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Anime Review: Witch Hunter Robin
WITCH HUNTER ROBIN - 2002 (Japan)/2004 (US), available on Crunchyroll and Funimation
Amount watched: Entire series (26 episodes)
Official description: Robin Sena arrives in Japan to begin her work as a Witch Hunter. As part of the STNJ, she will work with others in bringing Witches to justice. But as the story unfolds, Robin is forced to confront some very ugly truths about her coworkers, the organization she works for, and even herself! The lines between good and bad, friend and foe, and human and Witch are all called into question. Can Robin's power shine a line into the darkness that threatens to engulf them all?
Weeb rating: 2/10 - and most of that is the tropes that I recognize only in retrospect. (Anime loves its Mysterious Organizations That Turn Out To Be Horrible, is all I'm saying, and it's equally fond of the aesthetics of the Catholic Church.)
Ass rating: 1 or 2/10 - I think there might be a couple scenes with characters in the bath.
Shit rating: 2/10. My memory is that it's fairly tightly plotted, and the characters are intriguing - but I also last watched this some years ago.
Violence rating: 5/10. Most of it is the standard cop-show sort of violence (dead bodies, Witches fighting capture).
Crack rating: 2/10 - there's the Supernatural Powers aspect, but nothing that really hits my 'what the hell' meter.
Actual opinion: No seriously, I've written fanfic for this. Only the one story, post-canon, and probably won't make sense without watching the show, but still a thing.
That said...this is very much a Certain Kind of Show. It's not even the surface-level Catholicism (because the Inquisition, as near as I can tell, with a side of anime loving the ~aesthetic~): it's a particular breed where the monsters aren't always clear-cut, and both the mysteries and the solutions are supernatural in nature, which I associate with the late 90s and early 2000s. To make things clearer: at the time this show aired in Japan, The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer was airing their final seasons in the US (and Angel was just getting started).
(Interestingly, this show predates Death Note, both manga and anime; D. Gray-man, both manga and anime; and Darker Than Black, all of which fit vaguely into the same genre, at least according to Anime News Network. I would be more impressed if I had more faith in ANN's cataloging of older anime.)
In any case: I like the show! Wife cosplayed as Robin at Anime Boston, way back in the day! And as linked above, I've written fanfic for it! But I don't unreservedly recommend it the way I did Shingu. It absolutely falls into the 'if this is the kind of thing you like' sort of category. I do recommend the Japanese language version rather than the English version, mostly because Crispin Freeman as Amon is flatter than flat. See also: the reason why I haven't linked any trailers for this show, because they are all dub rather than sub, and I really do despise this dub.
Next week I make no guarantees, because offline commitments may interfere. Possibly either Descendants of Darkness (Yami no Matsuei), which you get a Wikipedia link for because the best trailer I can find is a a fanvid which sorta shows you what the show's about? Kinda? Or Darker Than Black, which is also lacking in the trailer department, and Which Only Has One Season, Do You Hear Me.
Amount watched: Entire series (26 episodes)
Official description: Robin Sena arrives in Japan to begin her work as a Witch Hunter. As part of the STNJ, she will work with others in bringing Witches to justice. But as the story unfolds, Robin is forced to confront some very ugly truths about her coworkers, the organization she works for, and even herself! The lines between good and bad, friend and foe, and human and Witch are all called into question. Can Robin's power shine a line into the darkness that threatens to engulf them all?
Weeb rating: 2/10 - and most of that is the tropes that I recognize only in retrospect. (Anime loves its Mysterious Organizations That Turn Out To Be Horrible, is all I'm saying, and it's equally fond of the aesthetics of the Catholic Church.)
Ass rating: 1 or 2/10 - I think there might be a couple scenes with characters in the bath.
Shit rating: 2/10. My memory is that it's fairly tightly plotted, and the characters are intriguing - but I also last watched this some years ago.
Violence rating: 5/10. Most of it is the standard cop-show sort of violence (dead bodies, Witches fighting capture).
Crack rating: 2/10 - there's the Supernatural Powers aspect, but nothing that really hits my 'what the hell' meter.
Actual opinion: No seriously, I've written fanfic for this. Only the one story, post-canon, and probably won't make sense without watching the show, but still a thing.
That said...this is very much a Certain Kind of Show. It's not even the surface-level Catholicism (because the Inquisition, as near as I can tell, with a side of anime loving the ~aesthetic~): it's a particular breed where the monsters aren't always clear-cut, and both the mysteries and the solutions are supernatural in nature, which I associate with the late 90s and early 2000s. To make things clearer: at the time this show aired in Japan, The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer was airing their final seasons in the US (and Angel was just getting started).
(Interestingly, this show predates Death Note, both manga and anime; D. Gray-man, both manga and anime; and Darker Than Black, all of which fit vaguely into the same genre, at least according to Anime News Network. I would be more impressed if I had more faith in ANN's cataloging of older anime.)
In any case: I like the show! Wife cosplayed as Robin at Anime Boston, way back in the day! And as linked above, I've written fanfic for it! But I don't unreservedly recommend it the way I did Shingu. It absolutely falls into the 'if this is the kind of thing you like' sort of category. I do recommend the Japanese language version rather than the English version, mostly because Crispin Freeman as Amon is flatter than flat. See also: the reason why I haven't linked any trailers for this show, because they are all dub rather than sub, and I really do despise this dub.
Next week I make no guarantees, because offline commitments may interfere. Possibly either Descendants of Darkness (Yami no Matsuei), which you get a Wikipedia link for because the best trailer I can find is a a fanvid which sorta shows you what the show's about? Kinda? Or Darker Than Black, which is also lacking in the trailer department, and Which Only Has One Season, Do You Hear Me.
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I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts of Descendants of Darkness! Always been fond of that one (though the manga is definitely better than the anime, as is often the case with these things XD)
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And yeah, Witch Hunter Robin spends literally the entire first half on crime-of-the-week, and then the back half is Suddenly Plot! Which can be great if you're like me and sometimes take a while to warm up to characters, but not great for other styles of watching.
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