Flying Witch – 03
Kei spent a lot of time this episode checking out Makoto’s butt
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One of these days a strange person will show up and just be able to see Makoto without freaking out Chinatsu first, but I hope we don’t see that day. |
What Does a Witch Do?
Some helpful translation from Chinatsu
Well, one of the things a witch does is learn things, and one of the things to learn is about plants. So as part of her witch studies, Makoto wants to plant some vegetables. Conveniently, there’s a plot of land for a vegetable garden right out the back. Of course, it takes a while for Makoto to figure this out, since her uncle speaks pretty heavy Tsugaru-ben, which is considered a fairly divergent dialect from standard Japanese, to the point where even people from the same prefecture might have difficulty understanding it. Thankfully, Chinatsu isn’t like that, and translates for Makoto. And Makoto, for her part, just thinks that she needs to learn Tugaru-ben a bit better. And I have to say that this is one of those times where subtitles really killed the joke. It would have preserved it if the subtitles had used a lot weirder English, rather than just some country yokel rounding off of the vowel sounds. Even if it had just made it up as it went along (because we know that Chinatsu’s dad isn’t creole or anything). But I realize that it’s hard enough to get this stuff translated and edited into English, without having to know another dialect. I just think it would have worked better.
I can’t blame Kei for looking, tho. Personally, I thought Makoto was really drawn
attractively in this whole segment, soft and warm.
Anyway, Makoto’s got help from Kei, and eventually Chinatsu, to clean up and prepare her vegetable garden. And this is really one of those times where TV characters are acting a lot more grown up than they would be. Two 15-year olds weeding and preparing a garden? On a day off? On their own volition? It makes for a nice show, but don’t think about it too much or it ends up more unrealistic than the magic part of this show. What’s more realistic is Makoto’s reaction on seeing a pheasant, which is to fruitlessly try to catch it. But the wily bird won’t let her, or anyone else like Papa-san, get that last little bit to catch it. Evenutally the field is prepared, and now it’s just waiting time for the soil amendments to do their work. Just another day in the life of a country witch.
A Visitor from Far Away
Don’t drink that, Kei
What also seems to be part of another day in the life of someone living with a country witch is having strange people come and visit. At least that’s what Chinatsu must be starting to think, as someone wrapped up head to toe in robes and towels shows up. But this person’s not nearly as scary, it’s Makoto’s older sister, Akane. But it’s still surprising for her to visit suddenly, having been in the desert (we find out later that for her, it’s not hard to go from one place to another). Akane is actually a very talented and well-known witch, although she “has zero sense for giving gifts” (“Here, have some crude oil”).
Chito totally gave her up, ratted her out, sang like a canary
I think that the whole sentiment behind Akane’s visit is really nice, popping by to see how her sister is doing, and offering a little help. We also get a little bit of witchcraft information, that Akane and Makoto are somewhat different in their approach to witchcraft, but they don’t really hold their differences against them. Akane is more spell-oriented and magic-”using” witch, while Makoto seems to be much more of an observing and maybe nature-oriented witch. But even so, Akane warns Makoto that she should use magic more or she’ll lose some of her ability to, and even helps out teaching her a spell (after Chito rats her out for not using magic). And it’s always fun when Chinatsu tags along (one starts to wonder if Chinatsu maybe has a bit of magic power in her constitution as well). Akane’s spell is a simple one, using some strands of black hair to call a crow, but she misleads Makoto into using her own hair, which turns out to be too powerful, and ends up looking like a scene from Hitchcock’s The Birds. And all too soon, Akane’s visit is over, and time to go back to the desert and her camel. But I’m sure she’ll show up again.
Bonus Magic
The more Flying Witch talks about witches and witchcraft, the more parallels I see between it and the Discworld witches. Very naturalistic, and very individualistic ways of using magic. The only thing that we haven’t seen that would be too similar is a witch with a very strong sense of what others should be, like Granny Weatherwax. But that wouldn’t really fit in with what this show is about, so I’m sure we’ll just meet more fun people.
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
Ah getting the dialects right. I recall old discussions for a show called Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi; it took place in Osaka, and pretty much everyone in the dub sounded like they came from “Deep in the Heart of” somewhere southern fried…So many fans objected, saying that it sounded to “corn-pon” or that really with Osaka you need a Boston accent. Good Times.
I think you might be leaning a bit much on these fifteen year olds. Rei has been shown to be a budding cook of sorts, so naturally he would have interest in a vegetable garden. Plus, that was a great bit of monologue by him; his dad, a farmer, giving him a choice of not becoming a farmer. I think Rei realized he never really gave the land much thought?
…and of course Matoko would be interested in it, she started the whole affair after all; and she’s ambitious with all those plants, herbs and veg.
Again! You are so cruel to characters. Akane is determined to bring back a gift from where she visited; and she’ll be darned if she allows a pesky detail like “it’s only known for it’s crude oil” stop her…
As for what kind of witch Matoko is? Well, I think this is the story of just that. There is a lot of her that is “still in the cooker”.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I was more commmenoting on the maturity and willingness of these kids to voluntarily take on quite a bit of work. For instance, compare to the other teenager from aomori we are familiar with this season who would seemingly rather sit around. I think it’s nice and interesting that they’ll do this kind of work, and I think that they’ve really shown the maturity of these characters. I especially like the respectfulness that Makoto always treats people with.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I can see Rei’s future as opening a restaurant specializing in dishes using locally sourced ingredients. Coming from a farm family and with experience himself with growing vegetables you could be sure he’d get the best ingredients. Of course since he’s only fifteen now I can’t see the anime settling his future. Just some ultimately meaningless speculation.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Psst, you guys, it’s Kei.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 261 comments
Wow…So many crows… Well I wonder
Ah yes…Ms. Makoto Kawata, You know she maybe a one happy yet a calm girl despite of being a witch, but you know what it feel that there is some sort of a secret with her, it goes like this…
She is kinda a fearless girl, so fearless that she had a potential to stop the onslaught on that place…But again it may no be true (again it’s just me)
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
A thing to keep in mind about these kids is that Kei and Chinatsu are part of a farming family. We haven’t seen them do much with that yet, but that’s why they had that big plot of farmable land Makoto could use, and those two are probably pretty used to doing farming-related tasks. As such, weeding a splot of land isn’t some horrible chore like it would be for the average kid, but rather it’s just a thing you do. It’s life.
Makoto’s butt is eminently checkout-able, so I can’t blame him.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
…it’s not a horrible chore for an average kid either…
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
Depends on your perspective. For kids for whom weeding/yardwork is a rarity, asking them to spend hours of their free time weeding a garden plot might seem pretty horrible. Think of all the things they would rather be doing! But if that sort of thing is just seen as a normal part of life, it becomes much less onerous.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
On the contrary, I think it’s mostly the special nature of the task that gets Kei and Chinatsu interested in helping. They want to help Makoto, and they want to do this because it’s a special task. If this was more usual, that they have to do all the time, they’d probably want to not do it.
But mainly they’re nice people.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Another thing to consider is that no doubt a number of their classmates also come from farm families. So they wouldn’t feel like they were being martyred by being asked to do something none of the kids they know have to do. As you say, it’s just part of life and as something they and some of their friends have always had to do it wouldn’t seem terrible. Besides, there are people, including kids, who like working in the soil and growing things.
POWUH: 500-599 with 540 comments
Maybe there was nothing better to do other then checking out Makoto’s butt.