Witch Hunter Robin

The Core The Anime Forum
1

I saw this series recently, and I was a bit dissapointed with it. The pacing was too slow, and several of the episodes had endings that just left you hanging with no resolution. Even after the big change about mid-way through the series, the episodes remained mostly episodic up until the last 4 even, and the important things revealed at the end didn’t feel like they even mattered. And throughout the series they seemed to love throwing out red herrings that were rarely even explained away.

Moving on to specific questions:
What happened to the “single eye” witch? Who was the guy they were talking about at the beginning of the episode, the one who went missing, and how was he related to the rest of the episode?
In the episode when Robin and Doujima were working at Harry’s, what was the point of that episode? The ending was anticlimactic, uninteresting, and told us nothing about what happened before relating to that specific witch or anything of relevance to the rest of the series.
The inquisitor episode: I still don’t know whether or not this whole episode was a red herring.
STN employees: I think I’m meant to believe that all hunters are either witches or have the potential to be witches. I’m not sure if this is a spoiler or not, but it seems like they merely hinted at it in the first few episodes when it is fairly relevant to the underlying plot, and even at the end never fully state whether or not it is the case.
Then, there’s the one that really gets me, starting in “Loaded Guns” Why is Solomon trying to kill Robin? At least, I think it’s Solomon. But then when they raided STN-J, they were just looking for Orbo. But later they sent 3 hunters after her, except the third one didn’t actually go after her, he just stood in the same spot and eventually Factory took him out. Can’t they make up their mind?

2

WHR looked and sounded great but had little substance… seems to be a theme in anime. Unfortunately it’s been a while since I saw it, so I don’t remember most of what you’re talking about. ^^;

3

I thought it had something going in the emotions department, a sort of sad detachment that got me interested… but then I couldn’t bear watching anymore after that episode where the kid crushes his uncle between a pair of train cars. That was a bit more than I could deal with.

4

My impression upon completing the series was that it had a ton of style but not as much substance. I’m not saying it was meaningless, I just felt that things that should have been fleshed out a little more just weren’t. It’s been a couple of years so I’d be pressed to be more specific in examples.

Man, in proofing I noticed Cid said almost the same thing initially. However, I’m not changing my wording! :slight_smile:

5

The series had so much going for it, but it just flopped. It looked relly great so I decided to atleast try to like it. But it wasnt really my style and quite boring. Like Cid I too have forgotten a few things as well

6

I’ll agree that the pacing was really slow. When I first watched this the animation style was what attracted me to it. But after a while the speech of the characters really got to me. It’s like Robin and Amon never speak in contractions, making them seem really boring. Plus the intro made it seem like they were destined to fall in love or something and nothing came of it.

Anyway, that’s my rant. Let’s see what I can do about the questions.

What happened to the “single eye” witch? Who was the guy they were talking about at the beginning of the episode, the one who went missing, and how was he related to the rest of the episode?

Could you be a little more specific about which episode this was ?

In the episode when Robin and Doujima were working at Harry’s, what was the point of that episode? The ending was anticlimactic, uninteresting, and told us nothing about what happened before relating to that specific witch or anything of relevance to the rest of the series.

[SPOILER]They were working undercover to catch a witch that had been working with the mafia/organized crime as an assassin. They ended up catching the wrong guy while the real one managed to slip into Harry’s unnoticed. He turned out to be Harry’s son and revealed the fact the Harry himself is a witch that controls water.

I’ll agree that this episode was pretty anticlimactic since this plot point is never used again.[/SPOILER]

The inquisitor episode: I still don’t know whether or not this whole episode was a red herring.

This one was about revealing that Robin was some uber witch that was only rumoured to exist. It begins the story arc where Amon disappears and Robin and Amon’s brother find out that Robin actually is an uber witch created by her father.

STN employees: I think I’m meant to believe that all hunters are either witches or have the potential to be witches. I’m not sure if this is a spoiler or not, but it seems like they merely hinted at it in the first few episodes when it is fairly relevant to the underlying plot, and even at the end never fully state whether or not it is the case.

This I’m not sure about. All of them wear Orbo necklaces, except for Robin, which would negate their powers. Unless this was STN-J’s purpose from the beginning. I don’t think it fully explains Karasuma since she has some kind of premonition ability.

Then, there’s the one that really gets me, starting in “Loaded Guns” Spoiler: Why is Solomon trying to kill Robin? At least, I think it’s Solomon. But then when they raided STN-J, they were just looking for Orbo. But later they sent 3 hunters after her, except the third one didn’t actually go after her, he just stood in the same spot and eventually Factory took him out. Can’t they make up their mind?

[SPOILER] I think it was Zaizen and his offshoot faction/the Factory that’s sending the teams after Robin. They wanted STN-J’s information on Orbo to refine their process of making their own super strong Orbo. It’s shown at the end, though you can guess it very early on, that Zaizen uses witches to make their Orbo. So that’s why the Factory went after the third hunter.

I think Solomon was sending the hunters after Robin since Zaizen doesn’t like using them. Hunters are basically witches that Solomon co-opted for their own use. By what means, I don’t know. Some are seen to use magic circles like Robin did in the beginning. I remember one about the old man who kept staring at the ground until Robin walked across one of his circles. Then he trapped her in an illusion and tried to strangle her. I think the young earth-using witch was his apprentice or something, so he uses the same methods in addition to his earth powers. [/SPOILER]

Now let me pose a question: What was the Fragment of Wisdom and waht the hell happened between Robin and Sastra?

7

It’s the one where they’re looking around the homeless people for the some witch, a random dude freaks out and runs away (and right into an oncoming truck), Amon hears a rumor about “single eye” witches or something, they go back but only catch another random decoy, and the actual witch gets away, although Robin realizes who it was later because a “single eye” witch only has one good eye, surprise surprise.

[SPOILER]They were working undercover to catch a witch that had been working with the mafia/organized crime as an assassin. They ended up catching the wrong guy while the real one managed to slip into Harry’s unnoticed. He turned out to be Harry’s son and revealed the fact the Harry himself is a witch that controls water.

I’ll agree that this episode was pretty anticlimactic since this plot point is never used again.[/SPOILER]

I don’t think they caught the wrong guy, they noticed someone else was looking for him, but they didn’t follow up on that even. Then the shop owner sends everybody home so he can talk to his son, who then dies after apologizing. So anyone, it still sucks plot-wise.

This one was about revealing that Robin was some uber witch that was only rumoured to exist. It begins the story arc where Amon disappears and Robin and Amon’s brother find out that Robin actually is an uber witch created by her father.

But they don’t even mention anything about it, just that the inquisitor was the same one who inquisted Robin. Then they bring it up once more briefly in “Loaded Guns”, while the actual story arc (which is tangled up with the other big arc) just kind of lurks around until the last couple episodes of the series.

This I’m not sure about. All of them wear Orbo necklaces, except for Robin, which would negate their powers. Unless this was STN-J’s purpose from the beginning. I don’t think it fully explains Karasuma since she has some kind of premonition ability.

Well I’m assuming that they’re all at least have witch genes, otherwise there wouldn’t be much point in Zaizen attempting to kill them all off in the last couple episodes to achieve his dream of a witch-free world.

[SPOILER] I think it was Zaizen and his offshoot faction/the Factory that’s sending the teams after Robin. They wanted STN-J’s information on Orbo to refine their process of making their own super strong Orbo. It’s shown at the end, though you can guess it very early on, that Zaizen uses witches to make their Orbo. So that’s why the Factory went after the third hunter.

I think Solomon was sending the hunters after Robin since Zaizen doesn’t like using them. Hunters are basically witches that Solomon co-opted for their own use. By what means, I don’t know. Some are seen to use magic circles like Robin did in the beginning. I remember one about the old man who kept staring at the ground until Robin walked across one of his circles. Then he trapped her in an illusion and tried to strangle her. I think the young earth-using witch was his apprentice or something, so he uses the same methods in addition to his earth powers. [/SPOILER]
Now let me pose a question: What was the Fragment of Wisdom and waht the hell happened between Robin and Sastra?

[SPOILER]Yeah, I know it was Zaizen the first time they tried to kill Robin. Him yelling at Amon for not staying out of the way kind of gave that away, although how that lead to what’s-her-name, Touka?, getting shot up, doesn’t make any sense. But as for Solomon going after Robin, if they originally sent her to get the Fragment of Wisdom, why did they try to kill her afterwards instead of having her come back or report in or whatever?

I think the deal with Sastra was that the confrontation made Robin realize that the Fragment of Wisdom wasn’t actually that charred stick, but her. Except she needed to meet the Methusalah lady to realize that.[/SPOILER]

8

Oh, right. I tyhink that was just regular witch hunt. I didn;t see any point to it either.

Touko is Zaizen’s daughter. She got killed when Solomon was hunting a witch and I think the witch didn’t go quietly. I think it might have also been Touko’s friend.

What is the deal with anti-witch bullets? They’re made to penetrate the witch’s powers but not skin?

9

I’ve been wondering that too. That would probably be what they do, because if it wasn’t, how would all the witches shot with them survive?

10

I know who Touko is, just not exactly what her name is. She didn’t get killed. She got shot up when Zaizen tried to have Robin killed in their apartment, but she lived. They stuck her in a mental hospital afterwards, but you see her alive and well (at least physically) again in like episode 20 or something.

11

I never really liked the show. I would go to sleep as soon as it came on…well, that is when it use to come on.

12

I liked the show, it was one of the best anime I enjoyed, although there were and are many more that had more substance and workability and were better. And are better than WHR. I think the problem lay in the fact that they were hoping for either a second season, or a live action movie. In fact I think it is a good idea the movie never came about, I’ve got a feeling they would have really ruined it. Sci-Fi Channel is really getting campy with their orignal movies.

13

Way to necropost.

14

STN employees: I think I’m meant to believe that all hunters are either witches or have the potential to be witches.

It’s assumed but I suppose any STN member can be witches who have been made into hunters (Craftusers), Seeds (potentials) or just plain human. Doujima and Sakaki did not display any obvious outward display of power, but one could argue that their craft is supressed by their usage of orbo. However, Karasuma is able to use her craft AND the orbo, so this may not be so.

Amon has got to be a Seed, just by the way they set up the later episodes, especially with Nagira. I can’t remember if he explicitely states that he is, but just by the way he angsts and hunts, he probably inheirited some power from his mother, or it has not come to light yet.

Plus the intro made it seem like they were destined to fall in love or something and nothing came of it

This is what was so interesting about Amon and Robin- and about the show in general. If you don’t “get” their relationship, you probably won’t get the show.

Although the show is vague, there is sufficient evidence to believe that Robin is in love with Amon. She’s at least very infatuated and obsessed with him, but in a very quiet, almost maternal way. We have no idea what Amon felt, but it’s accepted that he did care about her- whether as a little sister, a co-worker or something more. You have to pay attention to the few bits of interaction he has with other characters, on and off screen, and then sort of piece these scenes together and come up with your own conclusion. They do have an unearthly, bizarre bond that is communicated through the art, rather through the dialogue. Their ambigious ending is seen almost as if Robin is vanishing somewhere, the Eve and Mother of all witches, and taking Amon, her Adam, with her.

15

Indeed. Ziggy, don’t do that.