English Dub Review: Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina “The Ripper”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Elaina visits a country when people are fond of dolls. She sees a crowd of people around a witch from the United Magic Association. The witch, Sheila later questions her about the Ripper. A person who targets women and has over a hundred victims in the past two years. Elaina stops by a doll shop selling their dolls for free, but she doesn’t take a doll citing that she doesn’t have space in her bag. Elaina goes to find an inn and stays there for the night while moving the creepy doll into the closest.

The next day Elaina finds that her hair is cut off and Sheila concludes that it was the work of the Ripper. They investigate and find out there a secret auction soon. They go to the auction and find out the identity of the Ripper, the dol maker that Elaina saw yesterday. Elaina swiftly traps her and destroys the doll made with her hair while using magic to restore her ashen hair to its former glory. Sheila takes the witch back and runs into Saya, her apprentice at the United Magic Association. Saya upon hearing the events strikes the dollmaker with a lightning spell.

Our Take:

Admittedly given the title of the episode, I thought this episode was going to be darker. Somehow this part of Elaina’s journey is equally creepy and funny thanks to the characters and the country with dolls. The country with dolls is a unique setting, but we don’t really get an explanation of why the dolls are everywhere. It seems like it serves to only intensify the creepiness of this episode’s antagonist.

For starters, Elaina’s introduction begins the episode, and I’m getting tired of her emphasis on her beauty. It did foreshadow the country she’s visiting, but I would rather be exploring the country from the first scene rather than see Elaina flying to it again. Her extreme ideas for the perpetrator who cut her hair only emphasize her vanity. There’s no change in her personality from her experiences so far which is disheartening. We’re left with a flat character journeying through different countries.

At least Elaina’s interactions with Sheila are pretty hilarious. Sheila turning over her bed while she’s still on, and their little banter about their disguises was amusing. Sheila’s relation to Saya is subtle with her glance at Elaina’s necklace that Saya gave her. The confirmation we get at the end with Sheila and Saya was nice and ends the episode in a light-hearted moment with Saya comedically getting angry at the Ripper.

Then there’s the Ripper who turns out to be the dollmaker that Elaina met. She takes the human hair of women and uses it for her creations. She is a witch, but she’s nothing in comparison to Elaina who traps her in a golden cage. The Ripper cranks up the creepiness of the country to an eleven with her actions to see Elaina’s angry at the auction. Her passion for dollmaking is intense and earns her a place in the custody of the United Magic Association.

Overall the episode was a standard episode. The anime continues to entertain with quirky characters and countries that Elaina comes across in her journey.