Wandering Witch: Journey of Elaina is a charming Fall 2020 anime that didn’t get nearly as much attention as it deserved. While it was airing, I wrote weekly reviews of each episode at my old WordPress blog. However, I never got around to writing an overall series review. Finally, years later, I’ve decided to write it. This review will look at visuals, audio, story, characters, and my personal enjoyment level as the five categories for judgement. I’m expecting a pretty short review this time. Without further ado, let’s begin.

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Visuals: 8

The art and animation in Wandering Witch are excellent. Everything about it is captivating, at least to me. The character designs are solid, the eyes and face expressions look great, and the colors are vibrant. Backgrounds and scenery are always gorgeous, with plenty of nature and medieval towns and castles. Additionally, the animation seems pretty smooth. Scenes with action and/or magic look amazing, with fantastical lights and explosions. I loved the appearance of this anime.

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Story: 8

The story category was also great. The plot is very simple and doesn’t need much structure to work; it’s simply about Elaina traveling around and having interesting adventures. Each episode’s story was intriguing, though some more than others. I never got bored or started thinking something was stupid.

One possible criticism of the story category is that one installment, episode 9, was too dark to fit in with the rest of the series. It was incredibly psychologically heavy and almost excessively violent. Perhaps episode 9 could have been executed better to fit with the rest of the series, though I’m not sure how that would be done without downplaying its importance. Other than this issue, there wasn’t much wrong with the story, content or themes. The last episode of Wandering Witch brought the story together nicely and made a good conclusion.

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Audio: 8

The voice-acting, music, and songs in Wandering Witch were enjoyable and memorable. Opening song “Literature” by Reina Ueda is gorgeous, calming, and inspiring. Ending song “Haiiro no Saga” by ChouCho is also nice to listen to. The OST makes good background music and is fun to listen to on YouTube when you are writing or working on a project.

As for the voice-acting, it’s excellent as I mentioned. Kaede Hondo voiced Elaina and did a commendable job. Various skilled voice actors and actresses appeared in supporting roles, including Daiki Yamashita as the older brother in episode 3, Kana Hanazawa as Fran the Stardust Witch, and Yoko Hikasa as Sheila. The audio category was all around impressive.

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Characters: 8

Considering that there are only two characters who appear in multiple episodes– Elaina and Saya– it’s surprising that this category earned such a high score. There are two reasons. First and foremost, Elaina is a delightful, refreshing character. I wasn’t necessarily used to it, but I loved her distinct personality. She is a well-written character and never ceases to entertain.

The other reason for the high score is that this anime also does a good job with one-time characters. They each have interesting concepts. Some of them, like Fran the Stardust Witch, were exceptionally well-written and developed in the short time they appeared. The characters were so much fun in Wandering Witch.

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Personal Enjoyment: 8

There was a lot I enjoyed in Wandering Witch. Generally speaking, there were enjoyable elements from all four of the above categories. There was pretty animation, episodes with interesting stories in them, good voice-acting, and fun characters. But I also want to be a little more specific with this section, so I wrote a few examples of particular things I loved from this anime.

I already said that I loved Elaina’s personality. Specifically, I admire how assertive and confident she is. At the beginning, she was too passive, but Fran taught her to stick up for herself more. Think of how Elaina talked to Saya in episode 2 with so much wisdom and confidence. Adult Elaina’s assertiveness is frequently obvious in the way she interacts with others. She’s sometimes sassy or even slightly domineering. I love that.

Another example of something I enjoyed was the format of the series, with each episode having different themes and its own adventure. Shows like this are very entertaining to me. That’s also part of why I love anime like Kino’s Journey and Humanity Has Declined. Besides the character of Elaina and the structure of the show, I have one more example. I enjoyed “shipping” Saya x Elaina. They would be so cute together. Even in canon, it seems like Saya has a crush on Elaina. My brain kind of went wild with that, and it was a lot of fun!

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Overall Score: 8/10

The overall score is normally the average of the five scores given in the categories above. But as you probably noticed, all the scores are the same in this review, so there’s no need for a calculation. The score for Wandering Witch on MyAnimeList is currently 7.55. Clearly, not everyone received this anime as well as I did. Still, a score in the 7s is not bad. I just think it deserves a little better. Overall, I was extremely impressed with Wandering Witch. I recommend watching it if you like witches, magic, and stories about traveling.

Thank you for reading~

See Also: Fall 2020 Episode Reviews for this anime

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Note: This post first appeared on my Wix blog, Mono’s Anime Rants, on Oct 19 2022. After republishing it on WordPress, I will delete the original to avoid confusion.

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