Autumn 2020 First Impressions – Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Summary: As a young girl, Elaina reads stories of a traveling witch’s adventures. She asks her parents if she can become a witch too. If she studies hard and tries her best, her mother says, then she might become a witch someday. Elaina works hard and practices her skills, then becomes the youngest student ever to pass the magic exam. She just needs to find a witch who will take her as an apprentice so that she can be acknowledged as a full witch within society. Unfortunately, the local witches aren’t interested in dealing with a young prodigy, and Elaina worries that she’ll never complete her training.

She’s tipped off to the existence of a mysterious new witch who’s taken up residence in the local forest – Fran, the Stardust Witch. Elaina assumes she’ll have the same trouble with this newcomer, but surprisingly Fran offers to take her on as an apprentice. Elaina looks forward to honing her skills even further, but as the weeks go by her only tasks seem to be running errands and dealing with Fran’s immediate needs. Just as Elaina is about to flip her lid, Fran challenges her to a duel. Elaina is handed a quick defeat, and it’s then that she learns the truth; Fran was hired by Elaina’s parents to teach her a lesson about humility and learning to deal with and accept failure. Now that Elaina has felt failure firsthand for the first time in her life, the Stardust Witch can begin to pass on her teachings in earnest. After a year, Elaina has nothing more to learn and is acknowledged as Elaina, the Ashen Witch. Some time later, she sets off on a journey, much like the witch who inspired her as a child.

Impressions: Screen captures are taken using the official legal stream of the series, when available.

Ever since I was young, I’ve loved stories about witches and witchcraft. While the selection of media I had access to as a kid often painted these mythical magic users as evil and manipulative, as I’ve gotten older, become involved in Neo-Paganism, and had access to a broader range of different stories, I’ve had the pleasure of reading and watching films and anime that show witches in a more benign, friendly light. Anime in particular has managed to produce some truly charming witch stories, from Little Witch Academia to Flying Witch; series that combine Western-style witchcraft with anime-style storytelling sensibilities to great effect. Wandering Witch at first blush seems to fit well in that vein, and I have the gut feeling that I’ll really enjoy this series.

While I’m always on the lookout for media that features equal representation from within its cast, I’m also generally happy when stories focus on girls’ and women’s interactions with one-another as drivers of the plot. It’s somewhat less common in Western popular media than it seems to be in anime, for various reasons (though admittedly I could just be looking in the wrong places); while in some cases I think there’s a lot of anime aimed at a presumed straight male audience with primarily female casts for reasons more related to attraction (which is not meant as a direct criticism, but these series are almost certainly not made to appeal to straight women, whether they happen to by chance or not), there also seem to be a number of anime series that are girl-and-woman-centric for the purposes of appealing to women as an audience, and they tend to be somewhat more truthful about the relationships that women can potentially have with one-another. Elaina has multiple role models in the women around her, from her mother who encourages her to follow her dreams, to Fran who affectionately teaches Elaina some of the more difficult lessons in life, to the witches that exist within the universe outside Elaina’s direct circle of relationships but who inspire her to have dreams in the first place. It’s definitely one of my favorite things about this episode.

The eccentric Stardust Witch becomes Elaina’s teacher.

Let it be known that I was pretty weepy for most of the second half of the episode. I’d predicted the general reason why Fran was putting Elaina through the experience of doing nothing but menial labor, but I think it was her detailed explanation that hit me harder than I expected. Her message about not simply enduring situations for as long as possible rings very true when so much of what’s been going on for the last several months feels simply like enduring a bad situation with no payoff. I’ve been struggling with the sadness of missed and cancelled events, being unable to see my friends in person, and not having the ability to travel most places (even within the state; I just feel like it wouldn’t be wise or safe). It’s a depression that’s difficult to talk about and thus harder to endure. And why should we keep trying to? Sometimes it’s more truthful to ourselves to cry about something that’s sad.

I think facing failure of any kind is a huge fear for many of us. I’ve failed many times, both in school and in life, and for a long time I took those failures to heart as judgments about my worth as a person. School especially will often contribute to the mindset that failure isn’t an option and that losing out in school means that a successful life is out of your reach. After leaving high school, though, I met plenty of people whose school performance was mediocre-to-terrible, and while there are many other factors in the world that help define whether someone can easily go on to be successful, my takeaway was simply that failure at one thing doesn’t have to define the rest of a person’s life. Failure is a way to learn, and bouncing back from failure is a life skill that ought to be taught and encouraged more. After having a taste of failure, Elaina takes Fran’s lessons to heart, and this really moved me.

Elaina must learn failure before she can succeed.

This story takes place in a magical world, and the setting is fittingly magical in its portrayal. From Elaina’s flower-adorned cottage, to Fran’s home within a large tree, the setting is almost its own character. I also like how the magic is rendered; there’s a power and danger to it that lends weight to Elaina’s and Fran’s battle. That said, the kind of magic I prefer is the more natural variety – potions and concoctions, as well as herbalist knowledge and that sort of thing. It’s something that Flying Witch did very well in its portrayal of witchcraft, so I hope this series will have a little more naturalist slant at some point.

My only real criticism of this episode is that, while Elaina’s relationship with her mother is featured, her father exists sort of in the background, not saying much (but eating food and getting emotional in most of his scenes). I think that there’s a bit of a mistaken tendency for media to turn fathers into background characters when mothers are given stronger personalities, and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with dad’s being emotional or not being outspoken, I often feel like this portrayal is some kind of weird trade-off. I liked how the father in Ascendance of a Bookworm was an outgoing guy and important to the protagonist alongside her mother. But this is a really small criticism.

Elaina’s mother is important in her life.

As much as I enjoyed HypnosisMic, I think my favorite premiere thus far has been this one. It’s extremely charming and heartfelt, and manages to push a lot of my buttons in the best way. I can’t wait to follow Elaina on her future journeys.

Pros: Great portrayal of positive relationships and interactions between girls and women. The setting is appropriately magical. Powerful lessons about failure as a learning experience.

Cons: The relationship between Elaina and her dad could have been more important.

Content Warnings: Magical violence.

Grade: B+