Flying Witch First Impressions

Boy was this anime exactly what I was hoping for. This review might be a bit biased because of my love for the slice of life genre, if that's not your cup of tea, this anime won't be either. Coming from the studio who brought us Azumanga Diaoh and Little Busters, I should have expected no less of their execution of the calm and refreshing genre. From the start, the beautiful animation, calm music, and relaxing atmosphere really put me in a place where I could relax and be happy. Waiting each week for this will be extremely hard, but I know if I'm having a bad day, this'll cheer me up. The Opening

Following the trend of showing the OP in the end of the first episode, Flying Witch's Opening is extremely cute, introduces us to many of the characters not yet revealed in the anime, and just makes you want to watch the rest more. Honestly, I sometimes judge entire anime series' based on their opening, and if an opening makes me want to watch more, I'd

say that's a success. Paired with the theme song "Shanranran feat. 96 Neko" performed by singer Miwa, and very cute visuals complimenting the song, including characters clapping to the beat, it really had me rocking back and forth in my chair (To the song, not out of insanity). Score: 9/10

The Story Now, generally in slice of life shows, a story does not need to be complicated, and Flying Witch knows this, it's gives you some backstory, and then heavily relies on day-to-day activities of the characters. Though it does rely on this, the backstory seems to be very interesting for a slice of life anime, introducing a new spin on things, closely resembling a blend of Kiki's Delivery Service mixed with Non Non Biyori. The main character, Makoto Kowata is a slightly aloof young witch who moves to her cousin's house to follow the Witch tradition to leave home at age fifteen. The interesting thing about this is, for the first half of the episode, the only hint that she is a witch is her black cat "Chito" following her around.

It was funny, as the episode played I kept hoping she'd do something to show her powers as a Witch, and the wait paid off. After alarming her young cousin Chinatsu by having a full-fledged conversation with Chito, Makoto is reluctantly escorted to a local store by Chinatsu, who thinks Makoto is some kind of wierdo at this point. The wait for magic is over when Makoto spots some bamboo brooms and inspects them, followed by a very magical scene of her testing the broom by hovering up about twenty feet in the air. As the anime moves on, it seems strange that many people are surprised of her being a witch, but not enough to scream in terror. This is where the resemblance to Kiki's Delivery Service kicks in. It seems as though there are many witches, but they tend to keep it a secret just to keep things simple, and it makes you wonder if there are any more witches in the same town. After viewing the opening, it's no secret that there will be a couple more witches showing up, and it'll be exciting to see how the slice of life genre sparks with a little bit of magic. Score: 8/10

The Characters

Starting out with our main character Makoto, she's extremely cute and she instantly pulls you in with her friendly demeanor and clumsiness with directions. Almost instantly she starts heading the wrong way back to her cousin's house, and later even walks into the bathroom when trying to head to the living room in the house, it's extremely comedic and adds to her charm. From this first episode, you don't get to see too much of her cousin Kei except for when he picks her up from the train station, he seems polite, and always seems to be busy. The last character to receive most of the spotlight is Makoto's younger cousin Chinatsu, an adorable and energetic girl who I assume will be one of the front-runners of the show keeping up the lighthearted fun. Score 10/10

Animation and Setting

The visuals for a slice of life anime is one of the most important elements. You're there to relax, you don't want anything to jarring, but anything too flat won't bring you into that world to relax in. Flying Witch takes advantage of it's beautiful setting up in the countryside suburbs very well, showing detain in even the smallest trees in the background, not to mention the scene where Matoko first flies, the wind is shown to effect small signs hanging, and the effect on the water. All of the animation is beautiful, yet subtle, it doesn't go crazy and pull you out of the moment. The setting kind of pulled some nerves for me though, since it's slightly in the mountains, all the snow hasn't melted yet, and here in Michigan, we're sick of the snow and ready for it to be gone! All jokes aside, it's beautiful and really makes me wish I was there, even with the snow! Animation Score: 10/10 (Not by overall quality, but because it suits it's purpose perfectly)

Setting Score: 8/10

Sound

The music is absolutely perfect for this type of anime, very calm and soothing, exactly what you'd want in this anime. Along with the music, all the characters have great voice actors. I cannot express my love for Minami Shinoda in her debut role. For her first voice in an anime, she did a superb job giving her character a beleivable voice, and a soothing one as well.

Score: 9/10

In the end, I think Flying Witch was exactly what I was hoping for, and more. Though it was just the first episode, it's first impression was stunning. I will for sure be watching this every week. Give this anime a shot if you're having a bad day and you want to cheer up, or if you just want to Crunchyroll and chill.