Burn the Witch has an ambitious proposal, but poorly executed. In addition to unnecessarily dividing the film into three episodes, forcing out-of-place beginnings and endings that left the story disjointed, the core of the problem was mainly caused by “hype”, after all the work is by Tite Kubo , the creator of Bleach , classic from the 2000s, giving credibility to the film, but at the same time leaving its flaws evident.
The biggest problem with the film is the lack of explanation , several animes take place in different worlds, which require development for the story to work, like 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 about the Wing Bind, the dragons... and that's it.
The first and only ( as sequels have not yet been announced ) film, it explained nothing about the world in which it takes place, the concept of frontal London and reverse London is confusing and poorly developed. The characters Noel and Ninny are charismatic and work well together, but who are they? It's the first film and we know almost nothing about the protagonists .
Not to mention Wing Bind , a company where wizards and witches work as protection agents against fantastic beings ( that was in the synopsis ). From this point on, nothing is well developed about WB, showing only a pseudo-story and some Easter eggs from Bleach.
The characters are all interesting, some even mysterious, but they are shallow. Balgo Parks , the comic relief, is the typical children's character who always acts the same way. Macy Baljure , the trigger of the story, having a connection with Ninny and a unique personality, was the only character more developed in the film.
Animation
The anime has excellent animation, Studio Colorido ( A Whisker Away ) lives up to its name, even the dragons, which are normally made with 3DCG to speed up production, were very well animated, but this animation quality is as expected of a film.
Final considerations
Despite its flaws, the film Burn the Witch is far from boring , delivering funny scenes that fit well with the action ones, and the relationship between the characters together is also very fun, leaving you wanting to see more. Even though the final solution was simple, the film opens the door to some mysteries and paths to be explored.
The film inspired by the manga of the same name by Tite Kubo was directed by Tatsuro Kawano at Studio Colorido. Script by Ryomura Chinatsu and soundtrack by Keiji Inai. BTW was released on October 2nd and is available on Crunchyroll .
