Eva’s First Impression
WOW, WAY TO RIP OUR HEARTS OUT FROM THE GET GO!
I loved absolutely everything from the very moment the first episode started. The music is absolutely stunning, like I can’t think of a show where the first note of a musical piece just reels you in as fast as this one did. It completely enamoured us in the magical atmosphere, followed with the gorgeous storybook art-style for the visuals. While some may not have been a fan of the story-telling narration, I absolutely loved it. Yes it starts off really slow, but similar to Hana-Kimi (that also got a double episode premiere), this one greatly benefited having done so as well. Launching with only one episodes when it’s this slow at the first can be detrimental, so I’m very glad that they were able to do so.
But man… yeah really was a sad way to start the show. Luna, the Black Witch is sorely misunderstood for her abilities. Although one cannot safely touch her because of the toxins emitting from her body, the truth is, her presence and the mushrooms that spawn behind her every step is a sign of cleansing pollution and corruption in the proximity. So she’s actually doing the town a great favour by coming in and out, besides the fact she’s the one who’s selling affordable medicine to the local apothecary, the only place that’s willing to work with her to sell the stuff she makes.
So it’s a pretty depressing and lonely life she has led so far. But one day she experiences a wonderful miracle, where a drawing of a handsome boy she saw in the village comes to life. She’s able to interact with him, dance with him under the moonlight like in the romantic storybooks she reads. It was the most magical moment of her life. So she tries to repeat that magic again, but strangely the drawings don’t come to life… Then, one day while she’s in town, she sees the boy and girl who was all lovey-dovey in the streets previously breaking up because the boy (Henri) had lost his charm. Turns out, she had accidentally captured the charming piece of his soul, and had to release it from her drawings to get him back to normal. However, what she didn’t expect was that Henri actually remembered their dance under the moonlight. It opened his eyes that the Black Witch wasn’t someone terrible, and sought to get to know her more.
Long story short, because the boy has connections to the White Witches, he kind of has a knack for understanding magic and the likes. So that explains why he’s generally unfazed by the talking bull (Minos), the mushrooms and Luna’s magic. Heck, besides the book-store guy, Henri’s the first other person to recognize that her presence is actually purifying their village. He quickly became enamoured with her— maybe a bit too fast considering they had literally just met, and he’s like, “I want to be with you forever.” And they even had a kiss! That definitely ticks the boxes of a classic Disney film with how fast their love blossomed, so it definitely achieved that fairy tale-esque mood.
But gosh dang it, it was obvious as plain day that their love was going to have a tragic ending, especially with the way everything was being narrated from the beginning. I was in tears when she had to wipe Henri’s memories in order to save him. The cost of his soul traversing back and forth from his physical body to a paper vessel to meet her was taking too great of a toll on him, and was edging too close to death. Had it not been for Claude’s (a Crow familiar of a great Wizard) intervention, not only would Henri probably had died, but Luna would be burdened by being the cause of his death for the rest of her days.
Despite the heartbreaking start, yes I’m ABSOLUTELY going to be watching this show. I’m very interested in the set up of the lore between the Black Witches and Wizards, who by the royal family, claim to be the evil ones subjected to witch hunts that must be purged. Meanwhile we have White Witches and Wizards are “said” to be the ‘good ones’, but if we were to take Henri for his word, he likened the White Witches and Wizards as the nasty ones who are stuck up and mean. I’m eager to learn more about the tension between these two affiliations, and more about the nature of Black Wizards and Witches. Do both parties have their good and bad apples? Black Wizards and Witches are considered evil and must be purged because they are not loyal to the royal family, who always has a White Witch as their queen. There’s even a looming crisis of the Witch Hunts, to the point that even the innocent ones who simply interact with the Black Witch or Wizards getting executed for it. And we saw the villagers talking about Henri becoming a potential victim of such for being close to Luna. Had she not wiped his memories, he may not have been spared— especially because his family is said to be devoted White Witch Fundamentalists.
But with that love gone, now Luna is having yet another fateful encounter. This time with wounded boy (perhaps a Prince?) that was swept downstream. We learned that the one who had been narrating from the beginning of episode of is in-fact him. I’m curious to see if we’re see the narration style stick around, or if it’ll disappear now that he has been formally introduced.
With that said, the fact it served it’s purpose to have a back-to-back episodes opener, I’m quite thankful because this will make it a lot easier for me to figure out what the heck I’m going to be covering this season. This is definitely going to be a slow show, so there’s a high likelihood that if I were to cover this, I’d likely do a double-post entries for the majority, if not the entire season. But for absolute certainty, I will wait to made my decision between episode 3 and 4 for this very reason! Other than that, yes, I’m absolutely going to be watching this show!
Possibility of Covering: Moderately High – will decide whether or not to between episode 3 and 4.
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed
