YMMV / Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Regarding the situations at the end of both segments of Episode 3, is Elaina a cold person that doesn't care about people dying in the slightest? Does she not intervene since she feels like the situation has already gotten helpless? Or is she running away from danger like she promised her mom to?
  • In "Retroactive Grief", did Selena truly care about Estelle as a friend? If she did, was provoking Estelle into murdering her an effect of her Sanity Slippage, or did she want her best friend to kill her all along and forget about her?
• Awesome Art: The visuals, especially the background art, are just stunning.
• Awesome Music:
  • The OP, "Literature" by Reina Ueda, is a pretty catchy song for the series that embodies its adventurous vibe.
  • The ED "Haiiro no Saga" by ChouCho qualifies too, being a more mystical song more fitting for the "mystery and wonder" aspects of Elaina's journey.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Elaina is a big one. There are many who like that she's a more self-serving, morally grey protagonist in a medium saturated with firmly good protagonists, that her status as an observer who only gets involved as she sees fit makes for a more interesting protagonist that isn't bound to clichés, and that her egotistical nature makes her more charming while not being enough to make her obnoxious. Others dislike her for many of the same reasons, pointing out that her indifference to anything that doesn't draw her interest makes her inconsistent and excessively cold at times, while her selfish and prideful nature makes it harder to like her as a character.
  • Saya. Many find her a funny comic relief character due to her comically exaggerated obsession with Elaina, while others find her an infuriating nuisance for the exact same reason.
• Cargo Ship: Pairing Elaina with her broom('s human form) is a fairly popular subject of fanart for those who have read the light novel. Given that Elaina's broom's human form is female, it's certainly Les Yay. And given that Elaina's broom shares her mistress' voice and that said human form looks identical to her mistress save for differing hair colors^note she has pink hair instead of Elaina's trademark ash-colored hair, one could be forgiven for thinking of it as selfcest instead.
• Fridge Horror:
  • "Retroactive Grief"
    • Selena's father comments on future Estelle's neckline seems out of place^note commonly when describing a person, you first comment on their facial features like hair etc. until Selena herself implies that her father is sexually abusing her and her mother beats her for it.
    • Will past Estelle try to travel back time to stop her future self from killing past Selena?
    • Did future Estelle sacrifice her memories with Selena because she knew it would be more heartbreaking if the former kills her parents to stop them from abusing Selena?
  • "Amnesia's Forgotten Homecoming"
    • Had Elaina and Avelia's plan to save Amnesia from her execution failed, what would have become of the former? Given that Elimia was conducting research into eternal youth, believed that the blood of witches was a source of everlasting youth, and had murdered the other four witches in Esto to this end, with Amnesia discovering her room of dissected witches' corpses, and given that aiding a reviled convict like Amnesia was a high crime in Esto, would Elaina have been executed, with Elimia taking and desecrating her corpse for research like she had the other witches?
    • More from Amnesia and Avelia's backstory, but the sisters are said to be very close in age—Elaina estimates that Avelia is one to two years younger than she herself is. Since Amnesia was shunned by their parents for her inability to use magic while Avelia was the favorite child, might their parents have tried for a second child after learning their first one was one of the rare few in the Holy City who couldn't use magic?
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series has had a sizable fanbase in Vietnam, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan for far longer than it's had a significant following in the West, likely because the light novels began to be localized in Mandarin and Vietnamese earlier.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In Episode 1, "Elaina, the Apprentice Witch", viewers can catch a brief glimpse of the wall where Elaina's family's photos are kept. These photos include not just Elaina, her mother, and her father, but also other figures who closely resemble her father^note brunette with a lighter shade of blue eyes than his wife and daughter's lapis lazuli eyes and are thus probably her paternal grandparents. One can be left wondering where Elaina's maternal grandparents or any relatives from that side of the family are as a result. With Volume 15, released near the end of the anime's run, it becomes clear why this is the case: Niké was an orphan of indeterminate origin who never even knew her own biological parents.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Elaina telling her mother to "look forward to the adventures of the Ashen Witch" at the end of Episode 1 sounds much funnier when one knows that her mother is not only Niké herself, but the original Ashen Witch.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Despite not being outright confirmed in the anime, Niké being Elaina's mother is quite obvious due to the various hints given over its 12-episode run. (The authors' notes from Volume 14 explicitly confirm this to be the case as well.)
  • In "Retroactive Grief", Selena being her parents' killer is quite widely known.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Quite a number of the fandom follows the series only for its dark and depressing chapters such as "Before the Snow Melts" and "Retroactive Grief".
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Sou, Watashi-desu" ("That's right, it's me")^Explanation The series' infamous catchphrase, used by Elaina when she's lavishing praise onto herself about how awesome or beautiful she is, is a popular meme in the fandom.
  • The frame of Elaina smugly saying "Feel free to praise me more" is often used as a reaction image, particularly when someone insults another in a way that the latter takes as a compliment instead.
  • Please Don't Show Any Underwear^Explanation The interview with the author Jougi Shiraishi states that he specifically requested the animation staff to avoid Fanservice scenes so that it can be enjoyed by a wide range of audience and people of all ages. At first, it's Played for Laughs as something Not Safe for Work. Then it becomes an Ironic Echo as the adaptation plays the dark chapters of the novel like "Retroactive Grief".
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • King Javalier tortured his daughter's lover to death, and forcibly aborted their baby, as an extreme Parental Marriage Veto.
  • In Revenge for Javalier's example, his daughter, Princess Mirarose, would cross this herself. Not for what she did to him, but for siccing his cursed form on their innocent kingdom, to make him feel the same loss he'd caused her.
• Shocking Moments: The entirety of "Retroactive Grief" for the anime adaptation. The fact that the production crew puts a disclaimer at the start of the episode, skipped the opening theme and a lack of Censor Shadow at Selena's decapitated head makes it the most memorable episode of the adaptation.
• Signature Scene:
  • The duel between Fran and Elaina from the very first episode, or rather the Curb-Stomp Battle in which the girl is completely overwhelmed by her teacher. Furthermore, Crunchyroll used it extensively for marketing the anime.
  • Episode 9 of of the anime adaptation, "Retroactive Grief", because of its depressing storyline.
  • For the light novel, the fandom is more divisive between "Before the Snow Melts" and "Retroactive Grief" for their dark and depressing storylines.
• Spiritual Successor: Viewers have compared and labeled Wandering Witch as a successor to Kino's Journey due to their similar premise revolving around the protagonist's involvement with assorted events during their travels.
• Squick: The scene in Episode 11 where Mina goes crazy for her sister and nearly kisses Elaina in her body.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Due to the anime adaptation removing a huge chunk of Elaina's monologues from the light novels, her tendency toward Bystander Syndrome whenever she encounters something bad makes it hard for viewers to sympathize with her. This is significantly less so in the light novels where readers have more access to Elaina's thoughts and expositions in the story explaining some of her actions (and in some cases, inaction) towards specific situations. On the other hand, given that the anime's 12-episode run didn't include any scenes of Elaina running scams or employing other underhanded means of making money like she is often depicted doing in the light novels, one could also argue that the anime adaptation softened her some compared to the original source material; Jougi Shiraishi, the series' author, has even noted that the anime didn't adapt any of the light novel chapters that display Elaina's worst personality traits, and that fans introduced to Elaina through the anime may be surprised at how underhanded she can be in the light novel.

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