Burn the Witch

Although citizens of London view dragons as a fairy-tale myth, statistics confirm that 72% of the city's deaths are caused by these grotesque beings. Unable to see them, the public is oblivious to their existence. However, in a mirror dimension to "Front London," exists a place where dragons can be seen with the naked eye—"Reverse London."

Ninny Spangcole is a member of a popular girl group. But in Reverse London, she works as a "Witch" at Wing Bind—an organization that dispatches agents to exterminate the beasts and protect the citizens of both Londons using magic. Ninny and her partner, Noel Niihashi, in addition to their jobs, safeguard Balgo Ywain Parks, a young man with an odd connection to the dragons.

Thanks to the Wing Bind's hard work, there were no fatal dragon attacks for almost a century. But the peace shatters when Balgo's presence unexpectedly causes a Dark Dragon to wreak havoc in the city. The witches are further inconvenienced when Ninny's troublesome former bandmate appears in Reverse London—in tandem with another powerful dragon.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Niihashi, Noel Main

Yamada, Yuina Japanese

Spangcole, Ninny Main

Tano, Asami Japanese

Bangnyfe, Bruno Supporting

Kobayashi, Chikahiro Japanese

Osushi-chan Supporting

Hikisaka, Rie Japanese

Parks, Balgo Ywain Supporting

Tsuchiya, Shinba Japanese

Banx Jr., Billy Supporting

Hirata, Hiroaki Japanese

Squire, Sullivan Supporting

Shimizu, Haruka Japanese

Baljure, Macy Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Slashhaut, Wolfgang Supporting

Mugihito Japanese

B. Dipper, Roy Supporting

Tanaka, Miou Japanese

Simone, Jamie Producer

Sueyoshi, Takamitsu Producer

Kawano, Tatsurou Director

Miyoshi, Keiichirou Sound Director

Reviews

Oct 1, 2020

anime-prime

Recommended

Well, this movie was nice to watch. It really brought back that Bleach nostalgia.

While I can't even to begin to express how glad I am that I could experience Burn The Witch immediately as it released, it wasn't a flawless masterpiece. It tried to tell way too much story that could naturally fit in a one hour movie. The world building wasn’t as strong as it could have been. If only this movie had an extra 20-30 minutes to its runtime, like a normal length animated feature, it would have flowed a lot smoother and could have fleshed out the characters and world a bit ... more. Some things weren't explained fully and the characters didn't have enough time to become fully developed. This is especially true for Balgo, who is easily the flattest and least interesting character in the movie.

There is a moment at the end of the movie where two characters hug (sort of), and it feels so random and comes so out of nowhere, that you would think that there actually was a prequel movie to this, since nothing in the movie made it seem like they were on hugging terms.

Another flaw I would give this movie would go to the animation team at studio Colorido. While the fight scenes were well animated for the most part, a lot of the still frames felt stiff. While that may seem like an obvious thing to say, it felt stiffer than most still frames feel. Some of the CG was off-putting as well, but most of the CGI was integrated well.

Now for the positives, as I said before, the action scenes were well animated for the most part. They were very slickly and stylishly animated and the CGI was integrated well most of the time. The Marchen (legendary dragon) was animated nicely as well. The entire backstory scene with Macy and Elly was presented wonderfully. The ED song was nice and the soundtrack fit. The voice cast was all solid as well.

Most of the cast had great designs. The character designs were very Bleach-like and they looked great in this setting. Also, it is just nice to see the Bleach references and to just be back in the world of Bleach. The main characters, Noel and Ninny, are really likable (even if not fully developed), and they really had a natural and believable chemistry between them.

This movie was enjoyable, although I went in to the movie already loving it, so I have a bias. That being said, I think that non-Bleach fans will have a harder time enjoying it than Bleach fans.

There will probably be more animated Burn The Witch content down the road, so it will be interesting to see where the series goes from here.

All in all, an 8 out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 1, 2020

HenriqueNeves

Mixed Feelings

This anime has a disastrous montage.

Burn The Witch is anything but a movie. The biggest problem that prevents any internal logic is the way it was distributed by Crunchyroll. The movie was perforated like a seasonal anime, and the transition between the 3 episodes is disastrous, the narrative tone of each episode gives the feeling that the story is going to be much bigger than it really is.

In the little show time we have, the anime tries to develop an internal problem that doesn't work or just doesn't matter, and tries to assimilate that with a drama of some characters that does not move.

When I ... finished watching, it got that feeling of something unfinished. It can even be a very rich anime visually, but it does not explore any of this, the anime universe is very artificial, it seems that the characters were taken from another world, and played there in the middle.

To conclude, Burn The Witch was not able to enchant at any time thanks to the efforts of the filmmakers who seem to me to have prioritized a visual part without correctly assimilating it as the work's unity.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 28, 2020

Thisizaraisu

Not Recommended

Funny

Burn the Witch is a joke. A sad, overhyped joke.

I personally have not seen Bleach, so I would not understand the connections between this miniseries and Bleach, but I feel like I don't have to to be critical of this pure waste of time. While Burn the Witch is incredibly well-animated, it's so devoid of substance that I couldn't feel any emotion towards this whatsoever. All I could think was that I was glad it only lasts an hour so I wouldn't waste any more of my time on it.

There are so many pieces introduced that don't end up playing any role in the show's ... outcome, and the pieces that do play a role are really stupid. For example, Balgo is one of the worst characters I have ever seen in an anime. His only purpose in the story is to be protected for reasons that are far beyond me, there is no indication as to what his relationships to Noel or Ninny are, and he somehow ends up as a Mary Sue in the very end. What hurts the most is that far more interesting characters get no development whatsoever. Ninny is a protagonist that simply exists, without getting nearly enough of the backstory or development she could have used to become a good protagonist. And yet somehow, Noel gets even LESS development. The show just leaves you with so many more questions than answers because it's so dedicated to the idea of doing nothing with its characters.

Burn the Witch also has perhaps one of the worst climaxes I've seen in an anime. In retrospect I'm glad I felt nothing towards it because if I had somehow become invested in these characters I'm sure the final battle would have been even MORE insulting. There's no story, no satisfying combat, no genuine attempts at comedy (seriously it's almost exclusively the "panzu" jokes"), no good characters, and overall just nothing positive going for it aside from the animation. I wanted to enjoy Burn the Witch, everyone told me I would, but that's just not the way it goes sometimes.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Burn the Witch Episode 3 Discussion Adnash - Apr 8, 2024	4 replies	by LateHero_ »» Jan 8, 9:41 PM
	Poll: Burn the Witch Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) anime-prime - Oct 1, 2020	140 replies	by Yurex »» Oct 21, 2024 9:02 PM
	Poll: Burn the Witch Episode 2 Discussion Adnash - Apr 7, 2024	0 replies	by Adnash »» Apr 7, 2024 11:40 PM
	Who is better Ninny or Noel? DSAO086 - Jan 3, 2024	20 replies	by Koukyoukyoku »» Jan 5, 2024 9:53 AM
	Your favorite character in Burn the Witch(ANIME ONLY) DSAO086 - Jan 3, 2024	9 replies	by oogaboogascary »» Jan 4, 2024 7:51 PM