Witch Hunter Robin

Original Title: ウィッチハンターロビン
Romanized: Witch Hunter Robin
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

In a world where witches abuse their supernatural powers, a special team is tasked with hunting this new threat to society. This organization is known as the STN and comprises of several highly skilled craft users and experts in covert operations. But their most powerful craft user is a young woman named Robin. Her mysterious gift to summon deadly flames will determine the fates of her colleagues and lead her into a dark world of mystique and witchcraft!

Reader Review

Rating: 2 / 5
Reviewer: Lacker
Review Date: 2004-04-07

"Ho-Hum." That's exactly what I was thinking when I was watching this anime. I had first heard a bit of hype of it through the internet, and when I got a chance to watch a few episodes with a club at my school, I jumped at the opportunity. After watching a few episodes, I found I wasn't very impressed with it. So when Cartoon Network's Adult Swim was going to be running it, I decided I'd give the show a second chance. And guess what! I'm still not impressed with it.

I'll start out my critiquing with the animation. It's decent, but it has its flaws. One of the big problems with the animation was it overuses CG. It uses CG to a point that one could say they were dependent on CG. But, I can give them some credit, as the series progressed, they seemed to use less CG. To me, the drawing part of the animation just comes off as drab. There's not much done to really make one character distinct from another and it makes remembering who's who in the show a bit tough.

Another problem with the show is that it moves at a snails' pace. The show starts out as a standard "Monster-of-the-week" show, and it gets boring quickly. Eventually, the show starts to have a slightly more intricate plot, but I'm using slightly liberally. Even when the plot picks up, nothing comes off as very cohesive.

Another problem is that the characters seem very shallow. Very little detail is ever put in to the characters, and the show suffers from that.

The dub is quite good--I'll give credit where credit is due. The actors and actresses seemed to match the tone and personalities of the characters quite well to me. I'd like to have commented on the sub, but I doubt that subtitles are going to be used anytime soon for any anime.

Overall, I'd say the show accomplishes one thing. It's a good way to kill some time. It doesn't seem to surpass the distinction of being average.

US DVD Review

The hybrid DVDs feature DTS sound and a variety of extras; production notes, liner notes, interviews with the voice actors, STNJ Files, art galleries, textless opening and endings, and more.

Content Guide

13-up.

Violence: 2 - Some guns are used in the show, but no real gore.

Nudity: 1 - Robin is sometimes seen with only a bed sheet.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - Not a thing.

Language: 1 - "Damn" may have been said a few times.

Notes and Trivia

Made by Sunrise, probably as part of their rip off Eva program which includes Betterman, The Soul Taker, and Big O. I heard somewhere that there was another series, but unless they really got off their butts and started making some ends here, I can't even imagine what might happen in it. All the nonexistent questions generated by this one were answered in this one, and (sort-of-spoiler alert) does anyone really care enough about Robin and Amon to want to see what happens to them after the series ends?

Availability

Released on six bilingual DVDs by Bandai. Also shown completely unedited on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim at midnight, Monday-Thursday.

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