Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches (Box Set Review)

By: EyeSpyeAlex Ever wonder what Your Name would have been like as a harem anime with more PDA? Wonder no more as I present to you Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches!PlotYamada-kun and the Seven Witches tells the story of Ryu Yamada, a high school delinquent who cares more about looking cool than passing class. His life gets turned upside down (literally) the day he falls on top of top student Urara Shiraishi and switches bodies with her. Through trial and error, the pair realize they can switch bodies by kissing, and Yamada realizes he has bigger things to worry about than cliques or classes. Shiraishi is a witch that has the ability to switch bodies with whomever she kisses, and she isn’t the only one. There are six other witches at their school, and Yamada plans to learn who the others are.Strong armed into joining the Supernatural Studies club by student council vice president Toranosuke Miyamura, Yamada and Shiraishi are also joined by school gossip and supernatural enthusiast Miyabi Ito. Together, the four begin their search for the remaining witches, which turns out to be more of an adventure than they were looking for. Students at their school operate on a quid pro quo system, and no one is better at that than student council president Haruma Yamazaki.Yamazaki manipulates the situations leading up to each discovery of a new witch until Yamada is the sole person to learn the identity of the seventh witch. Once that happens, she curses Yamada to be forgotten by all of his friends and the other witches. Yamada must then gather all of the witches together so that he may wish for his friends to remember them. He instead wishes for the witch powers to disappear from their school, setting the girls free while also granting them their memories of him.Funny and a little crude, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches is a harem anime through and through. The only downside was inconsistencies with naming the guys with powers. Yamada himself possesses the ability of copying any witch powers, while classmate Shinichi Tamaki has the power to rob witches of their power for his own use. Despite both guys having magical powers, they aren’t referred to as witches, or even warlocks. On top of that, the show mentions that the witches were each gifted their powers in times of great stress, but also that they need to pass their powers on. I’m not quite sure how they can do both, but at least Yamada took care of that inconsistency.AnimationLiden Films did a pretty excellent job adapting the characters and scenes from the manga to the screen. Each character looks pretty identical to their manga counterpart, with a little influence from other Liden works, like Miss Monochrome. The animation is bright and very fluid in terms of character movement and scene transitions.CharactersYamada-kun and the Seven Witches does a nice job of letting their characters grow and change organically. Both Yamada and Shiraishi start off very closed off and unapproachable. However, with their ability to switch bodies, the two allow themselves to be vulnerable and open up to other people. They make friends, and end up happier and better off for having met.On top of having good character growth, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches has a great cast of characters, specifically an interesting bunch of witches. On top of Shiraishi there’s Nene Odagiri, who has the ability to make those she kisses fall in love with her. There’s also Meiko Otsuka, a telepath, Maria Sarushima, who can see the future, and Noe Takigawa, who can see a traumatic memory of whomever she kisses. Rounding at the witches is Mikoto Asuka, who possessed the ability to turn invisible in front of any person she’s kissed, and Rika Saionji who can cause everyone to forget whomever she kisses. Despite varying levels of screen time, each witch manages to bring humor and depth to the show.Packaging & Bonus MaterialsThe packaging for this box set is pretty cute. The DVD and Blu-ray discs are color coded and have the characters etched onto them. The case also has a reversible slip, which includes an episode list.Cute packaging does not make up for lackluster bonus features though. According to the internet, there are two OVAs that aired the same time as this show. Neither are included in this box set release. What is included is standard across all releases: trailers for different anime, the textless opening theme, “Kuchizuke Diamond”, and closing theme, “CANDY MAGIC”.Fans looking to add Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches to their anime collection can purchase it here from Funimation.