Burn the Witch | Review

Burn the Witch has an ambitious but poorly executed proposal. In addition to unnecessarily dividing the film into three episodes, forcing it to have misplaced beginnings and ends that left the story disconnected. The center of the problem was mainly caused by the “hype”, after all the work is by Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach, classic of the 2000s, giving credibility to the film, but at the same time leaving the defects evident.

The biggest issue of the movie is the lack of explanation, several animes take place in different worlds, which need development for the story to work, as Fire Force and Ascendance of a Bookworm do very well, but in BTW the viewer is thrown into the story (which is not necessarily a defect), with a brief explanation of the Wing Bind, the dragons … and that’s it.

The first and only (as sequels have not yet been announced), did not explain anything about the world in which it takes place, the concept of frontal London and reverse London is confusing and underdeveloped. The characters Noel and Ninny are charismatic and work well together, but who are they? It is the first film and we know almost nothing about the protagonists.

Not to mention Wing Bind, a company where wizards and witches work as protective agents against fantastic beings (that was in the synopsis). From this, nothing is well developed on the WB, showing only a pseudo-history and some Bleach easter eggs.

The characters are all interesting, some even mysterious, but they are shallow. Balgo Parks, the comic relief, is the typical childish character who always acts the same way (at least until something Deus Ex Machina happens). Macy Baljure, the trigger of the story, having connection with Ninny and a unique personality, was the only character more developed in the film.

Animation

The movie has an excellent animation, Studio Colorido (A Whisker Away) lives up to its name, even the dragons, which are usually made with 3DCG to speed up production, were very well animated, but this quality of animation is expected of a movie since they have more production time.

Final considerations

Despite the defects, the movie Burn the Witch is far from boring, providing funny scenes that fit well with the action ones, and the relationship of the characters together is also a lot of fun, leaving the desire to see more. Even though the final solution was simple, the film opens doors to some mysteries and paths to be explored.

The film inspired by the eponymous manga by Tite Kubo was directed by Tatsuro Kawano at Studio Colorido. Screenplay by Ryomura Chinatsu and soundtrack by Keiji Inai. BTW was released on October 2 and is available on Crunchyroll.