Flying Witch is in a genre that usually gets literature, not anime: magical realism, a story where magic just happens and is as much a part of the world as walking and breathing. A sweet, slick production courtesy of J.C. Staff means there’s nary a bump in Flying Witch s road, making episode 1 a remarkably pleasant experience.
Flying Witch has careful pacing and a whimsical mood which are girded by a delightful soundtrack and beautiful, super-detailed backgrounds. Many funny, endearing moments pass in a pleasing yet not individually notable succession. You’re left with the warm feeling that you’re watching good-hearted people make their way through a fundamentally good world. Stakes are no higher than “will Makoto make a friend?” Blood and fire and children screaming this is not.
You keep watching because you want to know more about Makoto: why this young girl has moved in with distant relatives, why she can’t stay with her parents, and whether or not she is the “flying witch” of the anime’s title, as indeed she must be. If this is a magical girl anime, where are the sparkles and frills? Makoto is a little ditzy, but aside from her pet black cat, she seems like a normal teenage girl.
That’s where the deliberate pacing kicks in, and it takes ten minutes before we see any hint of supernatural activity in Flying Witch. It turns out that the supernatural is not exactly a secret, but witches aren’t widely known outside of their family circles. They have their own cultural traditions, one of which is the reason Makoto has left home. Her parents are fine. No tragic backstory here to mar the show’s cheerful atmosphere.
The first time Makoto meets her new friend Nao is after flying her little cousin Chinatsu over on a newly-purchased broomstick. Even the flying is depicted as naturally as possible: they’re sitting atop a gently levitating broom, not zipping and zooming around, and Makoto instructs her little cousin to step off carefully. As Chinatsu bounces around in the background squealing about how exciting flying is, Makoto introduces herself openly as a witch. The combination of Nao’s total astonishment with Chinatsu’s fit of glee in the background is really amusing.
But the big kahuna of jokes comes when Makoto makes a big gesture of friendship to Nao: she finds a mandrake growing on the side of the road, plucks it, and presents it to Nao with every positive intention of good will. Unfortunately, the mandrake is huge, creepy and weird. It has hollow black eyes and an endless tortured groan; it scarcely seems to be part of the world it was plucked from and it certainly doesn’t fit with the sweet pastoral idyll we’ve romped through for most of an episode.
The gag just gets funnier as the scene continues, with Makoto rattling on about how dangerous the mandrake can be but what a rare and useful find it is. Nao ultimately refuses the gift, but Makoto is so immune to embarrassment and is so good-natured that there’s none of that awkward second-hand embarrassment and no sense that she will begrudge Nao the refusal once she understands it. That one joke is better than the entirety of Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto. Every time the mandrake’s ugly gross limbs flail I start laughing all over again.
Should you watch ‘Flying Witch’?
Flying Witch is the magical slice-of-life I was hoping for out of Kumamiko but didn’t get. As sweet and good-natured as its protagonist, it also promises to milk real humor out of its magical girl in a normal world scenario. Best of all, every character from little Chinatsu to Makoto’s cousin to Nao and Makoto herself seems like someone to root for. There’s no hamfisted villain or melodramatic obstacle to overcome. Instead, Flying Witch simply lets its rich, gently magical world unfold. Polished, pretty and sincere, it’s definitely worth a spot at the top of your watch list.
Flying Witch streams on Crunchyroll here every Saturday at 3:30 PM.
