Reviews for The Dawn of the Witch

Quite frankly one of the worst shows I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. It's so terrible in fact that I believe it could be used as an educational resource in creative writing classes for how not to write a story; or characters for that matter. The events of the show are offensively and oppresively rushed, with exposition every five seconds and an absolute deluge of attempted tragic backstories that have no impact either because the characters themselves are uninteresting or have only been on screen for about two minutes. We also have what are supposed to be pivotal character moments happening for no reasonwhen there's even the smallest sign of conflict.

The art is boring and the action scenes are therefore equally unsinspiring. The actions of the characters make no sense, or less than no sense, most of the time. The only vaguely redeeming factor about this is the somewhat charismatic Roux, voiced by Okasaki Miho which many fantasy fans will recognise as Rimuru's voice actress. Perhaps the easiest 1/10 I've ever given.

I saw a lot of people complaining about the wrong reasons on this anime, mainly because the story being "way to fast not explaining anything" wich I honestly appreciated, since you know, this isn't the first show in this universe, there's no need to explain everything again, if you want to understand go watch Zero Kara... Also I saw a lot of people complaining about the amount of scenes with exposures, wich honestly what did you guys expected? Didn't you look at the cover? This is Japan, you should've learned by now... Despite all this is this anime good? Hell no, this anime is awful, theanimation is bad, the characters are bad, I don't give a damn about anyone, the new characters are bad, the MC has no personality, Holt is dumb, Kudd is boring, Roux is fucking anoying, and they managed to fuck up with old ones too, Zero and Youhei doesn't even resemble themselves... and the story, holy shit, it's so fucking bad that by episode 8 I decided to re-watch Grimoire of Zero to see if I was tripping by the time I watched it(4 years ago), because I remember that I did liked it quite a lot, and by re-watching I liked it even more and made me dislike this even more...

I'm only giving this a 2 because the OP is FripSide, this is the *ONLY* good thing about this anime...

Even though this anime is actually a spin-off of "Grimoire of Zero" which I haven't seen yet, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Story was quite interesting, but a bit confusing at times as well. Sometimes the plot moved slowly and then picked up the pace signficantly so I lost track of what was going on. Well to tell you the truth, the plot was mostly driven by characters involved in it, in my opinion. The three main characters Sayb, Hort and Kuddo are all very likeable. Of the three I liked Kuddo the most. He was very level-headed and had such humourous reactions to different situations theyfound themselves in. On the surface, Sayb is a bit bland as a protagonist, but he does progress alongside the plot.

Art is mostly good, it is not anything special, but thankfully it is consistent. There are many still shots though so if you want a show with amazing animation this one isn't for you. Also, CGI is used repeatedly, but it was fine to me.

Soundtracks used in this show weren't innovative or epic, but they served their purpose. Its opening song, however, might be one of my favourites in all anime even though some people find it generic.

To end this short review, this was a satisfactory seasonal show. I definitely do not regret spending time watching it.

This show in a summary: when your original work is presented much better than the one that came after it. There have been cases of authors already well-versed in their own series to try something new, and that is always appreciated in a sea of many other works to try what works and what doesn't work. This is exactly the case for author Kakeru Kobashiri and her famed work that is the Grimoire of Zero, already having won the Grand Prize in the 20th Dengeki Novel Awards held in 2013 (alongside novelist Chiaki Kisaki for Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens, which spawned Satelight's Winter 2018 anime), and thenWhite Fox's anime adaptation that came and went back in Spring 2017. Since then, it has been exactly half a decade since that show came out, and the sequel spin-off that is Mahoutsukai Reimeiki a.k.a The Dawn of the Witch has some digging into since it's a direct canon of the original series that it stems from, mostly for nostalgia reasons. Although, I would say that while you need not watch Grimoire of Zero to understand this show since this is a spin-off that borrows its context, the respite is that Mahoutsukai Reimeiki isn't a good sequel, or anything remotely close to the original series, at all.

So first off, I understand if you didn't get that whole "sequel spin-off" rhetoric. By itself, you would definitely understand what's a sequel or a spin-off that's relative to many series that does the same thing. However, in Mahoutsukai Reimeiki's case, it's a mish-mesh of existing and new properties that coincides to make this series work: the setting and world-building that is the Kingdom of Wenias, the witch-hunt war between the humans (or rather, the Anti-Witch Church) and the witches with the witch-hunting group Dia Ignis all but disbanded when the war ended, and the recurring cast of characters in Grimoire of Zero, all make a comeback while giving updates on their perils. All of these make up the "sequel" effect, while the "spin-off" effect is just mainly on the new cast of characters on their own canon story that's the same, yet different from the original to stand out on its own.

Let's cover the things that are new to the series: the rag-tag new quartet group that Royal Academy of Magic students and their teacher: Saybil, Holt, Kudo and Professor Loux Krystas. This series covers their tracks and refining them to be trained magic wielders in their own right, that are still in their infancies. Most particularly for Saybil, he's the main protagonist of this new sequel spin-off, his character being one that of boring, monotone aloofness, but with reason: he is a child of unknown origin, an amnesiac boy whom only knows of a silver-haired woman that bore the same eyes as him. To sum Saybil's magic up, he's just a magic vessel (or in the modern context of a powerbank) made within the premise that connects to the original characters and their intentions of his creation as such, but using it has a devastating caveat, in which his magic would spiral out of control. Holt on the other hand, she is a deer Beastfallen training to be a witch, the unequivocal top scorer of the Academy. Her origin story is that of a forced hand, her character growth being hampered by the whole witch-hunt war to then be forcibly and ostensibly chosen on a side that favours her while sub-consciously being part of the recurring war that's since ended in the original series that has seen former Dia Ignis Arbiter remnants continue the tradition because they wouldn't give up too easily. She can be a bit dull, while most times just being an on-and-off relationship-driven fodder that can be attributed to her overly concern for others, and in regards to the plot progression, I would say that she gets a decent pass for overcoming her childhood nightmares of torture to finally being alleviated of her past sin of being a Beastfallen. This is the same story for Kudo the lizard Beastfallen training to be a sorcerer, he has a brusque demeanor and can seem like the joker's tool at times, though beneath his condescending nature reveals his kind-heartedness for friends, and one whom always strives to be stronger. Kudo is someone whom like Holt, has undergone rough times when he was very young, being sold as a child slave at the behest of humans whom don't take a liking to Beastfallen, only to get saved by his rescuer that he wishes to thank one day for giving him a new life to live by. Kudo can be a bit hard to be a likable character, but he's low-key one of the good new characters to make a mark in this spin-off. The biggest detractor however is Professor Loux Krystas, also known as the Dawn Witch, a 300-year-old witch that despite her "fountain of youth" age, acts like a child loli character being obnoxious at times with her whininess. Her only strong point is her semi-sentient magic Staff of Ludens that can take on different forms and consume other witches' magic to the verge of death, and the similarities to Zero after hearing of the Grimoire of Zero spellbook to set on a journey to find the book, and/or even maybe meet the girl in question. Also, there seems to be too much sexual provocation of the unkempt focus from showing her panties to focusing on her crotch at times, that is quite the bizarre pandering angles seen in this anime, and you're gonna see it a lot. The only antagonists are the Dia Ignis anti-witch remnants which only sought more trouble, and for the most part, it's through Tyrant that underwent a transformation from killing to helping witches, and I can already hear you say that it's the kind of plot that is easily predictable.

Speaking of Zero, it's such a delight to have the recurring cast back: the legendary witch spellcaster herself, Youhei a.k.a. Mercenary, the headmaster Albus (which she is actually the Mooncaller Clan's representative witch Sorena's late granddaughter) with her servitude servant wolf Beastfallen Holdem, the blind priest and his servant Lily the Mouse Beastfallen. Most would speculate that there's a huge timeskip within the events of the anime to this show, and if there's one thing certain for sure, is that puberty has hit them hard since that much time has passed. For anyone not in the know, both Zero and Youhei are married to one another, and the latter finally having fulfilled his dream of owning a tavern for beastfallen, witches and humans alike. And that definitely shows in their relationship towards one another, which is exactly the same as in the original series (that was growing at the time), and now both of them being affectionate...well, mostly Zero that is, that her character model change is quite significant as is Youhei's, they're not the same girl and young adult Beastfallen that you remember back in Grimoire of Zero, but grown to a fine and captivating woman and adult-aged Beastfallen. But going back to Saybil's history, remember that silver-haired woman whose eyes matched his? Well, Zero is that woman, revealing herself to be his paternal aunt, the younger sister of the much maligned elder brother Thirteen whom only sought retribution of the world. But Zero's life hasn't been easy since the events of the anime, to the point of suffering from a lack of mana to revive Youhei in the original series. And this is where Saybil makes himself useful as the illegitimate child that's birthed out of a necessity for his limitless and powerful magic that's transferred through weird sexual innuendos from holding hands to literal kisses. I admit I cringed at Saybil's only purpose to be an unadulterated harem maker with his paternal aunt, Professor Loux and Holt, I definitely felt the weird tingles of this decision at this juncture.

The rest of the anime however, I would like to point out certain facts. First, you can't blame Tezuka Productions' in-house director Satoshi Kuwahara for the mess that is this show, he's mainly done shows that are assigned by the production committees when the studio is chosen, and he can only follow what's given of the scriptwriting, which he is also handling this aspect as well. More rather, if you have to have an entity to blame, it would be that the studio itself really isn't up to the task of producing action-heavy series. The reason why I know this is because, take a look at Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu a.k.a How Not to Summon a Demon Lord's Season 2 which inexplicably changed studios mid-way from Ajia-Do to Tezuka Productions, and I proclaimed that the production looked shoddy at best with lots of animation cuts that are a disservice to the prequel. This is no different here in Mahoutsukai Reimeiki, which falls back to the blatant copy-and-paste tactic that's found in yet another of the studio's show Kanojo mo Kanojo a.k.a Girlfriend, Girlfriend. Word of advice: don't ever assign things to studios that shows their inept and incompetent track record at features which feels too much for them to handle. It's just as bad as Isekai Maou's sequel season, and for yet another action-heavy show, that's saying something.

The music...sounds mediocre and forgettable as hell. fripSide has been a very notable J-Pop and trance group made up of music composer Satoshi Yaginuma and the modern famed music artist Yoshino Nanjo, which explains why the duo's rise to fame throughout the 2010s to now has made the group a household name to expect of infinitely both memorable and decent songs across the board which defined the anime industry's music scene for years (i.e. A Certain Scientific Railgun). That was fripSide Phase 2, and thus with lead singer Yoshino Nanjo's departure and the two new members Mao Uesugi and Hisayo Abe, begins fripSide Phase 3. Their debut song "dawn of infinity", which also serves as the show's OP theme song, is just decent and definitely needs some time to get used to the new Seiyuus' vocals. I know I will miss Yoshino Nanjo's memorable vocals that defined the new age for the group. But the ED, it's kinda a meh song that's just easy to pass on.

I felt on the tip of my mouth to say that I wished that we would've gotten Season 2 of Grimoire of Zero, instead of this barren wasteland of a sequel spin-off that's not as enjoyable as the original series. Indeed, Kakeru Kobashiri's writing and her lore suffers from an existential crisis of knowing what it wants to be, yet feels like it has to take many steps to reach to the next waypoints in the story plot, so much so that it drags on and on, beckoning the audience to lament of when could we see the story develop faster. If you need any advice on watching this, please just go and watch Grimoire of Zero instead which is better in everything and above all, a good time-waster than this boring mind-numbingness of a canon.

I haver been unplesantly suprised by Mahoutsukai Reimeiki this season. So far after the first three episodes I can only said that it lost all benefit of the doubt I had for it. Expected another run of the mill isekai anime but got hit with unispired, poorly made visual novel wannabe with a lot of information just simply cut out and tons of exposition without sense. But lets get to it. Story of Sable startes with scene of something that looks like another world and someone helping person similar to Sable get to another world... and thats main mystery of this anime as to who wasSable, why this person helped him, we know nothing cause next scene is magic shool and straight exposition - we know nothing of Sable and he is already in trouble for having worst scores in school and has to show at prinicpals office. To not spoil story for anybody wanting to watch it lets summarise that every situation is started and resolved by exposition we cannot do feel anything since everything rushes so fast - all story if told properly would get at least one season worth of plot out from what actually is in 4 episodes (I suppose so since watched only 3 and by the end of 2nd we won with one miniboss, had team fully formed and discovered that one of characters is spy from enemy side and already had change of heart only by having two talks one on one with mc, also we dicovered mc hidden power, 3rd is fallout from 2nd and journey with more of discovering past and showing another characters to come). So summarising plot is rushed, overexposed and very much is untold so you cant even sympathise with characters despite their potential or even understand them.

Art is tragic despite looking so good in stills because its almost fully stills with small fragments moving in 14fps or 3D items moving. I caught characters speaking frames behaving like:P charcaters has mouth, no mouth, back having mouth - is this animation or some kind of joke? And still feel like animation is don in lower framerate than anime and only fully static scenes (zooming out of a bit bigger still picture) are in normal framerate and are quite frequent.

There are so many better animes out there - Mahoutsukai Reimeiki is not worth anyone's time because its something to mindlessly watch at most.

This anime had a great build up, by being a follow up on what happened after "The Grimoir of Zero". The story seems good enough for a binge watch, it's your typical isekai/fantasy stuff, and it being in an already established world made it so that a lot of things didn't need to be explained (if you have watched "Grimoir of Zero" that is). Art design is again your typical anime art, big boobs, flashy spells and decent background that we quickly zoom past, seen better, seen worse. Where this anime fails however, is that first of all the characters and interactions between them are quite basic andtypical, for instance with the big boobed girl falling in love with the mc in like episode 3.

Where the anime really ticks me off, is again something to do with its characters, and that is how it treats the original characters from "Grimoir of Zero". They had some very nice development in their own series, however the first time we see them again, it almost seems like they have gone back to square one. None of their character development seems to show, and they have even become the villains, for no apparent reason (as of yet in episode 4). As a fan of the original Grimoir of Zero this just really ruins the anime for me, as I quite enjoyed those characters, it just doesn't sit well with me.

None the less, I will most likely still finish the series, and I pray for a good explaination as to why this has happened, maybe it is still saveable.

But as for now, this has really disappointed me as a fan of The Grimoir of Zero.

After watching it fully, I can confirm that it didn't really improve much, so rather than seing it as a successor to Grimoir of Zero, I'll just see it as it's own slightly below average fantasy anime.

For the first half of the season, there is no story, the universe is presented lamely, and the people are either stereotypical or irritating. Let's start with the characters: - Bossy loli, the only thing that comes to mind is, "Please, just stop overreacting.". She is around 300 years old and acts like a six-year-old. - Redhead girl dealing with existential problems - Lizardman, perhaps the only character for whom a character was created - Our main character is as transparent as glass. Creation of the world? An insert from some legend and information that it happens some time after the previous anime in this world ... Story ? The prosecution isstill investigating the case as there is no evidence of its existence.

The only shining stars on this list are the side characters, and that's because some of them have presented in other anime

Well, well, it looks like not a lot like this anime, in fact nearly every review about this anime wasn't very good to say the least. Not surprising when you have an anime about what suppose to "The Dawn of the Witch," problem was the story plot was all over the place and there wasn't a main character that this anime or the manga to be identified with....of course you can say that Sable was the main character, but the problem was, he isn't, in fact the character to be identified with was simply split within the 3 protagonist of this story plot, mostnotable was Holt a big boobed guyru bimbo, a weakling sable and a beastfalllen lizard guy , Kudd and there was also the hot loli witch , Cristasse, Roux.....as for the antagonist who happens to be the main one, Tyrant, it was kinda too easy that he started out as the main villain but later one becomes the good guys...the thing about this anime or the manga in general , was that in every turn every was identified with certain characters it can start with any of the three students namely sable, Holt and Kudd to other characters like Roux, Zero, Yuhei, and Shinpu. Now , given that Tyrant was the baddie here, unfortunately an antagonist to be identify with this anime/manga was missing, everything was about the eye candy, like Holt, Roux and Zero , you could say that they're the story plot around here, so here's my rant about this anime:

Story-fair 6: Storywise it may have a messy plot, but then again this was one anime where the main protagonist wasn't a powerful one and wasn't the main one as one would expect.

Art-Good 7: having that one time Holt fan service was this anime's silver lining and Roux's hot Lolita attire, was something for them pedocon's to drool.

Sound-Very Good 8: given that I like the opening theme.

Chacater- Poor 3: Cu'z there was no one character to identify this anime with.

Enjoyment- Poor 3: This anime can sur use a lot of Holt's fanservices.

Overall- Poor 3: Don't even ask , and don't even ask me if this can have a season 2, which is a big "NO."

--- original lenguage: Portuguese --- --- additional lenguage: English --- English: I watched this anime with very low expectations, and it was for this very reason, it had: nothing innovative, generic story, protagonist who even had a lot of potential for this side "forgotten past" but became just an empty shell, secondary characters without personality and with the past very poorly explained Unfortunately I have nothing good to comment on this anime but I will not be hypocritical to the point of saying that it was not good to the point of getting a few laughs rarely anyway, anime 5/10 and honestly deserved at most a 4. PT-BR:Assisti esse anime com as expectativa bem baixas, e ficou por isso mesmo, teve: nada de inovador, historia generica, protagonista que até tinha bastante potencial por esse lado "passado esquecido" mas se tornou só uma casca vazia, personagens secundários sem personalidade e com o passado muito mal explicado

Infelizmente não tenho nada de bom a comentar sobre esse anime porém não vou ser hipócrita ao ponto de dizer que não foi bom ao ponto de tirar umas risadas raramente

enfim, anime 5/10 e sinceramente merecia no máximo uns 4.

I was going to continue watching this after the last episode, just dropped it. The voice acting and animation are passable for an enjoyable anime but the story just isn't coherent at all. The story was trying to be better in the third episode but each new episode is just a letdown. The story actually started off kinda interesting but gradually lost me. Every new episode tries to touch a new subject but loses it mid-episode and ends on something else completely. The premise did have a good possibility of an interesting anime but this is just a washed up harem at this point.

I won't lie, I mainly stuck around because of the characters I'm already familiar with and like. This arcs story isn't that bad nor is it anything special, but it's at least something that was consistent and seemed thought out. I would probably say where it shined most was the character progression of the Tyrant. The big thing I didn't like about this arc is the excessive amount of fan service. Like, can you not with the lolis? Don't get me wrong, they did it with Zero in the first arc too, but it was more...palatable? It served more as a tool for comedy, wherehere it was lewdness just for the sake of lewdness. It really feels like they tried to appeal to the super weeby normie crowed with this one, like even in the opening song would be something I'd expect that. Anyway, if you haven't seen Grimoire of Zero, watch that first, and maybe, and that's a big maybe, watch this one. I'm kinda hoping if they do more they look more towards the first arc, which wasn't perfect either, but was definitely better than this one.

In the beginning of the season, i see the characters is very annoying. It combined several annoying character, such as "naive protagonist", in the story. The story is also unclear. Until the 5th episode, I still din't know what was the story about. But, since episode 4 the character has been developed. The story pace is very slow. However, this anime has good opening and ending. The opening song was sang by Fripside. The opening animation matched the song very well. Now I think its good for the anime to make the story remain unclear, that make me curious with the remain story

So this a spin off of another series but i am gonna be judiging it on its own. The story is very simple in both its content and overaching plot, it has more SOL than you would expect and not much adventuring, still those cases do not slow it down as it has a nice pacing and some nice mix of action and downtime, with some nice art, decent animation and pretty good music. The characters are certainly the better part as it has good enough characterization along with the nice pacing i mentioned, at the least as much as you can expect from a low stakesstory which ends when it looks like it just started.

Overall despite the nice things i say about this and while i enjoyed it, it certainly is not for everyone, as it has a little above average gore and fanservice moments.

I believe this is the type of show you enjoy more when you consume on a casual basis rather than a must watch anime.

This is a spin-off of Grimoire of Zero and written by the same writer. I only watched for the cameo of everyone's favorite white tiger bodyguard, and sadly they changed his voice. Spin-off anime are usually bad in general and this one is no exception. If I had not seen the previous series, I would have jumped shipped after the first two episodes. It's frivolous, unoriginal, and aggravating all at the same time. If the generic girl band jpop music in the opening didn't clue you in, you are supposed to turn your brain off. The three main characters are ripped straight out of other anime.One is the clueless, unassertive, boyish amnesiac with immense latent power, a la Tower of God. The other is the big boobed, big-eyed, bubbly airhead, like Ochaco from Hero Academia and many others. Third is a lizard demihuman, taken straight from that isekai Slime anime, with the same exact boastful personality. Their backstories are so weak they may as well be one of the background village characters you save in any given episode of a shounen. They are all given tragic childhoods, but the flashbacks are so short and poorly written that the impact becomes insignificant and their characters so devoid of any interesting nuance or development, they are no better than filler side characters. Another one note main character is their chaperone, who is yet ANOTHER overpowered little girl that is hundreds of years old and talks like a granny. This trope is ridiculously tiring at this point.

The first two episodes are by far the worst paced and poorly scripted of the lot. It feels like a recap that was poorly edited. No sense of framing or timing or direction. And guess what? That is the height of the suspense. There are zero stakes afterwards. The rest of the show is almost slice of life fare and fanservice. There is more exposition of the universe that the previous series built up, which is sadly far more interesting than the actual story being told. There is not one, not two, but THREE contrived attempts at dramatic conflict sequences. What do I mean by contrived? It means no one is in actual danger and it's all a game or a prank. The first one pops up when the main cast meets the cameo cast and is about to be wiped out by them. Even if you didn't watch the previous series, you can clearly tell from the opening that these evil villains are part of the good guys and it's just a ruse. I was rolling my eyes nonstop. The other two instances are even more ridiculous. It's like building a plot based off of trying to fool a toddler that the keys have vanished behind you because toddlers don't have a grasp of object permanence yet. Suspense and danger doesn't exist. It's even a running joke when limbs get lopped off, because they can be instantly healed. The rest of the show is endless fanservice, with boob shots galore bigger than their heads to panty shots to nurses with big glasses getting strangled.

If this was a straight up comedy or parody smut-fest it would have been more acceptable. But it's one of those shows that both tries to tackle serious topics without being serious, and revels in stupidity instead of fleshing out the main characters. The asinine frivolous plot is better suited for an episode of Scooby-Doo, a mystery series for children, who are easily fooled. It even doubles down on the Saturday morning cartoon conceits, like winning a war with no casualties on either side and a villain that easily capitulates in abject cowardice at the slightest threat. There's even a kid with monsters bursting out of his entire torso that magically survives. The "good buys" just slice and dice monsters with zero trouble, making quips or taunting each other, much like One Piece or, dare I say, every crappy Marvel movie. You yawn loudly and continously at the lack of struggle or even intelligent strategy or interesting plot twist. The animation and art isn't particularly good, especially not the squared off beasts and monsters, some with almost no shins, and the background has this perpetual blur.

About the only thing they got right was to rectify the sour taste that I had from the previous series, in which the villain was basically painted as a misunderstood anti-hero who experienced zero fallout from starting multiple wars that killed thousands of people. Is that really the sort of closure you want? He was never punished, or at least it was never addressed in the series. I am not a light novel reader nor care to read up on the rest. In the many lore segments of the spin-off, they vehemently denounce his actions, claiming he is dead, and seem to be making up for their previous huge oversight. With the exposition segments, it feels like they are trying to cram an epligoue of Attack on Titan inside the Chibi Attack on Titan comedy show. They should have stripped it out into a single episode OVA instead of wasting people's time.

First time writing a review only because I find other reviews too biased. Some are comparing it to isekai shows which this is not. This is a fantasy anime which is a continuation to Grimoire of Zero. And some are complaining they did characters from prequel dirty by turning them into a villians. They're not BTW just a ruse anyone could have guessed by the behaviour of characters from the prequel anime. Sure this anime has some cheesy and idealistic characters but that's what I honestly found refreshing/nostalgic TBH. Animation is okay. I rarely care about anime music so can't comment on that. If youliked Grimoire of Zero then this is more of that with new characters in focus. And I do like the usage of legacy characters by same author in sequels when it's done tastefully. If you're a first time watcher then I suggest you see Grimoire of Zero first to appreciate these adorably cheesy characters. I'm having fun watching it.

I watched the "Grimoire of Zero" Again Just to freshen up on the story knowing its a Sequel-Spin off, But the story just felt out of place and In all honesty Skipped through about 70% Due to me not having a focus for the main 3 Casting characters and rather skipped to the Parts with "Zero" and "Mercenary" as that i hope this story would involve them more. This is just and overall Rant about how i didnt care much for the Story. They just needed to Do a Grimoire of Zero S2 and things would have done Much Better in My humble Opinion.

This show is generic Isekai slop. Usually I am all for it, but this show is uniquely formulaic and unappealing. Usually there is something in a show that makes it so bad it's good, or surprisingly manages to actually pull something interesting off... but this show is none of that. Be warned, the first few episodes contain all of the intrigue and suspense that the show has to offer you, and the remainder of the season will feel like a slog. Now since I already marked this review as a spoiler, I feel that there are some things that need to be discussed about this showthat are genuinely appalling. Firstly, the quality of the animation is lackluster. There is a reliance on 3D animation for the enemies and for the staff of one of the main characters, and this is not inherently bad but it is jarring. The 2D animation is not much better, some of the characters have appealing designs but none stand out as particularly inspired. The only character I can think of that stands out as having an interesting design is the large cat beast-man, who's name in the dub is literally just "Mercenary". Talk about uninspired.

The lack of memories of the main character is almost completely wrapped up by the end of the season, so a second season will probably be even more bland on that front. There are some genuinely disgusting moments in retrospect, for example the white haired witch named Zero kisses the main character, knowing that he is her nephew, while he is unaware... but that is never brought up again or seen as strange even after it is revealed.

This brings me to my biggest gripe with the show, that it has a sort of emotional ecchi slant with the idea that the MC can better transfer his magic through bodily fluids, which provides him an excuse to kiss mages, but he only ever uses this on the conventionally attractive female cast. It makes the mechanic feel plainly obvious in its purpose, to grant the MC reason to tongue kiss the girls of the show in high-stakes, dramatic moments when they need to use their magic and are in danger. Even if it only happens a few times in this season, his lack of care for the feelings of others and disregard for it makes it clear that this is supposed to be a self-insert where the viewer can hold their lecherous fantasies while acting as if they are better than a pervert who would enjoy the idea of kissing the women of the show, despite themselves being that very kind of person. If someone genuinely enjoys the show, I think part of it is that you have to enjoy that concept, since it is one of the most glaring issues with the premise as a whole.

Overall, if you are looking for ecchi, this might be an okay watch, if you are looking for a world where there is a mechanic for the MC that forces him to kiss other people, then this also has that, but otherwise the show lacks anything unique to make it stand out from the crowd. With lackluster production and mediocre pacing, it will likely be an unsatisfying experience for most viewers. I don't recommend it.

I don't think I have ever seen something as bad as this. No comedy effect. Poor story. Art is mediocre. The excessive 12 yr old lookalike fan service. The bland and annoying main character. How is there some people that enjoy this anime. We even made a challenge where we woud drink a shot everytime we saw underage (even the ''300yr old'' witch) but we would be in a coma 5 minutes into the episode. I do not understand why people insist on making anime like these instead of creating something with plot, interest, good characters with personalities? I donn't know. Even the opening and endingare unsufferable. Maybe I'm just entirely different from the people who watch these shows, but i genuinely thoguht this one would have some potential and even the art looked pretty but its just SO disappointing.

I know I am repeating myself but i would LOVE to understand what this anime has that appeals to anyone besides the fan service.

Dawn of the Witch could have become a great follow-up to Grimoire of Zero if only its pacing was better. After hearing the show's announcement, I decided to watch its predecessor Grimoire of Zero to refresh on the story and its lore. I loved its story, characters, and world building with each episode paced and ended brilliantly--making me eager for more. The reason why I brought this up is because Dawn of the Witch failed to do just that. Despite its premise and the mystery aspect of it, the show's intrigue wore down because of its lack luster pacing. It seemed to randomly end each ofits episodes with random cliffhangers and I personally think certain plot beats and scenes could've been combined together instead of being cut separately to improve the pacing and themes. The characters seemed stuck in one place for far too long, so the way the story was paced made it look like there wasn't any progression at all.

This way of pacing also affected the way the characters were portrayed as well. Despite claiming to become close, the show made it look random and unearned compared to the relationships forged by its predecessor. The protagonist felt incredibly bland despite his background and I think the mystery surrounding his circumstances could've been fleshed out more than just saying that it happened to him.

That being said, the show has good merits. Its matter-of-fact tone helps portray a witch's way of thinking which in turn creates interesting discussions that made up most of the story. The characters themselves were good at its core despite being held back by its pacing. The comedy and drama were well executed overall, and I still look forward to what these characters will be doing next. The world building is still sold and provides good additions that shows how previous events affected their world after Grimoire of Zero. For instance, the addition to how future Beastfallen are becoming more humanoid due to the distillation of the magic surrounding it was pretty interesting. That being said, I can't help but wonder if that's an excuse for making the female beastfallen look like a conventionally cute anime girl with minimal animal features while the male beastfallen are still hardcore with the animal designs. Overall, the character designs are cute.

The production was alright overall. There weren't any memorable soundtracks, but the OP and ED were pleasing.

Overall, I think this show is still enjoyable despite its flaws.

*Note: May contain spoilers* Story: -------- The story is not your typical carbon copy copy/paste, yet a lot seem to hate that suddenly while screaming for something new. Now you get something new and it isn't good? Interesting... I actually think it's a good story, not the best but the studio clearly tried to make something unique instead of using the old carbon copy thing. Which is good. I however do have to add that the stories behind Sable are not fully shown until the very end. Frustrating as it might be, it isn't a bad turn of events if you think about it. Sable never really gets the OPstatus but does have a lot of potential.

Gaphics:

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I would argue that it looks actually pretty good, nice style and colors are popping the right way. Also the animations seem to look decent.

Sound:

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The only downside for this category seems to be the end credits where the story continues but the music for the end credits seems to almost over power the voice actors. This may cause you to miss details you may need for the next episode.

Characters:

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The characters are pretty decent, but can mess with your mind. A lot seem to be baddies that turn good and we have one that lost his memories, or at least kept it deep down. Yet it's all good in the larger picture where everything does come together.

Overall:

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I did enjoy watching this one, I do hope to see a season 2 which is likely to come. I'd say don't follow the cries of people who claim that this is a bad anime, just watch it without expecting anything and it wil blow your mind how good it actually is.