Just watched this PV out of nowhere, the animation seems pretty promising and the effects animation definitely has that signature Original Force’s touch you see from RMJI.
Looking forward to this one!! Always welcome more shows that take place in a modern / futuristic setting.
Hands down has to be the best Iseikai story I have ever watched. Better than the ones I have watched from Japan.
Mature storytelling. Simple but effective. Smart characters are shown how they are smart instead of spoon-feeding you Science wiki dump like Dr.Stone or Dungeon Meshi.
Very grounded. A perfect example of less is more. The restraint in its fantasy aspect is precisely what makes the story clicks. People are dressed very modestly, you don’t have video game looking characters roaming around, everything is handled with maturity and thoughtfulness in its world building.
Very smooth and natural flow of pacing, conflicts unfold in a very believable fashion while slowly escalating in intensity. The writing is very clear and easy to follow. It guides you through the socio-political conflicts step by step, reminding me of the joy of playing a good castle-building game.
Juggling between economic, army, religion, social status and fantasy at the same time is no easy job, but the story unfolds so smoothly that makes you feel like it’s an easy and simple story. Such masterful writing.
In many case the story is so engaging, even if the animation is just serviceable, I’m so much more invested watching this over other high fantasy shows like Castlevania or Mushoku Tensei Jobless Reincarnation.
I don’t watch a lot of 2D Donghua because finding a 2D art style that matches my taste is difficult, especially when anime is so saturated with high level illustrations.
Release that Witch reminds me a lot of Orb: On the Movements of the Earth. Both shows have serviceable visuals (6.5/10 in my book) but a (9-10/10) story.
You can tell the production is limited by its budget, there are a handful of PPT scenes (meaning no animation, just slides of keyframes). At the very least, I think the illustration & art style of Release that Witch is good enough for a decent watch. There are many other 2D Donghua and acclaimed Anime where I simply couldn’t get behind because the art style just didn’t click with me. The more mature illustrations in the character design definitely helps. If it was handled like a video game fantasy style like the cover of the novel (click here)[https://releasethatwitch.fandom.com/wiki/Release\_that\_Witch\_Wiki\], I might not actually watch it.
Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of the title, Release that Witch and the OP.
Release that Girl, in Chinese 放開那女孩, is basically a meme, a movie line from a Stephen Chow movie. It is a bit weird to me that a such mature and profound story has such a meme-feeling title.
The OP sounds like a Chinese military choral piece, umm… just not in a good way. I just didn’t click with it.
Chinese Voice acting in a western fantasy show still needs a bit of getting used to. Maybe because I understand mandarin, sometimes hearing English translated names spoken in Chinese is just a bit difficult to get behind. The only Voice Acting scenes I find a bit lacklustre are the epic speech scenes. Those scenes are a bit stiff in my opinion.
What a crime against humanity that the show ran out of funding and stopped literally in the middle of production. I hope us fans get a happy ending, because a Donghua like this is so rare, and the creative team mostly deserves to get all the fundings to see through this masterpiece.