Reviews for Burn the Witch #0.8

Tite Kubo is very smart for immediately incorporating BURN THE WITCH into the BLEACH universe—through a shrewd plot-twist in the writing—to straight off the bat invest its core target demographic—Bleach fans—into his spin-off series. This, alongside making the protagonists two (attractive) female characters in order to automatically make for a more interesting shounen premise considering the nigh-novelty. Thus, through the premise alone is the thoughtfulness of Kubo's work shown here. Ultimately and in reality, Burn the Witch is supplemental content for fans of the main series. It intends to capture the stylistic essence of Bleach as an excuse for Kubo to draw aesthetic art pieces thatservice the fans. Regarding this, Burn the Witch is a great series. Studio Colorido and team Yamahitsuji knew this as well, which is why all presentation for the anime—from the promotional campaign, to the website, to the key visuals and to the product—a stylishly striking identity can be seen. The art direction and animation are gorgeous—fine-tuned to the whimsical setting; the sound design is sharp and works in tandem with the youthful vibe; and cinematic direction and storyboards are properly realized here because the pacing isn't at haste like in the 2020 ONA sequel. While the narrative elements are serviceable and never actively detriment the beautiful production design that is doing most of the legwork. Exceptional and inspired character designs (including the Dragons and their body horror that help form a sinister undercurrent) with strong characterization and character dynamics as well as firm theming, as expected from Kubo. The subtle references to Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon accentuate the charm of this title and Colorido's passion for it.

To go back to an aforementioned point about the thoughtful constructions here, Ninny and Noel in juxtaposition perfectly complement each other in both design and personality without being exaggerated. Balgo Twain's parallels to Sir Ywain of Arthurian legend serve as part of the greater incorporation of fairy tales in Burn the Witch. The worldbuilding displays knowledge of English culture by Kubo and believably assimilates into the greater Bleach world because of it and the characters' isomorphic but distinguishable framing, and by extension allows for a lot of potential in the future.

All in all, this is a short but sweet audiovisual treat to pleasantly cap off the calendar year.

Anyone whose read this manga will know how much Colorido actually improved upon the source. Obviously Kubo is heavily involved with the project, and you can tell his studies on London/England are paying off, and he really infuses that world design with the cultural background. At first you would think a series like this leans on Harry Potter tropes, but many of them are blown out and upgraded in ways that give them a unique identity completely separate from obvious inspirations. The design are incredible, and Kubo is still in his prime. Every single detail and little addition to the characters comes out in a classicBleach style, but with an even sharper refinement of his previous style into something similar, yet different. It really helps give the world it's own "identity" aside from Bleach, but you can easily see these characters appearing along side the Bleach ones as they have the same framework in design. Everyone feels unique, and you can already feel the desire of cosplayers wanting to imitate Ninny's hairstyle, or Noel's outfit. Osushi feels like a level up on the Kon formula from Bleach, with more integration into the story itself.

The dragons are maybe some of the most interesting work I've seen, and are like an evolution of Miyazaki's Catbus from Totoro mixed with Shadow of the Colossus presenting a fresh take on both concepts with this "biologically mutual" relationship. The way that helps the actual plot and feeds into the world design is something unique, yet familiar to anyone used to the Hollows. Nearly every dragon could be made into it's own plushie, with an almost Pokemon, or Dragon Quest design work. At times the dragons alone have you wishing for a HxH, or Toriko style spin off really focusing on that aspect, and you can see all of this working inside a video game possibly even better than it does as an anime. The world is maybe one of the best I've seen in a Shonen.

Sound design and animation is on point, with Colorido adding dozens of fine touches that elevate the manga source. Things like the Dragonball and Sailor Moon themes being used as ringtones show a passion for the material that infuses the animators own influences into the work, showing how Burn the Witch is rooted in a lineage of incredible Shounen and Shojos, fusing to make something fresh and new. I truly hope Kubo is into this project, and want's to write the manga even at a slower pacing. This has so much potential, but already serves as a wonderful introduction.

Burn The Witch is a sorry attempt of a happy man. Tite Kubo is famous for incredible character designs and he is also capable of creating a sense of amazing worlds and captivating atmospheres. However he is infamous to actually write something meaningful or something more interesting than a 3 year old could do in a sandbox. Burn The Witch is an example of his low standards and his luck of writing skills. The animation is pretty much the only thing you will find in this a positive experience compared to the rest. Since there is no real story and the characters are so onedimensional that it’s hard to even believe this type of writing is acceptable.

Although that the animation is the only positivity it offers, it isn’t anything special either. I would gave it a 7 or 7.5 at best to the animation. Which is a good level of animation, but considering that they had over two years to make this 20 minutes episode, it’s pretty average.

The characters.

We have the black haired girl (Noel) who is so all Japanese. She is a silent beauty, acting like she doesn’t care about anything. We have the blonde girl (Ninny) as contrast to her. She is so annoyingly loud that you didn’t know what the hell she is saying. Even if you catch a few words that comes out of her mouth doesn’t matter to the story one bit.

We also have a boy (Balgo) whose brain cells can’t go further than panties. He only wants to see panties and the only thing he talks about is panties.

It seems that you really-really had to mess up an anime to get any kind of reality check back from it. So until you didn’t try hard enough to make it that appealing, some people will just gave it a 7 and thats applies “low” in today’s standards. From that reason anime like this will continue.

Burn The Witch is just one awful anime that has zero reasons to exist. Although I gave it an incredibly overrated score of (2), maybe because I felt it had some possibilities deep down of its original concept. As such of pathetic reason I could have also given it a (1), for waisted great talents and their time on such a dry-cut-rate attempt of an “anime”. Withal the mind that so many Mangaka’s with significantly better concepts getting declined every day.

In my opinion to adapt such story is unacceptable. It was unacceptable before the year 2000’s and it’s still unacceptable in 2024.

Final Score 2/10 ⭐️

Colorido nailed it with this one! The movie, which serves as the main story, hits differently now. The best way I can describe this series is as a blend of Harry Potter meeting Pokemon, or envisioning how JK Rowling might have approached Fantastic Beasts to create a more compelling story. So, if you're a fan of Harry Potter, you will undoubtedly enjoy this story and what it has to offer. Tite Kubo has struck gold once again, and observing how the studio not only maintained the quality but improved upon it from the movie that premiered in 2020, I believe I'm not the only one who sees thepotential here if it's continued properly.

Anyways, The 28-minute ONA serves as a pure setup for the movie, and I highly recommend that anyone reading this should seek it out after watching it.

Pretty good special. Although it was released after the BtW anime, in terms of the manga this actually came first as a one shot. We get to see how Balgo gets involved in the world of Reverse London. That makes this a good entry point into the series, even if you haven't seen the first anime. If you have seen the first anime, I would highly recommend watching this special too. There's not much to say other than that as the original chapter was more of an introduction to the world of BtW, and this special just adapts that. Characters are fun and quirky, theart and animation are gorgeous and the soundtrack is pretty good. Reminds me of those old OVA's from the 80's and 90's. I suppose if there was one thing I didn't like, it's that the tone stayed a little too light hearted during the climax. I feel like a tone-shift would have been good there.

Burn the Witch #0.8, a prequel to the original series, upholds its high standards of visual and animation quality while subtly expanding its fantastical world. The character designs remain visually appealing, and the animation is skillfully executed, though some assets occasionally feel out of place. The storyline lays the groundwork for the events of the original series, and while prior viewing of the movies isn't essential, they provide a more thorough introduction to the characters. However, the special isn't without its minor flaws. Some comedic moments fall flat and appear overly childish, and the short runtime may leave viewers wanting more. Overall, the series caters to fansof the original, delivering an enjoyable experience without necessarily venturing into new territory.

It's not as bombastic, fun or just plain awesome in the visuals department as the ONA that started this, but this ONA is still a good time. To its credit, the worldbuilding is substantially better this time around, as we get to see aspects of somewhat every day life in Reverse London and the designs of at least a couple of the dragons we get to see are creative and interesting. Considering the original ONAs largely left the worldbuilding to the imagination and just sped through its early events to get to the big fights, this is a welcome addition, and does a good dealdespite its short runtime. There's not a lot of action (though the bits we get are certainly striking) and a little too much focus on seeing a certain lead's panties, which means the character development here is virtually nonexistent and most of the characters feel two dimensional as a result, but it's hard to fault it too much as a prequel.

I can say this is for sure. I didn't except Kubo to make an animanga similar to Harry Potter. It's basically if Harry Potter (series, not the character) and Bleach had a baby. Instead of samurai with swords vs ghosts called hallows, it's witches with wand guns vs dragons, and instead of the soul society it's a reverse London. From what I see it's very odd but also very good. It has good potential, and maybe if Kubo plays his cards, it might even rival Bleach itself. Time will only tell if it fulfills that potential or not. I look forward to seeing what Kubohas in story for this new series of his. Also I didn't except a Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon reference.

I can't remember the last time I gave something a 1/10. MAL describes a 1/10 as "appalling", which is truly the most fitting descriptor for this show. The animation looks nice. The character designs are....... acceptable. But the story and characters we're presented with in this glimpse into Burn the Witch is abysmal. It's mostly the fault of one character. Balgo is just so immediately unlikable. When we're introduced to him, he's trying to get a peak at Noel's underwear. After that, it seems to be the only thing he thinks about. Am I supposed to like this guy? I honestly don't care if he improveslater on in the manga because this was such a bad first impression. This wouldn't be such a huge problem if he weren't a main character. I just can't imagine myself ever liking or feeling sympathy for someone so pathetic and perverted. Knowing Kubo Tite, I fear that he'll give this guy everything he ever wants, including Noel's affection. And if that's not where it's going... I kinda fail to see the point of this guy. Is he the self-insert? Not for me, that's for sure. I would not act like him.

I don't know. I just find the writing really immature and shallow. This OVA focuses on the story of Balgo finding out that his friend Shelby was actually a dragon all along who took over the body of his deceased best friend. The girls are tasked with slaying the dragon. For a moment, it seems like the narrative is going to show some sympathy towards Shelby's impostor; after all, he's been Shelby now for far longer than the original. However... The girls just kill him. Balgo even lampshades the fact that they ignored the tone of the scene by killing him, but it seems like the OVA is trying to make us think that it's funny, but it comes across as very messed up instead. It makes the girls suddenly look like merciless killers, and I'm not sure if that's what it was really trying to convey.

After that, the story continues to another day and they don't bring up what happened with Shelby. As far as I can tell, he and Balgo were really close, so how is Balgo not extremely upset about what happened? Why does everything continue as if something extremely traumatic didn't just occur???

If you'd like to see the same story done better, watch The Summer Hikaru Died. This OVA is the perfect example of how Kubo Tite can take an interesting idea and do absolutely nothing with it.