Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina Episode 8: The Serial Slasher

In the eighth episode of Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina, the Ashen Witch teams up with the Night Witch to track down a criminal who has taken the lives of many women.

I’ll never tire of Elaina’s self-introductions

This episode is an adaptation of the thirteenth chapter from the third light novel, in which Elaina arrives in a country where Sheila, the Night Witch, is conducting an investigation into a criminal known as the Ripper. The light novel opts for “Serial Slasher”.

Sheila asks Elaina about the Ripper

In the light novel, Sheila’s title is the “Midnight Witch”, which I personally think sounds much better than just “Night Witch”. At least there’s no discrepancies with her actual name in either version, I guess.

The owner of the doll shop

With the commotion from the Serial Slasher and a witch investigating the matter, Elaina removes her brooch in the light novel. She simply doesn’t want to go through the hassle with dealing with that. Here, in the anime, Elaina simply covers the brooch with her hat. She passes herself off as a regular mage, though her method for doing so is slightly different between light novel and anime.

Elaina discovers she has fallen victim to the Ripper

Both anime and light novel mention how the Ripper takes women’s lives; in both cases this is actually an euphemism, as Elaina soon discovers. I’m sure there are some people out there who prefer short-haired Elaina, but I think she looks best with it long. Depending on what is adapted, we may see short-haired Elaina again in the future, though.

Sheila and Elaina go undercover to track down the Ripper

Sheila investigating the crime scene thoroughly is a pretty amusing scene, especially when she checks under the bed. And yes, Sheila does have something to say about how “thin” Elaina is in both versions, too. I’m sure you can actually figure out what she is alluding to.
The events at the auction house are a little different; there are still the twisted dolls, but that’s all that is said about them in the light novel. The anime obviously has to show us said “twisted dolls”.
Also, there is one specific doll that comes up that particularly interests Elaina; it is a single item in the light novel, but grouped with other dolls in the anime. Bidding actually starts before Elaina interferes, but she more or less leaps into action right away in the anime.

Saya appears again

Moving on from the auction house, this episode wraps up with another appearance from Saya; who actually has a connection to Sheila as well. There is one thing from this episode I found a little disappointing. In the light novel, Saya proves to be overwhelming for a certain person. That implication doesn’t exist at all in the anime.

Still a fun episode overall. Its always nice to see Elaina actively become involved in a story rather than just let it unfold around her.

Still crossing my fingers for the adaptation of two specific chapters from the light novels. This chapter is the second to last one in the third light novel, so its possible that we may be delving into unknown territory for me next time. That, or we’ll get an earlier chapter or something – I can’t really say.