Forum - View topic(The) Witch and the Beast (TV).
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Tony K.
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 11442 Location: Frisco, TX |
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(The) Witch and the Beast (TV) Source: Manga (ongoing @ 10 volumes, by Kousuke Katake) Demographic: Seinen Animation Studio: Yokohama Animation Lab Genres: action, drama, supernatural, thriller Themes: dark fantasy, revenge, sorcery, transformations, witches Plot Summary: Ashaf: a soft-spoken man with delicate features, a coffin strapped to his back, and an entourage of black crows. Guideau: a feral, violent girl with long fangs and the eyes of a beast. This ominous pair appear one day in a town in thrall to a witch — a ruler with magic coursing through her tattooed body, who has convinced the townsfolk she's their hero. But Ashaf and Guideau know better. They live by one creed: “Wherever a witch goes, only curses and disasters follow.” They have scores to settle, and they won't hesitate to remove anyone in their way, be it angry mob or army garrison. Air Date & Platform: January 11, 2024 (Thursday) Available on: Crunchyroll Episode Count / Runtime: 12 episodes ---------------------------------- Another witch-based dark fantasy title from the same studio that did Kingdoms of Ruin. Someone over there must really like witches and dark fantasy. Ashaf is voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa (OG Griffith from Berserk '97, Dante from Devil May Cry, and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII to name a few roles), so I'm always interested in what kind of anti-hero or villain he might play. Last edited by Tony K. on Fri Apr 12, 2024 5:20 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2664 |
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Kingdoms of Ruin was a tad too much for me in that it was a never relenting tale of suffering and killing. This sounds interesting, yet I am wondering if this will be as extreme as Kingdoms or a bit easier to stomach.
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Edjwald
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The look, and to some extent the world, reminded me of Fairy Gone, an anime that I tried very hard to get into but never did. This one kept my interest for 28 minutes, partly because the look and atmosphere are better than the animation, and partly because the voice actor doing the mentor/first-rate sorcerer was doing some good work giving his character a certain world weary charm. On the other hand, the beast (guideau?) is going to have to be less one note, or she's going to be predicable and boring as hell after a while. And I hope each witch offers a different kind of challenge if this is going to be a Supernatural kind of format. .
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zfunk
Posts: 309 |
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So we are going to treat witches like Frieren treats demons, okay.
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24155 |
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Episode 1
Oh baby, me likey. Me likey very much. I love the steampunk aesthetic and overall visual style. Fight scenes seem pretty nicely animated. Really like the main duo a lot. Mind you, as a practising warlock, I am disturbed by the anti-witch bias this show displays, but I guess I can live with it.  I have a feeling this will be a keeper.
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2664 |
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A lovely episode indeed. The characters make for a fun and lively duo, the world is interesting enough to want to know more about it and the combat and animation as a whole look solid. It also helps that it is not a depression fest (so far), it being dark fantasy does not mean it needs to be pitch black 24/7.
As for Fairy Gone...I can kind of see the similarities, but that show was not great. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I am a little confused of what we are supposed to think of witches as of the first episode. The main characters seem to imply some inherent distrust of witches, which turns out to be right that she was up to no good, but apparently in the greater mythology the society was wrong in fire was not caused by a witch and said witch actually sealed it despite then getting blamed.
There is a lot of mixed stuff attached to witches as villains, one is straight up them being evil incarnate as previsions of the natural order. The other is a deconstruction via analysis that came from that such a view has been used to punish people for not fitting in a closed minded idea of how order should be, typified by women having power greater than man (magic without God). A lot of modern sentiment has turned against the demonisation of witches as penance against atrocities done towards for acting out of their societal role, or even being perceived as such, queer theory also puts connections between the concept of witches and queer folk. So it does feel a little confusing in this episode where it feels like it goes both ways, with witches both as victims and assumed evil. Further for me where I don't think it is hard to read the man as a priest like character, with his black cloak and visible white undershirt, carrying a coffin with a cross on it, but contrasted with I guess no other signs of worship, and smoking. HIs female companion being the lower of two, but contrasted with a cruder attitude and piercings outside of the feminine norm. The pairing themselves contrasting to the female only duo, which I would argue there is at least some sapphic undertones. Feels even weirder Guideau's other forms looks very not feminine. As that doesn't feel like the thematic opposition to witches. And by the end, I think they actually captured the witch alive, with themselves being part of the occult. |
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Edjwald
Posts: 1586 |
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Just to be clear, the atmosphere and world and art (not the animation) were what I liked about the Fairy Gone show. This show has the elements I liked and does the elements I didn't like better. And Dusky - I agree that it's not at all clear that the protagonists are working for a good organization. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2664 |
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Yup, just having seen the second episode I am sold. We go from one case with a witch to the next one (minus a bit of breaktime and less dangerous stuff). The current case seems to about a rather old looking witch having beef with ladies walking the street (all curvy ones at that, for one moment I was wondering if the witch is killing due to her being flat). Besides the witch there also seems to be something political going on since ordinary police officers are no match for a witch, not even with a mage backing them up.
The mc duo is still fun to see and I love the setting and how gruesome it is. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24155 |
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Episode 2
Actually I was less into the second episode compared to the first. Don't get me wrong, I very much like this show but the first episode really hit me for some reason and the second didn't have the same oomph. Maybe because I don't believe we saw Guideau's beast transformation. Dare I say it? I'm waiting for Guideau... to transform. Also the serial killer witch looks like a stereotypical witch and I likes my homicidal witchy-poohs to be more sexy like... |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 3
We got to the end of this arc, which I am kind of happy it is a two episode deal to have some context. I did suspect that the whole witch image was fake, where I can say that part way into the episode that it was a mask. It just seemed right to me that what we were being led to believe was not correct, which otherwise made me wonder what the actual deal is. What does this show actually want to put forward. I hope that this won't be me just looking into things to make up something like a narrative theme. As I said in my post for the first episode, in terms of themes there is a lot attached to the idea of a witch. A lot of the time in fiction it is just something like pure evil, with just something the creators had to be creepy and not really any need to think much deeper. Like the Hansel and Gretel, which I still think of as schlocky fun with a bunch of evil crones. Of course, evil for the hell of it can be done well and can be done badly in a way that may be ignorant of broader history. It is curious then that the villainous witch of the 2nd and 3rd episode turns out to be a couple young boy/men, who before anything say that they could only look at their adoptive mother as a woman. Our major character of the arc being a woman in power (magic even), who is a mother out of the norm (adoption), while still working. And some of the conflict this episode had was about her concerned that she is not living up to some heroic ideal of her position. The boys blame her for looking too attractive, for them being tempted, and then them acting out violent, I think saying they wanted her for themselves. Put it plainly, the show is still going in a way that is the opposite to that we are just supposed to buy into witches being evil and leave it at that. It could be that going forward things will totally change, that witches are just bad. There won't being anything like reveals that a witch was unjustly vilified in the past, or a couple boys put on the appearance of a witch while blaming a woman for having to do so. But for now I will keep looking. |
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2664 |
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I think that the conclusion for now is that there is thankfully no real evil in the anime and it is all very much murky. You have good and bad people and the same applies to witches. Though in the case of witches they probably have the stigma they do due to them having unclear powerful abilities that put them far above regular people and thus being feared. It makes me curious as to how mages are treated, since they also possess the power needed to be considered dangerous and thus feared.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24155 |
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Are we ever gonna see Guideau's beast form again? Because... I'd really like to see Guideau's beast form again. Anyway I guess the message of this arc is: don't adopt kids. Got it. I am a bit confused... is the adoptive mother a witch? She can do magic and I think the show stipulates that the only way you can do magic is either because you are a witch or you have something like a grimoire that contains magic and you use it like you would a tool. So I guess she's a witch, right?
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smurky turkey
Posts: 2664 |
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Or if you are a mage, though it is stated that witches and those who use grimoires have a fair bit more firepower than any mage does.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24155 |
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Wha--? Witches are more powerful than mages??? That's sexist!
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