[Story]
Flying Witch is basically about a 15 year old witch named Makoto who moved into a rural town called Aomori to train as a professional witch. This is where the slice-of-life atmosphere begins.
The atmosphere of the show is super-relaxing. It's like you want to move out of this god-forsaken noisy/polluted city and just live the rest of your days in a (almost) pollution-free quiet rural environment. That's what I felt like when I was watching an episode of Flying Witch every week.
I heard that the creators mentioned Flying Witch as an "iyashikei" show or in English, a "healing" anime show. It's purpose is to basically have a healing or soothing effect on the audience, such as myself. The creators were right! I'm usually always busy on the weekends and having a show like Flying Witch calming down my stress level every week is a huge benefit for me. So not only does the show have a relaxing atmosphere but its "iyashikei"effect completely works and is the only reason why some of you lots shouldn't kill yourself.
Flying Witch is definitely not for everyone and I can tell based on a few reviews/opinions that I've heard from other people. Nothing much happens throughout the show and the pacing is very slow. This might put off people who aren't a fan of slice-of-life genre and some might even find this show extremely boring. That's completely understandable because not everyone wants to watch a character following a cat around the town for an entire episode or drinking at a cafe for half of the episode. However to me, scenes such as the one I recently listed, weren't boring at all. They executed it in a way that made a scene like a character following a cat around the town for an entire episode not boring at all.
One last aspect that I want to talk about is the comedy. They are well done. The comedy isn't forced and they just let the characters do their thing while at the same time, not overdoing it so the funny moments doesn't turn stale. For example, Makoto is somewhat of a klutz and has a bad sense of direction. The show used them to make hilarious moments but they didn't overdo it to the point where she would come off as a dumb character. The character dynamics are also great and they really know how to pair these characters up to create a bunch of cute, heart warming and/or hilarious moments. Also, I forgot to mention that Chinatsu's reactions in the first few episodes are hilarious. It's a kind of reaction that you'd expect when seeing something so bizarre happening right in front of your eyes and just comes of as unbelievable at first. What makes it even more hilarious is the fact that she's just a 9-year old kid and she's seeing something that she'd never expect that she'll see.
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[Art/Animation]: (9/10)
Looking at Flying Witch's visuals and animation makes me somewhat excited at how future J.C Staff's anime will look like. This is actually their best visuals yet and it's way better than their previous works such as Index and Railgun. The visuals looks almost like real life at first look and the character designs are well done and it's not as bland as it used to be when comparing this show to their most recent work.
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[Sound]: (10/10)
The soundtrack definitely, and I mean DEFINITELY played a huge role on why the atmosphere is relaxing. The OSTs are phenomenal. Few examples are those slow piano bits or those slow guitar parts with a flute(?) playing at the same time. I really want to import those CD soundtracks. Now the OP and ED theme song(s)
The OP theme song is "Sharanran" by miwa feat. 96 Neko. The OP theme song is absolutely catchy and I have been listening to it for the past 12 weeks. Also, those claps though. The ED theme song is "Nichijou no Mahou" by Makoto and Chinatsu. Same case as the OP. I love the song and both voice actors have great singing voices. It's not something that I'd expect from a slice-of-life show though but I guess it works.
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[Characters]: (9/10)
The characters are amazing. Each and every one of them has a set of unique personalities that makes them likable in their own ways. None of them came off as annoying. Especially, Chinatsu and Makoto who I thought was going to be very annoying at first but after watching the first episode, the way they acted was realistic and it blew my mind. I mean, it's rare to feature a cast of characters with realistic personalities instead of our usual "Character has to be one of the "dere" traits". For example, Chinatsu was acting like how a kid her age should act and it's hard to believe that Makoto is a 15 year old teenager considering the fact that she's super mature for her age and she likes to do adult stuff like farming, picking out plants and etc. Though, that doesn't mean Makoto acts exactly like an adult. Some of the things she does can come off as rather immature but that's normal since she's just a 15 year old teenager.
Like I said above, the character dynamics are amazing. Pair one of these characters up with another character and you're going to get the same result regardless. A cute, heart-warming, smile-inducing, and funny moments. Chinatsu, Chito-san and Makoto does take the cake though whenever they're on screen.
If you were to ask me like who's my favourite characters in the series then it would go something like this:
Chinatsu > Chito-san > Akane > Makoto > Nao ..... and etc.
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[Enjoyment]: (9/10)
I had low expectations from this series before it aired but after the first few episodes, I ended up enjoying this anime as much as I did watching Non Non Biyori and Non Non Biyori Repeat.
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[VERDICT]
Out of 3 slice-of-life animes that I watched this season, Flying Witch is, no doubt, the best slice-of-life this season. The show's atmosphere is very relaxing and I'm glad that magic isn't widely used in the series. It shows us magic is one of those mysterious elements in our world. The characters are amazing and the show just lets these characters do whatever it wants, which lead to a bunch of cute, heart-warming, smile-inducing, and funny moments. Now, I'm bummed out that I won't get my weekly doses of Flying Witch anymore to relieve my stress levels.
[OVERALL]: (9/10)
Pros:
+The show's atmosphere is very relaxing
+Relaxing pacing
+Best animation J.C Staff has produced yet
+Very relaxing soundtrack
+Fun cast of characters
Cons:
-
