Reviews for Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

"Happiness is a way of travel, not a destination." Fiction often tells us a similar tale: one of the hero saving the day, where happiness is a commodity given as a reward for good and just deeds. In the case of Majo no Tabitabi, which follows Elaina's solitary journey throughout the vast skies and endless seas, this rule of fiction is approached in a more skeptical manner. Good intentions may be rewarded, but it is not always so. Unlike most anime, Majo no Tabitabi doesn't portray karma as an infallible law from which we can never escape. Sometimes the characters will strive to resolve an issuewith good intentions, but as a consequence of following their heart, it can sometimes lead not to a problem being fixed, but a problem made worse. These themes can potentially be misconstrued by some viewers as the story being pretentious (among other disparaging terms), but Majo no Tabitabi does not claim that optimism or idealism is wrong, either. Karma and morality are treated as an open-ended question of which there is no inherently correct answer. It is situational and oftentimes a matter of luck, which is demonstrated by the various happy and unhappy conclusions to the episodes.

It's precisely this unpredictable pattern of storytelling which makes Majo no Tabitabi so enchanting. There are happy episodes that warm the soul, more slice-of-life in nature and which will make the viewer laugh and smile. There are darker episodes, which are less frequent, but which make you question the characters' actions as well as your own beliefs. And even in the quieter moments, where the story is meant to be approached more as entertainment, there are subtle themes that can be pursued by the viewer at their behest. What happens when a wall is erected in the middle of a small town, for example? While these themes are nothing exemplary on their own, they do complement the story on a wider scale by showing facets of Elaina's personality which are not otherwise explored in the more serious episodes. It is, after all, as much a story about Elaina herself as it is about the adventure. Travel is personal, and is inherently a story about the traveler.

Most likely, there will be some people who disagree with aspects of Elaina's worldview. And that is fine, as she is an observer and fervently avoids the role of hero. Unlike most anime protagonists, while Elaina is naturally a kind person, she will sometimes ignore the plights of others if it is not of personal benefit or interest to her. There are of course times where she will help the strangers of a country on a more selfless basis, but by and large, she calculates whether or not it is worth getting involved in a problem, just as the vast majority of people in our world do. After several years travelling from place to place, being embroiled in local issues that do not affect her personally, it is inevitable that at least some of her good intentions would have led to tragedy and less-than-happy outcomes. And so Elaina knows, and so she does not assume the helping hand will be met with a just reward. There is a big difference between someone like Elaina, who is experienced and hardened, and an anime character who is cynical and morally grey simply because it is perceived as cool to be so. I would even go as far as to say this is what separates Majo no Tabitabi, a surprisingly adult-oriented anime, apart from series like Oregairu and Re:Zero. Elaina may not possess the same innocence and happy-go-lucky nature as other characters in anime, but that is because she has traveled far and seen the world at large, and has thus not had the luxury of being trapped in a small social bubble, as so many are.

That is not to claim that Majo no Tabitabi's storytelling is without error, because it is not. There are a few aspects that I wish were better, particularly the conclusion of the 9th episode, which was excessive in a way the show hadn't really been up to that point. It's possible the anime staff tried to capture part of that Re:Zero audience, which, for a product seeking financial success, is unfortunate but expected. The themes and the plot of the episode were engaging and shocking in the right ways, but the visual direction had me almost feel as though I were watching a different anime entirely. But it is not as though the serious episodes all follow this same formulae, so the odd directorial shift for the one episode was given little more than a shrug from me.

Another issue some might find is that the pacing, particularly at the start, is lightning fast. Hearing "And so, six months later..." doesn't really allow the viewer to get all too attached to the events of the episode. I do appreciate that the story covers a large span of time (essentially 4+ years, and likely more in the light novels), and I even prefer this over more traditional slice-of-life, but trimming the timeskips down a tad would help to make the passage of time feel more natural and less abrupt. The presence of yuri elements towards the end - a frequent trope in slice-of-life series with predominantly female casts - was also a bit on the unnecessary side. That said, it is not pervasive, and is largely relegated to a single episode, which is fortunate as the series' strengths are not in romance and sudden... homoerotic proposals.

On a more technical level, Majo no Tabitabi is solid. While the animation is not something that will explode your mind and make you feel as if you were watching some massive-budget production, there is more effort here than the typical static visuals of most anime. In a lot of anime, it is essentially just a slideshow - panning over a single image for five or more seconds, with the only moving parts being the flapping of a character's lips. Majo no Tabitabi may occasionally fall victim to this shortcutting as well— there are weekly deadlines to be met, after all— but there is often more going on than the average anime, even if it is something as subtle as Elaina shrugging her shoulders while speaking. As well, the art style of Majo no Tabitabi is vibrant and lively, and the characters' facial expressions convey considerable emotion. They do not need to explicitly say 'I am angry' or 'I am sad' for you to understand what they are thinking and feeling. This may sound obvious, and something to be expected, but the sad truth is that most TV anime forget the importance of facial expressions and instead rely on voice acting talent to illustrate a scene. Majo no Tabitabi may be simple, but it excels in said simplicity.

It is also admirable how the anime staff honoured the creator's wishes to keep the anime adaptation free of sexual fanservice. I don't have any issues with sexual content in anime, and— to the contrary— view it as a positive when handled well. But moments involving pantyshots and things of that nature are juvenile and would do nothing but detract from Elaina's character. She is mentally and emotionally mature in a way that most female characters in anime aren't, and seeing her get embarrassed because she was caught changing clothes— or whatever else ecchi anime do these days— would diminish who she is as a person. The anime is confident enough in its own qualities that it does not need to add gratuitous sexual fluff. Leave that to the doujins and fan material, and keep letting Majo no Tabitabi be as it is, I say.

So, yeah. I liked Majo no Tabitabi. Quite a bit, too. A lot of people have drawn parallels between it and Kino no Tabi, and I would say that is quite appropriate. But where Kino no Tabi excelled in worldbuilding, I sometimes thought it fell short with regards to characterization. Majo no Tabitabi is the answer to that issue. While it may be more divisive than other anime of its genre, it comes as a solid recommendation to all varieties of anime fans. Anime like this are exceptionally, and increasingly rare in today's marketplace. If you haven't watched it yet, you're missing out on something special.

And if you're curious, I'll even go a step further: I think Majo no Tabitabi is the best anime of the year - and potentially more.

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina This is one of the shows I have bookmarked for this year. It is so sweet I do have a glucose monitor to use if I start to feel wonky. Storyline: This story follows a cheeky, young witch named Elaina as she sets off on a fantastical journey across the world after being inspired by her favorite book. As with any classic fantasy tale, she’ll meet plenty of folks along the way, from the strange to the bizarre, including giants, townsfolk and even other witches! As she explores the world, her views on her own journey will take shape!All of these elements –plus the efforts of numerous unnamed staff members and workers– make for a seriously beautiful start to a series that feels as cozy as a cup of tea.

But why is Wandering Witch so darn good? Well, let me answer that!

The foundation for Wandering Witch is good on its own: the story is engaging, the magic mystical and interesting, and the characters completely likable. However, the animation for this series is downright beautiful and took my breath away.

Beautiful art can come in a lot of forms, and much like video games, good art doesn’t equal a good story, and vice versa. Thankfully, Wandering Witch’s story matches the animation style beat for beat, providing a gorgeous canvas to tell this really earnest story on. Words really can’t express how lovely Wandering Witch is to just simply look at. Everything feels like it should be in a nice artbook collection.

Whether Elaina’s just in the city or at Fran’s treehouse home, the art is always on point. During action sequences –or even when Elaina takes off on her broom– the animation gets sharp, blending the base art style with slick magic effects that have genuine impact.

However, Elaina’s animation isn’t the only beautiful thing in the series: the music is just as lovely, with cues handled expertly, especially in highly emotional scenes. As stated before, music is handled by AstroNoteS, who’s previous anime-related credits include High School DxD Hero’s theme song “Switch.” AstroNoteS shines here with lilting music choices that immerse the viewers in a fantastical world. I hope that’s a name we’ll see more of in the near future.

satisfying magic sounds into Fran and Elaina’s duel. Everything fits the world quite well: even small, simple sounds tucked into the background flavor the world and really make Wandering Witch a sonically delightful watch.

Elaina finally becomes recognized as a full-fledge Witch, and receives the name "the Ashen Witch".

What more can be said about such a powerful premier? Every element of Wandering Witch is enjoyable, from the stunning animation to the beautiful music and the genuinely likable characters. With a strong premier that definitely promises a powerful series, Wandering Witch is the easiest recommendation ever.

Fans of Kino’s Journey –both the original series and the recent new animation- will find that same coziness as Elaina takes to the skies and catalogues her travels as the Ashen Witch. Additionally, light novel readers will be happy to find that the world has –thus far– translated quite well, and feels just as lush as it can in the books.

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina is already a strong contender for Show of the Season. Safe to say I’ll be induldging in Elaina’s magical world.

Great story, art, sound and character.

It is the work of our lifetime.

Don't miss it.

This show is pretty darn awful. Spoilers... but nothing that important, as the show itself makes all too clear. Determined girl devotes herself to the study of magic so she can become a witch and travel the world. Only, we don't get to see her train, or devote herself, or observe the trials she faces, except when her foreigner witch teachers beats her up out of nowhere to teach her humility. But that's not what the show is about! It's about her travels afterwards! How she visits people across the world and touches their lives! Only she doesn't. She's a passive observer toall kinds of things happening. Mainly people dying... and she does nothing about it. She doesn't help, or use her powers to change the outcomes of any situations, even though the show makes her out to be an extremely powerful mage. She teaches a kid who's pretending to be bad at magic how to ride a broom, except she already knows how... (still not sure what role Ellania actually played for her...) and she digs a hole. Also she fixes a teapot. None of these things actually help people or prevent tragedy.

But that's the point! The world isn't all roses and marshmallows! Ellania must learn this by zooming around and seeing sad things happen to other people!

So this is just Kino no Tabi on a broomstick? They took a slightly-better than average show concept, removed the titular talking motorcycle (also removing the main character's foil with whom she could have verbalized her thoughts on the events she witnesses), and slapped more comedically cliche tragic events on the line-up... gave the main character magical powers she could actually use to help people, and then have her still not help people.

At least in Kino no Tabi the main character usually had some kind of stake in what was going on, or got dragged into things forcibly. Ellania literally just waltzes in, puts her hands on her hips and goes 'huh.' Gives the one-off, episodic characters 'looks of judgement' as they do dumb stuff and then peaces out.

This pretentious show is almost unbearably stupid, and after the first episode had me a little hyped up, too! The art is really nice though, and the sound design of the magic is good.

A journey always begins with the very first step and that’s truer than ever for a young girl named Elaina. With a fantasy setting built by the creative mind of Jougi Shirashi, we are treated one of the must-see shows of this year. Despite the light novel popularity, we didn’t get an anime adaptation airing until 2020. What’s slightly more concerning is that the anime itself is contained within a 1-cour of 12 episodes, and it raises the question if it’s enough to show its true colors. Thankfully, I can say with easy confidence that Majo no Taitabi (Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina) does indeedmeet its expectations. This is more than just a fantasy adventure but explores the character journey of a human being.

Watching Majo no Taibtai feels like watching a child growing up, with every day being a new experience. This idea applies directly to Elaina, a young girl who became a witch. She has the heart of an adventurer, the ambition to succeed, and a thirst to prove herself to the world. From the very first episode, she wants to show the world what she’s learned starting with her mentor, Flan. Unfortunately, it also exposes some of her vulnerability as a witch and that she has a lot to learn than meets the eye. That’s where her journey begins. Elaina embarks on personal journey to learn about the world and discover what’s hidden from horizons beyond.

As an episodic adventure, the storytelling usually has a self-contained story but always follows how Elaina meets people or dealing with whatever problem she comes across during her journey. Early on, she encounters Saya, and after helping her, they become friends and seemingly forges an important friendship. It goes to show that Elaina herself is both someone easy to get along with and is a selfless person. She puts others’ needs above herself and is never afraid to take risks to help others. This also leads her into dangerous circumstances where her own life is at stake and she must resort to using what she’s learned to survive. From her journey, Elaina also discovers some of the darker truths of the world. This includes her stay in The Land of Truth Tellers or dealing with a princess with lost memories. From the hidden truths, it reveals that underneath the lighthearted magic adventure, there’s a deeper darkness. Elaina never becomes a victim herself but that doesn’t make other characters an easy prey for sin. One of the most prominent example is during episode 9 when she finds out the dark past of a girl named Estelle. I won’t go into spoilers but from this episode alone, it’s shown that some characters are really beyond redemption.

With each passing episode, we learn not just about Elaina’s adventure story but also about Elaina herself. She has a lot of potential as a witch but sometimes, she isn’t able to fully solve the problem of others. In fact, this anime can be depressing with episodes of despair. In other words, don’t go into the show expecting every episode has a happy ending. Some of them ends up with tragedy and even Elaina herself shows moments of despair. She is still a sensitive girl that is vulnerable to deep emotions. But through meeting new people, she improve herself both mentally and physically. Thankfully, the anime isn’t shy on displaying the character personalities and chemistry of the cast. Two of the most noticeable pairs are Elaina/Saya and Elaina/Fran. One of them is based on mutual friendship as their fellow witches. The other is based on a student and mentor relationship as Elaina wants to prove herself. One other noticeable character by the name of Shelia also appears later in the show. Her personality is mostly characterized being an antithesis of Fran. The anime seized the opportunity to show their past and present relationship, and by the end of this series, they became close friends. In fact, I would say with confidence that friendship is an important theme of the show. It’s through friendship that people can understand each other and resolve problems without just resorting to the magic arts.

Majo no Taibitai is both a light and dark show, meaning that where there’s light comedy and humor, there’s darkness and despair. The comedy mostly comes from the character personalities of the main cast while the darker elements are hidden within the self-contained stories. However, I will say that overall entertainment value still revolves around Elaina’s journey. She carries this show with each episode that has us, the audience, wondering what’s ahead. Will she live up to our expectations or is her journey one that has serves with little purpose? It’s an ambiguous question because it depends on how you approach the show. Despite the storytelling showcasing episodic adventures, they each have recurring elements that ties the overall anime together. When you’ve seen what this anime for what it really is, then there’s a great chance you’ll want more than just 12 episodes.

Studio C2C managed to do excellent work when it comes animating the setting and overall world fiction of the show. From day one, I noticed that every character is distinctive in some way or form. Elaina has the classic look of a young witch complete with a hat, silver hair, and youthful appearance. Similarly, other characters such as Fran and Shelia has their look as more experienced witches. However, the biggest perk of the show is the overall world building. Almost every episode depicts a new setting as Elaina travels from place to place. It sort of feels like playing a JRPG with a character going into towns and resolving new problems. Only here, we follow Elaina on her adventure as we watch her. The different settings are also saturated with colorful content such as the Land of Mages and magical Kingdoms. Without a doubt, Majo no Taibitai convinced me that Elaina’s journey knew what it was doing when it sells its visual storyteller.

On the subject of character voice acting, I would like to say the majority of the character cast fulfills their role but Elaina herself can sometime display childish tendencies, which translates to some awkward moments in the show. Other than that, the anime contains charming themes with an elegant tranquility, especially for its opening music song and general pace of its soundtrack.

Yes, it’s only 12 episodes long and the light novel has more content if you’re thirsty to continue Elaina’s journey. But judging on the anime adaptation, this is nothing short of a hallmark of entertainment. It shows that when a show with creative ideas and charming character cast is executed together, the storytelling sells itself. You can be the judge and decide to recommend this to others or not. But for me, Majo no Taibitai is a show that sets a fantasy adventure by excellence.

I'm not entirely sure why I watched four episodes of this show. Everything, from the original light novel cover to the studio (C2C) and production team, made me think nothing but “oh, it's just another mediocre LN adaptation” and prefer to choose more entertaining shows from this season instead. However, power of MAL hype is strong, and hot discussions about the third episode attracted my attention. New Kino no Tabi? A show where protagonist is not the purest person in the whole world and can make decisions that fall in the morally grey territory? Not your typical LN adaptation? Ok, ok, I gave it atry… and what a disappointment, even for my low expectations.

What “deep” things people found here? What “not your cute fantasy with cute waifus” type of stuff? It’s just another boredom that uses imitation of deep content instead of really deep things; an anime where primitive and childish stories (remember kids, stealing is bad; remember kids, train hard and be nice with other people) are mixed with… another primitive and childish stories. Episode 3? Ok, there are flowers, they are (spoiler) and caused some (spoiler). Moral of the story? “Even beautiful roses have their thorns”. WOW, so deep, so philosophical, so unique, so meaningful! Who cares about Kino's Journey, we have a new seasonal king here! How that moral lessons for 12 years old kids can be even a little interesting? Just how?

Our protagonist, Elaina? The road movie is a rough genre, but a charismatic, charming main character can make even a clichéd story enjoyable. What we have here? Naive and egoistic b… witch. Sorry, I wanted to like this girl — tried to see her inner demons, her philosophical point of view as a traveler, her interesting decisions due to the episodes, but nah — “praise me more” and “I don’t want to know what happened with a slave girl” are two phrases that describe our MC perfectly. She just doesn’t care about anything, even about her journey and the places where she travels; our witch is too epic for all that plebs. Kino wasn’t a superman, and two girls from Shoujo Shuumatsu weren't powerful magicians; instead of them, Elaina can use her magic to change something — destroy flowers, take care of the slave girl, et cetera. However, she doesn’t want to do it at all and just leave things to happen. Reason? She doesn’t care. Ok, no problem, but why should I?

Art and animation? Go to the C2C official site, type “generic cute light novel fantasy designs” and you’ll get everything that you can see in Wandering Witch. Spend the rest of your budget for some cool magical fights (but not so much, our money isn’t infinite, remember?) and use CG for everything else. CG butterflies. CG roofs & flowers. CG witches. CG backgrounds. CG CG. Sad bad true, nowadays animators forgot how to draw and use CG instead of everything. Who are we to blame them?

I wanted to see something unique here. Just something that can give me emotions — happiness, sadness, pain, interest, maybe even anger. However, there is nothing much to say about Elaina, because it’s just mediocre. Mediocre adaptation of the mediocre light novel in the castle of mediocrity: boring, uninspiring, nothing to grab my attention at all. Want to watch another clichéd anime fantasy? Try Majo no Tabitabi: maybe you will enjoy it, and even add Elaina to your favorites, because why not. What about me? Sorry, but I prefer Strike Witches, not Generic ones. Peace.

I'm honestly in love with this show, while sure it isn't perfect, but it's certainly one to watch for this season, and here is why! This honestly reminds me of Kino's journey. It's a fun show with it's premise. Making each and every episode different and unique in it's own way. Which I honestly think is brilliant. It not only allows you to explore the world in more details, but also add an element of surprise each and every week so far. With it's story following our witch protagonist, as she goes from location to location, engaging in different kinds of story. It's really fun andimaginative. With the stories having a mix of emotions all through out.

The characters themselves? All seem realistic and each have a different kind of appeal to them. Which is great to see, always good to have a wide range of personalities to keep a show fresh and engaging to the viewer. Particularly our MC, with having more than one layer to her personality, which adds more to her character. Which can only be a good thing.

The art and sound is always great, it's always interesting to see what new environments come about. Really is. You can't go wrong here, even the magic our MC uses itself is good looking, along with any kind of action scenes in general, it's really good stuff, and goes along with every scene within the show. While the song is very fitting to each scene.

The way the characters move is also very great, as their movements never look off, or bad at all. It's really good stuff all round. They really did a good job at not only the details, but making sure it all flows smoothly.

Should you watch this? Yes, it's a very good show and certainly one of my stand outs of the season so far, which is very much keeping my interest week in and week out. So you should watch it too!

I hate the anime. I would understand the no destination part, but so far it feels like there's no story. The story isn't about a witch, it's about the witch's travels. It feels like it's just a story about what the world she lives in is like. The anime might as well get rid of the heroine and just get a narrator to explain all the places she goes to. The MC's name is Elaine, but what does she do other than travel and write? Does she like documenting? Is her purpose to document history? Or is it just for her parents to let her knowabout her travels? Which can be done by using letters, instead of a book. Is she going to get into a relationship? Not just a romantic one, but with anyone. Will she have close friends? Does she even get emotionally attached? Is MC intimidating? Kind? Impulsive? Strict? Decisive? What kind of person is she?

Not one of these questions have been answered or suggested, all I can deduce is that Elaine realizes her beauty so much that she might suck herself. I feel as if the character doesn't have depth. Any person you meet like her you won't find interesting, which is why it's hard for me to be interested in this anime. I would understand being apathetic so much as to not help any person you come through, but why? There is nothing about Elaine that makes her interesting. Other than the fact that she's the youngest person to be a witch.

Even the setting doesn't have a story. Why is it mostly witches respected? Are there male wizards? Are females the only one to manifest magic? With all these problems circulating, what the hell are the monarchs/presidents doing if the country is rampant with problems and people randomly dying? The reason I can think up of as to why anybody else would watch this is because Elaine is hawt.

This show is magic and there isn’t a better way to describe it, rarely do you see such a perfect adaption of a Light Novel into the anime medium. This review will expand on why I believe this is among the best LN adaptations ever done, and how the show effectively executed its story, art, soundtrack, characters, in a way that exceeds other LN adapts. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS Story: 8 The Journey of Elaina is essentially Kinos Journey meets fantasy magic world, Elaina travels to all sorts of interesting destinations and meets all sorts of unique people, along the way she might make friends, the occasionalenemy, or completely choose to avoid everything and remain neutral. The show is very episodic, and many episodes will contain their own story or even multiple stories, however that does not mean the show doesn’t have a good plot, overall even the short stories are well written and have important messages that are conveyed to audience outright or in subtle ways.

Some of the better stories are whole episodes and focus on an interesting setting in countries with special rules or attractions that Elaina adapts to, she may make friends in these countries or maybe she will have a hard time, but they always end with Elaina having a great story to tell when she gets back home. She might visit a country that only magicians can enter or a country without magicians, she might meet thieves or people trying to scam her but also meet friendly people who help her expecting nothing in return. The journey she travels on parallels real life backpacking, and really exemplifies how big and diverse the world is, and how many different experiences a person can come across depending on their circumstances.

Some aspects of the show are a bit hard to watch, but they are grounded in realism, there are bad people out there and there are plenty of countries where the rules and customs may conflict with your moral outlook, for example with slavery. This show delivers these experiences without holding back and demonstrates how people can think and act in entirely different ways from what the audience or Elaina view as moral, without being cardboard villains. In comparison to the original light novel, this had skipped very little important information and it was largely faithful of every section covered, the studio went out of its way to make sure all the little details of the story were added and it helped make the world all the more immersive.

Art: 9

From an excellently choregraphed and well animated fight in episode 1, to amazing particle effects and endless gorgeous movie quality backgrounds throughout the show, this show has some of the best visuals this year.

Every city, town, forest, field of flowers, general location was drawn so perfectly that it just completely draws the audience directly into the show. These are some of the most amazing locations I have ever seen in any fantasy anime, the field of flowers in the show make the audience want to experience visiting one, the city on the cliffs fills the viewer with wonder, the realistic looking clouds make the fields even more beautiful and the amazingly detailed towns really bring the show to life. The backgrounds were also able to easily communicate emotions and enhance scenes with the various coloring choices made, darker or introspective scenes had a beautiful selection of subdued colors while more pleasant scenes had light colors, the choices of colors never detracted from the backgrounds and always felt fitting for a scene. A fantasy world can be made or destroyed by the quality of the backgrounds and how appealing they are to the audience, the background art in this series was perfect and really draws the audience into the fantasy world presented and portrays it in a suitable way.

The animation in the show is nothing to look down at either as it greatly exceeds what is necessary for a slice of life travelling show, in fact the action scenes in this show were among the top 3 for the entire season including actual action series. Magical effects in this show were also a treat, in most anime magic is demonstrated with balls or blasts of energy and magical circles, once in a while creative effects are used but they are rarely ever demonstrated as effectively as in this show. From magical vision enhancement, to amazing teleporting, time reversal, and storage abilities, the show brings together an array of magical effects, each demonstrated in ways that are unique and creative compared to the vast majority of anime.

The sound: 8

The OP was great, the soundtrack could easily draw the viewer into the show, all the background music and sound effects complemented the scenes they were in effective and generally made them even more emotional and enjoyable. The sound effects for wind, magical attacks, and water were all especially good, among the best I have ever come across in an anime. It was also nice to have all these little sound effects that are not included in most anime, such as the character walking down a staircase or tearing apart bread, it makes the world so much more immersive.

Overall, the soundtrack is magical and deserves at least an 8/10 for how all-encompassing it is, how much it complemented every scene, and the strength of the OP.

Characters: 9

It’s important to point out ahead of time that some viewers may be seriously bothered by Elaina’s inaction and the very short periods of time she spends in the places she travels to but this has a very specific purpose. Elaina is a traveler, not a Shonen protagonist, and she cannot get too comfortable or involved in any of these places otherwise her journey would end. Elaina also promised her parents to never pick a fight even when wrongdoing is occurring, if it does not directly involve her, in order to get them to give her permission to travel in the first place.

If anything, Elaina is a refreshingly realistic take on a main character, most people would not try to save everyone as a tourist in countries they visit or try to improve a situation even if they are capable of helping quite a bit. This is because it’s incredibly difficult to make lasting change, a country where slavery is legal would require the entire government to be overthrown in order to fix the problem, something that Elaina might not be capable of doing. There are other systemic issues presented in this series as well where Elaina will not intervene due to understanding how hard it will be to solve the problem, how her attempt to solve it could backfire, or how committed she would have to be in order to see her solution through. It is worth adding that Elaina may come across as being way too full of herself, however she largely lives up to her own hype. Elaina is in fact quite attractive and popular wherever she goes, her skill with magic is quite real as well given her achievement of being a witch at such a young age. There is nothing wrong with the main character being very confident in themselves if it is backed up properly.

Side characters like Fran and sometimes Saya were also quite nice, seeing Elaina meet them again and catch up, and learn more about each other’s lives was enjoyable. Most characters in this series do not show up again after their initial appearance, however even in a single episode they usually get a lot of development. There were side characters that made the audience feel sorry for them, characters that were lovable, characters who you wanted to see join the journey with Elaina and characters who you hate, all of these characters were developed in the span of single episodes yet felt quite real. The Journey of Elaina did an excellent job with the side characters as even though they don’t get a lot of screen time, most of the named ones had a full story told in a single episode.

Enjoyment: 8

It’s a fun SOL show with some dark moments and moral lessons thrown in, don’t expect too much out of the story as it is episodic, however you can anticipate really fun characters and excellent production values. The comedic timing and reactions with Elaina are great as well, and its very fun to watch her interact with new characters and explore new nations.

I would say this show was very much something that is easily enjoyed as long as you don’t over think the story and recognize that Elaina is not a Shonen hero, they are not on a journey to become a hero, they are just a tourist wherever they visit.

Overall: 8

Relax, sit back, and enjoy as Elaina takes you to interesting countries and watch her deal with all sorts of unique situations. Everything about the show can be described as pristine, from the detailed particle effects, to the beautiful movie quality backgrounds, the soundtrack which draws you in and the characters that keep you engaged. There are very few flaws to this show and it is definitely the single best new show that aired this season, overall, it gets a solid 8/10 rating.

If you went into this show expecting all sunshine and rainbows, you would be sorely mistaken. This is not your typical lighthearted fun adventure. Elaina’s journey is bittersweet and oftentimes filled with some truly dark and depressing moments. The story centers around Elaina, a talented witch who happens to be a rare prodigy. She is coined the Ashen witch based on her long ashen colored hair. Being so young, she embarks on an adventure traveling from place to place encountering many people along the way who all have their own issues. There are many other shows this premise draws similarities to such as Kino’s Journey andMushishi. While in Mushishi, Ginko would go around and help people with their problems, Elaina doesn’t necessarily do that. There are some exceptions but for the most part, she would just happen to stumble upon the misfortunes of other people and choose to not get directly involved. She is a morally grey character and this plays a role in making the show bittersweet and distinct. Not every tale ends in a delightful and happy way meant to teach you some important lesson about life. Elaina isn’t some champion of justice who tries to push her self-righteous beliefs onto others. She is for the most part blunt and distant with her interactions and personality. She is admittedly kind of full of herself, self-absorbed and can come off as a bit of a jerk. If something were to put her at risk with nothing to show for it, she will simply not bother and choose to avoid the issue at hand.

As one would guess the show is episodic in nature. Despite this, some of the side characters Elaina meets are recurring resulting in there being a sense of payoff with her encounters and progression in the story. Each episode features a new concept to keep itself fresh. In one episode Elaina could be in a civilization of people who can’t tell lies and in another, she would find herself in a decimated city with an angry fire breathing dragon roaming about. There is no shortage of diversity here. The opening song compliments this as it is a wonderfully light and soothing adventurous soundtrack with gorgeous visuals to ease you into the wonder of the show.

This show has some elements of intrigue but it is not without its faults. For one thing, it is a bit slow paced at times so if you are into more of the action stuff, this probably won’t be for you. This is very much a show about absorbing the atmosphere and setting. Unfortunately, while there were certainly some tragic tales and rather unnerving scenes, the majority of them did not invoke much of a reaction from me other than a bit of shock value or dread. I didn’t feel like there was a meaningful lesson to be learned by these tales other than “Oh, life is tragic” or “things are not always what they first appear to be”. It feels a bit monotonous and pointless.

This issue is only elevated by the lack of proper character development and herein lies the main strength and weakness of the show: the personality of our main character. While on one hand, some people may find Elaina to be an interesting and charming character as she is simply a traveler who acts more like an observer than a justice seeker, others may view her as being relatively shallow and a narcissist. She more often than not doesn’t bother to help people despite having the means to do so and one can’t help but feel a bit of disconnect. But I do believe that this serves the story well as her lack of involvement in some of these tales gives the world a life of its own as we often don’t see the conclusion to several people’s stories even if a certain outcome was implied. Even with all this power and being a prodigy, Elaina is just as much an ordinary person as anyone else thus begging the question of “why bother getting involved in the first place if it’ll only cause me harm?”

The other witch who has a crush on Elaina has a relatively flimsy and one note personality. I didn’t find anyone from the main cast all that interesting. In fact, the only characters I could find any investment in who have some level of depth only appear in one episode while the recurring cast lacks any likability. They could have made things more interesting by having Elaina go through a bit of an emotional and internal psychological struggle. Instead, she comes off as someone who doesn’t care about the messed up world around her and turns a blind eye all while spouting obnoxious one-liners about how amazing she is. We also never really explore her psychology especially after the first episode where it looked as if that would be the case. Unfortunately, she just comes off as a self absorbed character who lacks any endearing qualities aside from being cute which seems to be more than enough of a selling point.

With all that said, the visuals are pretty incredible. There are countless gorgeous backgrounds that give more life and personality to the world. There is an attention to detail on small items that would appear on desks or cluttered rooms and some of the buildings in the city landscape. Some of the character designs truly stand out and are appealing like a few of the witches while others like random villagers and townsfolk or some minor characters are pretty forgettable and bland. Elaina’s design is overall fantastic and clearly the main draw of the show. Her dark witch outfit compliments well with her ashen hair giving her the aura of an imposing figure. She is inarguably very cute and definitely stands out among all the other characters. The animation is mostly stunning, capturing the feel of being a whimsical experience filled with magic and witches similar to what you would get from something like Harry Potter.

It’s difficult to parse what kind of experience one should expect to get out of Majo no Tabitabi as it almost seems niche. On one hand, it can genuinely be an enjoyable show to watch with its exquisite art and episodic variety. Seeing one tragic tale after another in a seemingly messed up world can be fun as you are never certain what will happen next. It might also scratch that itch that some fans of Kino’s Journey or Mushishi yearn for with a whimsical tale of adventure and uncertainty but at the same time rarely provides anything truly deep or inspirational that you’ll be thinking about down the line. The characters in this show also seem to be lacking in many ways making it difficult to invest in or care about them. But despite there being many flaws with the show, it can still be engaging if you become enthralled in Elaina as a character and whatever tale she finds herself in.

Every season as of late, I can’t help but find myself on the lookout for fantasy stories to sink my teeth into. Oversaturated as the genre may be, sometimes, only sometimes, among all the manufactured shlock you’re likely to find a single gem rising above. Gems in which the fantasy setting is often merely used as a backdrop for a greater purpose, while also fully exploring it without getting caught up in the numerous tired tropes. You can see why the promotional poster alone of Majo no Tabitabi sucked me in. Majo no Tabitabi started out strong. Not held back by lazy tropes, complemented with sometimes breathtakingvisuals and a couple of OSTs that captured the magic of the genre, it wasn’t hard for it to capture my interest and had me expecting more. The lack of tasteless fanservice and the way the characters were written (in the earlier episodes) almost made me think the series’ writing had a distinctly female touch. But decently-executed fantasy often isn’t enough: it’s the focal point of the show that distinguishes it from the rest.

The show is about Elaina. This is her story, her journey, and other characters are only anecdotes, mattering only in the extent of how much they relate to her. Putting aside my grievances with the series which I’ll list later, I enjoyed Elaina as a protagonist. It’s not often that a more self-centered, immodest character takes the focus (excluding the overly loud and cocky shounen protagonist trope) -- Elaina feels real, unexaggerated in her demeanor and deeply human. When Majo no Tabitabi is at its best, the show uses her journey and its magical setting to deliver certain ideas with its episodic adventures. For the first four episodes, that use of the setting pleasantly surprised me and kept me coming for more -- the show had not only subverted my expectations of a light novel-based fantasy series protagonist, but also the morals we’re used to in the medium.

It is up to the individual viewer whether some of the episodes’ unusual, seemingly anti-idealistic nature feels heavy handed and edgy, or whether it’s a nice breath of fresh air. Majo no Tabitabi doesn’t indulge in edginess or try to “be different” -- while the contrast between some of the more horrible scenes and the cutesy art is a pleasure to watch, even the seemingly grim episodes have satisfying endings, and their messages are often much less edgy and more grounded than given credit for. There is one particular episode where the “edginess”, however, does undeniably stand out — and it comes after a series of more whimsical and light-hearted adventures. I think most viewers will know which episode I’m referring to. Although it’s hailed as the peak of the series, I could only find it jarring and overly shocking after all the light-heartedness that preceded it (despite the terrific job in imagery, I commend the animators). There is little point in having a shocking encounter to break the protagonist down, only to completely forget about its events in the next episodes onwards. I’m not a purist who thinks development is everything a character needs (characterization is great, people!), however, beyond that episode, even directly following it, we barely get to see how Elaina was affected (in fact, her character remains mostly static throughout the series, with some effective characterization sprinkled here and there) -- this wouldn’t have bothered me as much, had the episode not possessed the trappings of a “cathartic” episode for her.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably wondering “how can that description be anything less than a 7?”

I almost feel bad writing this part, after having such high expectations and good faith on the show, but the more I watched, I found myself realizing that too much good faith was wasted on Majo no Tabitabi.

It’s hard to pinpoint when exactly my excitement for the next episode turned to mild interest, and then hope that maybe, just maybe the next episode would be better -- though if I had to say, it’d probably be after episode 4.

I mentioned how natural and grounded Majo no Tabitabi feels, despite some of its more grim episodes. This only goes for the first few episodes. After a certain point, the show derails to the point of indulgence -- and I’m not talking about amped up edginess. We get a character who reminds me of Demon Slayer’s Zenitsu -- who continually follows and harasses the protagonist, takes away from whatever conflict the characters are involved in, and generally is a nuisance to watch. The gag may be funny to some the first time -- it wasn’t to me, and certainly not the second, third or seventh time. I made the Zenitsu comparison, though I feel that may’ve been unfair to him, when he has a variety of different dynamics with characters other than his love interest -- Majo no Tabitabi being focused on Elaina alone, this tomboy character’s sole intrigue is in her insistent love for Elaina, and little more. That's one weakness of the show's inherent structure, as if you can't make other characters lovable or interesting from Elaina's perspective, then they won't be lovable or interesting to the audience, either.

But I could bear through a horribly-written and aggravating cast member every couple of episodes. This show had, after all, a lot of qualities I looked for in fantasy. "It will get better!", I told myself. I think it was around when the show indulged in the typical sister-incest gags that I came to terms with the fact that I’ve been giving it far too much leeway for what it was, a fantasy light novel -- with all its tropes, flaws and failings, only disguised differently and unique enough not to be a waste of time.

If you enjoyed the first few episodes and expected more, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. If you haven't, then you probably won't like the rest it has to offer, as it's only an inconsistent plummet downhill from there.

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina, is the perfect anime if you want your blood to boil. Eleina is the absolute worst protagonist I’ve ever seen in any show. I do not mean to be harsh, but her character and what message this anime sends out triggered something in me. All episodes follow 1 or 2 plotlines each, often with new characters. The plotlines often have something to do with each other. This is what, in my opinion, makes it easy to binge-watch for entertainment. I usually enjoy these types of shows, but considering how triggering this series was, I just can’t give it any higherrating.

(Spoiler for episode 3):

In episode 3, we see 2 different stories. Assuming you've alreadu seen the episode, I'm not gonna go into detail, but both have a pretty infuriating end.

One of them revolves around some magically cursed flowers. My problem with it is that it ended with her leaving a dying boy without trying to help. I get that this is a ‘realistic thing to do’, but real people with human emotions are emotionally affected by things like this in the aftermath. Eleina shows no second thoughts, no empathy, no sign of care whatsoever. But it gets worse.

The other story shows a maid that has been bought as a slave, and is clearly being abused by her owner. This is a very strong theme to bring in to this kind of show, and if you do choose to have plot lines like this, you need to do it right. It is implied that this maid is likely going to end her own life at some point. Eleina is in a position where helping the girl would be very possible for her, but helping can be hard and her leaving is pretty realistic, yes. What is not realistic is her not showing any regret, nor sadness, nor anger, and it is never mentioned again after this episode.

Eleina is the definition of a bystander, and although episode 3 is definitely the worst one, she shows this side of herself throughout the whole show. Calling her a realistic character paints the picture that it is completely normal and okay to not care about anyone else than yourself, and not help anyone if it does not benefit you. This is a dangerous mindset, and I’m scared people on the younger end watching this ends up with the same thought process as shown in Eleina.

I enjoy the motive of not doing anything you don’t want to do, that’s a great motive. But this character simply does not care. She is sosiopathically coded, and completely ignorant.

In short, I would definitely stay away from this anime, and I would never ever show it to any children. This series romantizises narcissistic, greedy and careless personality traits, and I'm not here for it.

That being said, the art style is pretty amazing and aesthetically pleasing. The overall anime is boring and is good for nothing more than rage bait or background noise.

Kino no Tabi meets Kiki's Delivery Service – what could possibly go wrong? After acquiring a status of a witch, Elaina leaves her hometown to travel around the world. On her journey, Elaina is about to experience bright and dark sides of the world and society. The story is episodic with almost no connecting plot line, and every episode is supposed to bring some kind of question about human nature. I like both road movies and moral dilemmas very much but unfortunately I can’t bring myself to enjoy this show. Among other problems, like shallow plot and questionable moral messages, the protagonist is the biggest one –Elaina seems egoistic, arrogant and detached. She doesn’t play any active role in the plot, acting as a passive witness, and for the most part it’s her decision to not interfere.

This strongly reminds me of Kino from Kino no Tabi, but in Kino’s case her behavior was logically explained by her tragic past and awful situations she experienced during her journey. Elaina, on her part, have no reason to be detached from people she meets. She grew up in a loving family and was able to develop her prodigious magic skills. Local witches’ unwillingness to take Elaina as apprentice was probably the biggest disappointment in her life, but parents came to the aid and basically hire a tutor for her.

With Elaina’s backstory in mind, her detachment from people she meets looks like egoism and over-confidence, it’s like she is fearful of closer relationships and meaningful decisions for no reason. She is the type of person who happily enjoys soft warm bed while outside her window the dragon eats innocent citizens (If anyone is wondering, this scene is from ep.4). I wonder if creators deliberately made Elaina unlikable to develop her character or to portray her as evil protagonist, but this plot twist seems rather unlikely for such straight-forward story.

In my opinion, the anime would be better if Elaina’s backstory wasn’t revealed, especially in the first episode. Or if her character developed through the story. But the show paints Elaina as wise and mature person, which she clearly isn’t.

Watching The Journey of Elaina feels like reading a storybook. It is about Elaina, a traveler from a faraway distant land, and her journey as she travels to lots of different places and encounters new people. The show seemed like a happy go lucky anime at first, surprisingly it has a darker tone. It shows how harsh reality and the truth could be as Elaina journeys around the world. It is like the fairy tale you read as a child however not all fairy tales have happy endings. When Elaina encounters problems along the way. She may seem not to care but she does. Shefeels responsible and she has to live with those feelings. However, it does not mean she is obligated to help them. That's the beauty of the anime. In reality, you are under no obligation to help someone in distress. In Elaina's case, she simply wants to travel around the world. That is why she wanted to become a witch to travel! She can help whenever she wants. She will help when she can.

While listening to the opening song, Literature by Reina Ueda, I feel so relaxed and calm. You can feel the fun adventures of Elaina, and how light, mesmerizing, and exciting it could be. However, in the ending song 灰色のサーガ by ChouCho you feel the opposite, you can feel how dark, strange, and frightening the journey of Elaina but in a good way. Which is why I love both the opening and ending song.

You can learn a lot of things in this show and it is simply beautiful.

Please give this show a watch, Majo no Tabitabi needs more recognition!

This is Kino's travels (or the many other travel anime) mixed in with a kawaii magic girl main character. If you don't like either genre, you won't like this show. There is no world-building, because there is no world (aside from the magical girl trope). It's episodic and each story self-contained. A collection of disparate folktales with a magic girl inserted in there as an observer. There's a reason why Disney can only really adapt a handful of old fairy tales to create our fondest childhood memories (and big blockbuster success). Because there are really only a handful of coherent ones with positive messages. Theother 99% are mostly just dark, nonsensical, ill-defined, inconclusive, depressing, or subversive. There are no lessons taught, other than maybe a fatalistic one. If you enjoy irrational, just open up a newspaper. The MC has no personality other than what is required to push a particular tale along. The very first episode is indicative of the meaninglessness of the rest of the series. Her doting parents hire a witch to abuse and near-kill her to instill humility? Even though she has displayed no arrogance, entitlement, or moral degeneracy? I really only started watching this because the production budget seemed higher than the rest. Maybe the story would be interesting, or there would be interesting characters. Nope to all.

Wondering Witch Elaina, “Every journey begins with a single step. We just have to have patience.” The story isn't all adventuring to fun nations; it gets dark from time to time. The story shows that the world isn't always a bright place, especially since magic isn't always used for good, and there are wars going on... Elaina's character display is a realistic portrayal of personality that isn't being shown on some anime nowadays. If you notice every little detail, and character interactions, you'll start to feel that some of this is not being shown on some typical anime that you've already watched. If you are thetype who enjoys Fantasy, Slice of Life and somehow a little dark twist, then this one is just for you!

That being said, this is the type of show that you will very much enjoy from the start to the very last episode.

Brother, what the fuck did I just watch. I'm finishing ep 12 by questioning the reason for the existence of this anime. Why does this poha exist? Why did I watch this shit? As I keep wondering why I watched this until the end, I realize that it was just a huge waste of time that I had besides discovering myself as a bit of a masochist, since this poha is so bad that it made my brain hurt. Anyway, the protagonist sucks and, if she didn't exist, the anime might be much better. Ep 12 meaningless, and even though some people say it makes sense,it's because they smoked about 5 tons of marijuana. Besides, her teacher is also a horrible character. Other than that, the other characters are well built (some, not all). I just wondered at the end why every witch is arrogant, but I think it's a characteristic that the author wanted to put in all witches, because it is not possible.

The first episode was absolutely amazing and definitely peaked my interest in watching this anime without any research on it. It was beautifully animated and stunningly well written. unfortunately however that is where it all goes downhill, after the first episode the story becomes boring and very much a monster of the week style of show. The animation quality seems to have had half the budget after the first episode and looses the beauty that it had. I recommend to anyone to watch the first episode and that is a solid 8/10 for me, but after that episode the show is at best a 5/10.

Here's the official synopsis for for Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina (Majo no Tabitabi): "Once upon a time, there was a witch named Elaina, who set off on a journey across the world. Along the way, she would meet all kinds of people, from a country full of witches to a giant in love with his own muscles—but with each meeting, Elaina would become a small part of their story, and her own world would get a little bit bigger." Sounds nice, doesn't it? Sounds like a nice laid back iyashikei you can chill out to when feeling down or stressed out. A bit like FlyingWitch or Aria.

However, what you get instead is the story of a self-absorbed, narcissistic teenage witch who doesn't seem to give much of a shit about anything or anyone but herself. She's like those Instagram backpackers who travel around the world without ever learning anything about the people or cultures they come across on their way.

Elaina is a powerful witch. Yet she doesn't use her powers to do anything for others. She's callous, shallow and largely indifferent to the people she meets. This becomes evident for the first time when, in one episode, she visits the home of a rich man who has a young slave. He bought her because she was cheap and because she will grow up to be beautiful some day (hint: she'll be his sex toy). Does Elaina do anything to save this girl from her terrible fate? No. The slave girl is just another prop in Elaina's travels. She waxes philosophical about how trying to make people happy might actually just make them miserable as she leaves her behind and goes on her merry way. She has learned nothing. She has not grown as a person. She has not used her considerable powers to save a girl from slavery and future sexual abuse. The girl is forgotten as Elaina flies on.

And that's pretty much how the show goes. Elaina is a cynical, unlikeable person who travels the world without taking it in or taking responsibility for her fellow man. The places and people she comes across are just fodder for her diary and one of the few things that can actually elicit an emotional response from her, is if her beauty is questioned or ruined (when someone cuts her hair off). As far as using her magical powers, it is never done to help others.

So my question for whoever wrote this story is: Are we actually supposed to like Elaina? What is the purpose of a character who goes on a journey, has adventures, but never actually grows as a person? In fact, she only becomes more narcissistic and self-absorbed as the story progresses. The entire last episode is about her meeting other versions of herself and coming to terms with who she is. However, this isn't used as some kind of epiphany or self-discovery. She does not take a good hard look at herself in the proverbial mirror and decides to become a better person. Instead she accepts her weaknesses as part of who she is and that's it. Her experience does not make her grow as a person. It doesn't bring about any sort of critical introspection. Instead it inflates her ego even more. The ACCEPTANCE is the point. Not what she actually accepts about herself (which is pretty depressing), but the fact that she is able to accept anything at all. Yes, our main character is actually such an obtuse narcissist that the fact she has any introspective moment at all (because she wanders into a magical kingdom where she is forced to deal with versions of herself, not because she deliberately wants to) is supposed to give her a bit of depth. Instead it ends up exposing her for what she really is: Shallow.

I'm not sure who the target audience is for this show. It wants to be all things at once. It wants to be funny. It wants to be serious. It wants to be adventure, but also horror and also poetic.

It is in fact a study in anarcho-libertarian self-centeredness.

The moral of Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina, as far as I can tell, is to not bother doing anything for other people unless you stand to personally gain from it. Or to put any work into improving yourself or learn anything from the experiences you have. Instead, accept yourself for the perfect and immaculate being that you are and fuck everyone else.

All that said, the art is decent enough and the show does have its amusing moments. But the main character drags it down quite a bit. She's just not a likable person.

A story about a painfully unaware, narcissistic witch (w interchangeable with b) who travels around the world. Why is it bad? The writers are as obvlivious to her narcisstic nature as the main character - this unintentional element turns an elseway mediocre narrative sour. Making it painful to watch, not in the way of being "gory", "dark" or "psychological" - but more like having to spend time with some douchebag relative / friend of a friend who you'd rather just keep our of your life permantently. In short. The MC is incredibly unlikeable, and the intro sums up the show. The fact that this show hasa high rating shows that most people are bad judges of character, and why it's common to get into toxic relationships.

Much like Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica this show doesn't pull any punches. You haven't seen Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica? ok well add that to your list too. Majo no Tabitabi is lighter and more upbeat in general but still gets very dark in parts. You may expect a slice of life with generic characters but instead get something far more nuanced then we expect from typical anime these days. Sometimes bad things happen. Sometimes you can help, and sometimes you can't. Sometimes you make things worse. Sometimes you can say "That problem is not my problem" (a logical stance neverbefore taken by anime protagonists)

I suppose I was delighted by the show's willingness to break most rules of anime and have real characters make real choices. Sane choices by real world standards. Also when characters help others there is no guarantee they will make the situation better, things could go poorly, you just don't know. This keeps you guessing about choices, about outcomes, about everything.

Delightful surprising anime. Would recommend.