The Spring 2025 Anime Preview Guide

Witch Watch

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Morihito Otogi's family is descended from a long line of ogre familiars, and he has the inhuman strength to prove it. One day, his father comes to him with the life-changing news that he is to become the familiar of his childhood friend, the teenage witch Nico. He is to live under the same roof with her and protect her from anything and anyone that may attempt to harm her. Meanwhile, Nico is excited to get to live with the love of her life, even if her crush is one-sided—Morihito is so serious about his duties to protect her that any romance is going to be an uphill battle. But he has every reason to be serious, as Nico has a prophecy of doom hanging over her head!

Witch Watch is based on a manga by Kenta Shinohara. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll, Hulu/Disney+, and Netflix on Sundays.

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Richard Eisenbeis
Rating:

Weekly Shonen Jump is the biggest name in manga. When one of their series becomes an anime, it's a big deal—almost a certain success. So I was a bit surprised by the lack of buzz surrounding Witch Watch. But, having watched this first episode, I can see why this is: it's very much a love it or hate it story.

This anime follows Nico and Morihito, a witch and an ogre, who happen to be childhood friends. Reunited after years apart, the two have to live together with Morihito serving as Nico's bodyguard. And while there are no doubt external threats facing a witch in the modern day, the real danger is Nico herself. She's more than a bit of an airhead who does things without thinking them through, which is a bit of a problem when you have crazy magical powers.

From the start, this show lives or dies on one thing: Do you find Nico funny or annoying? If you enjoy watching her break precious items, turn herself into paper, or transform into a light-hearted ditz, then you'll enjoy this one. If you find her personality and antics grating, on the other hand, you're in for a rough ride.

Unfortunately, I found myself more on the latter side of things than the former. I found this first episode rather creative. I like the idea that magic has drawbacks—making it a great tool for emergencies but a bad idea for use in everyday life. Each mini-adventure in this episode is an example of this. I also enjoyed that there was real danger within the comedy, as the paper spell wearing off or falling out of the sky could both have been fatal if not for some quick thinking.

However, the fact remains, I just don't enjoy Nico. I don't want to watch a story about her or the crazy misadventures she draws Morihito into. However, as humor is insanely subjective and the animation is easily above average, I do recommend that everyone check this one out for themselves to make their own decision.

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Caitlin Moore
Rating:

Are you telling me there's not one but two anime about teenage witches destined to die in a year? Wild! But you might wonder, which witch should you watch? Once Upon a Witch's Death or Witch Watch? Should I tell you which witch is worse? I wish you would be more positive and wonder which witch is more worthwhile. Well, walk with me and I will share! When you're wondering which witch to watch, Witch Watch is undoubtedly the wittier witch.

I fell off reading the Witch Watch manga a while ago, though it was through no fault of the series itself. I've been looking forward to the anime since it was announced. But there was still that hint of trepidation that always comes with a new anime adaptation. Would the things I love about it translate well? Would the cast and crew get the comic timing right? Would the animation do it justice? I am so pleased to say that the answer to all these questions is an unequivocal, “Yes!”

Witch Watch is only one new entry in the long history of series about young witches whose powers get them into hijinks and situations, an idea about as old as the medium of the sitcom itself. Nico has more enthusiasm than sense, and her excitement at trying out new spells evokes the image of a young hobbyist eager to show off new skills. The problem is that messing up actual magic has much higher stakes than making an error with your sleight of hand or playing a note off-key. The episode's vignettes balance out their silliness with a hint of tension, both in the moment and with the end-of-episode revelation that Morihito has been asked to protect Nico because of a prophecy that she'd die within a year.

My metric for comedies is simple: did it make me laugh? Witch Watch succeeded with flying colors. Multiple times throughout the episode, I chuckled. I giggled. Once or twice, I even guffawed. Instead of relying on tired manzai-style dynamics wherein Nico makes a mistake and straight-man Morihito yells at her, Witch Watch utilizes a mix of sight gags, puns, misdirection, and cultural humor that doesn't really translate. The variety keeps things from getting repetitive or predictable, and I don't think I'd much enjoy seeing sweet Nico get yelled at repeatedly anyway.

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Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

This is not without potential. Oh, its premise is fairly rote, right down to an opening scene that shows us that protagonists Morihito and Nico were childhood friends who separated on a promise and a reunion that involves a highly contrived reason why the two of them, now in high school, must live together. Nico is a well-meaning, perky disaster of a person in order to contrast with Morihito's more stoic personality, and nearly all of their character interactions are something we've seen before in other shows. But once its story is established, there's a real chance that Witch Watch could branch out and become something much more fun than the first half of this episode suggests.

Part of that comes down to the setting. At first I thought it was plain old urban fantasy, where everyone is aware of the existence of supernatural beings in an otherwise ordinary world. But as the episode goes on, it becomes clear that only Morihito and Nico know this, as an oni and a witch, respectively. The rest of humanity is totally unaware of what's going on, and that makes for a swift shift in the way they interact with the world. Bully Momota has no clue that Morihito is strong because he's an oni; he just thinks he's a jerk with a good right hook. The old guy is startled not because someone smacked into his window, but because a giant talking paper doll did. From the moment Morihito tells Nico she should be careful about using her magic in public, our entire understanding of the story shifts.

That doesn't quite make up for some of the hoarier aspects of this episode if you're not a fan of them, though. Nico's bubblegum personality feels a tad artificial, and her giddiness at being able to cast actual spells overcomes her good sense to the point where I have to wonder if she has good sense. Morihito's a bit lacking in the personality department, possibly to make her stand out more, and while the Momotaro jokes are cute, they aren't all that funny or necessary when we have Nico's haywire magic to compare them to. (The joke about the light spell is George MacDonald levels of fun. That's a good thing.) Simply put, this has a weak first half and then improves steadily, which bodes well for the series as a whole.

The visuals are also nice, particularly the details like how Morihito has one hair-horn and his dad has two, and I really like that Nico's wand and broom are the same object in two different incarnations. The sound feels very unbalanced, though, going from soft-spoken to loud and screaming abruptly; that may be on purpose, but if you're sound-sensitive, it's a lot, and I found myself with my finger on the volume button for the entire episode. Still, I think this might turn out to be a good time, especially if it can even itself out and play to its strengths.

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James Beckett
Rating:

Y'all, I'm starting to think that this season of anime is getting too cute. I'm used to getting one, maybe two good rom-coms every Preview Guide, but now it's just getting ridiculous. To top it all off, Witch Watch isn't just cute; it's funny as hell, too. Usually, my rule of thumb is that any comedy that can get me to laugh out loud more than once is basically an automatic recommendation, and this premiere had me guffawing from OP to ED. This spring is just an embarrassment of riches, I tell you what. 

There are two secrets to Witch Watch's success, with the first being the chemistry of its leading love interests. Morihito is one of those serious-but-devoted anime protagonists whose overwhelming ogre strength has forced him to develop a serious sense of self-discipline, lest he fly off the chain and hurt someone. This discipline and cool-headedness is going to come in extreme handy now that he has been appointed the familiar of his magical childhood friend, Nico. You see, this is a girl who answers the daring question of, “What if Kiki (of the Delivery Service fame) was quite literally too stupid to live?” Thankfully, the witch's tendency to accidentally mangle and abominate anything she casts a spell on (including herself) is something that Morihito can handle, and that steadfast dedication is exactly why Nico chose him to be her partner in magical crime (and also definitely her boyfriend, eventually). 

The other secret to the show's success is, like I said, the fact that it's really damned funny. Bibury Animation obviously understands the golden rule of good anime comedy, which is that the best jokes need great comic timing and excellent production values to pull off. Every now and then, a show like Pop Team Epic can get away with looking shitty on purpose, but most of the time the left hand required to get the timing and editing of jokes right is also going to rely on vibrant visuals and a variety of beautifully idiotic closeups to make sure the gags land. Witch Watch has at least one perfect punchline waiting for it's audience every few minutes, but for my money, the best bit of the premiere is the scene where Nico almost kills herself by impulsively transforming her body into a giant paper doll, only to immediately get blown out of the window and stuck in a crack between buildings. The voice acting, the change up in Nico's character model, the classic “bluhbluhbluhbluh” sound she makes when she vomits up a cloud of confetti - if I could insert that “Chef's kiss” GIF of Pacha from The Emperor's New Groove for a score, I absolutely would.

Instead, I will have to settle for throwing a bunch of stars up there and telling you all that Witch Watch is really, really good. I cannot recommend it enough to anyone who is simply needing to earnestly and easily laugh over the antics of a couple of dorks who are destined to fall in love and get married and have a bunch of goofy babies that will also probably be walking weapons of mass magical destruction. God bless 'em.