The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch

The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch — yeah, that's quite an irregular family with dysfunctional circumstances. Mangaka Piroya's only work that is Dekoboko Majo no Oyako Jijou, feels as if the author had some ideas for a simple story and plot, but, however, he/she decided to execute it in a rather...let's just say, questionable way of a gimmicky gag humour comedy that's as idiotic and ham as it can ever be. And before you ham your fists at me, I know the "comedy is subjective" tropey expression all too well. These kinds of "strangers picking up abandoned children" stories have slowly, like Isekai reincarnation stories, becomeone of anime's mainstay tropes, and it seems even more exaggerated this season (see S-Rank Musume, Seiken Gakuin no Makentsukai (via fantasy reincarnation), and Ikenaikyo (via the outcast female MC)), though compared to the offerings as listed above, I would take this show anyday due to its relatively simple nature that anyone (yes, you, the review reader) can watch without any pretext. Anyways, the 200+-year-old young witch Alyssa, who lives alone in her own treehouse, one day finds the abandoned Viola and raises her for 16 years, becoming a full-fledged young adult woman who grows so much bigger in size as compared to her slow-ageing witch "mother" that people mistake the daughter for being the mother figure in the "family." And by appearances, it's not hard to see why it is that way, and that says so for the rather unusual daily lives of both Alyssa and Viola and the people involved with them. Let's start with the close contacts: the witch "Obaa-san" (a.k.a Auntie) friends of Alyssa's — Luna and Giriko. They're quite the nonsensical double trouble of older friends who are practical jokers, but they also care for their lone friend quite well, especially in the early years that Alyssa has had to raise Viola in the years since picking her up. The rather cringeworthy "not-so-boyfriend" material of elf Fennel, however, is that he's a walking joker that has interest in her but always gets stopped by Viola because of her unwavering obsession for Alyssa, or the mother complex a.k.a mom-con. This gets even stupider in the context after Viola wants to have a familiar, and this comes in the form of the "thou hast arrived" ostrich-looking Phoenix, which, my god, is the proper definition of a joker character. I have never, ever once failed to crack laughter over this nonsensical bird with its hilarious one-liners, made only worse when it's pulled with Viola to further implicate Fennel to make sure that he does NOT reach Alyssa in any capacity. Sure, there're other characters worth noting in the series, but the "happy family" of Alyssa, Viola, and Phoenix is where matters lie. Sure, I can gush about both Aoi Koga and Nana Mizuki's VA work here as both female MC leads, but I'd like to highlight veteran VA Takaya Hashi (Naruto: Shippuden's Kakuzu, or more recently as Spy x Family's Desmond Donovan) as Phoenix; his voice just lends perfectly to the bird that, thanks to Piroya's subtle plot-driven dialogue, creates some memorable "stupider than thou" scenes in the show that will fade over time, but what a character. Also, with this show being produced by literally 3rd-rate people: director Masahiro Takata (of the abominable Winter 2023's Hyouken no Majutsushi ga Sekai wo Suberu a.k.a The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World) and his staff, as well as the studio A-Real itself (which this show is its first full half-hour-run TV series), I'd only say that Piroya's material doesn't really need extensive changes to translate from manga to anime (which has covered almost everything of the source material's 6 volumes out so far), and the execution itself came out decent and fine. Low expectations, but still low-key surprised at times. I've really never been too fond of Nana Mizuki when it comes to her Anisongs (the last of which was Spring 2022's Tomodachi Game, which is surprisingly good), and her OP "Sugar Doughnuts" is just skippable at best. The same, however, could not be said for angela's "Welcome!" which definitely, IMO, suited the show's ED song perfectly. The only way to sell this show to you is to purely watch Episode 1 and see if the comedy makes or breaks you. Either way, while the mainstream will not miss out by missing this rather unassuming show, I think it's good if you need just a breather at most.