#while guideau's like 'what are you doing...'

[guideaus]

im looking at ch 55 of mty and either satake didnt care what pose he put the boy in, or he's fidgeting around like hell lol

[bition-boyz]

Hi to the few people who like my previous post a couple of days ago, it’s currently 2:57 am and I had a little idea in my head about what to write and here it is, I’m 50/50 on if this is good or not but any feedback will be appreciated, it says x reader but “reader” is never mentioned.

(I do not own the anime or any characters from The witch and the beast)

Anyways enjoy this blurb? Would you call this a blurb idk 💀💀😭

____________________________________________

Ashaf X Witch!Reader

Ashaf is a very calm and collected man. He takes pride in his level headed nature.

That is until he meets you. You, a new Witch in the Order of Magical Resonance. He finds himself unable to look away from your tall figure. He’s seen you fight during a run in during a mission and honestly he’s never seen something so graceful. He finds himself losing focus and Guideau not missing a beat ripping into him for not paying attention.

You and him have spoken on a handful of occasions and fought together on a few missions as well. he flirts with you and gets to see you become flustered before redirecting the conversation. He enjoys your reaction to his advances but begins to have doubt about you reciprocating his feelings.

You’re Gorgeous by no doubt, quiet and relatively reserved. He’d be a fool to not try but he is a gentleman and knows when to back down and he almost does until while reaching their next destination they find you waiting for them with two letters, one from The Order and another.

You hand both letters to him and your hand caressing his before walking ahead to the hotel. The black envelope from The Order is opened and handed to Guideau.

The second letter… is one giving him instructions on where to find you after dark and a lipstick kiss, your lipstick kiss at the end. Ashaf can feel a smile growing on his face. And just as he almost lost hope oh he’s excited but keeps a stoic front and follows after you to get checked in.

He watching you walk away from behind and accepts that he is absolutely entranced with you and he is unsure if it’s because you’re a witch but he is sure of one thing.

He’s looking forward to being well acquainted with you.

[444lpblue]

The Witch and the Beast - First PV Impressions

Director: Takayuki Hamana Character Design: Hiroya Iijima Animation Work: Yokohama Animation Lab

The day has come! The Witch and the Beast trailer popped out of nowhere while I was watching anime, and I had to pause to fully take in the trailer and the staff list. When I first saw Yokohama Animation Lab, I wasn't exactly happy. I have limited experience with their work, and in terms of anime studio years, I would say they're fairly new. They don't really have enough animes for me to fully grasp their style. I've only finished The Genius Prince from them and seen clips of 'The Great Cleric, which genuinely looks kind of awful, if I'm being honest. So, I was extremely anxious as soon as I saw Yokohama Animation Lab as the studio.

But the trailer footage was better than what I personally expected when I saw it. It still had some things that made me feel iffy, but there were also some genuinely good points.

I think the up-close shots look great. The facial structure and expressions match the manga extremely well, and you really feel like you're seeing the characters come to life. A lot of personality shines through in the close-up shots, from Guideau's intensity and craziness to Ashaf's enigmatic smile. The character design took me multiple rewatches to get used to, but I really did end up enjoying it a lot. I also enjoyed the music choice for the trailer.

The trailer was quite short, so we couldn't really judge the animation or talk about most things in depth, and so far I have no major complaints about it. However, I did want to talk about one thing.

I feel like some of the color choices in the trailer felt too faded or toned down, which betrays the complexity and detail of the scenes in the manga. The black and white frames in this shot feels out of place as they don't mesh well with the overall faded-out scene. I understand that they are aiming for a storybook aesthetic, but I believe they should have made these types of scenes denser in color, even vibrant, to create a contrast with the generally grim environment of all the scenes outside of them. The covers for the series serve as a good showcase of this, with vibrant scenes that are highly detailed and beautiful, complemented by dark shading.

On to the specific staff announced, for the character designs we have Hiroya Iijima, who I feel is mostly doing a good job. The faces of the characters seem to look very close to the art style of the manga. I do feel it's lacking a bit of flair that we've seen from his character designs in Afro Samurai, but I think it's still very good. I'm not extremely familiar with Takayuki Hamana and have never watched any anime he's directed, however from what I understand he tends to bring a group of animators with him, like Yuuta Kiso, who appears in a majority of his projects. I also hope he returns here, as he's a very talented animator. Now, back to Hamana. I've checked some of the openings he's done for Sorcerous Stabber Orphen in order to get a sense of his style, but none of them really impressed me all that much. I still can't get a good grasp on his style, and there's nothing indicating that he would do well in Witch and the Beast, in particular.

The most worrying part for me is likely the studio, Yokohama Animation Lab. As I've mentioned before, they haven't done much to show what they're fully capable of, and a lot of their animes currently out are rather subpar. However, this trailer does look better than a lot of the previous PVs I've seen. I am worried about how many animes they're currently working on, though.

The staff/studio worries me slightly; however, the PV, as short as it is, did look mostly positive, so I will be cautious but hopeful for this upcoming adaptation.

[katokosmos]

@witchpursued / cont.

it had been a while since misa sang for anyone one-on-one. she believed the last time she did was for... well, it didn't matter who it was last for, did it? misa had tried desperately to put the last few years of her life behind her, and in this moment with her song? she felt it slide away from her.

"well, that's my song~" she begins, knitting her hands together in her lap, "it's been a really long time since i sang that one... i almost forgot how it went. so... thanks for listening to it."

it's then she notices the lack of response from guideau, and it makes her wonder. they always had something to say, the fact that her song of all things had them at a loss for words... she almost couldn't believe it.

"aw, did you like it that much?" she questions, trying to keep her tone light. they've never really had a heart-to-heart or anything, so it leaves misa at a real loss of what else to say or do... so, she says the only other thing that comes to her mind.

"i wrote that one after i lost someone dear to me," she confesses, "i... i don't really remember writing it, but... it's like... it's been with me for a long time, you know?" she thought she knew what love was, with light, with other's after him, it's funny how... she feels like she understands that song now. even after knowing it for so long. it really does scare you, rem...

[guideaus]

what if i compared hgsn and mty

[444lpblue]

The Witch and the Beast #1 - The Witch and the City of Blazing Red

Screenplay: Yuuichirou Momose Storyboard/Episode Direction: Takayuki Hamana Chief Animation Direction: Hiroya Iijima Animation Direction: Kei Tsushima, Yuri Hashimoto, Guonian Wang, Kazuharu Tada, Miyoko Shikibu, Asuna Imahashi, Shinya Segawa (Monster AD: Shouya Gotou) Key Animation: Mana Azumaya, Noa Kawamura, Shigenori Taniguchi, Yoshihito Narimatsu, Yuki Uejou, Hiroyuki Kamura, Mitsuyo Tsuno, Kouichi Hayamizu, Kazunori Ozawa, Shouya Gotou, Yoshiko Nakamura, Studio Maf, Yuka Hayashi, Takuya Nemoto, Maru Animation, Yeong-Nam Ko, Su-Jin Oh

A bit late on this, aren't I? But no matter what, I was going to write about this, and I will write about every episode too – don't worry about it!

If you were in the know how of Yokohama Animation Lab's recent animes, much like me, you were probably very nervous about The Witch and the Beast adaptation. I mean, I made a whole write-up on the outlook, which mostly hinges on director Hamana's consistency in terms of quality and his tendency to bring in specific animators. Well, now that the episode is out, how do I actually feel?

It's… surprisingly very well done. Of course, I'm not saying it's perfect; the biggest issues are likely the limited animation and a bit of off-modelness. But I'm not going to lie, guys. Maybe I am biased because The Witch and the Beast is one of my favorite mangas, but I genuinely had a lot of fun with this debut, and I kind of loved it. It felt like it had the soul of the manga I love despite some production hiccups.

First, let's talk about what you probably felt but haven't been able to confirm. The episode was indeed better than the PV. I got a sense of this as I was watching, and I was really kind of confused about why I didn't feel like the PV looked this good. When I looked back, it was very interesting to see how many differences there were and the improvements that made the shots so much better.

The obvious improvement in the shading of Guideau and Ashaf is apparent, but I also love the addition of the impact gust that they added to Guideau's stomp. Personally, it was something I noticed in the PV as feeling a bit too still. The only effects in the PV were just simple camera shakes, which didn't really sell the impact of her stomp that much at all. Seeing improvements like these from the trailer to the actual episode fills me with a lot of hope for the production. I feel like it shows that, unlike more recent Yokohama productions, they are trying a significant amount more.

If you couldn't already tell from some of the close-ups I've provided in this post, while the on-modelness of some farther away shots can be questioned, the close-ups in this show are absolutely gorgeous. I wasn't super sold on Iijima's character designs initially, but after seeing the improved shading and the various shots they kind of hid from us in the PV, the designs are freaking gorgeous up close. The Witch and the Beast, the manga, has always been a visual spectacle that relied a lot on its art direction, aesthetics, and of course, character designs. While it's nearly impossible for the anime to match it, I think they came very close. The characters' eyes are so pretty; I love the compositing effects they applied to them. It feels like it gives them a lot of depth and kind of like an otherworldly blur, which I think looks great. The features are sharp; they're so pretty. Everyone has their premium eyelash extensions on, and it's just about as aesthetically pleasing to me as the manga. To be honest, it might be my favorite character design for the season.

And since I also briefly mentioned the compositing, I have to apologize to Natsumi Uchida. I specifically pointed her out in my social media rambles as someone who was making me worry a bit. And that mostly stems from her recent effort in The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World, which, to be frank, I thought was terrible. The effects looked cheap, just due to how bright and almost neon at times they are. They don't fit in with their environments; it just wasn't pleasant to look at. However, her work in The Witch and the Beast is so much better. While some effects are somewhat questionable, like the smoke and Ashaf's crow appearing when he was saving Guideau, I would definitely say the compositing was a highlight in this episode. It really puts a stamp on the character designs with the beautiful compositing over them. It makes every scene paired with the art direction feel so dense, like everything is just so in-depth.

The art direction in this show is probably its best visual element. It absolutely shines. I mean, if you had to pick something out from this production as a major highlight, it has to be one of the undeniable biggest pros of the show so far. The series is a dark fantasy, but it's not a dull one. A lot of adaptations, I feel, confuse this with each other a bit. A dark fantasy doesn't have to mean dull colors or a realistic design; after all, The Witch and the Beast is all about its aesthetically gothic yet fantasy appearance that is quite grandiose and beautiful in nature, and the art direction covers that perfectly. So huge credit to the art director, Hirotsugu Kakoi and his crew at Kagoshima Ramecahirim.

One of my biggest worries for the anime adaptation, when I first saw the trailer, was actually, believe it or not, kind of its color palette. I genuinely thought they didn't get a full sense of Satake's style. It felt a bit too plain to me when I always imagined the colors in the world in this series to be very solid and strong, while not bright. I think the series functions on its boldness, and the backgrounds are a perfect example of it. The opening, I think, is a great example of this too, just them surrounded by those buildings in the midst of the night feels almost overwhelmingly dense. It really serves as the main appeal in many of the show's shots and ties everything (the compositing, the character designs, and the aesthetic) all together. The buildings and architectures, a mix of 2D and 3D, blend in so perfectly. You can take so many of those shots and make them your wallpaper; honestly, it's so pretty. It's also not just the buildings; the flowers in the room where Guideau and Ione fight were stunning. I also love the visual of the flowers always fluttering up due to impact; it just created such a magical experience for me. It's such a simple addition, but it was great. That, paired with the great soundtrack which goes from almost Persona-like music to soft notes of somberness that build up to the release of a monster, just all goes together so well.

At the beginning of this write-up, I already noted its production issues in terms of sometimes limited animation and a good bit of off-modelness in farther away shots (which I hope they'll fix in the Blu-Ray). There are many instances of very solid animation, which you can just look up on Sakugabooru if you want an example. I'm very impressed by Hamana's ability to manage this level of quality and a very strong self-identity of the show's visuals.

His direction in this episode, while some people might not like it due to its reminiscent of older styles, is noteworthy. Many of his shots rely on simple zoom-ins and zoom-outs, which I would say was a more common technique around 2008 or so. His way of transitioning is also a lot less focused on smooth transitions than most styles nowadays. For example, in Ghost Hunt, Gungrave, or Library of Bantorra, the flow of the storyboard is much less smooth and flowing than modern ones. Hamana's boards feel much more jumpy, I suppose? There's a larger gap that isn't covered by anything, which seems to have given many reviewers the impression of a slideshow. Personally, I don't mind it too much, as I think he still has some pretty interesting ideas. The transitions to Guideau getting stabbed and then grabbing Ione, I thought were really well done and mesmerizing. All the choices for the fluttering flowers were probably directly from him.

And hey, normally I don't like his openings, but the opening for The Witch and the Beast is badass, and I might write an individual write-up for it this week. However, I would also love to see other storyboarders and episode directors on some episodes to compare, especially for future episodes like for Johan and Phanora. I would love to see somebody like Shinj Itadaki give it a try, who I really hope to see in this series at some point. I think it's very possible due to the fact he's worked with Hamana before, and he's worked with Yokohama Animation Lab before. Much like a lot of the key animators here, he was also on Ancient Magus Bride S2, which, if you guys didn't know for some reason, contains an oddly large amount of staff that Hamana worked with before across the years, and they're also appearing in The Witch and the Beast now.

As you can tell, I really enjoyed the debut, despite its issues. I could ramble about it all day; there are so many things I want to talk about. However, I think it would be best to save that for when we get to future episodes. In this write-up, I've already spent a lot of time discussing more of what I like about the general direction and visual appeal of the series. Hopefully, in future episodes, I will be able to go more in-depth on specific storyboards, direction, and visuals that the upcoming episodes will showcase. I'll see you guys next week for the next episode of The Witch and the Beast.

[guideaus]

i love ashaf's expression here bc throughout the series, 99% of the time he's got that kind of amiable to neutral expression, and idk how many times he's surprised (here im actually skimming thru the manga again specifically looking for scenes of guidea expressing "positive" feelings/actions), but i think here its an interesting moment of either "oh guideau's serious" or making the connection that guideau blames him when he refused to listen to her.

in contrast to chapter 3's "This is the last time i'll let you do this" with guideau threatening him, where the next page is just guideau grumpily gorging on food, presumably still being dragged around wherever, tolerating whats going on, here ashaf being in control of guideau was a mistake, leading to guideau both being unable to challenge angela to break her curse and becoming even more hurt and mocked for being powerless (and we all know power is what guideau is proud and used to having). guideau is strongly against things such as contracts and cooperating in general, most likely due to angela, and the vampire queen calls angela's curse love, while guideau clearly does not interpret it in that way. ashaf doesnt just avoid healing guideau after their battle, but he goes out of his way to weaken her without her knowledge or consent to try and limit her actions:

when caring for others should be an objectively good act, not have some other unintended consequence. Ashaf is pretty much the only person who'd call guideu a friend, and guideau until the run-in with angela accepted his behavior, but that did temporarily set back their progress in their relationship.

despite guideau's difficult behavior, ashaf does think highly of guideau and has said this multiple times

and in particular, seems to value guideau's intellect and wants to sharpen it further, trying to encourage her to learn. ashaf in response to guideau's anger, goes out of his way to suggest accepting/judging his actions intellectually. and interestingly, in the arguable follow-up to their fight, guidea asks ashaf about love and in response, he starts to do something she normally wouldnt like, and becomes pleased when guideau demonstrates to him that she understands his motives

i dont imagine guideau fully forgives ashaf for weakening her earlier, but i think that scene shows she comes close to regarding him as she did/or more, in a way. guideau also warns ashaf after not to touch her w/o warning, which i feel invites ashaf to verbally make his intentions known beforehand in the future (or maybe that's just smth i'm wishing for idk, lol). idk i just think they're neat 👍 i'd like to see their relationship develop more