Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina is a twelve-episode anime adaptation of the light novel series written by Jougi Shiraishi.
The show is directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka, written by Kazuyuki Fudeyasu and the music is by AstroNoteS. C2C is the studio that produced it.
It aired during the autumn 2020 season of anime, and is available to watch on Funimation.
Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina focuses on the adventures of a witch who goes by the name of Elaina. She is also known as the Ashen Witch.
The story follows her travels from country to country, chronicling the encounters she has with all types of people.
Let’s start by focusing on the main character herself, the Ashen Witch Elaina. Elaina might be a bit divisive, particularly early on. A lot of events just kind of happen around her. What’s more, she tends to stray away from getting involved in said events.
Relatively early on, perhaps she could have changed the course of certain events had she been more willing to get involved.
This does play into a story later on in the series though, where Elaina is far more active. Can’t say that the outcome ends up favourable for her, though…
During her travels, Elaina meets all sorts of characters. There are a handful of recurring characters, arguably most notable being Saya. Not every one of Saya’s appearances has her crossing paths with Elaina, but the two do end up sharing a bond of sorts.
For the most part, the characters that Elaina meets are memorable. Maybe not always for the most noble of reasons, but not every encounter can be a wholesome one.
On that note, Wandering Witch can get very dark when it wants to. It’s bad enough that the episode in question has a content warning right at the beginning. Even then the show bares it fangs a little earlier on. Most of the stories told in this show do have a lighter tone, but those darker ones really hit hard when they come up.
It could be argued the darker episodes are included purely for shock value, but whatever the case may be, they are the more memorable ones.
For the most part, the show adapts one light novel chapter per episode. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule, where two shorter chapters are adapted into a single episode. Those are arguably the weaker episodes; the show definitely feels better when an episode focuses on a single story.
The anime adaptation is very faithful to its source material. Any changes are minor at best, without affecting the story. Though on that note, the events of episode 12 do make references to a few things that never made it into the anime adaptation. Guess light novel readers will get a tiny bit more out of that particular episode.
Overall, Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina is a super solid adaptation of the light novel series. It does have a couple of weak episodes, and Elaina’s actions (or lack thereof) towards the beginning might be frowned upon, but ultimately the good outweighs the bad.
Score: 8/10
An enjoyable adaptation of Jougi Shiraishi’s light novel series, that captures Elaina very well – for better or for worse. There’s plenty to enjoy here, though do be wary when an episode gives you a content warning.
Rory Muses 
Pretty good show that exceeded my expectations. Elaina’s a lovable narcissist and her journey was hardly ever boring. Saya’s the undisputed MVP and two main teachers were as entertaining as they were gorgeous. The “Dark Trio” episodes got increasingly more grim and 9 hit really hard, That’s not a knock against the show as it did light and dark so very well.
Fingers crossed we get an S2.