldn't be proficient about vegetables, sprouts and everything mother nature has to offer. Worse, she was told by a 15 years old male teenager.

I thought of it more as a rural vs urban thing. Makoto is from Yokohama after all, and while she certainly knows about all sorts of mythological plants, rural edible plants is more of a rarity. I viewed it similarly to the scene in Non Non Biyori where the rest of the girls introduce Hotaru to edible forest plants for the first time (of course eliciting a hajimete! catchphrase from Hotaru).

Japan also has a ton of edible forest plants. Stuff you'd never heard of if you were from the city, because a lot of them just look just like other weeds, vines, ferns, and wildflowers.

Urbanites are hilariously ignorant of edible forest plants. No better evidence of that than the "rise" of ramps in the US/Canada. It's one of those things that Appalachian and Canadian wilderness folks knew about for two hundred years, but urbanites only discovered in the late 90s (Canada) and 2000s (US) and went bonkers over them. To the point that harvesting them in Quebec is now illegal (and there is a black market for them), and the US culinary world put them in everything and they're becoming endangered here as well.

I can forgive Makoto for never having heard of butterbur before.


edit: Her whole bizzaro dream sequence, and Nao's reaction in class, is hilarious.

[David75]

I didn't know about the butterbur and was pleased to learn.
I knew about ramps, because my mother's familly were farmers in Portugal, which was quite poor even till the 80s and 90s... So I did learn some bits and pieces an urbanite (Paris isn't that green) like me shouldn't have.
I also did learn about the true taste of ripe fruits and vegetables you grow with great care. And believe me, 90% or more of what you get at the store feels fake. Nice body, no flavor... Even so called organic vegetables have me wonder at times.
And like Proust, I have my found memories of small white peaches I ate when ripe from 3 peach trees in an abandonned lot.
Sadly, someone bought the place and cut the trees at some point... And the marvels are gone.

Growing your plants is very hard work though. I remember I didn't like it. But now that I see the price for no flavor fruits and vegetables, I keep wondering why is it I work as hard for such a bad result.

But thanks for remembering me that not everyone had the chance to experience a life outside the city, which is what our young witch is about to discover.

[shinta|hikari]

I really liked this episode. The laid back comedy actually made me laugh a bit, especially the dude's reaction to being called girly, and Chinatsu's reaction to eating the tempura. The cooking scene was done really well too. It had great info for beginners in the kitchen instead of fooling dudes into taking up cooking because they could see girls orgasm.

[David75]

It's true the kitchen scene nice.

On the contrary, the mother/daughter goodbye scene felt off. Even if it's in the culture to be polite, it felt strange it would happen between a mother and her young daughter

[Kraco]

Episode 3 - HS



- - - - --



I liked the second part of this episode. The vegetable field was kind of lackluster, but the sister and her visit were very nice. No wonder she's regarded as a highly accomplished witch, being able to teleport to Africa and back.

Although at first I called him the weakness of this show, but the lithium brother is kind of growing on me. It's pretty funny how he sounds all the time so unnaturally calm and slow.

[shinta|hikari]

It works because he never gets flustered. He saunters like a boss.