Maebashi Witches

disclaimer: my technical review in this part might be bad take but ill keep it genuine on real talk part based on my viewing experience on this anime mahou shoujos x idols is rare breed and both of these genres are my favorites so i wont miss watching it, the animation is good too mixing 2D and 3D though they only switch to 3D when performing STILL they stick to shiny/glowy beautiful animations, even their character designs are beautiful themselves, their personalities were shockingly unique 1st of a kind individuals in anime history its like real personalities of a real person real talk: story is simple they helppeople grants their wishes so they can become witch themselves thats all ngl deep down i was expecting atleast a fight scenes since they have magic powers but they didn't in fact they are leaning towards on emotional support which is very modern and tranquillity way of dealing problems , now for the best part in this show was DRAMA and DIALOGUE, the drama was legit rollercoaster in this anime that it made me think " huh? is this gonna be a plot twist?" while dialogue is so casual, so casual that it was refreshing and entertaining to hear their conversation its like im watching sss gridman all over again but only girls version lol, anyways in short everything on this anime was literally modern aesthetic while added a bit of fantasy to spice their plot? btw also gonna review their songs and choreography since its idol, tbh it was ok i guess? songs sometimes hit or miss to me while their choreography was nah pass P.S tbh i dont know how to review this anime so i was thinking of skipping it but it was a good show so i had to even if bad way of explaining it so.... my bad in advance

To my surprise, i liked the anime. Of course there are problems here, but i don't want to spoiler it. It's not a new madoka, but it's very good in the idol genre. The characters have flaws, the characters change, the anime sometimes raises serious topics. Some are very nasty, and in others you want to say "this is literally me". Very beautiful design and good animation, but 3d is the average. I honestly didn't like the songs, but i guess the lyrics are good? I just didn't have subtitles for the songs so it's hard to say, but i guess every song is related tothe plot. But again, i'm not an idol fan and i don't listen to that. I prefer girls bands (for an example girls band cry), but almost not listen to idols. I watched mostly for the plot and the characters. It's not something brilliant, but it was interesting for me and i think that's the most important thing. Sometimes the characters had very clever and philosophical discussions. The main problem of the anime is the frog, the main advantage is the relationship between Yuina and Azu. And the entire Choco arc. Also it's a little hard for me to believe that this is the first anime for most seiyuu. They did a good job.

This anime is about a group of young magical girls(witches) who must grant wishes to regular people so they can become full time witches with more unrestrained power. Its a nice looking anime which only looked bad during idol song & dance sequences when it switched to CGI. The show is primarily for young girls. If you are a boy you might have hard time with the show, as the show is very girly. This is a good shoujo show, and I am not the target audience. There is hardly any male characters in the show. The clients the witches grant wishes too are also girlsor women. And the wishes are very grounded. Nobody wishes for a million dollars, or super powers or immortality. So it never gets too overly exciting. I think it is a positive for the show. Though I haven't seen a ton of Shoujo, this does feel unique enough even though the familiar(magical creature) recruiting girls to become magical girls is a common troupe. And guess what it is a original show, not one that is derived from manga or light novels. My Rating: 7/10 (Good)

Maebashi Witches — an "idol" show with no strings attached to similar counterparts. How You Like Dat? I'm just going to be frank with you: the feeling of sometimes having to play Devil's Advocate on some shows that the minority will think are "the greatest thing in the world," but which are sold in a genre that the masses will generally skip, is these kinds of unintentional Freudian slips that expose quite the fanbase that those shows are marketed towards, and let's be fair here: they work out for the most part. This is most certainly the case with Sunrise's newest non-"Idol-based" series, Maebashi Witches, anot-so-Love Life!-esque series that's all about being regional witches to help people solve their problems, no matter how major or minor the issues can be. If you're wondering why the "minority" here would speak up and give praises to "idol" shows like this, bear in mind that Maebashi Witches, despite having Sunrise's smooth flair of animation to boot, is both down to people's biased generalization that "all-girl song-based anime are all idol shows" and how that perception led people to believe that the series is marketed towards people who love idols and the like, which has always been a myth to begin with. In actuality, the Gunma Prefecture-based capital city blend with the Mahou Shoujo element brings about this in a coming-of-age fashion, though all is not what it seems when the series progresses on to a different radical. And if you're wondering even further, yes, it's the 5 central girls of the group of Maebashi Witches, featuring the vibrant-but-annoying Yuina Akagi, the hard-headed fashionista Azu Niisato, the caring, level-headed Kyouka Kitahara, the optimistic nickname meister Choco Mitsumata, and last but not least, the carefree Mai Kamiizumi, alongside the Sergeant Keroro-esque Keroppe. Their central control of operations in the comfort of a magical flower shop where anyone can come in and have their worries known sets the stage where the 5 girls can parade their customers with magic, music, and mayhem that's filled with the caresses of the broken human heart, all in one place. The Maebashi Witches are rowdy, but you get to know them well through the daily grind, which allows the new Mahou Shoujo witches to grow through their experiences, which are mostly cookie-cutter. It's marketed in such a way to get you rooted to each and every one of them, and while it's not bad, it's the absence of the story plot that, while it can be interpreted as lacklustre, instead gives an opportunity to shine in an open-ended way for the writers to know what values they want to bring into the anime, which can be rather mediocre for the most part, trying to wait for "something" to act. Alas, if "idol" shows like this are not your cup of tea, the show certainly doesn't try to alienate itself from the minority of the devoted fans, because all the annoying aspects, from how the characters act to even the songs themselves, feel like talents are wasted just to market to hardcore Love Live!-esque fans. And it's very noticeable at that. That being said, Sunrise (or, more appropriately, Bandai Namco Filmworks) certainly has given more flair to the shows they produce, and Maebashi Witches is no different for the most part. Directed by Junichi Yamamoto alongside veteran scriptwriter Erika Yoshida, it's the latter's writing that'll speak volumes to those who love this show to pieces, and I'll acknowledge that her writing is definitely better than expected, especially during the final moments of the series. Even the OST reeks of that of an idol show with the rather catchy OP and a slower, but still upbeat song for the ED, from the VAs of the Maebashi Witches themselves. At the end of the day, I know that I'm probably going to undersell the show as just your typical idol-inspired garbage (fact-speaking for the majority here), but the underlying truth is that Maebashi Witches is a show that wears its heart on its sleeve and depicts it as such, which, while there's not much going for it, has a poignant theme of (the power of) friendship and acceptance that you'll only come across every once in a while, and its execution can be a hit or miss. So...feel free to flame me, I guess? Maebashi Witches isn't bad, but it was a journey of highs and lows to thoroughly accept it in its various forms of enjoyment.