Witch Hunter Robin

Director
Shuko Murase
Production
Bandai, Sunrise, TV Tokyo
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
2002

Witch Hunter Robin Volume 2

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
4th Jul 05

Whilst most of us would imagine your average witch as having green skin, a pointed nose, broomstick and black cat, most of us would be wrong as they look just like everyone else, and it’s up to Robin and her fellow witch hunters to track them down.

The four episodes on disc two follow the exact same formula as the previous ones; Investigate possible witch, find one, more investigation then a confrontation. Episode 5 “Smells like the Wandering Sprit” sees the STN-J team encounter a witch who can make others feel tremendous fear and terror, but there are no signs that the witch is using his power except for a faint smell of olives. When Robin is stranded in episode six “Raindrops” she is given a ride home by a young woman who dies a few hours later in a supposed car accident. Convincing herself that something is wrong with the woman’s death, Robin investigates but her fellow Hunters all seem to think it’s a waste of time, and are reluctant to help. In “Simple Mind” the STN-J are on the hunter again this time for a bank robber who is believed to be a witch. However, their suspect seems to be fearful of someone or something else. A doctor, who’s also a witch, begins to use his powers of transferring life from living people into sick/dead people making them better, but killing the healthy person used. The Doctor uses tramps or drunks to save the lives of the innocent, however the STN-J believe it is not up to him to decide who lives and dies and hunt him down.

Apart from some minor development of the secondary charters, there’s nothing new here. Ok so the witches being sort after are different and have different powers, but they are all approached in a way that is almost identical. There is often very little mystery in the story, and when there is, it doesn’t take a genius or a master criminologist to figure it out. Nothing more is added to the information we already have about Robin, Amon, the STN-J or the orbo. Robin has been compared favourably to the X-files or Buffy but they at least had some differences in their plots episode by episode.

Other than this, there isn’t a right lot to criticise; the animation and artwork both look good, the music fits everything nicely and the action sequences are well done. The episodes are entertaining to watch but the moment they finish it’s difficult to remember what happened as they don’t stand out from each other. Witch Hunter Robin needs to start laying down some additional plotlines or adding to ones that already exist otherwise it will not continue to be a good purchase.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English/French/German/Japanese Dub, English/French/German Sub, Charcter Bios, Clean Opening/Closing animations, TV Spots,Beez trailers.

Release information: Publisher: Beez Release Date: July 4, 2005 Classification: PG

Notes: The extras aren't great,the charcter bios are the exact same as the ones in volume one. The TV spots are the adverts used to promote Robin on Japanese TV, but are short and don't really give anything new.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 4th Jul 05

Witch Hunter Robin Images