The Witch and the Beast / Majo to Yajuu Episode 1
Overall Score So Far: 9/10
WE'VE GOT A HOTTIE LINE UP OF ALL GENDERS!!
Guideau on the left, Ashaf in the middle, and Genderless Hottie on the right :3
HOW ARE THEY ALL SO PRETTY.
Anime, now with more CROW BAIT. This time it's literal!! :D
OF COURSE the Goth With The Coffin on his back can use CROW MAGIC. AHHHHHHH.
Also, Guys.
You guys.
Fucking TOSHIYUKI MORIKAWA is voicing Ashaf.
THE VOICE OF SEPHIROTH. GRIFFITH FROM BERSERK. DANTE FROM DEVIL MAY CRY. TYKI FROM D. Gray Man.
We get THE KING OF THE DARK AND BROODY SEXY MAN VOICE.
And Guideau is voice by Taichi, You - Jousuke from JoJo, Suphia from TenSura, Saya from Dead Mount Death Play, and Dorothy from Princess Principal!! A great rough and tumble voice perfect for Guideau. (1st Epi Spoiler: I can't tell if she's voicing Guideau's true form.)
More Episode 1 Spoilers Below!
I don't really know what I was expecting except for Hot Goth Dude with a Coffin Boyfriend, and a badass punch-em-up beauty with a nasty mouth from the PV on youtube, but that's what I got and more, and I am so very pleased about it.
I was SO EXCITED ABOUT THE CROWS YOU HAVE NO IDEA. Hottie Mage whips out a spell covered arms and MY BABIES ARE BURSTING FORTH IN A MURDER OF ADORABLE!!! I might have woken up Capybara's deaf elderly neighbors in my excitement.
What I was not expecting was a giant Zom 100 Shark to show up in the middle of the city lmfao.
Zom 100 Zombie shark on the left and Big Buff Giant Shark Dude on the right.
It's just a dude whose turned himself into a shark with magic, who immediately gets dispelled by a witch, and that THIS IS A NORMAL OCCURANCE??? People are like, oh noooo, there's a giant shark, Ione will deal with iiiiit, no worriesssss.
The implications this gives of a mixed soft/hard magic system tho.
I'm really looking forward to learning (or maybe not learning and discovering through negative space) the rules that don't get broken (which is necessary for a magic system), but also hope that they'll be playing hard and fast with what's possible. Cause seriously, wtf is this shark. Delightful, lol.
They mind games played with "Are Witches Bad or Not?" in this episode is fun, because as a viewer going in blind, we could have had some lawful good protagonists or we could have had some chaotic anti-heros, and I would have accepted either outcome. We kind of get both and that's even better!
Trying to include a speech about the morals of getting revenge with Ione as she tries to justify her actions for removing the lock on her grandmother was interesting, but I'm still not sure if her Grandma was the one to cause the fire and people 300 years ago killed her, or if her getting blamed for the fires and then killed just so happened to lock the fire away, but either way...
Along with this I'm not surprised by the coven of would-be witch's nor the attempts by them to claim that witches aren't bad, "you're just like everyone else," when you can tell from the art that the stereotypes in this world hold weight, lol.
However, I don't know WHY I was surprised by said witches getting their hands and feet removed as part of a ritual summoning of hellfire.
How... how is there not blood E V E R Y W H E R E ??!!?? Some heavy duty arteries have been cut, yo. I guess there kind of is but there should be MORE.
Ashaf finally figures out what's going on and gives in to Guideau, letting her go wild, and HELL YES I love it when we get a beast gremlin on a rampage!
Witch Laser Beams! Sure!
I also LOVE when Characters get the shit beat out of them and then
Keep. Standing. Up.
The very purposeful listing of the two ways to lift a Witch's spell at the very beginning of the show, True Love's Kiss or A Change of Heart),was such a great Chekhov's Gun that I knew there was probably going to be another (secret) way to deal with it.
Fuck yea, angry kiss!! Let Guideau feast on your soul!!
But the most surprising thing that has me fully on board and ready to rock and roll is Coffin Boyfriend.
What gender is Coffin Boyfriend? We don't know.
However.
Coffin Boyfriend is not a third character like I initially expected.
Coffin Boyfriend is Mother Fucking Guideau Y'all.
Everything makes so much sense now. Ashaf carries coffin boyfriend's true body around in his backpack like it's no big thing.
And Guideau, with all that rage packed into a tiny little body, has to go around kissing witches to switch from her current body back to the original to then proceed to beat the shit out of said witch.
I fucking here for this. I'm so hype.
Hot Bois, Crows, Body/Gender Swaps, Witch and Magic Fuckery. I'm here for it all, y'all.
(I might even go read ahead in the manga for this one cause OH MY GOD MANGA ASHAF IS ALSO VERY GOOD)
This ART STYLE.
But also... Chrollo? Is that you?
Ashaf on the left, Chrollo Lucilfer from Hunter X Hunter on the right.
I love this. I love their vibe. After Apothecary Diaries, this might just end up being my favorite this season. I'll save that judgement for a few more episodes in though.
ep2 ep3 ep4 ep5 ep6 <- these will eventually become links
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