Taking place in an alternate World War II, Izetta is focused almost entirely on the small fictious country of Eylstadt, which borders the Germanian Empire (...Germany) and the Romulus Federation (Basically Italy), and so they end up getting war declared on them by the Germanians to be able to better move with their allies. Being a small nation, they would normally be pretty boned...were it not for the last known witch in the world, Izetta, who was being secretly smuggled into Germania to study her (and, well, for some more reasons), which throws a whole wrench into things when Princess Ortfiné Fredericka von Eylstadt (...We'll go with what everyone else calls her in the show, Fine) is trying to escape Germanian capture and happens upon her, then later is kept with her on the way to Germania...because, you see, Izetta and Fine have a past together, enough to awaken the witch!
The start of the series is ultimately pretty simple, albeit well enough put together, where Izetta's witchly powers (which, by the way, look really cool) are used to defend the kingdom against overwhelming odds...and also a lot of yuri, of course. While the plot of the series is pretty standard at the start, the Germanians trying to find out Izetta's powers and weaknesses against the main characters trying to work around things like her limited range and some spying plot is enough to carry it well enough. Around the halfway point, the plot begins to get a good deal complex, and I would actuall say the latter half of the series is more of what I was hoping for: More of a look at what happens when a magical girl style of magic meets with a real world war and technology scenario, political plays and spy work and so on.
Dipping into characters, the two main characters are the aforementioned Izetta and Fine. Izetta is not a particularly complex character, and while fun enough, she really could have used a bit more depth to her character and I don't think it would have been too hard to give it to her, such as some more reflection on, you know, all the stuff she is doing in WAR for Fine and so on. Fine is the more interesting of the two, a young ruler thrust into a difficult situation and forced to make tough choices, and while it isn't explored to a particularly deep degree, it does allow her some stronger character moments and is at least fairly interesting, being a stronger character driver than Izetta, although the show is a bit...light in this regard, and so I did not feel it was handled as well as it could.
Something I wish had changed with the show is that the show, rather obviously and something everyone would know who has been paying attention to this show's description on anime sites or promotional material, pretty obviously plays Izetta and Fine as having lesbian moments with each other. As someone who naturally enjoys yuri moments, this is appealing to me, but like many of the shows it doesn't turn into an actual romance, which is pretty disappointing. I felt it was especially disappointing here, as not only does the show play it pretty heavily, but I feel it would better tie together Izetta and Fine's characters, as how they see each other and what they will do for each other is an important part of the show, and frankly it feels totally ripe for a romantic upgrade from friends...in fact, Episode 11 has a perfect moment for this, and while the show may trick you for a moment to think it has happened, it ultimately cops out with an open ending instead of a solid one, and to me it ends up making it feel like this plot line does not resolve in a satisfactory way.
The other characters are more interesting to me. Berkman is not an especially memorable antagonist, but he is played in an interesting enough way and his very self-centric viewpoint ends up being in very interesting context and contrast to essentially every other character in the show, making him more standout and unique. Sieg is probably the most interesting character in the show, with earlier moments that might seem a bit confusing at the start end up slotting into place when backstory is revealed, and ultimately makes him feel like a more deep character than most of the others, although the last stuff he does feels kinda out of place. There's also more minor characters who come in and out and I won't go into all of them, but they tend to have some of the more interesting/different moments in the show.
Both the plot and the characters are a bit basic overall, though, and I wish that the show focused more on the second half's styling, as one thing I wasn't super happy about with this show is that I feel the integration of technology and magic could have been better done. Izetta's gun-broom is AWESOME and I love the idea and I do like how her powers feel both analogous to various real life military units and cleverly tied in. But the politics of it, the fighting aside from Izetta, and so on is rather lacking, and would have been more interesting had the tone of the second half been spread more through it, as the tone is oddly two-faced to it even if it never really goes dark but instead more serious. While I did like the second half, the last episode left me very divided, especially in how it messes with how one might imagine the world, although I did like the villain of the end.
Going into the animation and sound, the animation is actually really pretty, with Izetta popping off as vibrant and managing to make surprisingly realistic styled character designs soft and interesting, which helps make Izetta stand out more among them. Stuff like Izetta's riding of her gun-as-broom looks pretty cool and some of the scenes with the magic are quite lovely. One issue the show sometimes has is in some iffy CGI, most apparently in the last episode but at times seen before. This keeps it as a pretty and high end animation, but far from the best. Sound-wise the opening, Cross the Line, is REALLY standout and something I could listen to all the time. The sound effect of things like the planes and so on are very nice...but while the OP is good, the ED is forgettable, and it has some good music, but nothing which can be compared to the best around, so I leave it as good but not amazing.
Overall, Izetta is not a show that will amaze you, and if you seek a show with a deep exploration of a premise, you'll probably end up ultimately disappointed. If you want something which can give a more minor level of depth, really nice animation, and enough character and plot to keep one interested until the end, you'll probably fine Izetta enjoyable. The second half helped prop it up for me, and there is enough here that I was ultimately left with a positive view of the series...but not a very long lasting one.
