Flying Witch 05-06

The end of a tiring day

I didn’t think there was enough to write about for just episode five, so hopefully you’ll forgive the absence of Flying Witch last week. So now let’s see how much I can end up writing about both the tour of the neighborhood and a trip into the insides of Witching.

Chito’s Day Out

Someone’s got an idea

Episode 5 was perhaps the epitome of the way that Flying Witch can take a single idea that would seem dull and make it a wonderful chance to soak up atmosphere and fun. That idea: watching a cat take a walk around the town. Of course, that’s not all we saw, but that simple basis allowed for two entirely different stories to be told, from two different perspectives, as well as a look into Chito’s self. First, Chinatsu interrupts her chore of watering the plants to follow Chito as he heads out around the town, telling her mother she doesn’t know where she’s going but she thinks it’ll be interesting. I think Chito probably realized she was there, and figured there was no issue with her tagging behind, and decided to just let her come along in a “Do what you want” kind of mode. And where I think the brilliance of the first walk that we see comes in is that it’s just what you’d expect. Taking a look around. Seeing what the kids are up to. Finding the dog. Causing a flower shower. And you can certainly see why this is a better thing to do than sit around Makoto’s room as she looks through her multitude of boxes. And the trip takes on just that little bit extra fun because of Chinatsu’s interpretations of what she thinks Chito is seeing in the multiple things he takes notice of.

Reversing the focus worked here

When the B-part of the episode started, and Makoto is going out with Chito (Chito-navi) you think “They can’t do the same things again”, but they do. And now getting Chito’s point of interest from the things (the markings on the door that look like 4-year-old Makoto, the special buried thing) as well as Makoto’s interest in exploring the town, make it interesting all over again. Even meeting Nao, on a delivery for her family’s shop and then meeting the obaa-san that talked to Chinatsu earlier, finding out the she had a friend who was a witch when she was growing up also, really helps to connect everything together. It doesn’t need to be direct connections, just the ones that grow the network of life.

A happy memory for an old lady

Being an Apprentice Witch

It’s not riding the broom, it’s sweeping away the gravity with the broom

Episode 6 finally gets to the question that a lot of people had: Is Chinatsu going to try to be a witch? Since Akane is staying with Nana-san and the rest of the family, she’s teaching Makoto more about being a witch. I find this dynamic of witches being pretty much self-taught to be rather interesting, given that Makoto has essentially struck out on her own at age 15, and doesn’t even have a mentor or any other formal teaching relationship as far as being a witch. And yet she doesn’t really know much about the magic side of being a witch, which we’ve heard from Akane before. So I start to wonder where she was supposed to learn any of this magic. But thankfully Akane is around a lot more than she may have indicated, because I think she finds it fun and comfortable to be around Kei and Chinatsu, and Nana and Papa. The little tricks of being a witch, like learning you’re not supposed to levitate the broom to hold yourself up, but levitate yourself AND the broom.

A serious request

But the presence of Akane emboldens Chinatsu to make a decision: To ask if she can be a witch also. And while this might seem like the flighty idea of a young child, Chinatsu has certainly been glued not just to Makoto since she’s arrived, but also to Akane, Chito, and even made friends with the various people that they’ve met like Inukai. You get the feeling that the question puts Akane into a little bit of a bind, as though there are a lot of things that Chinatsu just doesnt know about that could complicate it, but I think she strikes a nice compromise in allowing Chinatsu to be an apprentice witch for a while to see more of it, not just the obviously cool parts. I think this will also give them a chance to suss out Chinatsu’s ability for being a witch without going all-in. And while Akane thought that perhaps Chinatsu’s parents would put a bit of a brake on her idea, they certainly don’t prove to be any sort of roadblock, I think partly because Nana knows what’s involved in being a witch and partly because she sees how all of them interact.

And Kei’s movie was just one long car chase

We also get a little more discussion about what witches actually do, although Makoto doesn’t really give specifics. We do find out that it’s up to the individual witch, however, and really follows with what we’ve seen, in that witches can use whatever bits of witchcraft they want to shape their lives and livelihoods. And with another demonstration of a spell, we can again see that witchcraft can be slow and comfortable, such as imbuing snacks with the ability to enchant a person who eats them to find everything extremely funny or sad. I do find it interesting that even though Akane says that Chinatsu should just watch because this could be dangerous, there’s very little obvious application of magic. One wonders where the effort of magic is applied, and whose magic is drawn to the spell, although perhaps it’s when Makoto does her short incantation (but that’s not what Akane says is the dangerous part). In any case, Nana is able to use the enchanted Makoto and Chinatsu to help with making dinner, having the already-crying Makoto cut the onions and having Chinatsu do various chores because she loses the staring contest. It’s this kind of thing that makes you think that Nana didn’t just blithely agree with Chinatsu becoming an apprentice witch, but that she knows more about it than she lets on in the short times we see her.

A successful spell

Two good episodes, one only sorta long post. We’ll see what kind of things Chinatsu ends up doing as an apprentice witch and find out if she’s got any magic in her. I also love seeing these spells, and the way that magic is just kind of there. We’ll also see if Makoto is able to learn how to properly fly on her broom, although I’d think that the ED animation showing her riding sidesaddle like Akane and Inukai probably indicates she’s able to learn it. In any case, Flying Witch is still my favorite show of the season, and having 6 episodes down is that kind of sad feeling in the back of your head because you know that they’re going to start running out.

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!