Flying Witch 09 – 12 [END]

This may end up being the most wonderful image in all of Flying Witch

Yeah, I was slacking on Flying Witch, partly because I don’t want it to be over. But let’s see what happened, and why this was the best anime of the Spring 2016 season.

More Fortunate Than You Know

It’s an interesting method of fortune-telling

Little drips of information can be the sweetest kind. Like learning what it is that Nana-san does for a living: write and draw children’s books. But what’s even nicer in episode 9 is the return of Inukai, who has come to actually tell some fortunes for Makoto, Chinatsu, and even Kei. But she makes it pretty clear that it’s kinda just advice, and it doesn’t really help her that neither Makoto nor the others really have any concerns that would focus her reading. So she just gives them a general reading of the next day. It’s kinda funny, Inukai’s reading of fortunes is kinda like my reading of Japanese: Some key words and try to suss out the meaning from them.. 😉 What’s interesting is that the fortunes that Inukai reads are the right words, but her formation of sentences from them isn’t really right. It was also a little annoying that they describe Inukai’s nighttime look as the “bijin” Inukai. I think she looks right cute as either a human or a fluffy-eared human, and doesn’t need anyone telling her that she’s prettier as a human.

Keeping it classy, Akane

“Heeeeeeey! Hey hey heeeeeey!”

What people also don’t need are mandrakes shouting at them, so Nao is smart to stop Makoto from pulling up her regrown mandrake root when she comes over to see the garden. She can’t avoid the classy Akane thinking she’s Kei’s girlfriend tho, and the reality is less fun, at least for Akane. After that it’s radish harvest time, and I think they’ll have enough radishes. What they always have more than enough of is Akane’s souvenirs. The little magically animated origami calling them to the living room is better than their gifts, but we know that Akane is terrible about gifts. But what she is good at is fulfilling fortunes.

A better gift than the actual gifts

Cooking and Trimming

“Ewwwwwww”

So we’ve got one person who defies stereotypes with Kei, who is great at cooking (and everything home-maker-y). And now we’ve got another person who doesn’t fit their traditional gender role: Nao, who doesn’t know how to cook anything. But rather than protecting the group’s weak member, the group uses a ghost-leg lottery (I wish I had known about them growing up, they’re neat) to assign dishes, and Nao ends up with the hardest one. But that’s not a problem in Flying Witch, because everyone’s going to help everyone else. Is it difficult for Nao? Yep, but she gets through it with help from Kei and Makoto. Makoto even has time to make ghoulish severed finger cookies (If you want severed finger cookies, skylion, YOU make them. I’m not going near them). And all their food turns out good enough to eat… except for the rice they all forgot. I’d also like to give the Crunchyroll translators a shout out here for coming up with the word “disgoodsting” for Nao’s description of mixing ground beef as feeling both good and gross.

Ewwwwww

The setting then turns to one of those things that you know is part of life in apple orchard country: Thinning the apple flowers. I have an apple tree in my front yard, and I can tell you, if you don’t thin out the flower buds, you get a LOT of apples. A LOT. And when it’s your job to sell apples, not just let them fall on the ground for the local deer to eat, you want to have nice big apples that have a chance to grow well. So by thinning out the flowers, the tree can concentrate its efforts on fewer fruit, making each one better. And getting everyone to help makes it go a lot faster. Even Akane, who’s been somewhat allergic to work, helps out on this one. Also, unlike my apple tree, they’ve trimmed the branches to be reachable (mine is like 30 feet tall). But I don’t care where I am, I’m not playing with bees.

Standing above an apple orchard looks wonderful

A Whale of a Story

The shadow paper delivered by the shadowy paper guy

Episode 11 was the best episode of the series, even including episode 12. You could even say it was worth the wait, since it was delayed a week and came out when episode 12 did. Really pushing up the sense of adventure, it brought more of the witch lifestyle home to the show, as Akane tells Chinatsu about the witch newspaper, which is delivered by a shadowy figure if you’re up early enough waiting by the door. But the news in the paper is even more interesting, as it heralds the coming of a whale. Yes, a flying whale, normally disguised as a cloud. The execution of the whale in the show was just tremendous, with the wonder that you must feel as a hundreds-foot-long giant whale flies overhead. It’s even large enough for people to have lived on it in the past, as Anzu lets them know when Makoto, Akane, and Chinatsu run into her investigating the whale.

It always seems like you’re looking the wrong way

Anzu is quite the archaeology buff, knowing a lot about the whale and the society that used to live on a group of them. But what’s more surprising is who her mentor is: Kenny (the cat). And he’s also traveled the world on his own studying anthropology. This comes out as information as Anzu comes to breakfast (which has made me want pancakes for the last week), as well as history of pancakes and their difference from hotcakes (as far as I’m concerned they’re the same). It’s also nice how Anzu likes the house for its style and charm, while Chinatsu can only really see that it’s “old”.

Anzu comes over for a homey breakfast

Maybe it’s bad of me that when I saw everyone sitting there with a stack of pancakes, and Kei only making 2 at a time, that I was wondering who had the cold pancakes, but that just goes back to growing up making pancakes and waffles with my family. You can eat them faster than you can make them, and it feels like a shame to let them cool off. Of course, even with that, they sit around listening to Anzu hold forth on the history of pancakes and not eating, so maybe they’re just not worried about cooled soggy pancakes. But even with a giant flying whale, pancakes, and an anthropologist cat, the best part of the episode might have been Anzu’s family familiar, Aurore the owl, walking around the table to give Akane her tab at the cafe.

A walking owl was just lovely

I Shall Wear Midnight

Makoto’s gotten so much better at flying that Chito can relax

For the finale, you knew that it would be tough to outdo the majestic wonder of a giant flying whale, or the homey comfort of a breakfast shared and enjoyed. So instead, the show just revels in the feeling of youth and positivity and takes a little bit of a victory lap acknowledging the rest of the show. The main thrust of the episode is Makoto deciding to make a new witch robe, and needing to go to the fabric store. This gets her lost as usual, and visiting all sorts of places in the town, seeing people she knows, as well as finding Nao. And Chinatsu gets a gift of a robe also, after being a little imp (“Well in the story they opened the door, right?”).

Not really Red Riding Hood

The other thing going on is the Nebuta Festival, which is one of the biggest festivals in northern Japan, and is notable for it’s lit-from-within lantern-style float. And there’s another surprise guest for the festival: Earthfish, another thing that Makoto learns about. The Earthfish are kind of the icing on the cake that is Flying Witch, something fun and pretty and somewhat outlandish and yet completely understandable. And just like Akane says when Makoto mentions that she’s been spending a lot of time at the house, it just feels comfortable and like home. I wonder how much of that is Makoto being there, and how much of it is just the welcoming factor of Nana-san and Papa-san, Kei and Chinatsu, or being around Inukai, or even having a lot of oji-sans to drink the day away with? Akane doesn’t let on exactly, but she does say that Makoto probably won’t have any problem with her first status report to the witches’ association. And we’ve definitely seen that Makoto has made progress on things like flying (I just love that side-saddle flying look).

Making some new friends

Series Wrap-up

Fun meanings everywhere

It’s already a long post because of four episodes, so I’ll keep this part brief: This show is excellent. You watch it at the end of the day and it brightens all that came before it, and calms you down at the same time. The scenery is wonderful, nearly photo-real and there are plenty of places in the show that you can just drive around the streets of Hirosaki and Shimoyuguchi on Google Street View and recognize from the show. The music was spot on-throughout: light and airy, well-suited to the current mood, but also had an instant familiarity. And the choice to use nearly unknown voice actors for the main roles was great, it never held back the finished project if they were unseasoned, but it did give a different feel to the conversations, especially between Makoto and Kei. The fact that they used famous VAs for the various animals in the show was just a silly lark that made it more fun (“mrowr”).

This was my favorite show of the season, and every time that Anne Happy would come up with a great show on Thursday, and I thought “Maybe this is the week that Anne Happy is better than Flying Witch”, Flying Witch always brought just that something a little extra, like a ghost in a cafe, or a flying whale, or even just walking through the town with a cat… twice. You never knew what to expect, and it was always great. And it never really has any sad parts, or danger, or crises. It’s just fun and light and happy without feeling silly or ridiculous. I’d recommend it for everyone, any time.