The Witch and the Beast anime has recently debuted and has made its official entry into the fantasy anime genre. The anime comes with the exploration of a recurrent theme related to Disney’s Witch-fairytales and adds a twist and a turn by adding shonen elements to the plot.
While it may seem that the anime has rekindled a theory of the West with Eastern culture, one might even be deceived by the looks of it. In this article, we will look at The Witch and the Beast anime and how it becomes a boring and repetitive entry into the genre of fantasy in anime.
The Witch and The Beast anime – a synopsis of the plot
The Witch and the Beast has been written and illustrated by Kousuke Satake. It follows the life and journey of Guideau and Ashaf who are on a witch-hunting adventure to lift Guideau’s curse. They belong to a society of witch hunters that specializes in taking down witches who carry evil and sinister intentions. Ashaf is a sorcerer himself while Guideau is a cursed beast who has transformed into a petite girl.
- Guideau and Ashaf follow the traditional approach to witch-hunting and their belief in lifting a witch’s curse is also pretty much conventional.
- However, Guideau is a witch’s natural enemy – the beast. The duo is introduced as landing in a town where a witch has taken public notice and plots to release Hellfire to torture the people.
Guideau and Ashaf eliminate the witch while suggesting that their journey has just begun and they have to take down these sinister and evil creatures to retain peace in the world.
How does The Witch and the Beast explore the fantasy genre in anime?
The Witch and the Beast anime explores the fantasy genre in more ways than one.
- Firstly, it is the presence of magic that makes it an elementary tale of fantasy. The use of magic is a central tool used in the plot and it is also the idea around which the story revolves.
- Secondly, the presence of witches and beasts further roots it into fantasy, making it a fantastical tale of magical realism.
- Thirdly, the anime places humans and these fantastical elements on a similar plane, thus making the idea of fantasy normative and regular.
The Witch and the Beast anime further deconstructs the typical and conventional idea of the witch. It portrays the witch as a regular figure who carries the wrath of destruction and death wherever she goes. That makes it an even more fantasy anime wherein a wrathful lot of individuals who own the power of magic wreak havoc upon the human world and certain individuals with the same capacity are deployed as a countermeasure to this instability.
Is The Witch and the Beast anime another repetitive fantasy anime?
When we talk about fantasy and anime, the first shows that strike our mind are the likes of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures, Goblin Slayer, Berserk, Naruto, One Piece, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen, among the many other titles out there. However, the biggest challenge with the fantasy genre has been the introduction of new concepts and the imagination of new worlds.
- The genre has always lacked in that aspect, and it always follows the presence of two sides who engage in a conflict to justify themselves, while one tries taking over the world and killing humans the other tries saving humanity.
- This recurrent and reductive idea associated with the fantasy genre prevents it from actually introducing stories and plots that are different yet familiar to the genre.
The Witch and the Beast is not a very special addition like the ones mentioned in the above paragraph, because it fails to play with the idea of fantasy and simply plays along the popular demand. The anime has nothing new to offer and the tropes that it follows are majorly boring, repetitive, and redundant. Thus, one must understand that the genre of fantasy doesn’t need a dull scheme anymore, one that not only gets very usual but also tiring to explore over and over again.
Conclusion
It is not the responsibility of The Witch and the Beast anime to change the way some people look at the fantasy genre. However, anime shows like The Witch and The Beast and others contribute to the excessive boredom associated with the genre and reflect one of the main reasons why audiences are so disinterested in newly released shows and series.
A retelling of the same story might make it different but doesn’t make it exceptional, and that is the case with the fantasy genre in anime. To avail a newer perspective on anime and the world that it encircles, subscribe to our newsletter at Spiel Anime!