It’s time to take a look at the Burn The Witch movie. The way this series came out was pretty interesting with the movie jumping you right in the middle of the setting. More than most titles I would say this one could have you scratching your head a bit if you’re not familiar with the series although I always appreciate the boldness there. With context clues you’ll be okay even if the whole thing just feels a bit random. Unfortunately the character cast is still rather weak like in the manga.

The film starts with Ninny upset about something and giving the reporters the perfect soundbite to cause more controversies. She loses them with a solar flare camera and dives into the world of monsters. See in this world there is London and then there is Reverse London which basically exists in a parallel dimension. In Reverse London there are witches everywhere and there are also dragons. So it’s generally a pretty fun place to be although its more dangerous. She works alongside her partner Noel in defeating monsters and getting points. The more points you get the more career opportunities and money you can earn. Due to events in the past they have to babysit a human named Balgo who ended up getting a pet dragon of his own and is not supposed to be going to the real world too often anymore. (He ignores that of course and ends up spreading the contamination)

The main dilemma in this film is Ninny’s old possessive teammate Macy shows up to cause some trouble. She has been raising a dragon of her own known as Elly who is one of the most powerful dragons in existence. Additionally the government has decided to murder Balgo basically because they can so the girls have to protect him while they save the world. Can they pull this off? Additionally if they succeed then there goes their paychecks since the government is certainly not going to want to pay people who have just betrayed them.

So there is a whole lot going on and the film is barely an hour. Because of that the pacing is lightning quick to be sure but at times the film can feel a little unfocused. Like it’s not really sure which plot to go with next. You’re also left with a whole lot of questions. Balgo is a normal human who is often by himself, why not pick one of the endless chances to grab him alone and murder him then? Why is he allowed to go to the human world at all when he’s on a watchlist? How weak are Bruno and the other gov execs that they have trouble against two rookie level fighters? How are they allowed to actually let a human raise a dangerous dragon in reverse London without anyone picking it up on the sensors?

I don’t feel like very much thought was put into the film’s story at all. It feels like the world building is incredibly shaky at best. Even more so once we get a certain plot twist of where the film takes place. It’s pretty much an open secret at this point since everyone knows about it but just in case I won’t say anything. The main point is that I do think the film could have tried harder to make this plot be logical. Instead it just feels like you’re supposed to watch this film half asleep.

What really hurts are the characters though because they’re generally very weak. Lets start with Balgo who is easily the worst character. He’s completely obsessed with Noel to the point where he is constantly flirting over and over again. He’s cool with her insulting him as needed and just overlooks that. Suddenly by the end it’s hinted that she actually does like him? I get the whole tsundere thing but the problem is that there is no actual reason to like Balgo. He’s always being perverted, is generally useless in a fight, and has displayed no positive qualities. How she would fall for him is a complete mystery at this point. The ending to the film is definitely brutal.

As for Noel, I suppose she’s okay but even then I wouldn’t call her a very good character. Part of the problem is that she’s your classic tough character who tends to be sarcastic and emotionless as she does her duty. To pull off that character type you need a ton of witty dialogue which she doesn’t have. Additionally she doesn’t have the raw power needed to back up her quiet confidence.

Then you have Ninny who is at least a step up. She’s very aggressive and always looking for a fight so she can get a promotion. The problem? Once again she is fairly weak and actually has to get saved by Noel a few times. I don’t know how she thinks she will be hired as one of the top fighters when she is having trouble with random monsters. That just doesn’t look like a great sales pitch on paper. At least she is a celebrity in the real world so she will always be doing fine with money but it’s hard to see her keeping up both acts. She will eventually need to choose one side most likely.

The best character by far is Billy. He’s got a lot of skill but is officially out of the game at this point so he tries to hide it. The main heroines give him a tough time but he keeps his cool and still does his best to help out. He’s a solid character through and through. His role is small but very memorable. Then you have Bruno (Is it just me or all of the guys start with the letter B? Bruno, Balgo, Billy, etc.) who is solid but a bit weaker than he should be. He’s one of the members of this big secret council and he talks an incredibly big game. Yet when the going gets tough he isn’t really able to win a single fight. Sure we know he’s stronger than Ninny and Noel but they lose him rather easily and by the time he catches up he gets wrecked by Elly.

The guy panics as if he has never been in a fight before. I’d just expect a whole lot more from him and his 180 on what to do with Balgo felt a bit cheesy. This guy doesn’t seem as determined or focused as he should be given his position. Then there’s Macy who is pretty insane. She’s cool with blowing up buildings and such to get to Ninny but she’s also completely insane since she figures this somehow won’t turn her away. Is she serious about this? It seems to me that Macy and Ninny would get along just fine if Macy wasn’t doing crazy things like this. Unfortunately these possessive type characters all seem to have a few screws loose so I wouldn’t expect her to change any time soon.

Finally there’s the dragon Elly and you actually feel bad for her here. At first she was just protecting Macy and this gradually kept on escalating since Macy would always thank Elly for the help. So to Elly there was nothing wrong with blowing everyone up. She temporarily loses control later on and the heroes all try to destroy Elly. Macy halfheartedly tries to defend her but gives up after one shot. Even once Balgo activates his bankai type ability and calms Elly down it seems like the dragon is fine but gets hit with a sneak attack. The whole thing just made Macy look worse for not being more broken up about the whole thing and the rest of the heroes don’t seem too reasonable with how they just finished it off like that.

Who knows maybe that will be a plot point for the future, we’ll have to see. The animation’s fairly decent. Not even close to some of the more high budget products but it’s okay. It definitely doesn’t feel like the true movie budget went behind this one and considering how short the film is you’d think it would be easier to make it all look great. The soundtrack is also more on the okay side. The tunes don’t really pop out at you.

Overall, Burn The Witch is an interesting film but one that needed to stay on the drawing board for a longer period of time. The characters simply aren’t that interesting and that ends up extending to the film as a whole. It’s not a bad film by any means but the fact that it’s so unfocused and messy just doesn’t help matters. There isn’t a whole lot of reason to watch this one when you can just go back to Bleach instead or watch Little Witch Academia if you want to see something higher quality on the subject. I’d say this is maybe a bit better than the Burn the Witch manga but it’s still not saying much for now. Hopefully the franchise is able to bounce back.

Overall 5/10