Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

A journey always begins with the very first step and that’s truer than ever for a young girl named Elaina. With a fantasy setting built by the creative mind of Jougi Shirashi, we are treated one of the must-see shows of this year. Despite the light novel popularity, we didn’t get an anime adaptation airing until 2020. What’s slightly more concerning is that the anime itself is contained within a 1-cour of 12 episodes, and it raises the question if it’s enough to show its true colors. Thankfully, I can say with easy confidence that Majo no Taitabi (Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina) does indeedmeet its expectations. This is more than just a fantasy adventure but explores the character journey of a human being. Watching Majo no Taibtai feels like watching a child growing up, with every day being a new experience. This idea applies directly to Elaina, a young girl who became a witch. She has the heart of an adventurer, the ambition to succeed, and a thirst to prove herself to the world. From the very first episode, she wants to show the world what she’s learned starting with her mentor, Flan. Unfortunately, it also exposes some of her vulnerability as a witch and that she has a lot to learn than meets the eye. That’s where her journey begins. Elaina embarks on personal journey to learn about the world and discover what’s hidden from horizons beyond. As an episodic adventure, the storytelling usually has a self-contained story but always follows how Elaina meets people or dealing with whatever problem she comes across during her journey. Early on, she encounters Saya, and after helping her, they become friends and seemingly forges an important friendship. It goes to show that Elaina herself is both someone easy to get along with and is a selfless person. She puts others’ needs above herself and is never afraid to take risks to help others. This also leads her into dangerous circumstances where her own life is at stake and she must resort to using what she’s learned to survive. From her journey, Elaina also discovers some of the darker truths of the world. This includes her stay in The Land of Truth Tellers or dealing with a princess with lost memories. From the hidden truths, it reveals that underneath the lighthearted magic adventure, there’s a deeper darkness. Elaina never becomes a victim herself but that doesn’t make other characters an easy prey for sin. One of the most prominent example is during episode 9 when she finds out the dark past of a girl named Estelle. I won’t go into spoilers but from this episode alone, it’s shown that some characters are really beyond redemption. With each passing episode, we learn not just about Elaina’s adventure story but also about Elaina herself. She has a lot of potential as a witch but sometimes, she isn’t able to fully solve the problem of others. In fact, this anime can be depressing with episodes of despair. In other words, don’t go into the show expecting every episode has a happy ending. Some of them ends up with tragedy and even Elaina herself shows moments of despair. She is still a sensitive girl that is vulnerable to deep emotions. But through meeting new people, she improve herself both mentally and physically. Thankfully, the anime isn’t shy on displaying the character personalities and chemistry of the cast. Two of the most noticeable pairs are Elaina/Saya and Elaina/Fran. One of them is based on mutual friendship as their fellow witches. The other is based on a student and mentor relationship as Elaina wants to prove herself. One other noticeable character by the name of Shelia also appears later in the show. Her personality is mostly characterized being an antithesis of Fran. The anime seized the opportunity to show their past and present relationship, and by the end of this series, they became close friends. In fact, I would say with confidence that friendship is an important theme of the show. It’s through friendship that people can understand each other and resolve problems without just resorting to the magic arts. Majo no Taibitai is both a light and dark show, meaning that where there’s light comedy and humor, there’s darkness and despair. The comedy mostly comes from the character personalities of the main cast while the darker elements are hidden within the self-contained stories. However, I will say that overall entertainment value still revolves around Elaina’s journey. She carries this show with each episode that has us, the audience, wondering what’s ahead. Will she live up to our expectations or is her journey one that has serves with little purpose? It’s an ambiguous question because it depends on how you approach the show. Despite the storytelling showcasing episodic adventures, they each have recurring elements that ties the overall anime together. When you’ve seen what this anime for what it really is, then there’s a great chance you’ll want more than just 12 episodes. Studio C2C managed to do excellent work when it comes animating the setting and overall world fiction of the show. From day one, I noticed that every character is distinctive in some way or form. Elaina has the classic look of a young witch complete with a hat, silver hair, and youthful appearance. Similarly, other characters such as Fran and Shelia has their look as more experienced witches. However, the biggest perk of the show is the overall world building. Almost every episode depicts a new setting as Elaina travels from place to place. It sort of feels like playing a JRPG with a character going into towns and resolving new problems. Only here, we follow Elaina on her adventure as we watch her. The different settings are also saturated with colorful content such as the Land of Mages and magical Kingdoms. Without a doubt, Majo no Taibitai convinced me that Elaina’s journey knew what it was doing when it sells its visual storyteller. On the subject of character voice acting, I would like to say the majority of the character cast fulfills their role but Elaina herself can sometime display childish tendencies, which translates to some awkward moments in the show. Other than that, the anime contains charming themes with an elegant tranquility, especially for its opening music song and general pace of its soundtrack. Yes, it’s only 12 episodes long and the light novel has more content if you’re thirsty to continue Elaina’s journey. But judging on the anime adaptation, this is nothing short of a hallmark of entertainment. It shows that when a show with creative ideas and charming character cast is executed together, the storytelling sells itself. You can be the judge and decide to recommend this to others or not. But for me, Majo no Taibitai is a show that sets a fantasy adventure by excellence.

If you went into this show expecting all sunshine and rainbows, you would be sorely mistaken. This is not your typical lighthearted fun adventure. Elaina’s journey is bittersweet and oftentimes filled with some truly dark and depressing moments. The story centers around Elaina, a talented witch who happens to be a rare prodigy. She is coined the Ashen witch based on her long ashen colored hair. Being so young, she embarks on an adventure traveling from place to place encountering many people along the way who all have their own issues. There are many other shows this premise draws similarities to such as Kino’s Journey andMushishi. While in Mushishi, Ginko would go around and help people with their problems, Elaina doesn’t necessarily do that. There are some exceptions but for the most part, she would just happen to stumble upon the misfortunes of other people and choose to not get directly involved. She is a morally grey character and this plays a role in making the show bittersweet and distinct. Not every tale ends in a delightful and happy way meant to teach you some important lesson about life. Elaina isn’t some champion of justice who tries to push her self-righteous beliefs onto others. She is for the most part blunt and distant with her interactions and personality. She is admittedly kind of full of herself, self-absorbed and can come off as a bit of a jerk. If something were to put her at risk with nothing to show for it, she will simply not bother and choose to avoid the issue at hand. As one would guess the show is episodic in nature. Despite this, some of the side characters Elaina meets are recurring resulting in there being a sense of payoff with her encounters and progression in the story. Each episode features a new concept to keep itself fresh. In one episode Elaina could be in a civilization of people who can’t tell lies and in another, she would find herself in a decimated city with an angry fire breathing dragon roaming about. There is no shortage of diversity here. The opening song compliments this as it is a wonderfully light and soothing adventurous soundtrack with gorgeous visuals to ease you into the wonder of the show. This show has some elements of intrigue but it is not without its faults. For one thing, it is a bit slow paced at times so if you are into more of the action stuff, this probably won’t be for you. This is very much a show about absorbing the atmosphere and setting. Unfortunately, while there were certainly some tragic tales and rather unnerving scenes, the majority of them did not invoke much of a reaction from me other than a bit of shock value or dread. I didn’t feel like there was a meaningful lesson to be learned by these tales other than “Oh, life is tragic” or “things are not always what they first appear to be”. It feels a bit monotonous and pointless. This issue is only elevated by the lack of proper character development and herein lies the main strength and weakness of the show: the personality of our main character. While on one hand, some people may find Elaina to be an interesting and charming character as she is simply a traveler who acts more like an observer than a justice seeker, others may view her as being relatively shallow and a narcissist. She more often than not doesn’t bother to help people despite having the means to do so and one can’t help but feel a bit of disconnect. But I do believe that this serves the story well as her lack of involvement in some of these tales gives the world a life of its own as we often don’t see the conclusion to several people’s stories even if a certain outcome was implied. Even with all this power and being a prodigy, Elaina is just as much an ordinary person as anyone else thus begging the question of “why bother getting involved in the first place if it’ll only cause me harm?” The other witch who has a crush on Elaina has a relatively flimsy and one note personality. I didn’t find anyone from the main cast all that interesting. In fact, the only characters I could find any investment in who have some level of depth only appear in one episode while the recurring cast lacks any likability. They could have made things more interesting by having Elaina go through a bit of an emotional and internal psychological struggle. Instead, she comes off as someone who doesn’t care about the messed up world around her and turns a blind eye all while spouting obnoxious one-liners about how amazing she is. We also never really explore her psychology especially after the first episode where it looked as if that would be the case. Unfortunately, she just comes off as a self absorbed character who lacks any endearing qualities aside from being cute which seems to be more than enough of a selling point. With all that said, the visuals are pretty incredible. There are countless gorgeous backgrounds that give more life and personality to the world. There is an attention to detail on small items that would appear on desks or cluttered rooms and some of the buildings in the city landscape. Some of the character designs truly stand out and are appealing like a few of the witches while others like random villagers and townsfolk or some minor characters are pretty forgettable and bland. Elaina’s design is overall fantastic and clearly the main draw of the show. Her dark witch outfit compliments well with her ashen hair giving her the aura of an imposing figure. She is inarguably very cute and definitely stands out among all the other characters. The animation is mostly stunning, capturing the feel of being a whimsical experience filled with magic and witches similar to what you would get from something like Harry Potter. It’s difficult to parse what kind of experience one should expect to get out of Majo no Tabitabi as it almost seems niche. On one hand, it can genuinely be an enjoyable show to watch with its exquisite art and episodic variety. Seeing one tragic tale after another in a seemingly messed up world can be fun as you are never certain what will happen next. It might also scratch that itch that some fans of Kino’s Journey or Mushishi yearn for with a whimsical tale of adventure and uncertainty but at the same time rarely provides anything truly deep or inspirational that you’ll be thinking about down the line. The characters in this show also seem to be lacking in many ways making it difficult to invest in or care about them. But despite there being many flaws with the show, it can still be engaging if you become enthralled in Elaina as a character and whatever tale she finds herself in.

Every season as of late, I can’t help but find myself on the lookout for fantasy stories to sink my teeth into. Oversaturated as the genre may be, sometimes, only sometimes, among all the manufactured shlock you’re likely to find a single gem rising above. Gems in which the fantasy setting is often merely used as a backdrop for a greater purpose, while also fully exploring it without getting caught up in the numerous tired tropes. You can see why the promotional poster alone of Majo no Tabitabi sucked me in. Majo no Tabitabi started out strong. Not held back by lazy tropes, complemented with sometimes breathtakingvisuals and a couple of OSTs that captured the magic of the genre, it wasn’t hard for it to capture my interest and had me expecting more. The lack of tasteless fanservice and the way the characters were written (in the earlier episodes) almost made me think the series’ writing had a distinctly female touch. But decently-executed fantasy often isn’t enough: it’s the focal point of the show that distinguishes it from the rest. The show is about Elaina. This is her story, her journey, and other characters are only anecdotes, mattering only in the extent of how much they relate to her. Putting aside my grievances with the series which I’ll list later, I enjoyed Elaina as a protagonist. It’s not often that a more self-centered, immodest character takes the focus (excluding the overly loud and cocky shounen protagonist trope) -- Elaina feels real, unexaggerated in her demeanor and deeply human. When Majo no Tabitabi is at its best, the show uses her journey and its magical setting to deliver certain ideas with its episodic adventures. For the first four episodes, that use of the setting pleasantly surprised me and kept me coming for more -- the show had not only subverted my expectations of a light novel-based fantasy series protagonist, but also the morals we’re used to in the medium. It is up to the individual viewer whether some of the episodes’ unusual, seemingly anti-idealistic nature feels heavy handed and edgy, or whether it’s a nice breath of fresh air. Majo no Tabitabi doesn’t indulge in edginess or try to “be different” -- while the contrast between some of the more horrible scenes and the cutesy art is a pleasure to watch, even the seemingly grim episodes have satisfying endings, and their messages are often much less edgy and more grounded than given credit for. There is one particular episode where the “edginess”, however, does undeniably stand out — and it comes after a series of more whimsical and light-hearted adventures. I think most viewers will know which episode I’m referring to. Although it’s hailed as the peak of the series, I could only find it jarring and overly shocking after all the light-heartedness that preceded it (despite the terrific job in imagery, I commend the animators). There is little point in having a shocking encounter to break the protagonist down, only to completely forget about its events in the next episodes onwards. I’m not a purist who thinks development is everything a character needs (characterization is great, people!), however, beyond that episode, even directly following it, we barely get to see how Elaina was affected (in fact, her character remains mostly static throughout the series, with some effective characterization sprinkled here and there) -- this wouldn’t have bothered me as much, had the episode not possessed the trappings of a “cathartic” episode for her. If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably wondering “how can that description be anything less than a 7?” I almost feel bad writing this part, after having such high expectations and good faith on the show, but the more I watched, I found myself realizing that too much good faith was wasted on Majo no Tabitabi. It’s hard to pinpoint when exactly my excitement for the next episode turned to mild interest, and then hope that maybe, just maybe the next episode would be better -- though if I had to say, it’d probably be after episode 4. I mentioned how natural and grounded Majo no Tabitabi feels, despite some of its more grim episodes. This only goes for the first few episodes. After a certain point, the show derails to the point of indulgence -- and I’m not talking about amped up edginess. We get a character who reminds me of Demon Slayer’s Zenitsu -- who continually follows and harasses the protagonist, takes away from whatever conflict the characters are involved in, and generally is a nuisance to watch. The gag may be funny to some the first time -- it wasn’t to me, and certainly not the second, third or seventh time. I made the Zenitsu comparison, though I feel that may’ve been unfair to him, when he has a variety of different dynamics with characters other than his love interest -- Majo no Tabitabi being focused on Elaina alone, this tomboy character’s sole intrigue is in her insistent love for Elaina, and little more. That's one weakness of the show's inherent structure, as if you can't make other characters lovable or interesting from Elaina's perspective, then they won't be lovable or interesting to the audience, either. But I could bear through a horribly-written and aggravating cast member every couple of episodes. This show had, after all, a lot of qualities I looked for in fantasy. "It will get better!", I told myself. I think it was around when the show indulged in the typical sister-incest gags that I came to terms with the fact that I’ve been giving it far too much leeway for what it was, a fantasy light novel -- with all its tropes, flaws and failings, only disguised differently and unique enough not to be a waste of time. If you enjoyed the first few episodes and expected more, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. If you haven't, then you probably won't like the rest it has to offer, as it's only an inconsistent plummet downhill from there.

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina, is the perfect anime if you want your blood to boil. Eleina is the absolute worst protagonist I’ve ever seen in any show. I do not mean to be harsh, but her character and what message this anime sends out triggered something in me. All episodes follow 1 or 2 plotlines each, often with new characters. The plotlines often have something to do with each other. This is what, in my opinion, makes it easy to binge-watch for entertainment. I usually enjoy these types of shows, but considering how triggering this series was, I just can’t give it any higherrating. (Spoiler for episode 3): In episode 3, we see 2 different stories. Assuming you've alreadu seen the episode, I'm not gonna go into detail, but both have a pretty infuriating end. One of them revolves around some magically cursed flowers. My problem with it is that it ended with her leaving a dying boy without trying to help. I get that this is a ‘realistic thing to do’, but real people with human emotions are emotionally affected by things like this in the aftermath. Eleina shows no second thoughts, no empathy, no sign of care whatsoever. But it gets worse. The other story shows a maid that has been bought as a slave, and is clearly being abused by her owner. This is a very strong theme to bring in to this kind of show, and if you do choose to have plot lines like this, you need to do it right. It is implied that this maid is likely going to end her own life at some point. Eleina is in a position where helping the girl would be very possible for her, but helping can be hard and her leaving is pretty realistic, yes. What is not realistic is her not showing any regret, nor sadness, nor anger, and it is never mentioned again after this episode. Eleina is the definition of a bystander, and although episode 3 is definitely the worst one, she shows this side of herself throughout the whole show. Calling her a realistic character paints the picture that it is completely normal and okay to not care about anyone else than yourself, and not help anyone if it does not benefit you. This is a dangerous mindset, and I’m scared people on the younger end watching this ends up with the same thought process as shown in Eleina. I enjoy the motive of not doing anything you don’t want to do, that’s a great motive. But this character simply does not care. She is sosiopathically coded, and completely ignorant. In short, I would definitely stay away from this anime, and I would never ever show it to any children. This series romantizises narcissistic, greedy and careless personality traits, and I'm not here for it. That being said, the art style is pretty amazing and aesthetically pleasing. The overall anime is boring and is good for nothing more than rage bait or background noise.