Witch Watch

This wasn’t on my radar initially, as I had perhaps grown a bit too dismissive of new romcoms. Or maybe it just didn’t get tagged as a romance show and I missed it. Regardless, Christian told me I should check it out, and with only 4 or so episodes out at the time I was quickly caught up and better for it. This show elicits such joy and a lot of laughs from me.

Essentially we have Morihito (often called Moi), a teenage boy who is descended from ogres. In classic circumstances, Moi will be gaining a female roommate in the form of his childhood friend Nico returning, and Moi’s father will be away on business. However, if the title and mention of ogres wasn’t already a hint there’s more to this typical romcom situation. Nico is a witch, and her mother has received a prophecy that she is in danger and asks Moi to protect her as a familiar. Moi takes this duty rather seriously, meanwhile Nico is trying to start the romcom, having developed a huge crush on Moi in the time they’ve been apart. These romcom elements will continue throughout the show, with Nico’s desire to get Moi to notice her romantically often being a source of errors and comedy.

In general Nico still learning to use her magic leads to many misadventures. Adding to this we have additional familiars and friends with their own quirks, from transforming into cats and werewolves, to wind magic, to vampires. There are some more character-focused episodes too, allowing us to look beyond our main two characters and get to know the rest of the people present.

These character-focused episodes also give us some fun side adventures in the form of one of Nico’s friends and their teacher. I’m honestly blanking on their names, but trust me that they deliver good content in the form of an anime within the anime. They really outdid themselves here, and obviously some of that credit has to go back to the original author. However, the studio created a whole fake OP and ED, promo visuals, and other material as proof of the effort that has gone into this adaptation.

On the effort side I do also have to call out the OPs for both cours. The first one might be a contender for being my top 10 of all time, though with it being so recent I hesitate to put it in there. However, YOASOBI’s music along with some absolutely high-quality animation capture the fun tone while hinting at the more serious elements present. The second OP is also good, great in fact, it’s just hard to praise it as much when it’s up against the OP of the first half of the season.

Returning to those serious elements, there is a real plot. While much of the show is magic being used to solve problems and going wrong in some way, the prophecies and other warnings of danger remain. These lead to some confrontations and fights that might not satisfy the shonen enjoyers entirely, but help bring some action to the show and keep things from turning into a repetitive comedy. I do wish the second half of the show had kept up more of a plot, but unfortunately that was not the case.

Overall this is really solid new entry, and with a second season already confirmed within the final episode itself I hope it means we won’t have to wait long for more.