Witch Hunter Robin - Arrival (Vol. 1)

It's difficult to create the dark tone of an anime, without looking like its been forced. There is seriousness to the story, that's rarely seen in an animated show. In fact, it may be a small flaw, that it lacks sufficient comedy relief. The first few episodes, play like something out of early X-Files. Its important to stay tuned. As the show starts to heat up, it becomes a "must have more episodes now", by about mid-series. One word of warning, for buying later episodes, you may want to wait till they are all obtainable. You may not be able to stand the wait, for the final chapters.

On the story itself, it unfolds as characters are developed working within the context. This is not one of those series that wastes time doing mind-numbing introductions. The characters, and their roles become apparent, as the story plays out. This is the best way to learn about them, because it keeps the viewer involved, and does not pander to overly casual viewers.

The full series of Witch Hunter Robin spans 26 episodes, and does a nice job of completing the story. That is significant, as many anime designed for multiple seasons, have very poor endings. It appears this series was designed to start, and reach completion, within the 26 episodes made. I cannot speak for the dubbing, but the voice work on the Japanese track is quite excellent. Hopefully the dub will be just as good.


A Series Two Steps From Stardom   February 13, 2004
Chon-ny
16 out of 21 found this review helpful

Seems like series upon series appear on the anime landscape with the "Special Forces Hunting (Insert Evil Character Type Here)" premise. "Hellsing" and "Vampire Hunter D" specialized in vampires, "S-cry-ed" focused on mutants; "Witch Hunter Robin" makes a commendable effort to follow in the vein of these series, but falls just short.
The basic premise follows STN-J, the Japanese branch of an international witch-hunting organization; theirs is the only branch that captures, instead of kills, the witches, a point whose importance becomes more obvious as the series goes on. The group tracks X-Files-type, strange cases from the police database, and checks if any of the involved has a witch in his/her genealogical line. The group is armed with Orbo bullets and amulets, Orbo being a green liquid that somehow neutralizes witches' powers.
Enter Robin Sana, a teenager from the European sect of STN, sent as a replacement for a recently lost member of STN-J. Team members, particularly the shady leader Amon, are uneasy as Robin exhibits powerful, but raw use of witchcraft, particularly the use of fire, to control their targets.
The series is beautifully shot and animated--clean, quick, smooth animation with CGI used sparingly but effectively. Each character is portrayed well enough, with Robin's naivete and innocence captured perfectly. But looks aren't everything. The first half of the 26-episode series drags along with episode after unconnected episode of STN-J chasing down witch after witch. Few of their targets, if any, really cause problems for the team; Robin's skill, polished by Amon, is much too strong for the "criminal" witches.
Like most 26-episode series, "Witch Hunter" kicks into gear about midway, around the 13th-15th episode. The storylines from episode to episode begin to tie in to each other, and the line between villain and civilian begins to blur. STN-J begins to struggle internally, building to a climactic last few episodes that revolve heavily and importantly on Robin's past.
"Witch Hunter" finds itself just a few steps from being truly excellent; had the creators been able to sustain interest in the first half of the series as they did in the second half, it may have been so. Even the second half has a double-edged sword: most of the fun involved figuring out who's loyal to who, who's chasing who, and why...which can also be an overwhelming task.
This first volume will surprise you with its cool, depressingly gothic look, but the pace and repetitiveness hinders true enjoyment. If you have the patience to wait the series out, and if you want to collect a solid series, this one's for you. If you want a keeper that's quickly rewarding, you might want to pass.


Different Yet Good Quality Anime   September 1, 2003
David Sound (Huntington Beach, California United States)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

Witch Hunter Robin is probably one of the best Anime I've seen yet. I'm usually a tradition oldschool Anime kind of guy. I'm also a picky b*stard. I was always a Bubblegum Crisis, Dangaioh, Megazone 23 kind of guy. It was probably the great music in them. Even though the music in Anime today isn't as rememberable as some oldschool Anime, the story lines are way great. Well there are exceptions, and Witch Hunter Robin had some great music. Remember guys, Witch Hunter Robin was by the makers of Cowboy Bebop, and you probably will be expecting a lot out of it. Don't expect too much, because Cowboy Bebop was the best (1998). But still, even when my expectations were high, Witch Hunter Robin was still great and overall quality, and it deserves five stars. The dialogue and everything is detailed. Beautiful animation, Well it was made in 2002 :) If you're the type that likes to discover new Anime and like taking risks to buy Anime that you've never seen and hope to love, this is the right one. Telling you this kind of defeats the purpose of taking risks. :P Well yeah, it's awesome, again music is awesome, and characters are cool. This release is l33t!


Brilliant Series!   September 21, 2003
10 out of 12 found this review helpful

The artwork, style and characters are first-rate (not to mention a remarkable soundtrack). Its a great series, the characters are well thought out and each is different enough to add the interpersonal interest long running series need between it's characters. The first 10 episodes are not really related to the main story, they are more like separate x-files style episodes used to introduce you to all the characters before the main story kicks in around episode 10, this isn't to say the first 10 episodes aren't interesting.. they're a great deal better than your typical x-file episode (but then what isn't with the way that show went downhill).
Charles Solomon's covers the basics in his description above pretty well, if you can mentally remove the pompous remarks. Does this guy even like anime? (Check some of his other reviews on other anime series for sale at Amazon to see what I mean).