English Dub Review: Witch Watch “A Trope-tacular Student Council; A Stray Cat’s Bubble of Bliss”

The punchline is TROPES!
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Morihito comes face to face with the Student Council who may have walked in from a different anime. Later, Nemu tries getting more pets as a cat, but then sense a warlock is coming for Nico.

OUR TAKE

We’re into double digits with Witch Watch, and unlike most anime this season, this one is actually doing a double length season, so it’s not a harbinger of the end here. In fact, it’s more of a harbinger of the halfway point, as while this episode does bring the usual laughs and deep cut anime references, it also acts as the lead in to the first two parter that starts next week where the story seems to be getting a bit more serious for the first time. But before we talk about that, we gotta discuss the introduction of like half a dozen new characters who are all pretty much just there to make the same joke, which is poking fun at the arrival of a quirky squad of minibosses for the main cast to fight or encounter. This student council has it all! A psychotic clown who like cutting his tongue on his knife, a rebellious kid hacker, a pair of spooky twins with clashing personalities, and even a dude who just straight up has a robot head. But among them is their regal leader, Student Council President Tenryu Kiyomiya, whose main gimmick is that he always has his hand on his cap but never takes it off, claiming it is actually stuck.

While this batch of weirdos initially looks like they will be a major threat, the funniest part is that Tenryu actually has to end up doing all the Student Council work himself due to everyone being so unqualified, and thus Morihito can actually empathize with him, even taking himself aback a bit. He has to deal with a bunch of lazy idiots all the time too, so they have that in common. Tenryu is now obsessed with getting Morihito on the council, but we’ll see if that lands. That’s the majority of the episode, with the rest being the return of Nemu, the witch who became a cat, and her basically pulling the same trick and ending up dozing off while being petted. However, the end of the episode has her sensing that a threat on the way: a warlock targeting Nico, and it looks like that will be the focus of the first two parter, Dogs and Raindrops. So, we’ll see ya next week for the first half of that next time, and witness this show’s first attempt at actually putting in real drama for a change!