I’d say Majo to Yajuu has bubble series (or Patron Pick ballot) written all over it. It’s been an interesting opening two episodes, but nothing to really inspire commitment. There are some good things happening here, no question about it, but I’m still feeling pretty detached about what I’m seeing. There are multiple reasons for that, and it’s not as if it would have to totally reverse itself for the series to work. But there’s a hurdle here that still needs to be breached, that’s for certain.
The main thing going for Majo to Yajuu is that the premise is quite interesting, if not exactly groundbreaking. And the dynamic between the two mains is interesting on paper. In practice the picture is not so rosy, mainly because I find Guideau and her incessant tantrums to be incredibly annoying. Ashaf is better, but my vibe when watching him is that I’m watching a character model rather than an actual character. He does all the things characters of his type are expected to, says all the right things quite stylishly. But there’s nothing distinctive or personal about him – he’s just a function of the story.
He and Guideau bicker constantly – or rather, she bitches constantly about obviously being used and he verbally wags a finger at her to behave. All the piddly non-witch cases piss her off, but they seem to make up the bulk of the pair’s work for the Order. When a witch gig finally comes (in a black envelope, apparently the standard) she’s obviously thrilled. It’s a serial killing witch in a big city somewhere, where the overmatched police force is getting their asses kicked. They do have one hard-boiled police mage working for them, but Ashaf suspects the mayor is refusing to call in the “Paladin Corps” (I’m assuming some sort of magical military unit) to try and win glory by defeating the witch without them.
The atmospherics here are quite good, and the witch case – a two-parter – is certainly interesting enough. It’s an abstract sort of interest rather than actually caring all that much, though, and that has a limited half-life as a reason to follow a series. All I can do at this point is wait and see, because Majo to Yajuu is not a generic, cookie-cutter show and that in itself makes it worth an extended audition. But only the audition, not actually getting the part. That will require more than I’m getting so far.
L0ken
January 21, 2024 at 12:32 amAlways find it interesting how caring about things happening or being attached to the characters is such a personal thing, not to mention common approach of enjoying the narrative and atmosphere without being invested much into the characters, all the different and valid ways of experiencing the story. It reminds me of your experience with acclaimed gem like Dorohedoro (who get 2nd season announced recently and there were a lot of celebration online) or even more recent of Zom 100, the series you was initially interested but didn’t continued due to not being able to connect with the cast while plenty others didn’t had same problems. It’s all is quite an alchemy that make it tick for one person but not the other.
Guardian Enzo
January 21, 2024 at 12:34 amThere were a lot more reasons than that why I dumped Zom…
Also, with this show it goes beyond that when I find one of the two leads actively irritating in a big way.
L0ken
January 21, 2024 at 4:03 amRight, I did remember there were more reason for your Zom drop. Though this shows case of “irritating” seems very mild to me, but after yeats of following LiA I can’t help but notice you are often easily annoyed with characters/plot, so I guess it’s personal tolerance.
Anyway regarding of anime adaptation of Majo to Yajuu, after premier I got curious and read ahead in the manga and found that art is really strong and series overall is pretty good. This is the case of anime adaptation trying their best, but Yokohama Animation Lab and staff onboard just too far away from “high-profile” realm and lack capabilities to live up to the source, not to mention elevate it, only doing “fine/good enough” job with it. On the bright side it seems to be their best job so far compared to their past unimpressive repertoire, especially in contrast to last season hilarious trainwreck that is Kingdom of Ruin. So for anyone watching Major to Yajuu and interested in it, I recommend to check up the manga at some point for higher quality version of the story.