English Dub Review: Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina “Elaina, the Apprentice Witch”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Elaina aspires to be a witch because of the stories from a wandering witch who records her travels. At the age of fourteen, she becomes the youngest person to pass the magic exams, however, due to her reputation many witches refuse to apprentice her. Until one witch, the Stardust Witch Fran agrees to take her on as her apprentice. Unfortunately, it’s not how Elaina imagined since for a month she’s had to do chores, and with Fran constantly refusing to teach her magic. Elaina reaches her limit and after a test, she’s defeated in battle and bursts into tears.

That’s when Fran reveals the reason for her behavior at the request of Elaina’s parents to teach Elaina about hardships and failures, and then they start with her real apprenticeship. After a year Elaina manages to finally win against Fran in a duel which ends her apprenticeship. Fran gives her the title, the Ashen Witch before leaving to return to her country. After getting approval from her parents and making three promises to them, Elaina sets off on her journey for three years.

Our Take:

This anime kicks off with explosive magical duels and heartwarming lessons with the young witch Elaina as she learns from the Stardust Witch, Fran. The animations for their duel and the magic was great. I enjoyed how the anime used magic in the little things like Elaina storing the spare witch hat her mother gave her, and Fran’s house transforming back into tree branches after leaving Elaina to return back to her country. There’s also the voice acting which was good, especially when Elaina and Fran had their discussion after the duel.

Trying to endure everything isn’t always a good thing as this episode explores Elaina’s greatest strength and her greatest weakness. It’s a lesson that she takes her heart after her duel with Fran as she continues to learn about magic. Elaina is an interesting character with the clear goal of traveling the world. Her endurance and determination are admirable, but it does appear that she has a lot of arrogance given her comments about the exam results and other participants being weak along with her ending monologue.

Fran is a cool mentor as shown in the montage of their days together from foraging to the potion-making. Initially, she appeared to be a ditz with the butterflies, but that test really broke that perception of her. That worked well in breaking a few of Elaina’s expectations for her mentor, but also rebuilt it with her explanation for the test and the first of them living together. Not much is known about her other than the fact that she’s a witch from another country. Their goodbye scene was sad, but hopefully, we get to see Fran’s country in Elaina’s adventures.

Also, Elaina’s parents being supportive of Elaina’s dream is nice and Elaina’s interactions with them were sweet. Surprisingly, her father is the more worried one out of the two while her mother makes her promise three things. One: if things get dangerous, run. Two: no one’s special and that everyone is just the same as her. Three: come back to them safely and tell her story to them. It shows that despite her willingness to let Elaina journey by herself, her mom wants to make sure that her daughter remains safe in the unknown world we’re about to see in the future episodes. Furthermore, the second promise is a good reminder to Elaina to curb down her arrogance. Hopefully, it’ll make up for a good conflict in the future.

Overall this is a good first episode which sets a cheerful tone to the start of Elaina’s journey. I look forward to what experiences Elaina will find in her three-year journey as the Ashen Witch.