Once again, Flying witch excels this week. Nao steps up and become a spotlight this week, and girl was she a joy to watch! I bet many of us have experienced this cooking trouble before, and both her frustrate before the cooking class (“Nao is closed for the day”), her reason why she’s so scare to cook (mistaken vinegar for oil), and her worked-up attitude when making a hamburger, are all whimsical and speaks a lot to her character. This part stands out for me as one of the most solid sequence of Flying witch so far, shines both in its theme and in its execution. While the running joke of this part is how clumsy and awkward Nao is when it comes to cooking, it carries a much more resonant message: that despite her bad at cooking, Nao tries and eventually enjoy the whole process. The execution, true to Flying witch style, the cooking part is as realistic and down to earth as possible, without any over the top cooking moment or showing the delicious food they made. There are many standout moments like when Nao tried to cut the onions, the poor girl doesn’t even know the ingredient to make a hamburger, she cries when chop down the onion or the very moment when she cuts it, all were well timed and endearing. The bit where Nao patting the meat, getting more confident just so that it slipped and dropped to the table, then her deadpan expression: “This for you, Kei” – is just so natural and charming and basically I can’t get enough of it. The jokes on witch’s pink finger and the punch at the end are all very solid as well.
In the second part, we move from classroom to the countryside as the cast goes there to thin the apple trees. I don’t particularly enjoy this part than the first one, but there are still many nice moments out there, in particular, I enjoy the bit where Chinatsu’s dad tried to explain how to thin the trees with his thick accent, just so that Kei came up to re-explain with the exact same way (or maybe this due to the translation here), or when Akane behave exactly like herself to laugh at her sister for bumping to the trees, just so that she got it harder. The whole chemistry between the cast is just so natural and easy-going here, from a good conversation from Chinatsu to Akame, or Makoto with the local people. The cats in Flying witch sure take it easy days by days, either they lying down, sleeping, eating or just wandering around. The bees sequence is as understated as your typical Flying witch goes, but those moments creates such a strong atmosphere and once again I’m having one of the best 25 minutes to run away to.
~SuperMario~
