Story: Kowata Makoto is a witch in-training who comes to Aomori, a rural area of Japan that is far away from the usual bustle of city life to live with her cousin and his relatives as she journeys to become a full-fledged witch.
While it doesn't look like it from the outside, the majority and beauty of Flying Witch is its simplicity and its rather basic nature. Every episode has Makoto and various characters in the series experience different and sometimes magical events around town that offer a new adventure with just a touch of whimsy to each and every one. None of these so-called adventures are extremely outlandish with most of them pertaining to simple, everyday tasks like going to the store, spending time with others at home, or even just going out for a walk with only a very small amount of them being somewhat extreme in terms of what the adventuring is. But what really separates this show from other similar concepts is the execution and unique flair that the show adds to it.
As the show is also about witches and the supernatural in order to add that one little touch of whimsy to the series, the show very often showcases magic and other magical attributes associated with witches. However, the magic in the show is extremely subtle, similar to magic in the real world. There're no dramatic spells or effects, with the biggest thing to come out of actual magic in this series being just a small little poof if anything. This subtlety adds to the overall feel of the show to make it seem as though that even real life events can be magical regardless of how mundane they can be.
The only real downside that I can see with this show is the fact that this show is extremely atmospheric. While the story aspect and overall feel of the series is what drives it to become this whimsical everyday tale that it is, the calm and gentle atmosphere has very often been the problem for many people who want something to 'happen' as some have stated. The show doesn't really have any high points nor does it have any low points. It's a slice of life series that pertains to the life of a young witch living in a rural town, so it's a kind of show that sadly, doesn't really appeal to everybody.
Despite that, Flying Witch still holds its merit for being a wonderful show due to its calm and beautiful atmosphere to give it this individual feel to it. The show kept its own pace and delivered what they wanted to do each episode. In fact, I come out of the series feeling like I didn't even watch enough of the show because I was smiling throughout the whole episode and was so engrossed in this gentle world that the episode ended just right after I started it. Even with me watching the OP and ED every episode, every episode just felt too short. That's how you can tell that it's a good show.
Overview:
+ Simple and whimsical atmosphere
+ Even pacing
+ Subtlety in all aspects to pertain it to real life
- Gentle atmosphere has been known to make people despise this show
Characters: The characters in Flying Witch are what could be described as normal people in a sense. While yes, there are a few outlandish/mythical characters and the main character is technically a witch, the majority of the cast aren't these exaggerated and overdone character tropes, but just simple rural people that enjoy the simpler things in life.
First there's Kowata Makoto. A directionally challenged witch in-training, Makoto is the main character of the series who spends the majority of time in the series like all of the other characters, living their quite lives out in the countryside. However, beyond this, Makoto doesn't particularly have any other traits to her. Beyond what is established, Makoto doesn't really change much in ways of character development in the series and are more or less introduced to new things rather than grow as a person. She, like the rest of the cast are very simple characters that don't have too much to them.
Then there's Kuramoto Chinatsu, Makoto's younger cousin who is introduced to the world of witches. Chinatsu is a bright, energetic, and adventurous elementary schooler who finds fascination in the world of witches, often times being shown the magic and/or parts of the witch world. She sort of plays the audience in the series as she, like the audience, are being shown these whimsical things that add a bit of spice to the series.
The rest of the characters in the series more or less play the part of going along with the ride. I chose to weed out Makoto and Chinatsu specifically because they both get the most screentime. In actuality, all of the characters play similar parts to these two girls by just being characters that go along with the ebb and flow of the series and live out whatever event that is going on at the time whether it'd be the unique task of the day or meeting someone new. As such, these characters don't really feel like characters so much as they feel like the ones on stage who are showing us, the audience what new thing that they're going to do for us today. They add to the atmosphere rather than being what the show is about, so the characters fall flat a bit in that sense.
Overview:
+ Characters aren't tropes but feel like people
- The story drives the characters rather than the other way around
Art: Produced by J.C. Staff, a company that has had both its ups and its downs, Flying Witch is one of their projects that got a substantial budget and got a very good treatment in terms of the quality of its production. The overall color scheme is bright and cheerful, with the show boasting high quality and production art that was breathtaking to look at. And the water looked like REAL WATER. (Do you know how hard it is to animate good water?)
I think what really made the art for Flying Witch just exceed expectations is the fact that virtually every location that was drawn and animated for the series was based off of a real-life location. Every background that was made for the series was an almost 1:1 comparison to the real world location and that to me is not only mind-boggling, but just shows the dedication and the lengths and the effort that was taken to make this series so pretty.
As for character designs, the show boasts a moe style that leans towards realism rather than an 18 year old girl looking 10. The characters still have relatively big eyes and cute appearance, especially since the majority of the cast is female, but the characters looked more like their actual age than opposed to what other shows have done. However, if you're not a fan of the moe artstyle, than this might still be a bit of a tougher watch for you.
Overview:
+ Excellent, high-quality art
+ Wonderfully made backgrounds
+/- Moe artstyle for character designs
Sound: Ah, yes, the OST. The OST brings just so much joy to this series. Adding into the calm and gentle atmosphere for the series, the soundtrack for Flying Witch utilizes several key instruments like piano, acoustic guitar, bell, flute, and clarinet to give it that airy and whimsical sound like a gentle breeze to add to the already pleasant atmosphere.
For its OP, we have "Sharararan", an OP that I NEVER skipped. The OP is this extremely happy and cheerful opening that I always had the urge to clap to every time I heard it. It's the kind of feel good song that you can't help but smile to or dance along to just because of how catchy it is.
Its ED, Nichijou no Mahou, is a gentle and quieter song sung by Makoto and Chinatsu's seiyuus that acts as the quieter night to Sharararan's sort of morning feel. It's a good song, but compared to the other tracks in the show's OST, it doesn't compare or stack up to everything else that's there in the OST.
Overview:
+ Overall, wonderful OST
+ Catchy clap-along to OP
- ED kind of lags behind a bit.
Personal Enjoyment: Flying Witch is a series that I never thought I would find myself addicted to. At first glance, I knew that the show was going to be pretty good just because of the amount of time and effort that J.C. Staff put into it, and their track record when it came to devoting an entire seasonal or at least most of the budget into one show. But I never expected myself to be so enveloped in such a calm and gentle feeling that only left me wanting more. After finishing it, I'm a bit at a loss for words cause I quite honestly want more of this series.
Did I enjoy this series?
Yes. Despite the fact that there are some people who absolutely despise this series for being 'boring', I for one is one of those people who enjoys those kinds of 'boring' shows. Every episode gave me something new to engross myself with, and hell, if you can make a show have a cat, just a normal cat, be as interesting or even more so than her human cast members, then you're doing something right.
What didn't I like about this show?
The only complaint I have is the lack of elaboration on the characters in the series. The characters aren't really that deep and really only have 1-2 traits to them because the story is the one that carries the majority of the series. But in all honesty, I both didn't notice nor cared about that throughout the run of the series simply because of how much I loved seeing Chinatsu or Makoto going through their daily lives or discovering something new.
Would I recommend this series?
If you want a nice, calm show to watch, then Flying Witch is definitely something that should be on your plan to watch list. If you're a fan of more story-driven or action-based shows, I would say to stay away from this. My problem with a lot of the hate with this series is the fact that the people who despise this series don't really appreciate the idea of atmospheric shows, so they don't innately understand the qualities of what makes this genre so enjoyable since all they see is a bunch of cute girls running around doing generic stuff. That's fine, since not everybody has to like the same things, but I would highly suggest that if you do not like shows that don't particularly have a plotline, or just don't like slice of life shows in general, don't watch this. You will not have as fun of a time that I had watching this. I guarantee it.
