Aru Majo ga Shinu Made, episode 1
Alternative Names
Aru Majo ga Shinu Made: Owari no Kotoba to Hajimari no Namida, Once Upon a Witch’s Death: The Tale of the One Thousand Tears of Joy, ある魔女が死ぬまで -終わりの言葉と始まりの涙-
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The production team is basically showing their hand and saying “yeah, our goal is to make you cry every episode for the entire season”. That’s ambitious and I like it.
Maybe I’m just easily manipulated, but this first story got me (even with them having to take the time to establish the premise first). It could’ve hit harder, sure, but it (subjectively ofc) felt like a pretty promising start to me. If I have one thing to nitpick it’s actually the soundtrack when she goes into town–it feels out of place? it doesn’t mesh and feels frantic. It’s entirely possible that it was intentional–I’m willing to trust the story for now.
I loved the cold open! It really efficiently establishes the mood, sets up the magical aspect with the single “tea brewing” shot, and shows us Meg’s personality through how others (Ms. Faust and all the animals) interact with her. When people say “show, don’t tell”, this is what they mean.
This was competently directed, and didn’t feel slow at all.
The plot feels like it was stolen right out of a classic shojo manga, but the protagonist’s attitude is very modern.
It wouldn’t surprise me if it was revealed as all being a trick by the old witch as a character building exercise.
didn’t feel slow at all.
there were actually a couple spots I wished lingered a little longer (to sink in), but they were also trying to fit quite a lot into this first episode.
competently directed
There were lots of little touches I really enjoyed! e.g. Ms. Faust being framed in the bottle, the cloud (literally) coming over her face, Anna dissolving into younger Meg. One (subtler) parallel between Anna and Meg I noticed was: Meg is supposedly going to die from a curse, and her teacher (“the greatest witch”) cannot save her; while Anna’s mom died from an illness, and her dad is apparently a doctor/pharmacist.
It wouldn’t surprise me if it was revealed as all being a trick by the old witch as a character building exercise.
Even if we play along with Ms. Faust here, I feel like there’s two layers (kinda) to the whole ordeal—one is she needs to literally collect tears (joy) in order to live the rest of her life, and the other is that she needs that joy to really live, in the carpe diem sense. … I hope that made sense…
Done!
Emotional manipulation turned up to eleven without the expert story crafting of the likes of Violet Evergarden or Natsume’s Book of Friends. This one just feels cheap to me.
Yep. The frame story, character designs, etc. seem interesting, but the sob story of the day was cliche and predictable. Hopefully it will develop beyond this and have more range, but I’m not optimistic.
Not a bad first episode that shows what to expect further on. I feel like it will be an enjoyable watch and curious to see which story turns to be my personal tearjerker.
