Witch Craft Works – 10
How do you fix a city on fire?
What can a witch do without magic, you ask?
The Roller Coaster Continues
Death By Cute
This show never spends much time setting things up. Instead it just sets them up as it moves to them. We’ve got Honoka and Ayaka escaping from their holding room, and at the same time we have the rest of the Workshop Witches scrambling to deal with the aftermath of Weekend’s giant bomb. And the big lesson this week is that old age and treachery will always beat youth and exuberance. And it doesn’t hurt that Weekend pretty much has no conscience. At least Chronoire didn’t seem to be big on hostages and blowing defenseless people up, but Weekend has no problem strapping a bunch of bombs onto a workshop witch as a ransom demand to get Honoka. And to use her 7 comrades who were out trying to help people who were caught in the giant bomb attack as backup hostages. And if that doesn’t work, she’s got another backup plan that involves blowing herself up. The “youth and exuberance” part represents Rinon and Natsume, who give it a good try, but don’t anticipate that Weekend would go so far as to use normal bombs.
Why have one hostage when you can have 8?
Meanwhile in the other part of the story, we find out about the rest of the contract between the Workshop and the Town. Because of the contract of protection, the witches of the workshop are allowed to use magic. But when that contract is not in force, like now with Kazane’s magic drained, the workshop witches are kind of up a creek, not allowed to use magic at all. So it’s a good thing that BADASSES don’t need to use magic to beat the crap out of Tower witches. All that training that Kazane made Ayaka go through pays off as she smashes Gibralter with a regular old Flying Knee. And once again, Honoka is completely ineffective at fighting. Really, how’d he get stuck in a hole? Tch.
Badass Move of the Week
The New Head of the Workshop
Pretty colors
Ayaka knows that the Workshop is pretty hosed without magic anyway, so her goal is to get Honoka (with the great magic reservoir of Evermillion) to make a temporary contract with the town. And it’s possible that Honoka is more powerful than Kazane, since he’s able to exert magic to not only protect the normal folks, but also help revive the injured Workshop Witches, who aren’t supposed to be protected by the barrier. That is, until Ayaka decides he’s overexerting himself and knocks him out. I’m expecting some more badassery next week, since Ayaka’s now said that the rest is her job.
Weekend takes a quick rest before blowing up Natsume and Rinon
Two more episodes to go, and I’ll bet that we’ve got at least an episode and a half to wrap up the storyline. We also need to see what Chronoire is going to do, because apparently she wants to get a piece of Weekend. It would be interesting to see those two go at it, since both are seasoned veterans and ruthless Tower witches. And it was nice to see Tanpopo actually be useful this week, even if (she said) she was only doing it because of rent repayment. I do wonder if she thinks that killing the other witches is a bit beyond the pale.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
My biggest gripe with the show from the start. I wish they would add just a pinch more time on the plot recipe. The characterizations are always spot on, and they are what make the show.
But, as it look to me, it’s like I’m watching a parade of clown cars getting into a big old pile up. That has some entertainment value, but it’s rather limited.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I’ve probably said it too much, but I think this is one of the styles that Mizushima has. Witch Craft Works is *very* similar to Girls und Panzer that way, fitting the characterizations in on the way to the big happening. It’s like they handle all the characterizations in the car, or on the bus, or during the walk.
I think this does a couple things. First, it works well with very broad but shallow characters. If you’ve got a lot of characters in the show (like both WCW and GuP), then you can touch on a lot of them without getting bogged down. No, you don’t learn too much about any of the characters, not even the main ones (it’s hard to say which of the two shows expanded on the main character(s) more, probably GuP, since it was just Miho), but you get a comfortable feel with a big cast and it allows differentiation (compare to Tokyo Ravens, which has a seemingly huge cast of people with 4 syllable names that you see one time and have all sorts of interconnections, and halfway through the second cour, I’m wondering “who the hell are all these guys?”). No, you don’t know their deepest motivations or the inner workings of their character, but if they’re kept consistent then you know what to expect from them, but also can set them up for character changing moments, either moments of heroism or moments of failure.
The second thing that it does is keeps the show moving, getting a LOT of plot done in a small amount of time. GuP was a sports anime with a huge difference: it fit 4 two-episode battles into a single cour. Yowamushi Pedal can barely finish *a* race in one cour, and I’m sure it will take until the end of the series (more than a cour remaining) for the Inter-High race. And WCW has gotten us through three escalating bad guys and a ton of action.
I can understand if it’s not necessarily your preferred storytelling method. I do think it works well in some situations, tho, while it would fail badly in others (particularly if your characters aren’t easily differentiated). But I think it’s one of those decisions you can’t make halfway. They couldn’t slow it down 10%, for instance. That would just mean you don’t get anything more meaningful character development-wise, but you don’t get things done in the show. It’s more like you have to make the decision to slow it down 50%.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I have to say Weekend’s plan is frighteningly well thought out. Just when you think the Workshop Witches finally have the upper hand, she just comes in and crushes it. Like Rinon, it didn’t feel right when she was “beaten” that easily. The atmosphere indicated that much.
I almost got annoyed with Honoka’s hopeless reaction looking at the ruined city despite Ayaka telling him the civilians are untouched by the event. Luckily, he regained his composure in a flash and almost seemed badass. At the same time, there’s some pity for him. He wants to act and stop being a bystander and target but Ayaka continually refuses to let him have his moment, even if her reasons are fully justified.
This is out of nowhere but whenever I see Ayaka’s nonchalant face, I’m reminded of Chuunibyou’s Touka and both are pretty efficient chastising anyone who has it coming to them.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
You don’t let the newbie try to have a moment when that same newbie is the one who has to be protected.
There is a consistent theme, that Weekend has pretty much planned for what she feels are the possible contingencies. Therefore, when the Workshop witches respond in one of the ways she thinks they will, she is steps ahead of them. I wonder how much of it is also that she’s very good at recognizing and adapting. The difference will show up when she has to fight Ayaka (because you KNOW that’s coming).
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Witchcraft Works scans:
http://forums.animesuki.com/showpost.php?p=5038984&postcount=1003
1)5 chibi witches and 1 big witch
2)The big witch, the brocon witch and the cat-eared witch
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
Amazon preorders indicate Witchcraft Works to be the best seller for the season.
However, manga readers warn that there just isn’t enough source material for a Season 2 at the moment, given the monthly nature of the manga.