User reviews

Witch Hunter Robin is an interesting show which has an X Files feel to it. It focuses more on characters and investigation than it does on high concept storytelling. Though it deals with cases on an episodic level, subplots dealing with the characters continue through out the series and it's not a good idea to watch the out of sequence.

That said it has great character design and storytelling and makes good use of limited animation. Pace is a little slow and the viewer is kept at a certain distance from the story, giving it a sort of detached but suspenseful atmosphere. Like Cowboy Bebop, which comes from the same studio, WHR is more like live action shows than animated cartoons.

It's a good show, I just wonder why it seems like it never got as big here as Cowboy Bebop or Evangelion, which have become household names. This show hit the US a little too late. Now that Western Countries have become Anime Saturated, shows like this only get noticed by lucky accident (as with me) or by word of mouth. And while it has its devoted fans, I think it deserves better recognition than it has.

It may not be for everyone, but it is definitely worth checking out.

This series is good, but considering the direction it came from, I say it was a failed project. You've got a secret commando style governmental organization like Section 9 in the Ghost in the Shell SAC series, but they fight people that discover their "witch" powers and use them for bad purposes, kinda like in Hellsing. Leave it to the Japanese to make a show about Genome X :)

Anyway, the things that made the named series good are missing or trimmed in this one. The violence is completely censored, like it was supposed to be a children's show. The content, though, with people switching sides from one organization to another, with betrayals and complex decisions, are not suited for a child. So what's with the non-violence thing? The way everything seemed to crumble beneath a gigantic gray force of state, the thing that made anyone really scared in the last episodes of Ghost in the Shell, it's present here, but also trimmed down, as if the show was made for heart patients. They start one direction and when the tension gets high enough to get interesting, the whole thing stalls. The interesting dialogs and ideas from GITS are missing, the true threats from Hellsing are not there...

In conclusion, this could have been a great, even if a clone, series, but it's not. Somehow, somebody made the decision to strip it down to a minimum. Add to it the fact that the whole series ends when things get more interesting and you have a failure. Sorry.

Those of you who like "Cowboy Bebop" are sure to be pleased with "Witch Hunter Robin". I do believe that the same people who did "CB" also did "WHR". The animation is absolutely wonderful! It's dark, but nothing too graphic. The character designs are skillfully drawn and their scripts are written so well that it pulls the viewer into their world so we can't escape! The plot has depth and continues moving throughout all twenty-six episodes. The series does leave you hanging till the very end and even then there are still some questions, but all in all, it is a defenite show to see! The art is gorgeous and the story is great! If anything, see it once on television. I highly recommend it!

Boring and slow series with horrible pacing.

Characters don't seem to have a clue about anything, nobody's given proper motivation for doing anything and the scary Solomon organization seems to be more disorganized than kindergarten aged children's "My Little Pony" fan club. The main character seems like a melodramatic parrot, whose only offering to any conversation is repeating the last word from previous speakers sentence.

For some reason the music is happy j-pop instead of darker, more heavy metal/rock/classical which would have fitted the series better. Art and characters look pretty, but animation is actually quite lazy, with the characters just mostly sitting or standing around and maybe moving their heads a little bit.

There is no atmosphere of mystery, oppression or horror, just boredom.

The first 2 episodes are a bit slow as it creates the atmosphere and introduces the fine cast of characters. Stay with it and you will be rewarded. However, this is not intended to be an action show, nor will you find any "fan service". The animation is 2D, but gives the look of a night-time TV crime drama. For its genre, this is a fine, memorable show. It would be great if they remade it as a live-action series or movie.

The first half of the series focuses on investigations of "abnormal" crimes and the capture of "witches", people who have developed powers. Some of the people who hunt these witches also have powers but are labeled "craft users". You are either a hunter or the hunted. The hypocrisy is obvious.

The second half of the series focuses less on "captures" and more on investigating and revealing secrets about Robin and the agencies. Conflict develops between the agencies.

It has a good ending and leaves me wanting more.

"Witch Hunter: Robin" starts slowly as what seems to be a fairly unimportant Blade-ripoff and at first I thought I had wasted my money by buying all 26 episodes, but once I got to having seen a dozen episodes I slowly emerged into an intrigue that pulled me further and further into the story.

Labeled at Wikipedia as an "occult detective story", "Witch Hunter: Robin" is a thriller that gives you a believable world set in near future Japan where the Witch Hunts of the old days have continued up to the present by covert organizations. Our main character is a cute 15-year-old girl in a gorgeous dress with dormant magic power who joins such an organisation but ends up in the most dangerous and confusing situations as a consequence of it. The story is impelling, combination of CGI and hand drawn graphics works well and the film noir atmosphere at times is genuinely creepy while maintaining a sense of realism to it. There are few series I've ever seen that I find this enjoyable to watch and I therefor recommend everyone who's seen the first few episodes and got a little bored to at least continue watching until 15 because once they pass the first 12 episodes, the story should just suck you right in....

Sometimes it's nice to watch a show I don't have to fix too much on it has that slowed him like I don't have to watch it like. Focus I can take my Focus somewhere else and then I can't go back when it is interesting.

And it almost has a police procedure vibe in the beginning, so it's very predictable which gives it a nice you know I can just look at it when I want in the first 10 episode but then stuff happens and then it's like oh now I have you know to look at the scream and it is interesting even if I don't care too much about the characters. They are good enough and I would be sad if they were gone but they feel like they are Surfer they do that job. They're not the deepest.

I also like the witches they feel more like psychics when it comes to their ability, but it is very nice to see them fight and use them sadly. It doesn't go too much in creativity so the fight gets release repetitive after Wild but it is relaxing to watch.

But I do not want to be a jackass, so I really like the music. It has some nice atmosphere to it and I enjoyed early 2000 computer paint to colorize the character so now everything is a bit gray. It has a vibe all to it its own.

And the show is willing to just go through dialogue with out too many hands up. It's like oh you didn't Focus on a conversation. Plot is not going to go up again. It doesn't hold your hand, it is kind of nice.

And when the plot gets growing halfway through you do care you do care even if you're happy mostly on in the background. You just like oh, I can't beat about it now and it actually interesting what they do with the plot and the plot twist so I would recommend this show if you want a slow burn kind of show.

This is a great and intense show!! I do have to say it was a bit slow in the beginning, but it picked up very quickly. Many don't like this show because the don't understand the plot since it is complex, but the story is good. The music is one of the greatest contributions to this show. The opening and ending theme are very catchy, and the music during the actual show is great too. My favorite part of this show is the complex storyline. Some other nice things about this anime is the action and conflict distributed between the characters. Another cool thing about this anime is that everything connects. Any die-hard anime fan will want to check this one out.

Some people complained about the censur of the violence, but, even though it perhaps a bit uncalled for, it doesn't bother me.

I do believe that the lack of violence was an idea to try something new, and perhaps move the focus away from the violence. Most animes are rather bloody and gory, so I think it's kind of cool when they try to be different.

I have to confess that I really like this anime, so that might be the reason that I'm more than happy to defend it, but still, violence isn't something necessary to make a good anime. Some of the censur where a bit uncalled for, I agree, but it didn't bother me all that much. And besides, they made quite a good job visually while censuring it.

Over all, I must say that it's an excellent anime, I love it! ^^

This anime is a serious anime. You don't have the off-the-wall characters reacting in extremes. Except for Robin, even the hairstyles are realistic and average. The clothing is modest. The characters act human and mature. The humor is subdued and infrequent. I appreciated the maturity of the show.

This anime is also a dark anime. Most of the time you are indoors or in a dark city atmosphere. However I did feel the art was well-done. There is a somberness in both the environment and the characters. Characters cry but rarely laugh. You see some anger, fear, and insanity in side characters. The leads seem to try to hide their emotions or simply are not very emotional at all.

The situations you see involve law-force-like action, investigation, office work environments, and supernatural powers.

The storyline is mildly interesting. The first half doesn't build much on the story, but the second half is more dynamic and leads up to the point of the series.

Honestly, I didn't get much from this anime so far as making me think, sending a message, or even evoking emotions. Because of this, I do not consider watching this anime worth it. Two points in the story did touch me - One involved a mother and her lost child. The other involved a scene with the heroine when she entered a well.

There is a theme of hidden intentions, bureaucracy, and knowing what is right and who to trust. And perhaps a theme of loyalty to friendship. But there is nothing striking or eye-opening in the way these themes were presented, at least not to me.

when i watched this show i was immersed in a sophisticated storyline with great artwork and awesome characters. i totally recommend this show. this show gives a sort of humane drama which makes it entertaining to watch. The characters are the most humane characters i have ever seen in anime with real emotions. nothing too dramatized. The twists in the storyline are shocking which get you thinking. everything in there seems connected . the beginning and ending themes are very nice even though they are in Japanese. Witch hunter robin makes you actually believe the storyline. it is a melting pot horror, science-fiction, humane drama, and a tinge of violence to make the perfect anime series. Overall, Witch Hunter Robin is a must see and a great series.

I can't believe that some people actually liked this show. Halfway through I felt robbed of both time and life energy. Everything was cheap. There was nothing special with the story whatever people say. It has been made over a thousand times before and it will sadly be made over a thousand times again. The characters that made the show so "fantastic" were weak. WEAK!! Weak and f#¤%&$g pathetic! The only reason why I watched all 26 episodes of this anime was because of some idiots reviews that tricked me into believing that the end would be something to remember, but the anti-climatic end couldn't even give me that. This show starts slow and ends painfully slow. So people, do yourself a favor and don't watch this show.

I've only seen about half the series so far because there is annoyingly little anime airing in the UK currently, DVD being the most accessible media for it.

What I've seen, I like. WHR is a dark and atmospheric series. A nice simple idea, a sort of modern inquisition hunts the supernatural "bad guys" with some very dirty grey morality underpinning the story (Are there really any "good guys"?) It's got a quite a few of the usual anime themes and devices, but has a wonderfully subdued and underplayed pace to it.

A welcome change!

I actually took the time to submit this series to IMDB.. though in retrospect I'm not sure why.

I sat through all 26 Episodes as they aired on the cartoon network, and barring some major stuff being edited out, this series suffers from some terrible pacing. The episodes aren't that hard to follow, even though the dialog is pretty darn weak at times, but it builds very little tension, and my interest in the charachters *which there really seemed to be a bit to many of* wasn't that high.

There were a couple of standout episodes, the one with the Shootout and Escape in the STNJ actually gave Robin and Amon some slight chemistry and also exhibited some good overall story and suspense. However episodes like that seemed few and far between.

While I don't think Witch Hunter Robin is a total waste of time, I wouldn't put it up in my must see category. More of the.. if its on I might watch it if nothing else holds my interest.

4 out of 10 bleh

Despite the monotony of the first couple of episodes ( the first 7 episodes are about capture and action without any depth) this has been remarkably refreshing.

Each and every character is created with some reality and several of the most well written mysterious characters are all bunched into this show of excitement, fact, fiction and a tremendous amount of action.

Just to name two...

Robin: Named after the king of witches must be the least annoying heroines/heroes of the anime lot and with her supposed innocence it is hard to believe she in caught up in such devious acts.

Amon: Even though nothing is remotely known about him and his actions are hard to determine he is the ideal cool punk guy, which makes you wishing for the next episode.

Yes, yes this is about witches and hunters but the cliché exterior fools many. The twists turns and unexplainable reasoning in this series makes you wanting more. 8/10

Witch Hunter Robin is one of the worst Anime titles I have ever had the agony of sitting through. I watched the English version on Cartoon Network. Of multiple weak points, the worst must be the storyline. Beginning with a dull introduction of the characters in a string of generic action 'witch hunts' the series gets of to a horrendously slow start. I found myself waiting 20 minutes through the shallow development of pseudo-detective work, and clichéd and cryptic dialogue leading up to only 5 minutes of mediocre action. Most of the story development happens in the last 3 episodes and even this development is far too shallow and predictable to serve as a reward for watching the entire series. The show uses an unacceptably high amount of stills, composed of 'Cowboy Bebop' style drawings and effects. These would be quite nice, if only they were not presented in such a static and non-stimulating manner. The characters mostly conform to the normal Anime stereotypes: The quiet heroine with a hidden past, the stoic fighter dude, the angry boss, the bad guy with a master plan. it goes on. To top it all off, the series soundtrack suffers from a serious lack of diversity. It consists of probably 3 main themes, the first of which you will know off-by-heart by the middle of the second episode. It seems to me that in Witch Hunter Robin, some well learned Anime techniques from previous titles fell into some very bad hands and were misused to create this muted, repressed, and wholly dull series.