"Burn the Witch" offers a very nice and intriguing setting that serves as mere background to a story that's just half-baked. Half-baked, because how would one call a situation when viewers are supposed to care about anything and anyone, when all they learn throughout the show is that "this place exists, this person exists as well"? Why do viewers have to learn about presumably important and strong secondary characters, see them saying a phrase or two, and afterwards not hear anymore about most of them, or just see them being somewhere in the background and saying something cryptic that's also not elaborated upon later on? Many high schoolers would write a better scenario, even for such a short animated series. It's even worse if we consider that without knowing the prequel movie, which was released 3 years (!) after the reviewed series, the viewers will have a hard time figuring out what the heck is exactly happening in the story, why do some situations occur, and why do certain characters act like they do. Yup, "Burn the Witch" doesn't offer any introduction, not without watching the "Burn the Witch #0.8" prequel movie.
Speaking about its length, there are three episodes, and each one is 20 minutes long. In theory, that would be alright to tell a cute story. That is, if the writing was at least on an acceptable level. Sadly, like I mentioned earlier, the writing was mediocre at best, but most of the time it was chaotic and messy. The direction was weird as well, as if the show couldn't find balance between more static and more dynamic scenes, but preferred to just mix them up and end up with a rather convoluted mess.
Some might say that it was like this in the source material. Some might say that this show fits the "Bleach" universe in which it is set. I'm neither familiar with the first nor the second thing, so as an anime only viewer, I can't relate to any of them. However, even if I had knowledge about one thing or another, I wouldn't treat it as something positive. If an anime is not labelled as a spin-off series, then it's not unwise to assume that one may enjoy the story without knowing the main series, no? Obviously, a shared universe is not the same as a shared story, after all. And at the end of the day, we're talking about an animated show that is loosely related to an already existing series. The fact that source material was worse or better, or that some elements might make more sense if someone is familiar with said existing series, shouldn't matter, in my opinion.
I was torn between choosing "Mixed Feelings" or "Negative" as the final verdict for this review. I think the former will be more appropriate. I don't regret watching it myself. It didn't take a lot to watch the reviewed show and the aforementioned prequel movie, after all. Although, I can't recommend this show if you care about anything else than its great-looking visuals. Not with all the cons this show has, which I pointed out earlier.
