Luna lives in the forest all alone, in a poison house shaped like a mushroom. Poison weeps from her skin, she eats poison, for God's sake, but her disgraceful state lets me relate to her in the first episode of Champignon Witch. So the fantasy shoujo series approved by Witch Hat Atelier creator Kamome Shirahama and loved by pseudonymous Honey and Clover artist Chica Umino has been taking up my time.
Luna is so sad, Shirahama comments while watching Champignon Witch, and while reading the news, I've been sad. But while I notice myself getting shorter with people, Luna never alienates herself. No matter what happens, she shuffles into town to deliver handmade medicines with Minos, a button-nosed calf who turns into a respectable cow on command, leaving poison mushrooms like cupcake sprinkles on everything she touches. She can't be touched, either – except while doing chores like shearing Merino, the bipedal sheep with wool like meringue – because she is, literally, toxic to the core. But that's part of her charm.
Even when townspeople gawk at her, the black witch enters the bookshop to buy new romance novels. Luna – an old witch with a Little Red Riding Hood face – draws romantic portraits of the people that grimace at her, whisper to each other that she's something evil. One day, she puts so much care into sketching a cute boy she notices in an alley, his soul rips through the paper and decides to hold Luna's hand for the first time in her life.
She dances with the paper boy barefoot, in the wind of the full moon sky, and the supernatural beauty of the moment reminds me of my childhood watching movies like Don Bluth's Thumbelina, or Kiki's Delivery Service from Studio Ghibli. New anime like Freiren, which mirrors Champignon Witch's eventual narrative of a lonely mage who meets an apprentice, skirts some of that childhood magic, but I don't think it ever becomes vulnerable enough to feel like a fairytale with stakes.
But Champignon Witch is fragile. Luna is poison, she licks it up and exudes it, but her heart is pure. How does a cursed girl manage to live alone in the forest with so much hope? And, I wonder, is it OK if I feel like I am this girl, except without the hope?
The more I watch Champignon Witch, the more I want to believe that, yes, it just takes some willingness to be Bella Swan. Like Twilight's self-effacing main character, Luna falls for the first porcelain boy she sees. She blushes and hides under her pointy witch hat, inflicting uncomfortable twinges on my heart as I think about my awkward middle school years. No braces, but I know I was still embarrassing.
I'm slightly more integrated with society now than I used to be, but, somehow, the world seems more threatening than it did when I was small. But I suppose if I'm going to keep living in it, like Luna, I shouldn't be so scared to feel wrong.
Champignon Witch season 1 is unfolding now through March 19 on Crunchyroll, which is where you can find a lot of the other best anime, too.
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