Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina Episode 9: Retroactive Grief

In the ninth episode of Wandering Witch, Elaina finds herself helping another witch. This time it is the Lavender Witch Estelle, and she takes Elaina on a journey unlike any other she has been on so far.

A hungry and penniless Elaina just so happens to discover a way of making some money

You know you’re in for a dark episode when there’s a warning about the content right at the beginning. I’m quite looking forward to seeing some reactions to this particular episode; especially from people who haven’t read the light novel.
This episode adapts the eleventh chapter of the third light novel, which chronologically puts it before the previous episode. Whether the chronology is relevant or not depends entirely upon which chapters they choose to adapt for these last few episodes.

The Lavender Witch, Estelle

This episode takes a different approach to introducing the story of Second District Murderer to the light novel. In the light novel, Elaina actually sees a play about the Murderer. In the anime, it is the Lavender Witch, Estelle, who tells Elaina about it. She does allude to both the book and play, which are more prominent in the light novel.

Estelle has been preparing powerful magic for a while

We also have a minor difference between anime and light novel when Estelle activates her spell. In the light novel, Elaina and Estelle actually sit on those chairs you can see, but they just sort of stand in the anime. Kind of seems the effort of including the chairs went to waste, but again, just a minor thing.

Elaina sees something horrifying

I feel that this episode is best experienced first-hand, so I’m actually going to draw this episodic post to a close about here.
In closing, I definitely want to say that this was a powerful episode. As soon as I saw the preview images on Twitter I knew exactly what to expect, but I imagine those who didn’t read the light novel were thrown for a loop.

This was a solid choice for a chapter to adapt. I’m still holding out hope that two specific chapters also get the anime treatment, though I admit it is looking more and more unlikely.