English Dub Season Review: Once Upon a Witch’s Death Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Meg Raspberry (Hannah Alyea) is just an apprentice witch celebrating her 17th birthday.  That is, until Faust (Linda Young), her magic teacher and Perennial Witch of the Seven Sages, suddenly reveals she is going to die.  To stop the Death Sentence curse, Meg must create the Seed of Life using tears of joy from 1,000 people.  Join Meg on her travels as she collects the happy tears from everyone she meets to gain eternal life!

Our Take:

Once Upon a Witch’s Death is an anime adaptation of a light novel series written by Saka and illustrated by Chorefuji.  It is directed by Atsushi Nigorikawa, with Keiichirō Ōchi writing the script.  It is animated by EMT Squared, known for producing other shows like Rainy Cocoa, Urahara, Beast Tamer, and The Unaware Atelier Meister.  Yuki Shizuku designed the characters, and Akiyuki Tateyama composed the music.  The opening theme song, “Drops,” is performed by Maaya Sakamoto, while the ending theme, “Hana-saku Michi de (On the Road Where the Flowers Bloom),” is performed by Aoi Teshima and composed by Yuki Kajiura.

Whether you’re a master or an apprentice, being a witch certainly has plenty of benefits one can take advantage of.  With all the magical power in store, you might even say that you’re practically invincible.  Unfortunately, regardless of power, none of a witch’s abilities can protect them from the one thing that no spell can counter: death.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re a witch or a normal human being; death always appears around every corner when you least expect it, especially when you’re cursed to die in less than a year.  This defines the latest addition to the catalog of young female witch anime that showcases life is just as precious as being a witch’s apprentice, particularly when you strive to change your chosen fate.

My experience with the “Witch Fantasy” anime is limited, similar to how I feel about the romance genre.  When someone mentions this genre, the only ones that instantly came to my head were Studio Ghibli’s Kiki’s Delivery Service and Studio Trigger’s Little Witch Academia.  Both of these projects demonstrated that the magic of fun storytelling comes from more than just a witch’s vibrant spells.  Please don’t ask me which one I liked more, as I found both of them great for different reasons.  I recognized that there are more anime series involving female witches, but Kiki and Witch Academia are the only two that have had the most impact on my experience with this anime genre.  Once Upon a Witch’s Death seemed like a good opportunity for me to expand my witch anime horizons a bit more, as it appeared to possess a similar magical vibe to the projects I mentioned earlier, along with its concept of life and death.  The question is: does it cast the proper spells to stand alongside other anime with witchy protagonists?  Most of the time, it does, but not enough to make its magic everlasting.

The show’s first season, consisting of twelve episodes, immediately propels viewers straight into its concept, with Meg Raspberry hearing from her master, Ms. Faust, that she’s been affected by the Death Sentence curse, and on her 17th birthday, no less.  As a result, she has one year to live before the curse causes her to age rapidly until she dies of old age within weeks.  Fortunately for Meg, the only solution to prevent the curse from taking effect is to collect a thousand tears of joy from people, creating a Seed of Life that grants its user immortality.  This resulted in Meg embarking on a seemingly impossible journey to collect those tears, requiring her to assist several people in her hometown of Lapis, including a young girl named Anna whose mother recently died.  Meg also encounters several members of the Seven Sages during her adventures, including Inori (Marwa Elda), the Sage of Wisdom, and Sophie Hayter (Abigail Blythe), the Sage of Blessings, who isn’t fond of magic. She also confronts several obstacles that prompt her to question her origins.

Upon watching the first two episodes, Once Upon a Witch’s Death seemed to have the narrative pattern it’s going for; a problem-of-the-week approach that has Meg solving a person’s dilemma to earn their tears of joy.  The first episode featured Meg helping Anna and her father, Dr. Hendy, cope with the death of Anna’s mother, while the second episode saw her assisting Granny Flare with the final moments of her life.  At first glance, this direction seemed likely to become repetitive in its structure.  Plus, having to do it with a thousand tears within the season would’ve been too much for the series to handle.  However, after those two episodes, the concept of collecting tears got pushed to the side in favor of its world-building, particularly the Seven Sages, and even Meg’s coming-of-age journey. This helped prevent the series from succumbing to its own narrative repetition.  

The first two episodes offered a surprising amount of emotional depth in their plots, showing promise for the later episodes.  This is mainly due to the themes of grief, death, and fate that they provided, which balance the show’s heartwarming magic with humorous slapstick.  The latter two topics were addressed in the second episode, “The Apprentice Witch and the People of Lapis,“ which featured Meg attempting to help Granny Flare, who was shrouded in a black mist courtesy of the Reaper.  This episode represented Meg learning to accept death as a part of life, and some fates couldn’t be changed, no matter how hard one tries; the best solution was to live out the best life to the fullest before that time came.  For an anime that seems light-hearted in its magical slice-of-life vibes and slapstick, Once Upon a Witch’s Death certainly knew how to dig deep into its mature topics, even if the sentimental results weren’t genuinely memorable.

Following the first two episodes, the remaining season spent its time exploring its world-building, primarily focusing on the connection between magical beings and humanity’s impact on Earth’s ecosystem.  More importantly, it has Meg striving to become a powerful witch capable of protecting her loved ones through her growth and magic.  This concluded with Meg learning more about her past, in which she was orphaned following a magical disaster that killed her mother, resulting in her apprenticeship with Faust.  It followed the usual narrative pattern seen in other anime, involving protagonists determined to be the best, such as WIND BREAKER and One Piece. However, the anime’s journey towards its goal delivered enough amusing and even heartfelt moments to retain its magical presence.  One of the best examples that fit this criterion is the sixth episode, “An Evening Sky Without Magic,“ which explored Meg’s redemption after her arrogance in tear collecting got her banned from using magic.  This episode stood out to me because it highlighted Meg’s growth from an arrogant young girl with a silly and devious side to a witch who puts people’s needs ahead of her own without expecting anything in return.  Most importantly, she also learns to treasure the tears given through her genuine kindness towards others.

Meg Raspberry is another protagonist who walks the line between obnoxious and likable.  As previously stated, Meg is a loud and egotistic apprentice witch whose arrogance often leads her into trouble.  She also seemed to have possessed a perverted mindset when it comes to her best friend, Fine Cavendish (Reshel Mae), whom she treats as her girlfriend.  At that point, it’s hard to decipher whether their “relationship“ is genuine or just a playful way of expressing their friendship, even if it’s intended for humorous effect.  Outside of that, whenever an opportunity arises, Meg has a generous spirit filled with determination, allowing her to do what she thinks is right.  This was the case in the season’s two-part episode, “The Bells of Blessing Ring With the Sound of the Waves,“ where Meg strives to help a sick boy affected by magical contamination and save the island city of Aquamarine from a tsunami caused by a magical disaster.  

In a way, she somewhat resembles Akko from Little Witch Academia, whose personalities highlight their arrogance and determination as they embark on their journeys of coming of age and self-discovery.  But what’s really important is whether Meg’s traits had enough merits to make her a witch-in-training worth following, which they did.  Despite a few moments preventing her from reaching the high standards of other iconic anime protagonists, Meg’s personality possessed an amusing and approachable charm that’s elevated by Atsushi Nigorikawa’s direction and Hannah Alyea’s vocal performance.  For the latter, Alyea effectively conveyed the hyperactivity of Meg’s exaggerated expressions, which are more amusing than obnoxiously overdone.  At the same time, she expressed the character’s subtle, kindhearted nature, which is balanced well with her expressiveness, without relying heavily on being loud to keep Meg from being dull.  The rest of the voice cast also did pretty well with their English dub performances, including Dragon Ball veteran Linda Young as Faust, the wise magic teacher who raised Meg.  Faust can occasionally be stubborn when it comes to teaching Meg the fundamentals of magic.  However, when the time comes, she also puts her maternal side to good use in helping Meg achieve her goal of becoming a powerful witch, and Linda Young was a solid choice in portraying this specific personality.

The Unaware Atelier Meister was my first exposure to the animation provided by EMT Squared.  Despite the show’s narrative shortcomings, the animation was almost the saving grace that saved its “OP protagonist“ concept from its tedium.  While not reaching the high standards of other animation studios like Science Saru, the vibrancy in the set designs and character-based humor was decent enough to bring the source material to the screen.  For Once Upon a Witch’s Death, EMT Squared was tasked with capturing the source material’s magical slice of life essence through its similar presentation.  As usual, the animation was far from memorable, but it had enough moments in its vibrancy, exaggerated humor, and drama to emphasize the beauty of its magic and heartfelt narrative.

Overall, Once Upon a Witch’s Death delivers enough magic in its narrative and subtle themes to cast an alluring spell on its anime viewers.  Its concept of Meg’s tear-collecting journey is often pushed to the side, especially after the first two episodes, in favor of a coming-of-age adventure that hits all the narrative beats seen in other similar anime.  While familiar by design, the journey itself was surprisingly enjoyable, particularly in terms of Meg’s development and the heartwarming messages it provided along the way.  Does it match the quality of the likes of Kiki’s Delivery Service and Little Witch Academia?  Absolutely not.  Does it pique my interest in a potential second season following its season finale?  Yes, it does.  That is, if they do green-light a season two.  It may not be the most powerful witch in the anime genre, but the series, even with its shortcomings, has a bit of magic under its belt to prevent its early death.