Traditionally, when a witch turns 15, she's supposed to go out into the world alone to study magic.
Makoto's parents, however, believe that their directionally-challenged daughter should get a high
school degree. Instead of being sent out on her own, Makoto and her cat Chito find themselves
traveling from the bustling city of Yokohama to Aomori Prefecture, where they'll stay with relatives
until Makoto finishes school. It's going to be a big adjustment, and it only gets more complicated
since "normal" people aren't supposed to know that witches exist… something that she tends to
forget.
(Source: Sentai Filmworks)
_Quick Review_ Pros 1. Soothing atmosphere. 2. Likable characters with distinctive personalities that aren't overwhelming. 3. An appreciation of nature is shown throughout with the inclusion of fresh ingredients used for cooking and characters relaxing and enjoying cherry blossoms or a river. 4. The background music. 5. A catchy opening that includes synchronized hand clapping. Cons 1. Lack of world building. It misses the opportunities to answer questions and make events even more interesting. For example, the episode that involves the flying whale. How did the whale fly? Was it a spell a witch cast? How does one know when a new witch moves into town? Maybe a notice is sent out from the association Akane mentions in the last episode. What is this organization? How do you tell whether your daughter is a witch? Maybe she performs accidental magic. Is there such a thing as a male witch? Do wizards exist? How does a witch get a familiar? 2. Each episode is a little less funny, with the jokes becoming predictable. 3. The last episode felt a little rushed for me. I think it would have been more satisfying to focus on either the robes or on the festival, not both. 4. Two very interesting characters that I would like to know more about: The Veil of Darkness and Harbinger of Spring. The Veil of Darkness was more of a quick "here's an example of magic incorporated into nature" and it works because she appears for a short time as a customer in Cafe Concrucio and is simply there to make the viewer understand how wonderful and magical the cafe is, but the Harbinger of Spring is featured just as much as Akane and Inukai in the opening and he doesn't show up again. Notes 1. I'm adding the manga to my reading list because I'm interested in learning more about the world Flying Witch starts to build. 2. All in all, a very likable anime with flaws that can be ignored in appreciation of the general aesthetics and atmosphere. I probably won't watch Flying Witch again unless it receives a dubbed version and I can use it to work or fall asleep to.
On first glance, this anime looks like any mid-tier 2010s anime that was forgotten the moment the season was done. An anime about witches living in a village is not a grabbing premise, even for a slice of life series. It not weird that not many people remember this anime aside from the fox clip. But there is something neat that this anime has: It has the Iyashikei tag. Iyashikei anime are commonly known as healing anime, aka anime that exist so that the viewer can, as they say, "heal". This is often fit for cute, fun and relaxing anime, with relaxing having the most emphasis. One fthe most popular anime that has come out that is most representative of Iyashikei is Yuru Camp, an anime that I also personally love to death, and I am by far not the only one doing that. It is not uncommon for Iyashikei to get cult-like followings: The afformentioned Yuru Camp, Yama no Susume, Non Non Biyori, Tonikawa, The Helpful Fox Senko-San, all have very deticated fanbases. So how do Iyashikei connect with people? Well, why don't we look at Flying Witch for that awnser (that is what this review is about, after all). Flying Witch is specifically about our main character Makoto becoming a witch at the age of 15, but since she is so challenged in having the feel of direction, her parents decide to sent her to one of her relatives. From here on out, we follow the day-to-day lives of Makoto and the Kuramoto family. We learn about the powers of Makoto and the world of witches. We even get visits of Kowata, the sibling of Makoto, who visits the Kuramoto's house reaaaally often. The plot is very simple, which is one of the defining characteristics of Iyashikei anime. Having complicated characters and plots get your more immersed with the characters and the world, but having simple characters and a simple, albeit a bit mysterious, world can give more focus on the tone, the comedy and the healing part of Iyashikei. Flying Witch has a simple story and simple characters, but they are endearing to watch. There is almost no cynicism in the anime, with also no amount of pandering. The main focus is the healing part, which is where Iyashikei can make or break for people. Yes, Iyashikei is not for everyone, it might not even be for the people who are fans of the show if they are in the wrong mood. Iyashikei is healing incarnate, so if you are already comfortable or are ready for action/drama, Iyashikei anime will come of as boring. But if you are in the mood for it, Iyashikei does wonders. Seeing characters you like do things they like and be happy, that gives an amazing feeling. Not worrying about any kind of stress, troubles or deadlines and just letting our mind cruise on the happy waves Iyashikei makes causes the feeling of being freed of your own troubles, pains and worries: You get healed. But Iyashikei can't just be people you liking doing things they like, Iyashikei often have things that make them that extra bit special: Non Non Biyori has great character, Senko-san has a cute fox-wife, Yuru Camp has a great OST and comfy camping, and, what I personally see from it, Flying Witch has a great focus on casualness and an also great OST. Watching Flying Witch is like taking a day off to work on your grandmothers farm: You see characters without any real worries do simple tasks in casual and funny ways. You meet people who often has magical elements, but are either wonderfully wacky or relatabily casual in their nature. Even with the more magical scenes there is a sense of laid-back wonder that captivates you. There is one episode in Flying Witch in which we see different character go through one day at different times of that day, thus visiting locations previous characters also visited, thus showing those locations from a new perspective. It is such a simple episode but it is one of the best episodes I have ever seen. This anime healing factor is helped by the OST. As I am writing this sentence I am listening to Flying Witch's OST, and I am enjoying every second of it. The OST is filled with flutes, piano's, harps and more creating beautifully composed music that you notice how good it is during scenes but don't distract you from those scenes. It is amazing. I know this review wasn't as much about Flying Witch as it was about Iyashikei, but I just wanted to express my love for this genre of anime that has helped me a lot during dark times, with Flying Witch being one of the best examples of it. On its own, Flying Witch is a great, fun anime that is easy to watch and enjoyable to discover the world. The OST is great, the characters are endearing and the world is interesting. It isn't a completely perfect anime, but it is perfect Iyashikei that can heal your soul. Gives this one a watch, especially if you love Yuru Camp.
~~~_Makoto, a 15-year-old witch, moves in with some relatives in the Japanese countryside while she
continues her magical training. What follows is Makoto’s daily life as she gets used to her new
environment. Her relatives and the new friends she makes there are introduced to the customs and
peculiarities of witchcraft._~~~
True to its name, this 12-episode makes flying look really, really fun. Like Kiki’s Delivery Service,
all I want to do while watching this is grab a broom and fly away.
Hey, Ghibli fans out there. Have you ever asked yourself: What would _Kiki's Delivery Service_ be like if it were a TV show instead of a movie? I think I found the answer to that question. Take _Kiki's Delivery Service_, remove all of the more overt fantasy elements, change the setting to modern Japan, make Kiki into a teenager, and have the whole thing still be sweet, wholesome, and plain nice. I present to you _Flying Witch_, a short anime based on the manga by Chihiro Ishizuka, the latter of which is still running to this day. I didn't watch this when it first came out, as I was very deep into my anime burnout phase and I couldn't muster up any motivation to watch anything. But seeing as I've finally clawed myself out of it, I decided to give it a try, as some bloggers I follow said it was a great show. I finished it and I can wholeheartedly agree that it really is a sweet treat to watch. The story centers on a young woman, Makoto Kowata, a witch in training who, alongside her cat familiar Chito, is sent to live with her relatives in the countryside town of Aomori. She just turned 15, and in her world, when a witch turns 15, she is made to leave home to become more independent and spend her time studying witchcraft. She is taken in by her cousins, the Kuramoto family, namely her cousin Kei and his younger sister Chinatsu. Every day is full of fun surprises, from her encounters with an anthropomorphic dog fortune teller desperate to become human again, to all the peculiar magic training she gets from her older sister Akane. For those of you wondering, _Flying Witch_ doesn't have much of a plot, as the show is very firmly rooted in the slice-of-life genre, so you won't find any overt action, drama, complexity, nor conflict here. Every episode focuses on much more mundane things, such as the characters going herb picking in the forest, finding fabric to make witch robes with, or riding on top of a floating whale. So if you're the type of person who prefers blood pumping action, this isn't the show for you. But what the show lacks in conflict, it makes up for in a lot of ways. For one, the whole tone of the show is very laid-back and down-to-earth, with very little in the way of exaggerated expressions or movements or zany comedy. Events and character interactions play out slowly and organically, like how real people would interact in real life. The pacing is deliberately slow, making you really feel like you're in a quiet countryside town where time seems to move at a more languid pace, and considering the tone the show is going for, it suits the feel of the show perfectly. Nothing is ever rushed or resolved too quickly, and while this may be a point of contention for those who prefer anime that have a faster pace, _Flying Witch_ knows its sole focus is showing the characters in their daily lives and enjoying the things they do and the environment around them. The animation is fairly good, with the characters having realistic character designs (With some exceptions but even those are relatively muted compared to other anime), detailed backgrounds, and any exaggerated expressions being much more subdued than in most anime. But it also has a lot of understated details that really sell the show's setting, like how Makoto puts her broom in a parking space for bikes, or how Inukai's hamster familiar shivers whenever Chito is nearby. The music is fairly nice as well, with a variety of instruments that fit the feel of a scene when needed. But I didn't like how everyone was highlighted green in the opening theme, and I thought the opening song was kind of obnoxious. You can't have a good story or setting if you don't have equally good characters to back it up, and for a show like this, the characters can either make it or break it depending on the execution. Thankfully, _Flying Witch_'s characters avoid a lot of the common pitfalls that give the slice-of-life genre a bad name. All of the characters' personalities and quirks are realistic, down to earth, and they behave like real people would, with no exaggerated or forced personality traits or archetypes oh so common in most anime, and the chemistry between all of them is also very well done. The show is filled with sweet moments between various characters that just make you smile, like how Kei and Chinatsu interact, seeing how different Makoto and Akane are as siblings (Yes, the silver haired, tan skinned woman is related to a pale skinned, black haired high school student. Don't ask, because I don't know either), Nao's interactions with Chito, and Anzu (My favorite character) gushing about anthropology with Kenny, a Siamese-ish magic cat who's said to be an anthropology scholar in his world. All throughout the series, we constantly learn new things about them, and the things we do learn about them never feel like the creators pulled them out of their butts, nor do these new traits contradict anything we learned about them before (Looking at you, _Ni no Kuni_ movie!!). Having good characters and equally good chemistry between them makes the show very rewarding to watch, even if they're not the most complex. Really, most slice-of-life shows could really benefit from learning a thing or two from _Flying Witch_ when it comes to characterization and character writing. Even the voice acting feels genuine, though, I won't lie, Chinatsu's Japanese voice can get really grating and shrill at times, to the point of sounding a bit forced. So if you want to kick back, relax, and watch a slice-of-life anime that's full of heart but not forced or obnoxious as most other slice-of-life anime, then let _Flying Witch_ take you for a low key ride. It's a great remedy for when you're having a bad day.