Witch Craft Works – 11
The moment of a fateful meeting
I hope you’re hanging on tight, because this ride’s not slowing down.
Finale Setups
This church has an explosive congregation
We’ve reached the penultimate episode, and the way this show’s going, that means that we’re setting up for the big finish. But we’re not there yet, because first we have to deal with some fallout from Honoka making his contract with the city, and then overexerting himself saving all the workshop witches. And that means it’s back to the psychedelic world of Mikage-sensei.
What’cha doing with that leek?
The concepts of Reminiscence Hall and the World of Coincidences are pretty neat, and nicely convenient for the story. Honoka visits a few times in the past, learning about when his mother met Kazane, when he himself first met Kazane, and then the continuing story after Ayaka found Honoka. I don’t know if Kazane has any special feelings for Komachi at the beginning, but after saving her, Komachi definitely is infatuated with Kazane. Interestingly, the memories that Honoka saw were Kazane’s, since she’s the one who also had a contract with the city. So it’s fairly obvious that Kazane knew how Komachi felt about her (with all those hearts), which answers one of the questions I had about the two of them: “Does Kazane feel anything the same for Komachi?” I’d have to say the answer is yes, otherwise she wouldn’t really put up with her.
The Penultimate Battle
Preparing the night before
I just like using that word. But if this is the second-last episode, then it’s the second-last battle, deshou? And I like that this battle between Weekend and Ayaka wasn’t only an improvised fight. Both sides made preparations, although the scope of the preparations was quite different. Ayaka shows a lot of intelligence in her preparation, borrowing Atori’s sword in order to keep from having to use magic for offense. She also prepares something special to keep her heart in the fight, swapping shirts with Honoka for the fight in order to keep a bit of him near her. Plus, that sets up a terrific misdirection as they reach what seems to be a climax of the fight, where Atori is shocked at something she sees on Honoka’s chest, and I was sure that there would be some sort of magical connection between them, like a portal or something. But no, Atori’s just impressed with Honoka’s buff chest.
Another badass Ayaka stance
But as she’s been throughout this whole series, Weekend is the queen of planning ahead. The bombs that are planted all through the church that they’re fighting in? Set up over the last 6 months. The giant bomb that destroyed the city? Put in place a year ago. And why? To save her mana for this fight, and she still hadn’t used it until Ayaka put a licking to her, using it to regenerate. That’s playing a long game. Not to mention that she and her forces have also planted bombs in the alternate dimension safe haven that all of the city’s citizens have been moved to for temporary storage. That’s pretty dirty pool, but I don’t really get what the point is when, at the end, Weekend activates the switch that presumably detonates them. If the point was to get her hands on Honoka, why push the switch after he showed up and helped Ayaka beat her? I guess we’ll get to that next week in the finale.
Bonus Medusa
Even in this episode that felt like it was mostly about the fight between Weekend and Ayaka, there was a lot going on with all the characters, including introducing Atori’s foible of talking with (?), through (?), or maybe alongside her hand puppet. She certainly wasn’t the best at taking care of Honoka, tho. A stack of fish and handkerchiefs? And I didn’t mention Kasumi’s battle against the doppelganger as Team Rocket looked on, but Medusa (in human form with short skirt and long stockings) did help with that, and reamed out those guys for not helping. You really get the feeling that Team Rocket is not just junior witches, they’re actually pretty much the lowest rung of the witch ladder. One more episode to go in this wild ride!
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: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Kazane REALLY, REALLY doesn’t like bullying. But I think she may have overreacted just a little bit.
This was a great penultimate episode, setting things up for a bang-up finale. From start to finish this has been a series that has hardly paused long enough for the audience to catch its breath. This will be a great one to marathon, as will Kill la Kill.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Yeah, this series really never stopped for a breather. About the only thing that was like that was the second episode with the long excursion through the town for Ayaka and Honoka. But it hasn’t really gotten tiring to me, at least weekly. I think it might be a little much if you were to try to marathon it, tho. 🙂
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
When I marathon a series it means I watch about 4 episodes in a row, then watch more the next day. Trying to watch it all in a single day for a series like this, and even more so one like KILL la KILL would leave you exhausted and mind numb.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I know exactly what you mean. I did just that recently with Durarara!! so I could be up to date for the eventual second season. It was long but proved to be a good show and I finally got to know how treacherous Izaya Orihara is. Hiroshi Kamiya did an awesome job voicing him.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
It’s daunting thinking it took Weekend a whole year to set up those bombs. She must be really lacking in the physical department and afraid of setbacks.
That was Ayaka’s best form yet and she looks a lot like Evermillion. Honoka’s lucky to have her since she willing to do whatever it takes for him. If he wasn’t injured, I wonder if she wasn’t planning to go all the way with him that night.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Thinking about the way the witches have been, strength-wise, the only one who has come anywhere close to touching Ayaka has been Medusa, and that was with a gimmick in petrifying her. So I’d have to say that it’s less that Weekend is particularly weak, and more that first Kazane and then Ayaka are both amazingly strong, in and of themselves. Then bring in a nearly limitless source of magic in Honoka / Evermillion, and Ayaka just looks that much stronger.
In fact, I think given that Ayaka is so strong magically, it’s *more* commendable that she has learned how to fight physically and not solely rely on her magical power. It would have been so easy to just assume you can always win with magic, but that’s not the way Kazane thinks.
Backstage Look at blogging: I actually went back to see how similar that look was to Evermillion’s while writing this post. I wanted to see if her form was becoming Evermillion, but there’s significant difference in the looks. Most of the similarity is in the white color and a big hoop style skirt.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Love the pacing. There should be second season. This is too good to pass up for a one-cour only.