_Burn The Witch_
In the criminal justice system, cases involving dragons are considered to be especially troubling. The dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as Wing Bind. These are their stories.
You can watch this on Crunchyroll.
(For some reason, it is listed everywhere as a "movie", but consists of three 21 minute episodes.)
Fairy tales are such bullshit.
So says our protagonist, right before she's mobbed by the paparazzi. She ignores them for a few moments, then dodges around a corner and uses a magic coin to open a glowing portal between the street cobbles.
If magic only works on fools, I'd rather be the one casting the spell.
Ninny Spangcole it the senior witch of this duo, and she arrives just in time to rescue her junior, who is trying to capture a buck with wings.
Noel Niihashi is the junior witch.
Did you know that 72% of the deaths in London are caused by dragons?
They're invisible to normies, of course. Only the denizens of Reverse London can see them.
Our girls turn in their quarry for cash and achievement points.
Balgo is a dragonclad, one of the few humana authorized to make contact with dragon.
His dragon, Osushi, looks like a fluffy little dog when its wings are retracted.
He's currently being dragged through the air by the leash. Our girls go to rescue him before he hurts someone.
Or touches them. Unauthorized dragon contact is punishable by 100 years in prison.
Now, why did Osushi extend his wings in the first place? Because Balgo is in danger. As a dragonclad, he attracts aggressive dragons, and there's a big one here right now.
They try to stun it, but instead its face falls off (eew) and it transforms into a Dark Dragon. The whole area goes on lockdown.
Now our girls are members of the Piper squad, and they should be calling in the Sabers to clean up. But Ninny want to get some personal glory.
Meanwhile, the Powers That Be are quite upset. It's been almost a century since there's been a dark dragon in London.
Balgo has caused several incidents in the last month since he became a dragonclad. He's too much trouble.
The set him up to be eliminated.
What is she even doing in Reverse London anyway?
Bruno Bagnyfe, is some kind of wetworks operator. He brought Marcy to Reverse London and is going to use the havoc wrought by her dragon as a screen to capture Balgo. Then kill him once the reward money is offered.
He didn't give Marcy the dragon though. She found it in Front London. She's just one of those rare, naturally gifted people with a lot of man's: a Watcher.
The girls grab Marcy and Balgo and hightail it out of there.
It doesn't take long before Bruno tracks them down.
But things do not go as Bruno planned.
Marcy's Dragon, Elly, has been following them. And she arrives, planning to defend Marcy. But what happens is, when exposed to the moonlight, she molts, and takes on a new form.
Elly is one of the Märchen, ancient dragons from folktales.
No, that's cool, but you know what's not cool? This variety of dragon sheds explosive dandruff. A dozen nearby buildings catch on fire and everyone suddenly has a new priority.
Bruno, Ninny, and Noel put aside their differences and work to seal it inside a magic jail.
The hope is that it will destroy itself when the power reflects back on it.
This does not work. It's immune to its own explosions.
Perhaps Marcy can talk it down? She did raise it, after all.
Bad news: wild animals are never really tamed.
Just when it looks impossible, the problem is solved by deus ex machina.
(The boss kills the Märchen by magic sniper shot.)
Bruno gets the credit. The kill order is taken off of Balgo. Marcy is registered as dragonclad and taken under protective custody by our girls.
The end, with a side implication of the possibility of a sequel and a zany last minute implying shenanigans every after.
That's the show.
So what's my takeaway?
Well, it's a lot better than many shows with a three episode run.
There's a lot of fun in the designs, which seem like they were made by saying <make it look nothing like any other magical setting.>
The witch uniform is a plaid cape. They fly on mini-dragons, not brooms. They cast with things that are half horn, half gun.
It's a very unusual design schema.
I don't know if the worldbuilding sticks though.
Contact with a dragon, even accidental contact, is punishable by 100 years in jail or execution... except for any named character, who can have a pet dragon or trained riding dragon without incident.
If the boss can snipe a legendary dragon without incident, why is he a mid-level bureaucrat and not on the Major Case anti-dragon SWAT team?
Bruno want to prove himself, but he's already on the high council or whatever. So why hasn't he proven himself already?
There's a lot of arbitrary stuff like that.
None of it distracts from the fun though, just... don't go in expecting to get invested in the worldbuilding.
It's definitely a fun hour and change.
I appreciated the fact that once the big dragon appeared, everyone was immediately willing to drop their existing concerns and work together for the greater good.
(Usually they have to have a battle first, then join forces.)
Basic research shows that this is an adaptation of a manga that only came out in 2018. I wonder if this is literally all there is?
Letting it ripen a few more yours could have gotten us a longer series, but is that what we actually want?
Another unusual choice: witches with smartphones.
So many Urban Fantasy settings force wizards to work like it' still the 1300s. Glad to see some modern witches.
This is written by the author of _Bleach_, and may be set in the same universe.
I think you should approach _Burn The Witch_ the same way you approach _Bubblegum Crisis_: watch it for the aesthetics and just enjoy the ride.
Now, Ninny's cover job in Front London is some kind of idol. Macy Baljure just left her group, and the tabloids have written some kind of garbage article trying to drive them apart.
When our girls track down an illegal dragon breeder, Ninny is shocked to discover that it's Macy.