Burn the Witch

Quite obviously rushed. However, good concepts and great animation. Seems promising. Would want more of this, better written, than a revived Bleach. As reviews need to be longer, just a few more words: There being a law that those who have touched dragons are to be imprisoned/executed sounds completely unreasonable. But, this could lead to further reveals, and I wouldn't mind just assuming it as a premise. The greatest part of the short story for me: in the end the problem isn't solved by friendship and love between human and dragons. That the white dragon outright tried to kill its adoptive mother lays promising grounds for further dragon-human relationships.

I truly enjoyed this anime. The story itself was good enough that I didn’t necessarily need to have any prior knowledge that it takes place in Bleach universe. Although with only 3 episodes, the story sets itself up with the potential that it could later turn into a full 12 episode series. The artwork was amazing. When I think dragons, I think cute or total badass. Burn the Witch managed to deliver both. The fighting sequence was well done and didn’t feel dull. The main characters were enjoyable with the classic fiery witch being paired with the more calm demeanor one. Voice acting was on point. (Asami Tano's delivery as the classic fiery witch was amazing). The background music was good in its setting. I really vibed with the outro song.

Burn the Witch is the definition of a cashgrab that relies purely on the fame of a previous work of its autor in order to sell and it otherwise offers nothing of value. It’s supposed to be some sort of spin off that takes place in the same setting as Bleach but it has absolutely nothing in common with it. I didn’t make a review of Bleach because there is no point in doing that, since everyone and their mothers already talked about it both positively and negatively, but I will make comparisons between the two. First thing to notice is how it takes place in a different country, nothing wrong in that, and it goes for a urban/contemporary fantasy and magic realism type of story, meaning the normal people is more or less aware of everything that happens (in one side), unlike in Bleach where neither the Hollows nor the Shinigami could be seen by people with weak spiritual energy…at first, something that changed completely later on. This would be pretty interesting if said normal people would get a role in the story but as of yet they don’t do nothing of importance, heck, they are not even allowed to interact with the monsters, which here are presented in different form than they had in Bleach, as dragons. Another thing where is weaker than Bleach is having a much lighthearted tone. Although Bleach has lots of silly comedic moments from beginning to end, the first episodes have a creepy atmosphere with a haunting soundtrack at times, something which was completely lost here. For something positive, the Soul Society here works completely different, it no longer follows a military logic with clear borders that separates the japanese elite from the poor and miserable foreigners (cough) but instead works as some kind of company where the Soul Reapers are some kind of employees that hunts the hollows in pairs for credits. Believe or not, this is a good thing, in Bleach, the Reapers sent on a mission could be a single soldier or both the captain and lieutenant of a squad which was kind of sily if you think about it. Why would you send a single person on a mission, or why would you do that with the two biggest authorities of a squad, leaving it behind without leadership and boy was the Gotei 13 lucky that they never received an attack at the same time. Also, I never understood why the captains have only one lieutenant and only one squad under their supervision. And the ranks were complete bullshit, with stronger people serving under weaker people at times. None of that nonsense is present here, as everyone has the chance to get a higher rank just by working a lot. Also, the Gotei 13 is presented much sooner and they already began moving in order to capture some sort of legendary weapons/creatures which are seemingly going to be important later on. What I didn’t like is how the place feels like a school, is there really a need to have a school in everything, especially if it involves magic? Anyways, the premise is more or less the same as in Bleach only less interesting because of the lack of a creepy atmosphere as I already said but also because the characters here are complete shit. The black haired girl is the only one who is completely serious about what she does and does not take bullshit from anyone, but she’s also so serious she’s just boring to watch. The blonde one is just Hiyori from the Vizards in steroids and man is she annoying. And still not as much as the guy, he’s so stupid, he ruins any attempt at seriousness. And there’s also a yandere type of antagonist who has a crush on the blonde girl and just like with the guy, I was expecting for the moment both of them die on screen, which obviously didn’t happen because they are going to be main characters later on. Another problem in the show is how the spells are totally boring, they are just light beams of different colors and that’s it, nothing like in Bleach where they had all sorts of shapes and functions and I need to point out how the characters keep pulling powers out of nowhere, in fact that is how the anime ends, leaving any sort of closure completely open for it is just a prologue which exists only to promote the manga. That is another issue it has, it’s too short and silly to make anything feel important, and on top of that, since it clearly wanted to promote the manga, it skipped the pilot chapter which shows how the main characters get together and are connected, none of that is present here, which could have worked as a bit of their backgrounds. It also feels uninspired, with the dragons flying around it just feels like you are watching something made by Hiro Mashima, and the two sides from the same city, which seem to work as some sort of parallel dimensions connected to each other (I’m only guessing, it’s never explained), is basically taken from Harry Potter, with the only difference being that the “muggles” know what happens here and can move from one side to another under certain circumstances. I like how the legendary weapons/creatures are based on classic fairy tales, I’ll give it that, but even then it’s nothing I hadn’t seen done already in Read or Die, in a much more creative and fun way. Ultimately, what everyone who watched this really cared for was the action and the visuals, and I have to admit that they are not bad, but when they are praised beyond the point they deserve, I have to point out how neither of these elements are that great either. By comparison, in the same season, Majo no Tabitabi and Akudama Drive came out and Burn the Witch just pails before them. And in the same year we got the likes of Tower of God, Deca-Dence and Fog Hill of Five Elements, all of which are also far better and more spectacular than this show in these aspects. Another thing that was praised about it are the character designs and I don’t understand why, Kubo knows how to draw his stuff but he also tends to repeat the faces of his characters a lot, in Burn the Witch, the black haired girl is basically a mix between Orihime and Bambietta from Bleach and as I said the blonde is an aged up Hiyori. The same thing can be said about every other character, they resemble the characters from Bleach a lot and the artwork lacking in details does not help them either. There is a character with a somewhat original design, but he has the same problem as Mirio from My Hero Academia, he resembles a famous character (Luigi) a lot and the chances of liking his design are gonna be divisive because of that. The special effects are not bad but for a show where they throw magic left and right, they could and arguably should be better, the best things in the visuals are the backgrounds, the city looks really good. The motions are fine but nothing really surprising, again I feel like they could have been better and at times they felt kinda sloppy. They feel consistently fluent and fast paced but it’s mostly because of the camera work, which follows every movement the girls make with and without their brooms. And as I said, Majo no Tabitabi did it better. I have nothing to say about the sound, the sound effects lack impact, the voice acting is one of the same you can hear everywhere, the music is alright but nothing really memorable. And that’s it, there isn’t really much else to comment about it, it’s short, it’s just a prologue, it’s mostly silly and nonsensical, poorly written, it has trashy characters, it feels disjoined from the series it’s supposed to be related to, it feels derivative in some elements, everything it does has been done before (for better or worse) and it’s not amazingly animated, it also had the bad luck of airing in 2020, the anti hype year, and thus it didn’t caused as much impact as expected, but I guess it served to remind the audience that Bleach will get a sequel soon, let’s see if this one still retains its audience and manages to sell once that adaptation of a somewhat hated arc is over.

Don't be mistaken: This is just a prologue. The movie adapts "Season One" of the Burn the Witch manga... which is only 4 chapters, with a Season Two confirmed to come at some point in the future. If you're familiar with Tite Kubo of Bleach fame, you will be able to tell that he plans on expanding this series way beyond this first movie. Story: 5/10. There are two things you need to know before jumping into this movie. The first: it's a sequel to the original Burn the Witch one-shot. Yes, not an adaptation, a sequel. The events of the one-shot still happened, but you don't get to see any of it. This is why you're just thrown into the series' world, without any real introduction to its main characters. The second: the story is incomplete. As I mentioned above, this movie, as well as the first season of the manga that it adapts, is a prologue. It serves to introduce you to Ninny, Noel, Balgo and a few other characters before the "real story" actually begins... Which is very weird, considering that the manga went into indefinite hiatus as soon as Season One was done, so we actually don't have that "real story" yet. Let's talk about the movie's story, for what it's worth. Two girls work for an agency that handles dragons, both friendly and useful, as well as aggressive and dangerous. They're currently taking care of this really annoying guy called Balgo, and if you want to know why... you have to read the one-shot. This is bad story-telling. Nothing indicates that the movie is a sequel to the one-shot, and you'll only find out about this if you do research on the series on your own, because there is NOTHING that alludes to why or how they got stuck with Balgo, which raises a lot of questions and confuses the viewer when they start throwing around terms that are explained in the one-shot... but not in the movie. You shouldn't have to do homework in order to understand the basic premise and world of your movie. Looking over this HUGE flaw, the story is... ok. Nothing special, for a prologue. It's meant to introduce you to the characters and establish the world and it does that fine enough, even if a bit clunky sometimes. Art: 8/10. It's Kubo. The man who achieved "Big Three" status on drawing cool shit alone. The character designs are great, which has always been his strong point, and the animation by Studio Colorido is fluid and pleasing to look at. There is a lot of flying around in this, as you'd expect from a show about witches, and it's all pretty well done. Spells look a bit boring for the most part, with the exception being the spells cast by Bruno, which are very creative in how they're cast and look different enough from the rest, which are basically just light being shaped differently. Yeah it's all a bit samey but it's not what I'd describe as bad, at all. Sound: 6/10. The voice acting is good, everyone fits their character and helps the movie sell you on who these people are. The background music was fine, if a bit unremarkable. The same could be said about the ending song, it did its job fine enough, but it's not like it's particularly memorable or something that I'd add to my anisong playlist, for example. Character: 7/10. Kubo knows how to write likable characters, even if he doesn't really know what to do with them as the series goes on. He also knows how to write insufferable characters. Case in-point: Balgo. Balgo is by far the worst thing about this series. Comic-relief characters are hard to write, I know that, and if you're not careful enough, you end up with a character like Balgo, a complete useless tag-along whose only role in the movie is to "be funny". I did not find him funny, I found him incredibly irritating. Everyone else is good, for what little we've seen of them. The two main characters are your typical energetic-apathetic dynamic, but what I like about them is that neither one of them is your typical hero(ine). They're both selfish, Noel is greedy and Ninny is ambitious to a fault, disregarding rules and even the safety of London citizens to prove herself worthy of a promotion. Their dynamic is nothing new but it was enough for me to want to see more of them. Other relevant characters include hot-headed, over-confident Bruno Bangnyfe, which is my favorite character thanks to a combination of great character design, cool powers and scene-stealing personality which is a Kubo classic; Macy Baljure, whose only real role in the prologue is to be cute and naive which I assume is to establish that she's going to be changing a lot throughout the series (whenever that decides to start); and Ninny and Noel's boss Billy Binx, Jr., a laid-back and lazy character who is pretty charming considering his small screen-time. The movie also introduces the Top of Horns, the rulers of the Wing Bind association, but their appearance is very brief, only serving to, again, assure the viewers that the story is only at its beginning. Honestly I would give it an 8/10 if Balgo wasn't so damn annoying. Enjoyment: 7/10. It's fun. That's all I can really say about this series so far, really. It did get me interested in seeing the rest of the story, which I guess was the purpose of the movie. It feels incomplete because well... it is. In a way this movie is just a big advertisement for Burn the Witch Season 2, whenever that decides to show its face on Weekly Shonen Jump. On its own, I'd give it a light 7/10.

Cons: This three episodes transition and pacing isn't good, the way the episodes end aren't well done. It feels like they just wanted to squeeze some artwork with a catchy song at the end. The world building wasn't that good but not terrible, you could understand in a way what the world is in a few minutes. The main characters aren't bad, they're good characters. The supporting characters are just there, they could've played a better role in the story (specially Banx). Balgo is just annoying and useless. Pros: The world has an interesting setting Good artwork and sound Likeable main characters It's an enjoyable watch The pacing isn't that bad Overall: This one-shot has the potential to become a good anime, just fixing the pacing problem might be enough sense that's the main problem. It has a good setting, with supporting characters that can be great if they are done right, with two main characters that might become popular, sense there personalities are quite good.

this my first review in My Animelist, so this just my personal opinion and don't take it very seriously To be Honest this movie is feels more like a pilot episode for the anime series (which is i hope is coming soon). Despite being very impresive for 3 episode Anime, this movie does'nt feel solid. The visualis good, the sound design is also good, the characther is fine, but the story is that makes this movie does'nt solid at all (at least what i feel when i watch it from non-manga reader perspective). We got a little naration for what happened here and the world of this anime, but that is nothing more. And the story is like in the middle of the series it self (we have nothing know to start the series and the ending just cliffhanger). I think the purpose of this Movie is just to show what the studio can do, and what would be like if Burn the witch is adapted to anime. Overall I regard this movie for just a Pilot episode for the upcoming Anime series and I don't take this movie to seriously because I still enjoy watching it.

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

This review is spoiler-free. First off, this isn't what I'd call a movie, but rather a mini-series or something of the sort. It consists of 3 poorly-linked Anime episodes of 20ish minutes (standard, if you will). Story - 3 There's barely any introduction to the MCs (only a little bit of backstory that's mostly left out to the viewers' interpretation rather than being expanded on or explained). There isn't much to the story honestly, besides meaningless encounters and fight scenes that escalate too quickly and weirdly to be taken seriously. Trying to fit all of it in 3 20-minutes episodes was probably a mistake, since the many roughly touched-on parts of the story couldn't be explained or further explored and developed. To the viewer, it's like the story is simply filled with holes and appears to make no sense (at least to me, that's what it felt like). Also, the transitions between the 3 episodes don't make sense at all to me. That's probably the main reason it didn't feel like a movie when watching them back to back. Art - 6 The Art itself isn't that bad, but it really isn't movie quality (if you compare it to popular and well-ranked movies like Your Name, Weathering with You and such). It's also not a complete and utter dreadful experience for the viewer since there's a consistency - the characters, the environments, the colors used, etc. are always the same and keep the flow steady and natural for the viewer. Sound - 6 I found that one of the supporting characters was truly bugging me and part of it was because of its voice. I simply found it annoying and it sort of ruined the experience for me. Everytime that character was involved in a situation and talked, I'd just roll my eyes in exasperation (yes, it was that bad for me). Otherwise, the music and sound effects were okay, nothing worthy of mention or anything very powerful or too emotional. Just plain decent and basic sounds/music that help the viewer understand what's happening. Characters - 3 As I said in the Story part, there's barely any introduction to the MCs. Whilst watching, I felt like they had no depth since there wasn't any backstory shown or explained. There were little pieces of information left here and there, stuff that the viewer could deduce or interpret their way, but no real background story or anything of the sort. This resulted in pretty bland/generic and boring/annoying characters. I couldn't care less if any of them were to get into a relationship, lose something valuable or whatever. I couldn't find anything to relate to or get attached to. They felt empty to me, void of any substance. Enjoyment - 2 Pretty dull. I didn't really enjoy watching this "movie". It kinda felt like a chore to me, just to add it to my Completed Animes list. After seeing it advertised and looking up this Anime, I had high expectations but sadly, they weren't met at all. Most of the action was pointless and provided no character development, if any at all. The show brought up so many unanswered questions in my mind (and didn't answer them) that I didn't understand the point of watching it. Nothing joyful happened, nothing saddening nor heartbreaking happened, it's just the same-old bland and boring meaningless story of stuff happening to the MCs for absolutely no reason other than to make something happen to fill the 60ish total minutes of the show ("movie"). Overall - 4 Yeah, that's just the average of the scores I've given this show. I've got nothing more to say about this so-called "movie", except go watch it if you want, but lower your expectations for it first. It's not deserving of a score as high as it is right now. As the score of 4 indicates, it is in my opinion a "Decent" show, no more, no less.

That's a nice movie to watch, don't expect a masterpiece from a hour movie, but you won't regret spend that time on this title, I wish that title will get a tv shows seasons in the future cause it definitely deserves it. First of all the movie take place in the same universe as Bleach but it's in London and as y'all seen in trailer it's different than a well known Bleach world. It also bring a little bit of nostalgia, especially that characters gives you a 100% vibes of Tite Kubo drawing style and not gonna lie Bruno Bangnyfe give Grimmjow vibes unfortunately these characters don't share the voice actor. Story: It's good, but too rushed, alot of people will disagree with my point of view, but let's be honest you don't need to know everythign about a world to enjoy the movie and that's what happens here, a short plot with introducing a little bit of the world, of the main characters and with few actions. Art: I really like the art style of Tite Kubo which is visible in this movie and I love that fact, also i want to point out something which some people like some doesn't it's the specific art of background which in my opinion is familiar to Owari no Seraph background art, for me it was great the whole Reverse London looked incredible. Sound: Well that's a too short movie to even notice anything, the sound effect during actions is quite good, there is only one soundtrack which I memorised from that movie which is the main theme of burn the witch and that's all what I can say about that, unfortunately I didn't like that much of voice acting for Bruno. Character: They are unique but not unique at the same time, the art style and their look like is something which will make you remember these characters but their personalities is something which you can definitely find in another titles and it makes you forget about the character, the example is that Noel for me is like a female version of Ishida from Bleach and as I said before Bruno is similar to Grimmjow, but to be honest I like very much his balaclava, clothing for mouth i don't know how to properly call it in english. Enjoyment: That's a short and good movie to watch in an evening, to eat some pop-corn, chips or some other snaccs and just chill out while watching it, without thinking about what's gonna happen, who is who, who will do what, who will survive, etc. Just a simple story for a chilling which I personally like. Overall : 8/10 I really hope that burn the witch manga will have more opportunities for develop and will not have to be rushed like Bleach to give time for Kubo to make and procces this title for a better score, I hope that I will oneday be watching week by week episodes of Burn the Witch if that's gonna happen, I will be positive that it will happen, when? I don't know.

For the viewer: don't watch this now. Wait for more. I watched three episodes and was surprised to find that I had seen... a movie, apparently. Right now, while Burn the Witch is quite aesthetically appealing, it is a merchandising story so caught up in placing all the bells and whistles that it fails to be believable or likable. It contains the usual forms: girls with 'personality', throwaway cute characters, stereotype sandwiches, a quelle-meaningful MC catchphrase, thighs, and more thighs. The setting does raises interesting questions - what are dragons?, what is this new society? how does this magic work? - but it's neither well explained nor believable. In three episodes, half the city of London perishes under flames and explosions. That raises some follow-up questions: how is this city still standing? Why do people live here? The characters are also enjoyably frustrating. There is Ninny, our lovely MC, whose response to 'you destroyed half the city and killed thousands!' is 'where's my money!?', Balgo, the village idiot, stereotype gangster 1, stereotype cop 32, quirky anime council members 49-117, et cetera. The only persona who doesn't come with perennial facepalms is Noel; probably because her motives and personality are nil. Burn the Witch failed to be likable. I can't respect it; neither as a viewer expecting excitement nor as an author expecting craft. That said, the future may bring backstory and believability.

This is my first review I've done in a long time, for good reason....I am not a good reviewer but, here it goes. Burn the Witch...while you were a animation greatness galore, your pacing was confusing and you were way too quick, hell even boring at times. In my eyes, the animation studio should have waited for more material to go off of, but instead they decided to throw this at us, I hardly knew what was going on half the time even. While I enjoyed this anime, it was rushed. I am not a Bleach fan at all, so that may have played a part in this, but even still...I am sure most Bleach fans were at least a little confused as I am. Burn the Witch, if only you had more time...

Man oh man, I've been waiting months on this to launch! I'm seeing a lot of mixed opinions on it from other reviewers, but I'll just say it blew me away! I was trying my best not to hype it up in my mind, but it managed to exceed my expectations entirely. I definitely hope, despite how unlikely it is, that this will be developed into a full fledged series, because the potential is amazing. The animation is smooth and super high quality, the choreography is amazing, and the visuals are just very pleasant and engaging. I found the two main characters very interesting, personally. Ninny is an automatic fave from me. The world building is pretty neat! Not entirely original but vague enough to be expanded on and twisted into something new. The concept of Front and Shadow London is pretty cool! I kind of want to know more about how that works! The world building and overall plot would be phenomenal for a longer show, and I really would love to have more. Like... what are the repercussions of traveling between the two? Do some of the characters have split lives based in each world, what is that like? I think this is so cool! Also, I just love dragons and girls being badass so... I'm all here for this! I enjoyed it a lot and really hope that there's more of this!

It probably should be more of an 8 rather than 9 but seeing this many nagging reviews... This piece has HUGE potential. In those few episodes it manages to show the universe (like scanning codes to open portals, using phones to keep track of their progress, those areas being locked by hidden fences) a plethora or characters (that don't look or act alike), great art (with plenty of detail and without those dumb underwear shots), good music (though unfortunately rarely played), a few twists (like that fingershot at the end) and jokes, everything being mixed in overall dark (or just far from fairytale) mood. Plot overall wasn't the best but... how can all this be squeezed in 60 minutes and reasonably development? Obviously it was rushed but characters are not irritably stupid, act naturally, dialogues and situations are well above good and I wish it would not have ended so abruptly, though they just had in order to have certain closure (unlike many others) and that just ears them more respect points. Hell, I would even read the manga I guess, which is extremely rare for me.

Burn The Witch is a 2020 anime film based off of a Kubo Tite manga. That's right, the creator of Bleach. The anime version was handled by Studio Colorido. Which I've never reviewed anything by. Let's have a look. Story: Our story centres around the idea that there are two Londons. The London we know and Reverse London, where dragons roam and need to be kept under strict control. Our heroines are two witches, Ninny and Noel. They help bring a rampaging dark dragon under control only to find themselves entangled in a plot that's all about bringing down one of their friends. Here's the big problem with the narrative, there are a lot of things that aren't explained very well. The film throws out a lot of terms and concepts very quickly but never extrapolate on them all that well. For example, there are people who can come into contact with dragons but most can't and there's never a detailed explanation for why. It seems to be something to do with mana but the film never explains how mana works in its world. It's like Kubo wanted to set up a long series to follow up after Bleach, but he never got past the planning phase. This is also supposed to take place in the Bleach universe, but none of the abilities or creatures seem to operate anything like the fantasy creatures or abilities in Bleach. Which is weird. There's just no coherent reason for this and Bleach to be connected. The film also suffers a bit from a rushed climax with the big battle sequence ending with a disappointing anti-climax. To its credit, this film is full of interesting ideas that have a lot of potential. I could see this as a really good twenty six or more episode series with proper pacing and fleshed out concepts. The problem is it's an hour long film. I will also say, to its credit, it was fairly compelling throughout. Characters: My big problem with the characters was that I hated Balgo. He's one of those characters who comes across as a complete moron but he's supposed to be likeable because he's a friendly and inoffensive moron. I just really found him insipid. I do think that both Ninny and Noel are pretty interesting characters and I could see them becoming really complex given more time. But for the length, I don't think they could have been done much better. With most of the side characters you get the sense that Kubo has ideas for them but they don't really go anywhere and the characters themselves end up being a little lacklustre. Art: The artwork does look pretty good. I especially love the big dragon they face for the climax. The action is also interesting to see. There's a definite unique aesthetic to the way characters use magic in this and I'm kind of into it. Sound: The acting is pretty well done. Yamada Yuina, Tano Asami & Hayami Saori all perform strongly and there's not really anyone who does badly. Even the performances that aren't as good are still competent. The music is fine. Ho-yay: There's a little bit. The character Macy openly has a crush on Ninny. Areas of Improvement: 1. Extrapolate on how your world works. This film is full of potential that never quite gets reached and ideas that never get fleshed out properly. It would work so much better with a little time taken to flesh it out. 2. There's no reason for this and Bleach to take place in the same universe. Connecting these two is both unnecessary and doesn't make much sense. There's this sense of disconnect between the works and telling us that our heroines work in Reverse London's Soul Society just isn't an adequate connection. 3. Have a more satisfying conclusion. It's a bit disappointing that the big climactic battle just ends abruptly and far too easily. It makes the whole thing just feel unfinished. Final Thoughts: This is one of those works where there's clearly a lot of potential and some strong elements, but the potential is never fully realised and the strong elements are met with a lot of weaker aspects. Ultimately, I do think this is better than mediocre but not by a large margin. So, I'm giving it a 6/10.

Burn the Witch (2020) Whilst this was released as 3 episodes and not a movie and it would be a fairly short movie over the average I must say it was actually unexpectedly good. Whilst some of it can seem crude it actually does most of what it wants to right. The story has got a few pacing issues and would have made more sense being 3 episodes as part of a larger season but then its from a one-shot manga. It is a shame because the premise of the show is really interesting. The art although it can be a bit crude is perfectly good for the show. The majority of the art is a very high standard and what I love so much is the facial expressions when such things as Star Ash get near their faces. It is hilarious and so well thought out. The soundtrack generally is excellent and the SFX it produces was also excellent. Characters develop in as much as you learn who they are as much as you can in 3 episodes without derailing the story. The two main girls Noel and Ninny are really well thought out characters. Overall, It is definitely worth a watch. Is it a shame it probably won't ever come back? Absolutely, it has a huge amount of promise. 8/10. Consigned to history I fear.

The ratings speak for itself. It has been a few minutes I finished the "movie" and I am still to figure out what happened, or why it happened, or why should people care? Unless there is a follow-up anime planned, or they want you to follow the manga (which at the time of writing this is exactly at the same place), this whole clearly no-a-movie does not make any sense. There is no time to connect to any of the characters, the plot is...difficult to find. And without any kind of follow up, the ending is just anti-climatic. Nothing actually encouraging you to start following the mange or wait for any anime. By the end of the third episode, you are left wanting your hour or something back. Skip this unless they announce something that would need you to watch it for context sake.

Okay so the short 3 episode animation of Burn the Witch had so much potential from a perspective of someone who's never read the manga. However it's falling so flat that it hurts. The animation and character design? Amazing. But I can't get past the fact that the story is as dry as a saltine cracker, it's not long enough for me to feel connected to the characters but it's also not short enough that I'm not loosing focus on the show. The action scenes don't make me lurch with excitement and the lack of character development that the show gives is rather disappointing. Overall I'd give it a 4.5/10. I'd recommend it but there is so much lost potential. [9:14 PM] Also the way the world building is just there? Gross. I hate everything about it. It feels like I'm reading a Wiki article. I give it essentially a 3 for art, 1 for Balgo, and .5 for potential...

Burn the Witch, more like burn the whole series. I’m going to keep this short and simple. Keep in mind, this may contain spoilers. I personally didn’t expect this to be a so-called ‘movie’ with 3 episodes. Let’s begin on how this ‘movie’ is presented. First episode, without a doubt, must give a big impression to the viewers, in this case Burn the Witch actually does. It starts with Ninny helping her friend Noel on doing contracts(?) and developed from that. Moreover, the first episode packs quite the action with cool scenes and effects which I find very pleasant to watch. However, the second episode was probably the point where it just collapsed. I don’t want to get into details on each episode so I will only discuss the (really) main plot. Balgo, a normal human being marked as a dragonclad, was to be executed for having contact with a dragon. Why is this like this you ask? Well I really don’t know why since the 'movie' didn’t give any proper context in the first place. I can’t really tell why the 'movie' didn’t give context but it just keeps on adding new things without really explaining it properly. It’s like there are 2 things happening at once, and then another 2 followed on, and so on. However, in these action packed episodes, it made me feel that there is much more that’s going to happen, and I personally was really looking into it. Guess what, the producers slapped my cheeks so hard and said ‘no more episodes and explanations for you, here take the somewhat good animation quality and stay quiet!’ The characters were fairly interesting by itself. We have Ninny, a tsundere-styled girl; Noel, an expressionless friend of Ninny; and Balgo, the ignorant guy that’s going to be important to the story. I described these characters with only a few words because mainly the studio didn’t give any background to them, or show who they truly are and what they’re capable of. It really made me feel like the characters aren’t important to the whole series. As for the visuals and audio, it is pleasing for me. Like I said, the art was pretty nice with a nice touch of style to it. The voice acting was fine, nothing really special about it, and the soundtracks were able to fit in well with the 'movie'. To sum up, Burn the Witch was a disaster when it comes to the pacing and plot. However if you’re looking for some short movie and just want to clear your mind without using too much brain power, this ‘movie’ is probably not the one you want to go with since it may leave you disappointed in the end.

7/10 (Will this ever be continued?) Over all this was a good watch and I am looking forward to what is next. The show is a bit too "anime" for my taste with the obsession over 'panties', arguments over first name/last name, In school? For some reason and the mc being an... idol? Maybe? Other then these small basic quoms about the show, it was beautifully animated, had a compelling world and interesting enough power/magic system. I really just hope this is just in the world of bleach but has nothing to do with it. I personally think bleaches story is atrocious and terribly written and very convoluted for no reason. Hopefully the writter learned from that and doesn't make the same mistake twice.

Such an oddly put together anime, I believe I should've read the manga before having this been my introduction to Burn the Witch. The anime starts you off in what feels like the middle of the series in an extremely vague setting and only gets more comboggled; with vague implications of these character's relationships, their power systems, and their motivations. At the very least, Kubos character design is more than amazing. There were so many instances where I found myself pausing to admire the design of certain character's outfits ie, Sullivan Squire. And some where I began to question how boring and odd some of the choices for these character's designs were ie. Bruno and Balgo. It doesn't help that backgrounds/scenery of the anime, like a lot of modern animes, looks so artificial. Really scratching my head after this one. A lot of squandered potential here.