Review contain spoiler scenes

In the Japanese popularity rating, this anime is located at the very bottom, while non-Japanese viewers call it the anime of the season. It's a common situation today, especially when a bad show gets too much attention.

A good background to start. It will be very rare later

Majo no tabitabi - stories of a traveler around the world, where all the elements are bad.

Stories are about nothing.
For example, 8 episode, it tells about a city where all residents are fanatical about dolls. No idea, no point, just a mockery of those who collect figurines. This is not the most popular genre, and instead of good stories, we get a common yuri bait (lost brooch in 2 ep, body swap in 11). But the next episode will show you slavery, child abuse, and so on.
Frivolous and serious stories have one thing in common - the world in this anime is ugly. It is inhabited by ugly people, bandits, narrow-minded kings, rapists, maniacs, lustful witches. The world is ugly, as a result, predictable and dull.
This is often compared to ideologically opposite
/anime/486/kino-no-tabi-the-beautiful-world
where the essence is spelled out in the title, The Beautiful World, the ugly world is really beautiful. In Elaine, only the heroine is beautiful, and only because she herself says so many times.

No problem if you are self-imposed. It's a problem when you have nothing else.

The author loves her very much, so she got the role of an observer from him. The ugly stupid world will never get her dirty, because she is just looking. 4 or 9 ep, where the maniac and the suffering witch fight, she is inactive.
She will act only when there is no threat for her (to drink wine). Therefore, her connection with stories is extremely minimal.

Are terrible things happening again? I’ll watch, just don’t touch me. The world does not work here, in particular magic. "Magic is not capable of everything" - says the author in an interview. But when there is a need to restore your lost beauty or fly into the past - magic can do anything. The heroine will not be able to save or find with magic a lost brooch, because author needs yuri bait, waste of potential. "I asked the animators not to draw panties in the anime, everyone should enjoy the story." But the ninth ep asks to sit next to an adult, because the story is not for everyone.

The visual work here is ambiguous. Nice design, strong (but rare) backgrounds. But subjectively - copositing is about nothing. The magical effects are terrifying, especially the ugly fire that Fire Force laughs at. And a very rare sakuga.

Sometimes the characters seem to be photoshopped against fabulous backgrounds.

Ideas and directions are quite easy to read, types of villains, cynical heroine, dolls-figures ep. Apparently, the author was very offended by the real world and is now making fun of him. But this is all very straightforward, boring, ideologically ill-considered, in an interview the author even fantasizes better.

What could be worse than badly written stories? Poorly written shock factor violence.

Make a parody world, give the heroine a beautiful appearance and send her on a journey. Thats all. No characters, no stories, no world. Unfortunately it worked for the public, and for some reason I'm not surprised.