Once in a blue moon, an anime that changes up the formula and excels at it appears. This time around, it’s “The Witch and The Beast.” The anime focuses on the two main characters, Ashaf and Guideau, as they hunt down a legendary witch. To those who don’t want to be spoiled, don’t worry, this is a spoiler free review.

The show starts off strong with an action packed introduction that not only showcases the type of fight choreography the show employs, but also the inherent outlandishness of magic. If you’re wondering what exactly that means in the context of this show, here are two words to answer you: giant shark. There will be no elaboration.

Moving on, despite the weirdness of magic, the show does a great job of making it seem both mundane and exotic. Witches are well known in this world, so magic isn’t something that is mysterious. People know it exists, however, it is still strange and exotic to them as they don’t often see it, with a few exceptions.

This is a hard line to balance, so when it’s done properly, it really shines. Most series have magic be considered strange and weird, yet it’s commonplace and not really any weirder than what’s considered normal in said series.

On the topic of witches, if you’ve seen “Soul Eater,” then you’ll see some similarities. Just like in that series, witches aren’t green skinned creatures that dwell in swamps, but are people born with fantastical magic. Unlike “Soul Eater,” however, witches in “The Witch and The Beast” are genetic.

To be more accurate, descendants of a witch gain their powers. In the anime, only women can be witches (hence the gendered term for them instead of something like lich or another similar word). Most importantly, just like “Soul Eater,” not all witches are evil.

Based on information given in the anime, their origins are still unknown, so it’s hard to say why they’re born with such powerful magic. This is not a negative, however, as the idea of incredible but mysterious powers with no known origin is always fun to explore.

How powerful can it become? Why is it so much different from normal magic? How were witches born? Hopefully there are answers in the future, but for now there are other things that can be explained.

For example, normal magic. Magic in the anime isn’t anything particularly different or unique, aside from the usage of strange writing that is displayed on the user’s body. This is perfect when trying to signify a certain type of magic as unique.

The way magic is shown off is a treat, instead of the battle shonen type of powers that clog the screen with all sorts of fanciful effects, the anime employs a more subtle approach.

This is a fresh change of pace as while battle shonen tend to have great action sequences, they tend to drag on or become obnoxious. Now of course this is par for the course, as “The Witch and The Beast” is a seinen, which means it has an older demographic than your average shonen anime.

For those who may be unfamiliar with ‘shonen’ and ‘seinen,’ they are simply terms for the type of demographic a manga or anime is catered to. Shonen is for young boys in the age range of 12-18, while seinen is 18-40. This is similar to the ESRB in that what you add decides how it’s categorized, which can decide how accessible it is.

Moving back to the content of the anime, there are many things that can make someone disinterested. Whether it’s annoying characters, disappointing endings, excessive fanservice, racism, and/or sexism, there is always one show that will turn you away because something just doesn’t sit right. Sexism and misogyny are the most common reasons, and it’s typically a matter of time until it rears its head in shonen. 

Fortunately, seinen tends to have less of these issues, and “The Witch and The Beast” is one of them. Not only is the protagonist a woman, but they’re a well written one with their own motivations beyond serving a male protagonist’s wants and needs.

Most importantly, they serve a role beyond eye candy. The same can be said for the rest of the female cast that appears throughout the shows’ runtime, which is a breath of fresh air when other anime in the season are repetitive isekai or generic battle shonen. The main protagonist, Guideau, is pretty much an aggressive and selfish gremlin that serves as the muscle.

She hits hard and isn’t afraid to say what’s on her mind, no matter how mean it might be. Of course she’s no villain, she does have integrity and principles she lives by, but she’s more morally gray than the norm.

On her own, Guideau is just one character. However, there are other female characters that appear like Kiera Haines and Phanora Kristoffel who are intriguing and multifaceted without relying on discriminatory tropes. However, in the spirit of not spoiling their roles in the story, that is all that will be said.

A word of caution of course, is that anime isn’t afraid to let things get…messy. Blood is a constant in every episode, not to mention how brutal the violence can get in certain episodes. If “Attack On Titan” or “Tokyo Ghoul” are too extreme, then this show is not for you. While it doesn’t quite reach their level of gore, it certainly gets close enough to warrant a warning for the faint of heart.

If that doesn’t faze you, then more power to you as the show is incredibly entertaining. From well thought out and neatly structured action scenes to thought-provoking dialogue, “The Witch and The Beast” is a pleasure to watch and I highly recommend taking it for a spin.