Witch Watch

Episode 20

Surprisingly, it seems like the show decided to serve up two romance-themed episodes in a row. Last time, we got a bit more insight into what's been keeping Nico and Moi's relationship from making any real progress, so now it's time to shine some spotlight on our newest potential side couple with Nemu and Keigo. Much like with our central pairing in the previous episode, this one gives us a good idea of what kinds of emotional hangups could be getting in the way of Nemu and Keigo realizing they might be into each other. While we don't get any twists as crazy as Nico accidentally cursing Morihito into friend-zoning her for years, the emotional punches here are just as effective.

When Morihito, Kanshi, and Miharu manage to protect Nico from some local gangsters, Keigo begins to feel like he doesn't make for a good bodyguard since only Wolf is useful in a fight, and he's just an otherwise ordinary person. Meanwhile, Nemu is still trying to uphold her promise to Wolf about letting him run loose occasionally, but seems to have become just aware enough of Keigo to feel embarrassed about hanging out with the gang in human form, so she defaults to cat mode. Having just learned about Nico's crush on Morihito (something so obvious that even Nico points out how bad Nemu must be at romance if she didn't pick up on it), she decides to avoid snuggling up to him for the sake of their friendship and decides to try letting Keigo pet her instead. However, compared to Morihito's gentle hands and Wolf's rock-solid abs, being petted by Keigo feels awkward, which is only made worse when everyone starts talking about how talented a witch Nemu should be because of her family line. Keigo, of course, understands all too well how easy it is to fail to live up to other people's expectations, and while everyone else just assumes he's whining, Nemu starts to realize just how similar the two of them are.

Seeing how distressed Keigo is over feeling like he's not doing enough, Nico decides to help him out by giving him an enchanted ring that grants him the power to fly. Despite his best efforts, he struggles to get the hang of the spell, but Nemu tries to offer him some pointers, and the two further bond over their shared history of having too much expected of them. For Keigo we see he was trained to become an Olympic level athlete while he was still an ice skater, and while he's okay with that no longer being his path life, failing to live up to those expectations has left him with a pretty negative view of himself, and feeling like he isn't doing enough for Nico is just making that worse. On Nemu's end, we learn that she was brought up by her mother to avoid being emotional in front of others and that wanting to let other people in is a sign of weakness. Given what we know about how emotional distress can turn Witches into Warlocks, this lesson was probably well-intentioned (especially considering Nemu's mom starts smothering her right after giving this speech), but that doesn't make the lasting effects of it any less harmful. Even though Nemu's reached a point where she feels like she can trust Keigo enough to let him know the truth about her cat transformation spell, she can't bring herself to be that vulnerable towards another person, and her need to always feel dignified is just hurting her in the long run. Nemu and Keigo's emotional hangups are both pretty severe. While we are seeing them begin to unlearn these negative habits, it's also easy to see how much these issues are preventing them from thinking better about themselves, much less each other.

Thankfully, we also see some hints of how being around each other might help break them free of those worries. When Nemu gets a bit too caught up in the distress of her childhood memories, she starts to lose control of her flight spell, and Keigo has to go out on a limb to save her. Doing so helps Keigo to find a way to use the spell that works well with his experience as an ice skater, and makes him begin to feel like he has something to contribute after all. Being rescued like this also causes Nemu to start seriously crushing on Keigo, and when I say “crushing,” I mean doing a full-on Disney musical in her head as she imagines herself as a dainty princess floating on the wind before being swept up in the light of her new prince. This had me laughing harder than nearly any other gags the show has pumped out so far, and the extra cherry on top is seeing Nemu get so caught up in this delusion that she fails to notice turning Keigo into Wolf.

Between Nemu's willingness to nearly expose her secret and how disappointed she feels about his presence, Wolf can put two and two together here pretty easily, but at the moment, it doesn't seem like he intends to get in the way of Keigo and Nemu getting closer. Still, the idea of Keigo somehow ending up in a love triangle where his romantic rival is himself is a very spicy prospect that simultaneously addresses his biggest problems, so it'll be fun to see how much the show leans into it going forward. For now, the episode ends with Cat Nemu fully cozying up to Keigo, and she decides to keep her cat form a secret just a little longer. While the decision to keep her secret is a bit frustrating, snuggling up to Keigo does still show an increased degree of vulnerability on her end, and strange as it sounds, this is genuinely the most romantic moment of the entire episode. If there was somehow still anyone who wasn't on board with pairing these two, it's pretty hard not to be after all this, and given how deeply seated their personal issues are, they might be even more interesting than our main couple. It's nice to see that Witch Watch is just as great at tackling romance as it is every other genre it shuffles through, and while we're still likely a long way off from these two becoming a couple, I'm rooting for these two awkward kids to work out.

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Witch Watch is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Sundays.