Witch Watch (ウィッチウォッチ) is a supernatural comedy based on the manga of the same name by Shinohara Kenta. The first season aired 25 episodes over the Spring and Summer of 2025.
Otogi Morihito comes from a long line of witches familiars. The Otogi family carries ogre blood within them and use their supernatural strength to protect members of the Wakatsuki clan. When they were young Morihito did everything he could to protect Wakatsuki Nico, even before he understood his familial obligations. As he enters high school he learns that Nico, who he has not seen in years, is returning and will be living with him to complete her training as a witch. Nico has incredible potential but her abilities are unrefined and potentially dangerous. She moved away at a young age to a refine her abilities and has now returned in order to grow as a magic user. Morihito's father instructs him about the situation and lets him now that it is his responsibility to act as her familiar and protect her with everything he has.
Nico has always been a bit oblivious to a lot of the thing around her and approaches to using magic. She often times uses it without understanding or thinking about the adverse reactions to the spells. Morihito has lived his life seriously and regimented and the return of his childhood friend injects a heavy dose of chaos into his otherwise organized life. While his exterior is controlled and lacking of humor, he is glad to have his old friend back, even if he has to act as her guardian and protector. Nico on the other hand is excited beyond words to be back with the person she has the strongest connection with, she only hopes that she can break through his stony demeanor and make him fall for her as much as she has fallen for him. Their time together won't be fun and games however as Nico's mother begins to send prophetic warnings to Morihito, alerting him to threats against Nico.
Right out of the gate Witch Watch sets its self up as a series that is more goofy than anything else. The interactions between Morihito and Nico are pretty much manzai skits. Look it up on Wikipedia if you're unfamiliar with the term. At almost every instance Nico's magic is the set up for a series of punchlines that deliver most of the time. Many of the episodes are split into smaller vignettes, sometimes focusing on auxiliary characters, which works well to fend of stagnation in the plot. There isn't really any over arching plot beyond wondering is Nico will ever be able to express her feelings to Morihito. They encounter conflicts randomly, sometimes spread across multiples episodes, overcome the conflicts and gather more weirdo's to their friend group.
There are small amounts of action and combat and threat, but the vast majority of the series focuses on slice of life, romance and absurd comedy. It felt weird that it got a two cour run and even weirder that it got green lit for another run in the future. By the time i wrapped up episode 25 I was eager to go through more antics with these lovable idiots...and idiots they most certainly are. The humor is continuously fresh as it doesn't rely much on jokes that have already been used. There continue to be more ridiculous ideas and situations, sometimes building on the established lore of the characters and their antics, but you really don't see anything repeated....mostly. A lot of the joy is seeing what type of stupid the characters get into through, mostly negligence, and then how it effects things around them. I ended up enjoying this way more than I expected and grew to enjoy it as it went on....with the exception of the segments showing the shonen TV series that two characters are absolutely obsessed with. Those segments put a roadblock on the fun I feel.
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