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A travelogue of tales through a richly imagined world, this series sets out with promise and flair — but its episodic structure spreads itself too thin, leaving many stories shallow and incomplete.
Story - 6/10 Numerous stories from all across the world are included in this episodic mini-story series. Stories that sometimes have a good premise, and sometimes they don’t. Although the show's storytelling quality varies greatly, I was unimpressed in many of the stories that were told in the first half — with some of them even appearing incomplete or merely straightforward and predictable.Many subjects are covered in this collection of stories, but mostly the interactions between communities and other cultures around the world — telling these tales from the perspective of a witch who wants to go to various locations across the world. Many of these stories have a slightly darker tone — not overly so, but certainly not optimistic ones. They often surprise the relationships between humans from a lot of different perspectives. Though they have great concepts occasionally and uninteresting ones at other times, the stories are generally pretty unimpressive. Almost always, whether the idea is good or awful, the execution is poor and leaves a lot to be desired — which is the plot’s biggest failure of the series.
The history is a nice part, I feel like Eleina's adventures are nicely contrasted with the history of the stories found in ‘The Adventures of Niké’ and add to the experience for some adventures. The culture is represented quite well, I didn't have many issues with how it was presented as a base, but… once you get deeper into each story some elements of those cultures fall, but that goes under the category of the narratives pacing and negligence more often than not. Although the magical realm of witches is fairly well covered, I didn't feel like it was a major plot point — in my opinion, at least some of these stories were written to appear less reliant on magic. Despite the fact that magic was used in the world, it never seemed like the main plot point.
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Knowing that this series has a good protagonist, I was initially disappointed to see that the show starts off fairly well with some endearing character development. However, after the initial introduction, we are thrust into a string of incredibly uninteresting stories, which gradually improve until the end of the season. Now… this are still not extraordinary stories, they are almost never that in depth or plot-heavy — and that’s mostly due to the episodic structure the show has. With a whole story being told across an episode, it is quite impossible to make a noteworthy narrative entry to fulfill the necessities for a good and engaging story. This is where the show fails the most, as there are some stories that work okish for the short runtime of an episode, but… there are also episodes that have promise, because they start of with a somewhat compelling idea, yet are not able to be fully realized because of the short runtime of the episode, making them feel rushed, incomplete or just unsatisfying.
That being said, the later half manages to make some stories of quality, being able to incorporate more of the characters presented in the initial episodes, and connecting them really nicely, making for a lot better of an experience. One of my favorite episodes was ‘The Two Teachers’ (Episode 10) which explored the background of two characters I found quite compelling. Following that, there was an episode that nicely developed the concept from Episode 10 with our protagonist Eleina and her friend Saya, providing a striking contrast. The main reason I enjoyed this section of the story so much was the way they were able to combine two of those mini-stories in a way that made sense and complimented one another.
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Characters - 6.8/10 In my opinion, the characters are performing better than the story at this point. The characters that surround these locations and a lot of the underlying world building and characters are primarily responsible for their ability to make such cultures appear relatively polished, which is something I enjoyed. However, in addition to the blend narrative stories, there are also some background characters from the chosen mini-stories that are just awful and make for an awkward experience in some of these stories. This is another factor that contributes to the unfavorable experience in these episodic mini-stories. Additionally, when discussing the cast, we primarily use Eleina as the focal point of a single protagonist story. Furthermore, she is a major attraction. I think she has a very self-centered personality, but at least this isn't presented in an unpleasant way; rather, it feels more like a quirk that works fairly well most of the time and occasionally contributes to some comedic moments. 
#####Then we have the three side cast members, Saya, which I really liked, a good part of that is because of her JP VA Tomoyo Kurosawa, which is one of my favorite VAs, but she also has a respectable character. She has a soft-hearted funny element to her, a personality that is really joyful and that contrast really well with Eleina’s. Then there are the two instructors, Sheila, who teaches Saya, and Fran, who teaches Eleina. They both have rather different vibes, and they remind me of Eleina and Saya's friendship. But I feel like the main cast's appeal stems primarily from how well the story connects them — they all flow together, which is nice and adds a lot to the characters. Without this connection, some of the characters would have fallen flat on their own. Don't take this to mean that they are bad… they are all good, but the narrative connection elements elevate them to become good characters, thanks to their differences in personality, age, and experience.
All that being said… there is very little character development throughout the entire series. Eleina, the main character, and the supporting cast both feel like they are good characters as a foundation, but they aren't really developed beyond that. This problem is made feasible by the amount of time spent attempting to complete those stories rather than developing these characters' potential, which I feel like is a problem that frequently arises in episodic series for this exact reason.
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Visuals - 8.5/10 The animation uses a simple foundation, but it feels really fluid and nuanced. I truly feel like they put a lot of love into it. Not only do the action scenes, the more slice-of-life bits, and the emotional ones never feel empty, but there is always something to look at, whether it's in the foreground or the background. All of the magic handling scenes look good and are incredibly detailed. Considering how many various cultures they have to display, they also do a respectable job with the cityscapes. There are moments that lack background static, including things like city ambience, room décor, and other small details, which I did notice they utilized to eliminate from the animation or more specifically the detailing.There are also notable scenes, like the fight scene from 'Elaina, the Apprentice Witch' (Episode 1) which had really good detail and smooth magic animation. And then there are scenes like the fight scene from 'The Princess Without Subjects' (Episode 4), which had a lot of different magic styles and heavy fire animation that looked incredible despite the episode's lack of narrative value. The same is true for 'The Ripper' (Episode 8), which had good animation and conveyed a good eerie vibe but was once again disrupted by the rushed feel of the episode's second half and conclusion.
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Closing Notes As previously stated, there are a number of uninteresting components, poor plots, and pacing problems that make roughly half of the story feel unpolished, while the other half feels fine, occasionally good, and occasionally even has some highlight moments. These include the first two episodes, which provide a solid introduction and solid character development, and the second half, which succeeds in good storytelling and more fluid moments while also giving beloved characters more well-earned screen time.Finally, I feel like this is a passable series overall. If a second season were to be published, I would definitely give it a try, but it is not excellent enough to convince me to read the original novel or try the manga. This series could have had much more potential if it had given more attention to the core cast, making the episodes feel more centered around them, and less episodically imposed mini-stories that had little to do with Eleina. However, given the current situation, this is merely a collection of both positive and negative experiences shuffled in a bag. Potential stories are spoiled by poor pacing, uninteresting narrative, and characters that aren't given enough attention. Fortunately, the animation is fluid and incredibly well-considered, which helped to enhance the experience and make it more pleasurable.
Enjoyment Level - 6.4/10
Favorite Character - Fran
Favorite Episode - Episode 10 ‘The Two Teachers’
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