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.
