The Thrasher's Word
Witch Hunter Robin
Format: Series (26 episodes of 25 minutes)
Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Detective, Drama
Studio: Sunrise
Director: Shukou Murase
“Witch Hunter Robin” is a show that’s been garnering virtually unanimous critical acclaim since its release, and as such, it was one I found myself quite eager to see, if for no other reason than to present an alternative to the action-centric, visual bonanzas that make up the majority of my anime diet. Well, I suppose I’ll have to buck the general trend of praise that “Witch Hunter” has received, because it left me decidedly unimpressed. It has good production values and, unlike so many second-tier shows, carries itself with a little dignity and self-respect, in as much as it at least attempts to give the viewer a compelling narrative that doesn’t need to be buttressed by comedy or fan service. But unfortunately, these efforts fall short of the mark, and while “Witch Hunter” presents itself to us as a serious, multi-faceted combination of drama, mystery and fantasy, the resultant fantasy isn’t all that fantastical, the mystery all that mysterious, or the drama all that dramatic.
“Witch Hunter” begins by dropping us into the STN-J, the Japanese branch of a multinational organisation called Solomon which is centred in Italy and has obvious roots in Catholicism. Solomon’s purpose is to hunt down and eliminate Witches, humans with extraordinary abilities somehow written into their genes and allegedly present a threat to humanity at large. The STN-J is to receive a new Hunter (note the capitalisation) from headquarters, a subdued 15 year old girl named Robin, who is capable of harnessing abilities similar to those of Witches. Ergo the show’s ridiculous title. As Robin settles into her new job alongside her Japanese compatriots, whose reactions to her range from fondness to coldness, the show settles into an episodic, monster-of-the-week routine structured around the investigation and termination of various Witches. As the show moves on larger plot arcs are revealed and, without wanting to give away too much, Robin finds herself caught in the middle of a conflict between Solomon’s leaders, unable to distinguish friend and foe and questioning the worth of her existence. Suffice it to say, it’ll be a familiar scenario to anyone who’s ever seen Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” and although there’s a lot going on, it’s nothing too deep or too taxing on the brain.
To me, the hallmark of a good anime is one that’s able to transcend the inherent silliness of its premise (‘cause let’s face it, when has there ever been an anime whose premise wasn’t absurd with a capital “A”? OK, maybe “Jin-Roh,” but every rule has an exception), and present a little heart and soul amid the caricature and the cliché. In that respect, I suppose I’d grudgingly have to say Witch Hunter is a limited success. The scenarios are all handled convincingly within the context we’re given, and the concept of Witches and their Hunters is treated with a straight face and manages to rise above the kind of self-parody one might expect. The STN-J, despite it’s otherworldly goals, is still and office job at heart and the show’s tone is subdued enough to reflect that. “Witch Hunter” is a seinen show through and through, in that it demands intellectual and emotional involvement in order to be appreciated and brings a little of the convincingly real to its setup, and in that much I applaud it.
Why then do I treat it so sceptically, I’m sure you ask. Well, the answer is quite simple, really; the seams where “Witch Hunter” was stitched together show. They show quite badly, in fact, and it ruins whatever potential the show may have had beyond simply not being laughable. The characterisation, narrative structure, and indeed pretty much every aspect of the show’s storytelling just simply aren’t up to the task of the compelling story that it so badly wants to tell. It tries to take the office life of an organisation like the STN-J and spice it up with drama and fantasy, but it just ends up being dull and dry. The characters make little effort to break out from the archetypes they’re initially presented as; you have Karasuma, a compassionate, motherly figure, Amon, the ubiquitous big-dark-silent-gothy-bloke, and Sakaki, who is, motorcycle and all, basically a second-rate version of Kaneda from “Akira.” And Robin herself is just the same protagonist we’ve seen in every anime since 1995 when “Evangelion” reared its ominous head. Gee, thanks.
And that’s by no means the end of it. The revelations which pepper the show’s latter half seem less like genuine turning points and more like they were desperately thrown in on the pretext that a seinen show is obligated to keep its viewers guessing. There’s one involving Dojima towards the end which I won’t spoil except to say that it’s entirely unnecessary. It doesn’t help either that the action sequences are so stoic and devoid of tension that they almost don’t merit the title of “action” and that the dialogue is, in places, breathtakingly redundant. In one unintentionally funny scene, Nagira is combing the streets looking for information on something or other, and he says, to no-one in particular: “Well, on to the next informant.” Christ, you can tell the writers must have spent hours coming up with that. It all adds up to give an unmistakeable impression of ham-handedness, one which robs the show of the atmosphere it could have had or the interest it could have provoked.
“Witch Hunter Robin” isn’t by any means a terrible show; its narrative and its characters all plod through the requisite steps at a reasonable pace to a logical conclusion. There’s no single aspect of it that’s annoying, but as a whole it’s never more than vaguely stimulating. Rather than leaving a nasty taste in the mouth, it leaves the unnerving impression that one has consumed a meal and yet is no more full than one was beforehand. Everything it does has been done by countless other shows more deftly, and as such I can’t really recommend it to anyone. The version I saw was the dubbed one on TV, so maybe my impressions are a little skewed against the original product, but I’m buggered if I’m going to pay 30 quid to see a show that didn’t impress me the first time in another language. On that note, I leave you, and give “Witch Hunter Robin” an unfortunate but adequate score.
-Thrash Til’ Death
LAA Rating: **
Rating System:
* - Horrible
*1/2 – Very Bad
** - Bad
**1/2 – Good
*** - Very Good
***1/2 – Excellent
**** - Masterpiece
by: Thrash Til' Death
