Witch Watch

Episode 24

With this season of Witch Watch winding down, I figured the show would probably be done with comedy for a while, and these last couple of episodes would be more drama focused. After all, between progressing Nico and Morihito's romance, and the whole doomsday prophecy that's been looming in the background since the show started, there's no shortage of serious avenues the show could have gone with for a good closer until we (hopefully) get another season. To my surprise, though, while there is some romance here to be had, it also seems like the show still has plenty of comedy left in the tank, and basically all of it is at Morihito's expense. Our rigid ogre boy has always been a lot more neurotic than his stoic attitude would suggest, and while the series has never been afraid to poke fun at that, this is basically just twenty straight minutes of demonstrating how much of a dork he truly is.

For the first half, we have what is probably the single strangest premise we've ever gotten for one of this show's shorts. Now with how weird some of the set-ups in this show have been you might be wondering what could possibly top all of them, and the answer is surprisingly simple: ten minutes of talking about denim jeans fashion. Morihito's love for some good vintage jeans has come up once or twice before, but when Miharu makes the foolish mistake of asking him what's so great about them, he and the others get sucked into a lecture on all the ins and outs of how to properly take care of them. It's very informative with explanations on to fade out the colors or what kinds of wrinkles look fashionable, but it's all so detailed that you can tell the manga chapter this was based on was created for no one but Kenta Shinohara, and that makes watching Morihito talk up this hyper fixation all the funnier. Like any good piece of propaganda, though, what's truly terrifying is how well this draws you in, and while I'm likely to keep regularly washing my own jeans for the foreseeable future, the fact that I even briefly considered trying some of the techniques displayed here is proof of how well the show sold this bizarre premise. Like I said at the top, this is an episode thoroughly dedicated to ripping on Morihito so while he does manage to sell the others on the gospel of denim jeans, it inevitably comes at his own expense when one of Nico's spells ends up getting his favorite pair of jeans ripped. It's hard not to feel at least a little bad for him there, but this only serves to make the end joke here more beautiful, as Miharu offers Morihito a pair of his father's high value vintage jeans and rather than selling them for what they're worth, he insists on wearing them so he can show them off. Like with any nerd taking care of their object of hyperfixation, it's less about the material value and more about what that object means to them, which is all certainly respectable but still makes it nearly impossible not to laugh at how deep Morihito's obsession goes.

The second half of the episode gives us one last bit of romantic escapades between Nico and Morihito, as the latter takes Nico out on a date in order to prove to the other familiar boys he can have a more successful date with a girl than they can. With how long we've been waiting to see these two go on a romantic date, this seems like a scenario that should result in ten minutes of pure fluff, and that's certainly what Nico is expecting, but if anything this short seems also entirely dedicated to demonstrating why you wouldn't want to go out with Morihito. Since it's impossible for him to be relaxed about anything, he ends up planning the date down to the minute, from train times to dinner reservations, and insists on following his ridiculous schedule to the letter, even when it's clear Nico can't keep up with it. On top of that, it quickly becomes obvious that all their date spots prioritize his own interests, with his idea of a date movie being a sad vintage film, and a relaxing cafe as one where he and the owner spend the whole time cracking in-jokes while Nico is left sitting there awkwardly. It's all as funny to watch as it is frustrating, and you really can't help but feel for Nico here when Morihito ends up being an inconsiderate date at nearly every opportunity. What ends up salvaging this trainwreck is when Morihito gets exhausted enough from his own plans to throw his schedule off the rails, and finally realizes that he perhaps didn't put enough thought into doing things that Nico would enjoy. For her part, Nico admits that she appreciated how hard Morihito was trying to show her all the things he's into, and once he lets the date slow down, the two end up enjoying a quiet moment under the stars. Sweet as the ending here is though, it also just goes to show how down bad Nico truly is as nearly anyone else would have checked out of this date well before it got that far, and it's clear our girl has the patience of a saint. While this perhaps wasn't the most romantic setup the show could have provided, the fact that Nico was able to keep up with Morihito's neurotic tendencies at all just proves how much these two were made for each other, and even if I wish these two were making faster progress in hooking up, I'm glad that the process of them getting there is still consistently funny.

Hilarious as this all was, though, having material this lighthearted for what's technically the penultimate episode of the season does leave me wondering how the anime staff plan on closing it out next week. There is a bit of a tease after the credits where the gang is preparing for a school festival while someone makes an ominous internet post about wanting to use Nico's magic for some kind of crime, but compared to addressing more of the whole Warlock threat, this seems a less exciting set up for a season finale comparatively. This show is nothing if not full of surprises though, so there's always the chance that it'll be able to squeeze some good tension out of this, and however this season chooses wraps up, I'm sure it'll be memorable.

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Witch Watch is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Sundays.

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