the anime is done airing... and while it was painfully obvious they didn't have the budget for a 12-eps long masterpiece, i came out of the last episode thinking "the people who made this loved it".
the soundtrack was fantastic, the overall atmosphere pulling me in without failing.
(and the very unserious moments had me cry-laughing)
and the budget went to that, to the first two and last two episodes, a beautiful opening and an emotional ending.
i'm truly grateful to all the people who made this beautiful story come to life.
"Champignon Witch (Champignon no Majo)" TV anime episodes 1 & 2 endcard
Luna, a black witch who lives quietly in a poisonous mushroom house, deep in the Black Forest. She lives in the city making high-efficiency medicine, but it is rumored that one will die if touched by her, and thus she is avoided… The life of a witch who doesn't know the warmth of people is carefully and momentarily drawn.
Youth Artist Drama about a teenage girl determined to reach the top in the world of Rakugo, the traditional japanese art of telling entertaining stories.
The water magician ep#1: a pretty... not impressive first ep. If i didn't loved the opening, not sure i'd have been staying, because there's barely anything i dislike more in writing than a first episode dedicated to... boring exposition. But the opening gives me some hope.
Secrets of the silent witch ep#1: when that little girl started explaning what the seven sages are, i was like "there it is! the Exposition!" But the characters are pretty charming, so I wanna see more of it for now.
Hikaru ga shinda natsu/The summer Hikaru died ep#1: NOW that's a first episode. Or at least, better than the others, I didn't entirely get into the whole mood. But I'm curious and that's already a good job done.
Sequels
Cardfight Vanguard Divinez Deluxe Kesshou-hen: incredible first episode. Ruka has rizz. Akina and Nao give me the will to live. Fucking excited over future fights.
Not a very impactful first episode, but a good episode still.
We're introduced to our protagonist as she lays on the floor, losing her blood from a bad wound on her side. She then wakes up in a strange desert, and enters a hotel whose manager has a head of flames.
Point of mystery, we can't see her eyes.
It's explained that the hotel is a place of rest for souls that are between the land of the living and the land of the afterlife, because they're not sure if they're dead or not. Okay.
Each guest is assigned a room that contains hints about their past life so they can find out who they are, recover their memories and take a decision: go back to their life, or move on. Arito, who is in the same case as our protagonist, takes her to her room as he got too bored in the hotel so now he works there.
Our main protagonist remembers the last event before her... supposed almost death: an idol concert, and she then finds her name on a school ID card: Neko Tsukahara.
Yah, she looks silly.
We meet the hotel's staff, a cute girl who works in the kitchen that instantly captures Neko's heart, a bartender with horns, and a guest with a frog (?) face.
Another guest appears, a young girl wearing a tarot card as head. She arrived the day before, and still hasn't found much about herself. Neko being curious, she and Arito help that girl search her room, as the room can "change" as the guest remembers their past. They do find out what happened to her, and after some words of encouragement from Neko, she goes back to the land of the living... just by leaving the hotel.
Neko, who finds the whole process very interesting, asks to join the hotel's staff.
The opening then plays, and while it's an okay opening, some of the shots do throw mystery on what really happened to Neko, who she is, and hints at the number of "cases" Neko will solve during her stay at the hotel.
It was overall charming, though. I'll give it a chance until ep3 or 5 if the atmosphere deepens a bit and the main character stays tolerable.
Mystery animes with a genius main character can either make it or break it, and this one is on the fence for now.
Firstly, I have to salute the opportunity to watch the first two episodes at once, allowing us to fully see the first case to its conclusion. It was a good move to make us involved and decide if we liked the way it was solved.
Our main character is introduced as she diagnoses instantly two patients whose symptoms didn't seem to be enough for another doctor she nicknames Kotori to find the diagnosis. Alright, we get it, she's a genius, and she looks like a kid.
Hey, at least she IS cute, I like her design.
She's actually the director of an investigative service, so she must be older than she seems. Though, she's trying to get Kotori to study Jurassic Park with her, so I don't know really about that.
Then, a man who has blue blood and a severed leg is brought to the hospital as an emergency. As they try to revive him, they see he's already dead, and the police is on the case,
Takao has apparently helped the police with cases before, as she has a teasing relationship with an officer, and bargains for information from an inspector.
They investigate during the evening/night. as Takao is very frustrated her uncle, hospital director, forbids her to take on cases. And, yep, she solves the case easily enough, the murderer is arrested. Though, he tries to attack her while yelling. She covers her ears (!) while Kotori defends her with his karate skills. Next, her older sister drags her into a room probably to scold her, more like a mother would do, and the episode ends.
The first question that comes to me is: would the watcher been able to solve the mystery?
Evidently, no. You would have needed knowledge about certain medical substances and symptoms, which I doubt the average viewer would know about.
Were there hints? Yes, actually! Even if you don't know much about sicknesses, the body being in rigor mortis as soon as it arrives to the hospital was the biggest sign the victim has been dead for a longer time than it seemed. There was also the shots from the news Kotori was reading, and we were allowed to followed the investigation closely.
But also, there was only one character introduced during the case, and since it was obviously a murder... Well, that was quick. But I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, as the point in my opinion was to introduce the main characters, and how the mystery solving works. Which brings me to my general thoughts about these first two episodes.
Visually, it's nothing noteworthy, except for the opening that has some interesting frames and visuals that make me think we might get more plot than simple mystery solving, notably these:
The opening song is by Aimer, though I don't like it much for now.
Overall, this was a good introduction to our main characters, enough was told about them to know how to feel about them while still keeping a mystery, and the plot solving method was shown from A to Z.
I am still on the fence about Takao as a main character, because mystery animes with genius main characters can make the viewer feel excluded from the mystery solving itself, and it gets worse if you don't care for the characters themselves (hey Kamonohashi Ron). Takao is cute, but if she's an actual adult with that personality of hers, I will wait to see more of her before I can tell if I like her or not.
Kotoko Iwanaga from Kyouko Suiri will always be my best girl from mystery animes anyway.
oh my god it’s laika day everyone drop what you’re doing… we honour a little dog who was sent up into space 65 years ago today. she was found as a three year old stray mongrel wandering the streets of moscow. her ability to endure hardy conditions got her chosen as the candidate for a journey she was never meant to survive. she passed away seven hours after liftoff. I hope she died dreaming of chasing rabbits up in the stars I love u laika forever and ever
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