Witch Watch Might Be 2025’s Comfy Rom-Com Anime

If 2024’s crop of anime was any indication, shonen fans have a growing desire to watch more romantic comedies with a supernatural spin. As if predicting the forecast, Gkids has released a theatrical cut of the first three episodes of Witch Watcha new Shonen Jump anime, weeks before it premieres on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu. Although its comedic chops may take a bit of getting used to for Western audiences, Witch Watch left a good impression for what could be the forerunner to 2025’s goofiest rom-com.

Witch Watchanimated by Bibury Animation Studios, follows the story of two childhood friends: an extremely extroverted fledgling witch named Nico, and an introverted ogre boy named Morihito. When Morihito’s father reveals that he and Nico must live alone together under the same roof to protect her from an impending calamity, Morihito jumps at the opportunity to become familiar and thwart any threats. While Morihito is on guard dog duty, treating every day as a shonen anime battle with the safety of his childhood friend at stake, Nico is living on cloud nine, viewing their uncanny situationship as the humble beginnings of their generational love story. A series of comedic misadventures ensues as the duo balances squashing supernatural events (caused mainly by Nico) in their hometown while figuring out the ebb and flow of their one-sided relationship.

Despite being the new anime on the block, Witch Watch evokes a nostalgic feeling reminiscent of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama’s early gag manga and the simmering will-they-won’t-they romance found in Urusei Yatsura creator Rumiko Takahashi’s works. Although much of Witch Watch‘s early comedic back-and-forths don’t translate as well for Western audiences because of their regional baggage, the show quickly finds its more situational humor between its leads and its wealth of referential humor to other shonen anime.

At the show’s heart is the flow of Morihito and Nico’s Manzai Style straight man and funny man dynamic. Nico has a heart of gold with a compulsion to show off her magical abilities when an opportunity presents itself to make the townspeople’s lives easier or impress Morihito. Whether saving a woman from a house fire or letting her classmates fly in the sky during her free period, Nico will pull out a spell to save the day from mundane and life-threatening situations with Morihito.

However, Nico is a klutz, so her boastful, show-off-y spells backfire more often than they succeed, leading to ridiculous situations that she inexplicably makes worse. Such “oopsie daisies” include outing herself as a witch to her class after mistakenly enlarging Morihito’s head and arm in the middle of class in an attempt to embiggen Morihito’s crumpled eraser, or splitting into four mini-versions of herself in a counter-intuitive effort to make moving boxes easier.

This in turn creates hilarious situations where Morihito has to cover for Nico by playing off Nico’s overzealous spells to the non-magic public, or straight-up saving the day from danger with his demonic powers. Meanwhile, Morihito’s role as Romeo heightens Nico’s delusions of grandeur about their budding romance, which are hilariously punctuated with reality TV-esque confessionals taking place in her imagination, where she talks up the progress in their relationship in the heat of her overzealous spells.

The other half of Witch Watch‘s winning comedic chops is its referential humor to other popular manga series. Witch Watch has the luxury of being a Shonen Jump manga series, but it doesn’t shirk from the opportunity to straight-up name-drop marquee anime titles in its punchlines. This manifests in through straight-man characters like Morihito and their closeted otaku teacher Yuri Makuwa’s punchline to sight gags where Morihito’s hair floats on end like adult Gon in Hunter x HunterNico’s anti-gravity spell making their classroom look like Demon Slayer‘s Infinity Castle, or Nico’s flight spell causing her classmates fly around like Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z. All of the above comes with the territory of being familiar with big shonen titles. So, it’ll be interesting to see if the show will include niche titles in its Rolodex of referential humor.

The theatrical premiere of Witch Watch effectively sets the stage for an anime with the potential to be 2025’s most charming and lighthearted romantic comedy. Here’s hoping Witch Watch will continue to cast its spell on anime fans when it premieres on Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Hulu on April 6.

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