"Witch Hunter Robin" (2002) TV series 2002-2003

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

16 February 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Horror | Animation

Plot:

Witches exist, and it is the mysterious organization STNJ's job to hunt them down. Robin is a recent trainee who joins up, and begins unravelling the secrets of both the witches and STNJ...

Plot Keywords:

Crush | Secret Government Organisation | Catholic Church | Crow | Evil

Cast

Akeno Watanabe	...	Robin Sena (26 episodes, 2002)
Steve Blum	...	Akio Kurosawa (26 episodes, 2002)
Paul St. Peter	...	Hiroshi Honma / ... (26 episodes, 2002)
Karen Strassman	...	Chie / ... (26 episodes, 2002)
Takuma Takewaka	...	Amon (24 episodes, 2002)
Jun Fukuyama	...	Haruto Sakaki (23 episodes, 2002)
Kaho Kôda	...	Miho Karasuma (23 episodes, 2002)
Hiro Yuuki	...	Michael Lee (16 episodes, 2002)
Kyôko Hikami	...	Yurika Dojima (15 episodes, 2002)

Country:

Japan

Language:

English | English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:PG (some episodes) | Canada:14 | USA:TV-PG | Australia:M (some episodes) | Singapore:PG

Company:

Bandai America

Trivia:

The rune that appears when Minori is making her mud dumpling is the "Ingwaz" rune. It's named after Ing, who in Norse mythology was consort to Nerthus (Mother Earth). (Episode 17: Dilemma)

Quotes:

Takuma Zaizen: [to Amon] Your emotions are getting in the way, are they?

Soundtrack:

half pain

Strange yet interesting.

Witch Hunter Robin is an interesting show which has an X Files feel to it. It focuses more on characters and investigation than it does on high concept storytelling. Though it deals with cases on an episodic level, subplots dealing with the characters continue through out the series and it's not a good idea to watch the out of sequence.

That said it has great character design and storytelling and makes good use of limited animation. Pace is a little slow and the viewer is kept at a certain distance from the story, giving it a sort of detached but suspenseful atmosphere. Like Cowboy Bebop, which comes from the same studio, WHR is more like live action shows than animated cartoons.

It's a good show, I just wonder why it seems like it never got as big here as Cowboy Bebop or Evangelion, which have become household names. This show hit the US a little too late. Now that Western Countries have become Anime Saturated, shows like this only get noticed by lucky accident (as with me) or by word of mouth. And while it has its devoted fans, I think it deserves better recognition than it has.

It may not be for everyone, but it is definitely worth checking out.