I have to admit there is surprisingly a good amount of intriguing anime this season that set out to be different than the rest. However, many of these anime pale in comparison to Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina in terms of both quality and premise.
A Magical Ambition
Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina takes place in a fantasy world where witches are revered for their brilliance, elegance, and magical abilities. The story starts in the peaceful land of Robetta with our heroine Elaina, a young girl who’s always dreamt of becoming a traveling witch, much like a heroine she read in books. To achieve this, she trained and studied hard and became the first person to pass the witch exams at age 14 and quickly became an apprentice witch in training. However, due to jealousy, her excellence also prevented other witches from taking her on as a pupil, that is until she meets Fran, The Stardust Witch.
Viewers can easily tell Fran is quite peculiar and separate from other witches, yet despite this, she agrees to take Elaina on as an apprentice. Unfortunately for Elaina, Fran’s teaching methods are unorthodox, to say the least, and she receives lessons mister Miyagi style by becoming a housemaid rather than a witch. After weeks go by without any proper magical training, Fran decides to hold a test for Elaina in the form of magical combat. Elaina tries her best, but she unsurprisingly loses and is demeaned by Fran.
Frustrated and in tears, she realizes the fight was to teach her a lesson on being a humble witch, a trait Elaina is notably missing. Afterward, Elaina undergoes proper training and is finally able to finish her apprenticeship and attains the title of The Ashen Witch. After finally becoming a full-fledged witch, she then leaves home to live off her dream of being a traveling witch. The first episode did well enough to draw the viewer’s attention and make them to grow an interest in the anime’s world and its fantasy elements. The episode was also quite an emotional one for Elaina and one that surprisingly showed a lot of growth despite its short run time. However, it doesn’t give us a full glimpse of her arrogant but soft character, an aspect that was later touched on in subsequent episodes.
Elaina’s Adventures
The next few episodes give us the wandering witch in action and her surprising mix of grim and wholesome adventures. While on her travels, Elaina has encountered a variety of strange occurrences, as well as several peculiar individuals. From encountering a village with a toxic cursed plant to meeting a family with a slave girl as a worker, Elaina has proven on many occasions not to mingle with the affairs of people’s lives whenever she can. Yet, she’s also one to help a lonely girl pass her witch exams, help a strange witch defeat a cursed dragon in a desolate kingdom, help teach a class of training mages, and now more recently, mingle in the affairs of a kingdom that cannot tell lies.
While she’s ran away from things most brazen protagonist cannot overlook, she’s also helped several, but mostly when she’s forced to. This proves Elaina has a sense of cautiousness, unlike most traditional heroes, despite being a capable witch. Though it’s not all her fault, as some viewers would recall from the first episode, before leaving home, one of the rules Elaina’s mum gave to her was to run whenever she is in trouble. Which might be the reason she does just that, perhaps even when she doesn’t want to. Yet this doesn’t stop her from undergoing many antics as, after all, what is a wandering witch without adventures? Luckily not all of Elaina’s travels were filled with grim adventures. In fact, many of them so far have been quite humorous and fun to watch, especially her interactions with others.
Magical Animation
What makes the viewing experience all the better is the anime’s spectacular animation, which is perhaps the best anime this season in that regard next to Adachi to Shimamura (another anime airing this season), and Jujutsu Kaisen. The character models are crisp, the lighting is fantastic, and the magic is surprisingly well animated save from some CG fire I spotted in the first episode. Regardless, the incredible animation really enhances the feel of the anime as well as its fantasy elements, making it a complete package.
Final Thoughts
Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina is by far among the best anime airing this season and one of my close favorites. After six episodes, I can confidently say every minute of the anime is worth the watch, and I can’t wait to see more of Elaina’s intriguing adventures. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the anime’s excellent opening by Reina Ueda, an opening that is now my second favorite this season.
If you haven’t seen Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina, its available to stream right now on Funimation.
Are you a fan of fantasy? have you seen Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.