Story:
Our protagonist is a beastfallen mercenary, which basically means someone's white tiger fursona. One day he's escaping from a witch when he encounters a young looking witch named Zero. She persuades him to work as her bodyguard while she looks for her stolen grimoire and the compatriot of hers who went out looking for it. His condition is simple, she has to turn him from a fursona to a normal man when it's over. He also won't give her his actual name so she refers to him as Youhei.
The big issue with the series is that a lot of the writing is very uneven. Take the meeting between Youhei and Zero. It's established in the events leading up to this that he's terrified of witches but he's won over with very little effort. The same can be said for the resolution for the conflict with Thirteen. Or take Zero's supposed lack of knowledge when it comes to life outside the caves she grew up in. It's an element that comes into play whenever the writer decides to bring it up. For instance, she doesn't know anything about money or commerce but she knows what a sex slave is. What, did she have a teacher in the caves who felt it very important that she know about sex slaves in the event that she wind up in the outside world but felt that understanding the basics of shopping was just useless? Was she taught by Kimura from Azumangah Daioh?
For positives, the pacing is pretty well handled. The series also has some interesting ideas which prevent it from getting boring.
Characters:
The cast isn't very complex. A part of the issue does come from the uneven writing. So, a character will shift but it won't feel like natural development, it'll feel more like they're changing their position because the plot demands it but they're still the same character.
The same rather typical character with very little if anything to differentiate them from a list of similar characters. Even their interactions are very under-written with huge shifts in how they'll act towards each other with little or no reason behind it.
Art:
The artwork is pretty good. The animation flows smoothly. The action sequences are decently handled. The backgrounds include some nice details. You can also credit the series for having some nice character designs.
The biggest issue is with the expressions. A character like Thirteen won't change his expression at any point and a lot of times other characters will have awkward expressions given the circumstances. It's almost like White Fox wanted everyone to look vaguely stern at least half the time because they thought it would make things seem more intense.
Sound:
White Fox got a pretty good cast. Koyasu Takehito, Taichi You, Koyama Tsuyoshi and Hanamori Yumiri all give good performances. Matsuda Akito's music is pretty much typical fare to the point of being boring.
Ho-yay:
There isn't any to be found.
Areas of Improvement:
More consistent story-telling. If you want to have Zero win over Youhei in spite of his fear of witches, actually put some effort into making it believable. Same with Thirteen's change of heart.
Move beyond the character archetypes. We've seen the hero who acts tough but has a heart of gold. We've seen the naive but powerful heroine. Using archetypes as a base is fine but they need to be expanded on and made into something unique to be interesting.
Vary the facial expressions. I know Koyasu is a great actor, but he can't really give a character emotional depth when the art shows them with the same expression at all times. If you want to set a specific tone, both the actors and artists need to work together.
Final Thoughts:
This one definitely isn't as bad as the worst we've seen from White Fox. It's certainly not as strong as the best either, however. It's a mediocre series where the uneven writing and lack of character depth largely waste the potential of the premise. It's not a series that's particularly infuriating or horrendous with its worst elements but it's also not one that's ever great. It ends up quite middling. I'm giving it a 5/10.
