Roland, the fourth prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle, is awakened from a drunken stupor by his servant to attend to an execution, but this farce of a trial is no usual one—the woman about to be hanged is accused of being a witch. And indeed, the accusation is true; her powers were witnessed during a cave-in at a mine, when she burned an opportunist alive and saved another miner. Witches are dreaded in this world—as this witch, Anna, has demonstrated, they have fearsome powers, and the Witch Cooperation Organization is gathering them together. And so, it is highly encouraged that the prince execute her quickly. But Roland has other things on his mind—powerful nobles, a weak kingdom, an illiterate society. And, oh, there’s this too: “Roland” is actually Cheng Yan, a man who has just been transferred into this world and into the prince’s mind, with knowledge of the world and its people intact. And this new Roland may turn to the witches in an attempt to do something in “this chaotic world.”
One of Crunchyroll’s premieres at Anime Frontier this weekend, Release That Witch is a donghua adaptation, and indeed, the episode we watched was dubbed in Chinese. It added to the other sort of otherworldly quality of the series, which, like many donghua adaptations, feels somewhat distant and cold—which is not entirely a bad thing. The colors in this anime are stark and vivid; they almost feel alive, as if this were a live-action series. The dialogue is also more akin to a Chinese film than an anime; having only seen several episodes of various donghua adaptations, it felt awkward to me. The animation was also awkward in “everyday” sort of scenes, such as when a local lord drinks apparently nothing from his cup, and transitional scenes gave me whiplash, flying by too quickly. All the time and energy, instead, is spent on a few striking scenes: those focusing on the very beautiful Roland, the strong CGI work, and the action scenes. Oh, the action! It is pretty awesome and scary when Anna uses her power. Again, this feels almost like live action as her fire comes alive. Fantasy series and donghua fans may want to tune into the show when it premieres in January, but as for me? The up-and-down quality is frustrating, so I’ll likely skip the show when it starts streaming next month.
Release That Witch will stream on Crunchyroll beginning in January.
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[…] I also caught Release That Witch, which may not be for me, but was still fairly impressive with some of its animation and some terrifying fight scenes! Here are my impressions of episode one. […]
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