The Good Witch of the West (Nishi no Yoki Majo - Astraea Testament)

Information of Anime

Firiel Dee is a girl raised on the countryside by her relatives.  She spent most of her life with Roux Ltskin, a student of a professor in a nearby observatory.  On her 15th birthday, she's allowed to attend any balls & is given her late mother's necklace as a memento.  At the ball, the royal family caught interest in Firiel's necklace as it belonged to the royal family Roland.  Thus, it came to the conclusion that Firiel's mother was from the Roland family & makes her a candidate to become queen in her country.  Coming back from the ball, Firiel's home is attacked & Roux goes missing after allowing her to escape.  From here, Firiel gains support from the Roland family & her training to become a candidate to become queen begins.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I have seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

The story follows Firiel's training to become a royal noble.  Her training takes her to an elegant all-girls school to ball ceremonies to travelling to other kingdoms.  Along the way Roux protects her in the shadows.  Also, he carries a dark secret as he is branded by Liamon Riez with the snake rod symbol.  Liamon is plotting to rage war on other kingdoms.

A majority of the time is Firiel being undecided on what she should do. Most of the time she wants to follow Roux because she's in love with him.  But when Adale Roland propose to her for her hand in marriage, she's gets more confused on what to do.  The purpose of the proposal is to protect Firiel from danger even though there is some love in between.  Seeing this, Roux suggests that Firiel takes the offer which frustrates her.

In the meantime, the Roland family has problems as other kingdoms are looking down on them on a event where Liamon was murdered in their kingdom.  In order to redeem their name, Adale goes to slay a dragon, which is a tradition done by most kingdoms.  As that is happening, Firiel & Eusis Roland undergo a test for being the next queen by solving a question.  This question would affect the outcome in the story.  However, the dragon slaying turns out to be tough as a lot of dragons are appearing in increasing numbers.  Roux explains that there is an invisible wall created by the Mahiru Star that is allowing the dragons to cross over. When Firiel crosses lands using the special passages of the world from the invisible wall, she learns about the other kingdoms strategies in attacking other kingdoms with the assistance of a wandering bard.  Knowing all this, the bard sends her back to Roux where the two of them confess their love to each other.

Knowing the danger involved, Firiel asks for the cooperation of the two other queen candidates in taking down the queen as the Mahiru Star causes more problems with more dragons entering the world & upsetting the world's balance with tidal waves.  As the three candidates explain to the queen about the current events, it turns out that she knew the situation already as she saw everything happen with her own eyes & decides to give up hope since the Mahiru Star can't be stopped.  However, Firiel refuses as she explains how a queen should care for her people & country.  Hearing this, the queen allows the bard to ask the sage to stop the Mahiru Star & it stopped indeed.

The show ends with Firiel returning to her simple life as a country girl & gives up the candidate position to become queen, leaving two left.  However, the selection is still undergoing.

My Personal Review

The Good Witch of the West is a bit misleading in terms of its title.  It's got nothing to do with witches & has very little magic-related to witchcraft.  The Japanese name makes more sense in terms of the word testament.   There is some magic involved, but it's not heavy on it.  It's mainly about the process of become queen with love involved & I think this show is targeted towards a female audience.

Animation

The character designs are done to make it look somewhat gorgeous.  The eyes of female characters are large & very detailed with colour.  The same applies to the young male characters as well.  They look like your shining prince in armour type of characters.  The faces are quite chubby on the girls while most of the males have long faces.  Roux looks very much like Harry Potter except he has a bad ass attitude.  As for the clothing designs, they aren't very eye-catching.  They are quite plain with hardly any details in them.  Also, I found the designs of the unicorns & dragons to be weird.  They have two legs & run like an ostrich.  Plus, they don't look too appealling.

For movements, it's quite fluid.  No choppiness or blurs hardly.  Plus, it's natural.  So, no bodies flying at super heights from normal attacks.

As for the background, it's pretty dull with light details due to the dull colour toning in the show.  They weren't breathtaking or very interesting to look at.  Plus, the castles weren't too interesting as well; especially the ballrooms.

Sound

The sound effects aren't bad.  But it had some fuzzes here & there.  I'm not too sure if it has anything to do with the source that I'm from.  It's quite fuzzy when you turn the volume up.

The seiyuus here seem to give a descent performance.  It's not great, but fair enough.  I felt it could have been more better.  Roux's voice has the cool attitude, but it's a bit too feminine for me.  Although it helped a bit in the arc where he dressed up as a girl, it kind of creeps me out.

The music doesn't much mood for the show well personally.  The classical music style was flat & didn't offer impact.  In fact, I pretty much ignore the music as I can't seem to hear it well or it goes out from the other ear.

Story

It really doesn't catch my attention.  It's written pretty well actually as there are few anime shows having this kind of plot recently.  It's a little complex in terms of plotting to rage war, but it feels dry.  It's slow & Firiel's training is too normal to watch.  It doesn't have a lot of suspense or action.  You probably need a lot of patience to watch it.

Because of its pace, the characters don't seem to develop much.  Roux is always cool,  but protective of Firiel, & Firiel is still stubborn & undecided on what she should do.  After watching ten episodes, it's still at that point as the show draws to the end.  The worse to except is having those characters get a change of heart too quickly near the end of episode 11 when they become honest to each other.  Although you could see it coming, it's too sudden.

The final battle in stopping the Mahiru Star almost turned the show into a comedy fest.  The last episode pretty much has more humour than the rest of the 12 episodes combined.  It was a complete turnaround almost.  Plus, the way the Mahiru Star was stopped seemed too simple.  The world was about to be engulfed in water when the bard just asks for the sage to stop it & it just did.  I found it hard to accept it unless it was part of the test for the queen candidates.  But, I don't think that's the case in my view.

As for the ending, it was ok.  Although it was open, I felt complete with it.  But, I felt the show took too much time to build up the story up to that point where Firiel's training seemed to be a waste of time as fillers.  She didn't build her character really.  She seems to be the same person making decisions that are the best for others.

Overall Conclusion

The Good Witch of the West isn't an exciting show to watch.  I was mislead about it's title thinking it had some magical witches, which it didn't.  It's very much on the romance side & would draw a female audience more

The Good Witch of the West gets a six out of ten.  The show is dry & doesn't offer a lot in terms of exciting plot elements or surprises.  However, there are very little anime shows these days that offer this kind of storyline.  It may be a breather from other anime storylines, but it doesn't do a good job in making it interesting.  The story drags a bit at the start & only builds it up the excitement that seems to be solved quite easily.  The ending is good, but I think the show could do a lot better if the pace was quicken a tad.