Witch Hunter Robin

                              Robin Sena, Hunter of Witches

Sunrise Inc. began production of this 26 episode series in 2002. The central plot revolves around Robin Sena, one of many representatives of the STN-J, the Japanese branch of the Solomon Executive Organization which regulates the use of witches' powers in Japan. Robin and her various teammates are dispatched to locate and prevent the use and abuse of powers by witches throughout the series, and it's revealed that all the members of STN-J have the power of witchcraft at their disposal, obtained by either genetic enhancement, or by hereditary genetics. It takes a witch to kill a witch, apparently. To keep the diversity, each member of STN-J has a power that focuses on a particular strength, so no two witches are alike even if they have a similar power. The most interesting spin that they put on the story is that Robin Sena can't control her witch powers yet, which are extremely powerful and potentially more dangerous than any of the witches they hunt down throughout the series, marking her as a top priority enemy to Soloman. I suppose keeping her under the very close, watchful eyes of the STN-J is a smart move on Solomon's part. Naturally, the other STN-J operatives all act like weirdos about it.

                             Note to self: Witches ARE weirdos.

I felt that the series was overall extremely well done. The artwork is quite lovely, and the artists did a wonderful job of using shading for maximum effect in this dark story. It is a drama series, so if you feel like you are in the mood for an action anime, this series does have some of it, but it's relatively short-lived each episode and there are quite a few scenes of backstory between each action sequence while the story tries to catch up. There is little to no comedy contained within the story. Witch Hunter Robin carries the heavy theme throughout the series that the STN-J carries out their duties for the betterment of mankind by exterminating threats to the public (in this particular case, witches that cannot control their powers). My initial impression was a little on the "Uh... what just happened?" side, but once I began to think more about it when I completed watching the series, it hit me rather hard; Witch Hunter Robin isn't one of those in-your-face anime that never give you a chance to stop and ask questions through all the battles. Rather, the entire series is a question - is it correct for the government to condemn a certain type of person for something like supernatural powers when, in fact, the government is hiring those very same types of people to dispose of them? Did the Solomon Executive Organization ever stop to consider the feelings of the witches who are used to kill their own kind? I like to watch anime that cause you to question morals.

The soundtrack to the series is one factor that really caused me to start watching. I love it. The opening theme song gets stuck in my head at least twice a week, and every time I hum it to myself I want to watch the series again. But then again, so little time, so many anime...

You can learn more about Witch Hunter Robin here.