Anime review: Flying Witch!

Tired of explosions, giant robots, and stupid ass tsundere girls who hook up with the main character?  Well you can take a break and still watch a good anime.  So I present to you, Flying Witch!

Flying Witch is the story of 15 year old witch-in-training, Makoto Kowata.  Who comes to live with her aunt in the small farming town that her aunt, uncle, and their two kids live in.  In the world Flying Witch witches still existent and so does magic to a certain extent.  Only a small handful of normal people know they still exist and the witches generally live normal lives, only practicing magic to help others and improve or keep their own skills fresh.  At the age of 15 all witches must undergo a training journey where they leave their home and begin their personal training somewhere away from home in order to broaden their horizons and improve their skills.

While Makoto is a witch, she is unfortunately not a very skilled or dedicated one.  She can basically fly on her broom and communicate with her familiar, a black cat named Chito.  In fact the anime really isn’t about her learning new spells and potions.  It is about the every day life of Makoto in her new home.  Almost every episode shows the daily life of Makoto and her family as they go about their every day lives, and not much magic is shown.  Such as in one episode Makoto and her cousins go out to the forest to pick herbs that go well with dinner.  And in another episode Makoto learns about farming when her older cousin Kei decides to plant a garden in the back yard.  Yeah its seems to be typically boring stuff.

So why am i writing a review about such a seemingly boring anime?  Because when I started watching it back in April 2016 i didn’t expect much either.  But i was quickly blown away by it and watched the entire series.  Flying Witch and other animes like it are in a genre referred to as Slice of Life anime (SoL).  Or as the many American otakus call it, “Comfy” animes.  Both terms sum up what the anime is about and how the anime makes you feel.  SoL anime is generally quite tame, and has little to no action, romance, or drama to it, but it does have some humor.  Since its just a anime about every day life and every day life is generally pretty tame.  And yet i could not wait to get home from work every Sunday during 2016 to download and watch this anime.  It helped me relax, got rid of a lot of stress, and made me smile.  From the opening theme to the ending theme i enjoyed every last minute of every episode.

Flying Witch and a number of other SoL animes that i have watched have been my biggest enjoyment over the last year.  The characters are interesting and the stories in each episode draw you in with not only curiosity, but when you learn things about different facets of life and even farming.  The animation is top notch in my opinion and to make things even more interesting the town that Makoto lives in is based on a real life town in Japan.  So often each episodes have scenes of buildings and environs of the real life town.  Its gives you a few moments to take it all in and enjoy it.

Now if this type of anime isn’t your thing then you won’t enjoy Flying Witch in the least.  But if you are looking for something different and you have a open mind then you might enjoy Flying Witch alot.  I suggest you look it up on Pirate Bay, Nyaa, or Youtube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anime Review: KonoSuba!

KonoSuba! is the shortened name for the anime named Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!, which means God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World!

Following an untimely and embarrassing death, Kazuma Satō, a Japanese teenage shut-in NEET, meets a goddess named Aqua, who offers to reincarnate him in a parallel world with MMORPG elements, where he can go on adventures and battle monsters. Despite being offered a godlike item or ability to use in this new world, Kazuma, following some provocation, chooses Aqua herself to accompany him to the town of Axel, quickly finding her absent-mindedness to be less than beneficial. With Aqua unable to return to the afterlife until the Devil King is defeated, the two form a party and recruit two other members; an explosion-obsessed magician named Megumin and a masochistic paladin named Darkness.  Due to the party’s dysfunctional abilities, Kazuma quickly gives up on the idea of defeating the Devil King and tries to live a luxurious lifestyle, only to find the circumstances of his daily life force him and his party to encounter and battle the Devil King’s generals.

KonoSuba is a hilarious Isekai (high fantasy) comedy anime that premiered about January 2016 ago and has just finished its second season last week.  The anime is based on a Japanese light novel series of the same name and strongly sticks to material in the light novel series.

Kazuma while thoughtful, kind and overall a decent guy quickly falls into depression and angst due to the fact that his party of adventures are basically screw-ups.  Because of this he just decides to drift through his new life and live a life of luxury.  He is currently living in a somewhat abandoned mansion with the rest of his party.

Each of Kazuma’s party is somewhat eccentric and dysfunctional.  Aqua is the goddess which he requested to go with him when he first decided to be reborn as a adventurer in the new world, but he did so because she teased and berated him about how he died.  Aqua, originally as a goddess, was the goddess of water purification, rebirth after death, or some form of resurrection after a untimely death, is a powerful arch priest and can cast water spells, healing spells, and spells that resurrect people after they have died in some form of violence.  She can also cast spells that destroy, banish, or purify the undead.

Unfortunately Aqua  is selfish, arrogant, behaves childishly whenever she chooses, loves to drink and party to excess, is basically a alcoholic and spends money like water.  She is often the source of the financial hardships that Kazuma faces in the first season.  To make matters worse, she is pretty much an idiot who often screws up tasks in battle, meaning she has to be rescued by Kazuma.  Another weird trait she has is that her aura purifies anything liquid back into water.  So she can’t make tea or many other beverages because her aura turns it back into water.  Yet this doesn’t seem to work on alcohol. Her aura also attracts demons and the undead to her, so the longer she remains outside of the city the more likely that the party will be besat upon by undead that are near by or demons.  She often refuses or forgets to depress her aura because she thinks that as a goddess she shouldn’t have to tone down her ‘holy presence’.  Although she and Kazuma have some form of sibling like friendship.  Kazuma is often annoyed with her childish behavior, but he is dependent upon her to revive him if he dies in battle.

 

The next person to join Kazuma’s party is Megumin.  A teenaged girl from the Crimson Magic Clan.  Although she is a young prodigy is is obsessed with using the powerful magic spell Explosion.  While the spell can pretty much wipe out anything it is cast against it is useless in dungeons due to the fact that it would end up collapsing the dungeon on the party.  Yet Megumin refuses to learn any other magic spells and has put all her skill and learning points into making the spell much more powerful.  So instead she ends up collapsing after using the spell only once and is rendered immobile after casting it, so she needs to be protected by the rest of the party after she uses it.  This has resulted in her being rejected or kicked out of other adventuring parties, so she somewhat blackmailed her way in Kazuma’s party

Megumin is has a somewhat chunni personality.  But apparently most of the people in her village do as well.  As chunni type of person she’s usually cheerful and somewhat excitable.  But as with most chunni types she has a tendency to over-exaggerate her skills and abilities and often uses elaborate poses and long winded chants to cast her Explosion spell.  While she is actually considered the most level headed girl in among the three girls in the party, her chunni tendencies and her obsession with Explosion magic make her a kind of irritating party member.  She is usually the one who points out how silly Aqua and Darkness are acting.

The final party member to join Kazuma’s team is Darkness.  A noble woman whose true name, which she keeps a secret because she is somewhat embarrassed by it, is Lalatina Dustiness.  Darkness decided to become a crusader, which is similar to a noble knight and/or paladin.  Crusaders travel the world helping others and defending people and towns from monsters.  But Darkness has a serious problem, she can’t hit anything with her sword.  Even when the target is standing absolutely still she seems to miss.  And while she considered a tank due to her armor and resilience because she can’t hit anything, she only good for taking a beating which is fine since she’s also a masochist.

Darkness is so deep into being a masochist that she often will charge an opponent in hopes of being injured.  She also becomes highly aroused being embarrassed in public or verbally and physically abused.  She gets off so much on these things that she often has orgasms during a fight or when she’s in a near death situation.  This is all much to the embarrassment of Kazuma, but everyone else seems to see a selfless Crusader who is willing to risk death and injury for the sake of her comrades and her belief in protecting others.  And while she can’t seem to rein in her masochism, she is in all truth, ready to give her life for her friends and her duties as a Crusader.

Konosuba is utterly hilarious in its action and writing.  The characters all play off one another really well and the animation is really good.  While it can be a little ecchi at times it never becomes too sexual for its own good.  Its one of the few animes that could pull completely from the source material without being ruined by it.  Although some of the in-jokes can get kinda stale after a while the situations that Kazuma and his party often get into are made even more hilarious by the fact that they are so dysfunctional and yet somehow manage to pull off a win due to luck or some planning by Kazuma.  Its a great anime and worth the watch!