Artiswitch

If you want a short, experimental anime that you can watch in one sitting then this is it. It’s stylish with unique visuals and songs, and isn’t afraid to use these to its advantage when tackling its themes. It only gets better and better as it goes with a gradual transition into a darker tone.

Artiswitch is ultimately about wishes and their consequences, both good and bad. It’s not the typical “be careful what you wish for,” type moral either. It boils down to what the character themselves wished for in order to be happy, and this is shown through both simple and extreme wishes. It ... leaves a lot up to the viewer to decide on, never outright stating the outcome of a wish as being right or wrong. It never comes across as pretentious either, with many of the issues raised being able to be tied back to real-life situations.

The CGI might not be for everyone, but it allowed for flexible animation and a number of visually impressive scenes when mixed with varying imagery and backgrounds. You can see the animators really using the CGI to their advantage and it pays off. Each episode brings something new to the visuals, and each one is great in its own way. It isn’t afraid to get experimental, and it pays off brilliantly. There is a decent amount of symbolism, and the visuals aren’t all for show. You can look into any episode and find a number of clever visual tricks that match the thoughts and feelings of each character. The music in each episode is just as great. You should’ve seen my surprise when they had a damn Moe Shop song start playing in episode 4.

Overall, Artiswitch far exceeded my expectations. I went in completely blind and by the end of the second episode I was really impressed by everything it offered. Anyone stumbling across this like I did should check it out, at least until the fourth episode. The 8-minute episodes make it easy to consume and it is always straight to the point without ever feeling rushed.

8/10 – I would highly recommend watching it at least for the unique experience it offers.

It is artsy and over the top, but in a good way.

The episodes are short, but the director manages to make us fall in love with the characters instantly. Everything is well thought the characters act in refreshingly real ways, never acting forced or over the top. It all feels close to heart, intimate and bittersweet.

Without spoilers, I'll just say that the anime's theme is people's inner wishes or inner true self, and about how hard it is to be true to our nature in a world where everything is judged, everything is online and we put such high expectations on ourselves.

This message reaches ... not only the viewer, but also seems to defend the anime itself, which is so different from anything I have ever seen before. It screams "This is me, deal with it" and ask us, the viewers, to also step out of our comfort zone and give the anime's different art-style a chance. The result is a perfect harmony between the story, the characters, the anime, the style and even the viewer, urging us to break-out and long for a version of ourselves that is free and, ultimately, happy.

The art is GORGEOUS, making up for the 3d-animation by presenting us with a beautiful journey full of spectacle and colors at every frame. And the soundtrack manages to match not only the anime as a whole, but also the feelings of its characters as they change through the story. Oh, and the costumes are amazing! I love the clothes, the colors, the way characters adapt their looks to each story. It is worth watching for that alone, and so much more.

If you like colors, music, art & feelings, then this is for you! It is a true masterpiece that ends upmaking us feel nostalgic, not only for more episodes, but for a long-lost version of ourselves.

I LOVE IT!

Ikeda-San, you've got a new fan!

Artiswitch is one of the most unique animes I've ever had the pleasure of watching.

-Story 10/10-
The plot is quite straight-forward, a witch grants people's wishes, ultimately giving them a chance to shine in life and unlock their deepest secrets

-Art/Animation 10/10-
The art and animation was very unique, from time to time time I could tell the animation was done in a 3D program whereas other times it seemed like the animation was drawn in 2D.

Character designs were so pleasant and I loved the artistic choices

... -Sound 10/10-
I loved the voice acting and the songs, everything had so much emotion to it

-Characters 10/10-
Each and every character was different and catered to different people, maybe someone related to one character or multiple or maybe someone didn't relate to anyone at all. Regardless of relatability, all of the characters are unique

-Personal enjoyment 10/10-
I really enjoyed watching this anime since I needed something quick to get me back to watching more anime.

-Overall 10/10-
I think everyone should watch at least one episode of the masterpiece

A pleasant surprise: Wonder Egg visuals, xxxHolic psychological episodes and a dark overarching story connecting things. Showcases Sunrise's S-tier CGI with content by freelance creatives. Amazing music, art direction, character and fashion design. Actually fashion design is a very strong suit of the show, thee pretty clearly were people from that area of expertise involved.

With only 6x8 minutes the show still manages to go trough classic story telling patterns. It introduces the world and main character, then it adds darkness (teen suicide) to her "business as usual" episodic format. At this point it's heavily influenced by xxxHolic, just that the darkness overcomes the witch and ... not her clients. Then we get crisis, catharsis, backstory and a closed ending. Not too shabby for the runtime, and even more so when the pacing manages to stay graceful.

This is a quick modern short, a technical presentation and test of Sunrise's world class CGI. The show is pure CGI of course. I think the company does projects like this to research animation of styles and objects not routinely in their mecha and sci-fi oriented code and library. And this experiment went beyond technical, yielding a little gem in the "short episodes" format. (6/10)

I thought that this show was incredibly written with some of the best music/soundtrack i've heard in a while. Each episode is only about 8 minutes long, though in those 8 minutes, the story and world building is incredible. Each character has a great amount of depth, complete with flaws, and creates a complete story.

The animation could be choppy with odd physics at times, such as the climax of episode one, though overall I enjoyed the unique use of 3d models and 2d backgrounds. If the frame rate was just slightly higher many of the animation issues would be resolved. Each 'peer deeper' moment ... had its own unique setting and animation, along with a motif, which is refreshing to see.

I enjoyed this show immensely, though I know 3d animation is a turn off for a lot of people.

I love shows like this so much!! Just for your info, my favourite show of all time is Madoka. So this show managed to win me over completely. And that just with 6 episodes which only take 8 minutes each. I got curious because of the pretty artstyle and went and watched them all on Youtube through the playlist.

The music is alright. I was suprised to see one of my favourite producers (Giga) on the setlist. So they scored points for that one.

I'm a gigantic fan of these shows that start out lighthearted but then get absolutely emotional. I totally reccomend watching if you enjoy ... the madoka series and its spinoffs. It leaves you crying (me at least) because their stories are just so relatable. I feel like this show has a very nice and strong message, and more people should watch it!

If you are a person that is weak of heart however, I wouldn't reccomend it. as the show talks about depression, not fitting in, and being suicidal. I do feel like they handle these topics with respect, and it even had me crying in the end. I'd say give the first episode a try at least, if anything else.

This anime is so underrated, it's an over-the-top fun anime that goes into a darker side. The style also needs recognition, Artiswitch is another anime going for 3d models for their characters, but most parts of a scene is usually drawn, and the whimsical almost insane style when they "peer deeper" (they did change it from "peer deeper" to "look deeper" but I think "peer deeper" just sounds cooler)is so unique.

The music is very nice and goes really well with the wish worlds, especially Ruru's where she went insane along with the song. The plot may be loose at best but we're only on Episode ... 5 at this point so there's so much more to come for this great anime.

The characters that have their wishes granted may not get as much screen time as (who I presume is the main character) Nina, which is saddening, but we get to see a lot about those characters, but some have a mystery of "What's going on inside their heads?" like Ruru when she killed herself as her wish, which did actually affect Nina as a character/person and gives a reason why Nina wants to run. A character I wished that got more screen time is Akihiro because he was so interesting, especially his wish world. I liked the screen time for Mana because I'm a big fan of emo/punk stuff.

I absolutely loved this! Nina is such a well-written character and clearly shows her emotions for what they are. Haruka doesn't follow the norm of being either girly, or boyish, and is just herself. Mana feels the pressure of the people around her to be like them but also really wants to be herself. Akihiro wants to be recognized for his art but people choose someone else to idolize. Lulu (ruru) is specific in what she does and doesn't like, her wish was different than the rest and made me tear up seeing Nina's reaction. Tiara just wants Saki to be happy but that's not ... what ends up happening. And episode 6, made me cry so much. Nina deserves the world.


It is quite dark but I'd recommend this to everyone. The CGI made to look 2D looks amazing. 10/10, would recommend.

So Nina’s shop is basically therapy, huh?

This short series can only truly be described as a mix of emotions, in the best way.

There are parts of this series that I truly needed, especially in terms of my identity and confidence, as well as a deep dive into what truly motivates me to keep going. Nina is a really interesting character and the fact is that a lot of the time, the people who strive to help others who have been hurt before, the most, have been hurt themselves.

The messages in this show are astounding, the visuals are confusing, yet also pretty stunning. I wouldn’t say ... this web series is for everyone, of course. But if this seems to be up your alley and you’ve been considering it, I’d say go for it.

Overal score: 8/10