English Dub Review: Burn the Witch

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

In the fantastical world of Reverse London, a western branch of the Soul Society, witches Noel Niihashi and Ninny Spangcole work to protect the innocent from ongoing threat of wild dragons in the area. They’re assisted by Balgo Parks, one of the few who is legally allowed to use a dragon, and manage to fight a different off after it follows him. Later, they find another, more powerful dragon, has come into the ownership of Macy Baljure, one of Ninny’s friends and former member of her band. With help of one of the higher ups in their organization, they manage to take that one down as well, but Macy joins their group.

OUR TAKE

Since the end of Bleach’s anime in 2012 and the subsequent end of its manga in 2016, there was little word on what author Tite Kubo would do next. Come 2018, a 62 page one-shot chapter was released as an extended introduction to Burn the Witch, his next project that seemed to be taking a lot more of a western fantasy inspired turn than Bleach, which was demonstrably more Japanese in aesthetic. In place of Soul Reapers and demonic Hollows were wizards, witches, wands, dragons, and the like. This one shot proved to be quite popular, so a brief four chapter run was then released in 2020, followed by this anime adaptation. Originally released as a film in Japan, the international release, for some reason, was split unevenly into three episodes. For what reason is hard to say, but it does make it feel like the start of a whole new manga penned by the author of what was once one of the most popular manga in Shonen Jump.

As for how these episodes work on their own, it’s a pretty mixed bag. The animation is quite stunning, which makes sense given that this was released as a film, but that can only help a story so much. The world we get to know over these three episodes does seem to be pretty fleshed out, with urban fantasy elements strewn about and many hints as to what other magnificent or horrifying things could be lurking just beneath the surface. It does a good job at making me wish I lived in this setting, which I consider to be a good quality for a sci-fi or fantasy story to have, and makes me eager to see what other plots and arcs could take place here. The characters are dynamic enough, though with a personality mix between Ninny and Noel that feels a little undercooked. But overall it is definitely a sandbox that I am quite interested in playing in again for future installments.

The plot itself is where there are a few more chinks in the armor. As a start to the story, it’s not as inviting or intuitive as the beginning of Bleach (which this series is only going to invite further comparisons to, so might as well start now). That started us in a regular world and slowly peeled back the curtain to reveal the cool stuff that was unseen, giving readers and viewers a welcoming introduction to how things would escalate moving forward. Here, we’re just thrown into the world that just about every character already knows the basics of, so exposition has to be hastily and awkwardly thrown into dialogue, and even then, it’s Proper Noun after Proper Noun that quickly becomes difficult to keep track of, with the only lifeline to keeping up with the events being how more or less familiar this might be to something from Bleach. But even putting aside the inherent problems of relying on that, it’s not quite the saving grace it could be, because the Bleachisms often more just remind me of the weird and annoying things about Bleach that this author clearly hasn’t learned from.

Still, it’s by no means a bad use of your time to watch, especially if you’re eagerly awaiting news about Bleach coming back to adapt its final manga arc, which has sadly been bone dry since its announcement last year…right before the pandemic mucked up a LOT of anime production schedules, so who knows when that’s happening now. And if you find yourself enjoying Burn the Witch on its own, you may be happy to know that more chapters are on the way and will likely be adapted like this not long after. Also could act as a good substitute for Harry Potter if you’ve sworn off that recently.