Series Blurb
In the witches' tradition, when a practitioner turns 15, they must become independent and leave their home to study witchcraft. Makoto Kowata is one such apprentice witch who leaves her parents' home in Yokohama in pursuit of knowledge and training. Along with her companion Chito, a black cat familiar, they embark on a journey to Aomori, a region favored by witches due to its abundance of nature and affinity with magic. They begin their new life by living with Makoto's second cousins, Kei Kuramoto and his little sister Chinatsu.
While Makoto may seem to be attending high school like any other teenager, her whimsical and eccentric involvement with witchcraft sets her apart from others her age. From her encounter with an anthropomorphic dog fortune teller to the peculiar magic training she receives from her older sister Akane, Makoto's peaceful everyday life is filled with the idiosyncrasies of witchcraft that she shares with her friends and family.
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12Reviews
(3.86/5)Makes learning easier, but the entertainment value is not very high
Flying Witch is a great first anime for language learners, because the language used by the main protagonist is so proper that the transition from textbook-Japanese should go fairly smoothly.
On the other hand, I found the show quite boring, and I wouldn't recommend forcing yourself to watch it if you're still bored after 2-3 episodes. It just demotivated me from watching anime, and I don't wish that on anyone.
Good anime for beginners. They speak very clearly. So clearly in fact, it sometimes felt like audio tracks from textbooks. There are instances of very thick Tsugaru dialect and drunk people muffling words but you're not expected to understand them.
The protagonist speaks politely unlike many other slice-of-life anime where you have to deal with the complexities of casual language. This is useful for grabbing set sentences and idioms that you can use in most situations. As an added benefit, this is closer to the kind of Japanese you learn in textbooks, so this can ease your entry into native material.
Speaking of applicability, this show provides a lot of useful day-to-day vocab. The title might imply that this is a fantasy with lots of magic and made-up words but there aren't any made-up words here and the magic is a rather minor element in my view. It is first and foremost an iyashikei, portraying the life of this girl who moved to the countryside. I especially liked how most scenes were happening at home or in nature and with only a minority at school (can you sense that I'm getting fed up with the prevalence of high schools in Japanese media?).
If you haven't tried watching anime raw, without any subtitles, this is a great candidate for your first try.
empty plot
fairly boring, most episodes feel really empty. theres some decent episodes though at least.
language is mostly easy but idk if I would recommend to a beginner that has yet to get comfortable with hearing the language due to the dialect used in the show. theres also not much going on with magic related vocab so if you have only watched non magical shows that wont cause a problem imo.