Witch Hunter Robin Review
Witch Hunter Robin
Genre: Mystery, Action
Story (8/10): Witch Hunter Robin is a 1 season, 26 episode run created by Sunrise. The narrative is an interesting and refreshing mix of CSI and Men in Black (but with witches in place of aliens). STN-J, the Japan division of a worldwide secret organization, Solomon, which is dedicated to the investigation and hunting of criminal witches. The organization receives its newest member to its small task force. Robin, a young Craft (witch powers, specifically she uses fire) user, assists in catching many dangerous witches with varieties of powers. An encounter with a mysterious old witch soon reveals a dangerous power and many secrets about Robin and the past history of witches. Meanwhile, two mysterious organizations, Factory and Solomon, are soon discovered competing in the war on witches.
The first several episodes are not much more than simple action and mystery versions of CSI, with a kind of “criminal witch of the day” feel. Yet as the story progresses, it grows into a much involved and powerful plot. Overall the story is good, but the series starts to suffer. The middle seems somewhat drawn out. The ending, in my opinion, was also not as dramatic and fantastic as I had hoped.
Characters (5/10): The characters are also not very memorable. The team at STN-J consists of a simple assortment. There is a hot-shot kid, Haruto, a young spoiled but maturing girl, Yurika, a women with a special Craft power, Miho, and Michael, a computer hacker that acts as their main source of information. Even the two main characters, Amon and Robin, don’t quite stack up. Amon is a mysterious, quiet, but strong guy with some secrets that proves an asset to the team. Robin is also pretty quiet and mysterious with some interesting secrets of her own.
I suppose that’s why I can’t warm up to these characters. They say too little of what is on their mind. There is a lack of feeling that an audience needs to really connect with the characters. They do, however, have certain shining moments in a few episodes, including the last couple, which still saves them somewhat.
Visuals (8/10): The visuals of this show, while impressive in certain respects, were not outstanding. I found it cool to watch Robin use her special fire Craft, as well as other witches use their own unique powers. The mood is mostly dark throughout the series with overall little use of color. This may have caused the artwork to suffer a bit.
Audio (6/10): The audio was decent but slightly disappointing. Voices were ok but not very memorable. The music, while setting the mood for the story, became monotonous. But that might just be to match the characters. Yet there are some cool effects, however, when the crafts are used as well as some gunfire from the team’s special Orbo ammunition.
Overall (7/10): This show was fun to watch but overall forgetful. I still rate it a decent 7 for its originality from other anime I have seen. It felt more like a real life TV show rather than an anime. But perhaps this is why I didn’t score it as highly in certain areas. Good, but not great. I still recommend it as a decent watch though.
