LogFAQs > #973724402

I finished Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina. I mentioned in the previous anime topic that I had started it hoping for a nice slice-of-life like Flying Witch. It, uh, wasnt like that at all! A few episodes were goofy, but there were also several that were incredibly dark. As someone else mentioned in the last topic too, this really was similar to Kino's Journey. They're both about a wandering protagonist visiting strange locations with a kind of short story vibe. I've only seen the 2017 Kino, but it's one of my most hated anime. The themes in Kino were either nonsensical ("fuck your farmland, our mobile city is more important") or mind-numbingly basic ("slavery is bad, durr"). Thankfully, Wandering Witch had much better writing. It even had a slavery episode, but the message was far more nuanced. It rightfully assumed that the viewer would already know that slavery is bad, so instead it delved into how misguided kindness can be patronizing and harmful. I thought that was an interesting idea to explore.

As someone who usually doesn't like grim stories, I was surprised to realize that the darker episodes were easily my favorites. The flower field one was good, and the Mirarose one was amazing. I even liked the one that opened with a "viewer discretion is advised" content warning! Sadly, some of the goofy episodes were too silly for my tastes. Usually it would be the other way around with me, but in Wandering Witch the darker episodes all explored unique ideas. The silly episodes were mostly Saya being a wacky lesbian. That's fine, don't get me wrong, but when I think back on this in the future I know the darker episodes will be the ones I remember.

So, yeah. Wandering Witch was a decent anime. I'm glad I watched it.