Wandering Witch is a story about finding purpose through experiences and trying to move above and beyond them in order to approach them in the best way possible, only to struggle and keep failing, only to keep doing them over and over again. Its clear source of inspiration - as well as the most apt series to compare it to - is Kino's Journey, but whereas Kino is mostly stationary in her approach towards the various people and locations she encounters, Elaina attempts to react on a case by case basis. In many ways, this makes Elaina reactionary, and this sets the tone for the series' main focus; on whether the cycle of fate can be overturned through her own hands, or whether she can't, with the answer the series provides being mixed, but leaning towards the former - albeit with a particular nuance.

It's impossible to separate Wandering Witch from Elaina as a character, with her adventures being front and center for all but one episode of this series. Elaina is a haughty, arrogant, exceptionally talented witch and yet this betrays an otherwise lonely, pessimistic young woman who due to her many failures constantly fails in rescuing people she otherwise could have had a chance to save. As a result, her arrogance over her beauty or talents come off as less of her being genuinely narcissistic but rather as a coping mechanism towards herself. Her reactions to the various stories covered in the series as a result vary, as despite her best intentions she bares witness to many a tragedy that she feels she couldn't have done anything about - one tragedy in particular sticks out with the aforementioned nuance, as a man essentially tries to cheer up a slave who's being abused by her master by showing her images of people living happy, free lives. However, this ultimately proves to be her undoing instead, as by showing her the lives of people being happy, he's essentially doomed her to an unhappy end where she will ultimately languish in despair then kill herself. Episode 9 is another case where things fall to hell, as Elaina desperately tries to assist someone in overcoming her destiny but ultimately fails and watches a tragedy unfold before her eyes.

The core message across many of the series' darker episodes being that Elaina can't stop these tragedies from happening, because the seeds to these tragedies happening have already been buried, waiting to grow by the time she's stumbled across them, so it is only natural she'd fail. The moral this series proposes - and this is especially evident once one contrasts the darker, more infamous episodes this series has gained a reputation for against the otherwise often lighthearted tone in the series - is that the intent behind solving problems does nothing if the underlying cause behind said problems still exist. Elaina's character arc, as a result, is her trying different approaches to different problems and slowly but surely progressing as a character and changing her approaches due to her experiences. This comes to head in an amazing finale, where she comes across what she could have been had she chosen to do things differently, and accepting that ultimately, she is painfully flawed, but will not stop romantically exploring the world - beyond that ugliness, there's too much beauty for her not to find something to explore. In a strange way, instead of being a more direct coming of age story, the series promotes continuing to romanticize and explore the world, but if and only if your approach changes alongside it, which various characters over the course of the series failed to do.

The side cast in this respect exist to act as a form of connection that Elaina has to the world around her, and a constant reminder - over and over again - that she has a place to belong, irrespective of where she goes or what she experiences. Saya's love for Elaina (that's heavily implied to be mutual in a later episode) is comically over the top, and yet there's a scene where Saya gives Elaina a necklace, reminding her of her connection to her. Elaina tries to leave a city after stumbling across an acquaintance, only to then be reminded on the way out that said acquaintance knows she'd do this kind of thing, has waited for her in advance and proceeds to see her off on her journey. The side cast are a fun bunch whose dynamics with Elaina and each other are reasonably fleshed out, with a particular should needing to go to Saya as well as Nike's trio, whose book about their travels is an inspiration for Elaina to travel herself, is another subconscious connection between her and another character. It's these connections that give Elaina the power to continue on, and much of the criticism involving lighthearted episodes being in-between the darker, more cruel episodes in the series often tend to miss the point the series is aiming for about emphasizing the connection that Elaina has, that no matter how hard she tries to fight things alone it's her connection to others that acts as a source of salvation, culminating in a fantastic climax at the end of the show.

Production values are excellent all around - everything from animation quality to voicework to sound design and direction is superbly done, with my only gripe being that comedic scenes sometimes feel stretched out longer than they should've been and, if watched from the perspective of someone who'd prefer a show with a more singular tone, can cause mood whiplash. However, these are minor gripes for what is otherwise easily one of the best anime to come out this year, and for anyone willing to accept this series for what it is, I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Thank you very much for reading my review, any and all feedback would be appreciated.