I’d say Majo to Yajuu has bubble series (or Patron Pick ballot) written all over it. It’s been an interesting opening two episodes, but nothing to really inspire commitment. There are some good things happening here, no question about it, but I’m still feeling pretty detached about what I’m seeing. There are multiple reasons for that, and it’s not as if it would have to totally reverse itself for the series to work. But there’s a hurdle here that still needs to be breached, that’s for certain.
The main thing going for Majo to Yajuu is that the premise is quite interesting, if not exactly groundbreaking. And the dynamic between the two mains is interesting on paper. In practice the picture is not so rosy, mainly because I find Guideau and her incessant tantrums to be incredibly annoying. Ashaf is better, but my vibe when watching him is that I’m watching a character model rather than an actual character. He does all the things characters of his type are expected to, says all the right things quite stylishly. But there’s nothing distinctive or personal about him – he’s just a function of the story.
He and Guideau bicker constantly – or rather, she bitches constantly about obviously being used and he verbally wags a finger at her to behave. All the piddly non-witch cases piss her off, but they seem to make up the bulk of the pair’s work for the Order. When a witch gig finally comes (in a black envelope, apparently the standard) she’s obviously thrilled. It’s a serial killing witch in a big city somewhere, where the overmatched police force is getting their asses kicked. They do have one hard-boiled police mage working for them, but Ashaf suspects the mayor is refusing to call in the “Paladin Corps” (I’m assuming some sort of magical military unit) to try and win glory by defeating the witch without them.
The atmospherics here are quite good, and the witch case – a two-parter – is certainly interesting enough. It’s an abstract sort of interest rather than actually caring all that much, though, and that has a limited half-life as a reason to follow a series. All I can do at this point is wait and see, because Majo to Yajuu is not a generic, cookie-cutter show and that in itself makes it worth an extended audition. But only the audition, not actually getting the part. That will require more than I’m getting so far.
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