#MajoTabi

[my-anime-goods]

Majo no Tabitabi (The Journey of Elaina) - 1/7 Elaina: Summer Vacation ver. by FuRyu. Release: June 2025

[thefigureresource]

Elaina : Knit One-Piece ver [Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina] 1/7 scale from FuRyu coming January 2024.

✧ Preorder Here ✧

[shuubah]

"The things we think we do for the sake of others aren't always what's best for them."

"Kindness and beauty can sometimes be quite cruel."

— Elaina (Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina)

[vanitiz1]

This is Estelle of Majo No Tabitani

I like the draw and cute :)

[anianimals-moe]

Dog from Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

Today's AniAnimal is this witch's familiar dog from "Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina". 今日のアニアニマルは『魔女の旅々』に登場するこの魔女の使い魔 犬です。

[dekapm0048]

Student Elaina

The left side is Latorita State University's mage student attire from 6th volume of Wandering Witch, while the right side comes from Wandering Witch Academy (MajoTabi Gakuen).

Commissioned fanart by anonymous (Twitter).

[yume-fanfare]

too many bishoujo figurines in the majotabi tag not enough scenes of doomed love and meaningless death

[dailyfigures]

Elaina ; Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina ☆ Bell Fine

[tetrix-anime]

Majo no Tabitabi - Blu-ray/DVD Volume 2 Illustration

[healing0924]

[my-anime-goods]

Majo no Tabitabi (The Journey of Elaina) - Fairytail Parfum Collaboration featuring goods with new illustrations announced

[thefigureresource]

Elaina [Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina] 1/7 scale from Bell Fine will be re-released February 2024.

[majoelainatosaya]

Official Art of Elaina and Saya from Majo No Tabitabi

[sandyrin]

Majotabi is a gem and is already AOTY for me, bless Elaina <3

[shacklesburst]

魔女の度々

Apparently MajoTabi is not without controversy now that it’s ended. I got into it because of the SoL/cgdct angle at first, and then basically binged the whole show yesterday, so here’s my review, after a good night’s sleep, with everything still fresh in my mind.

Majo no Tabitabi (Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina) is mostly a traveling show in the sense of Kino no Tabi. “Countries” are usually depicted as wall-enclosed cities with some definitive trait going for them (like “Country of Truth Tellers”, “Country that is split in the middle by a huge wall”). For most of the show, Elaina takes her trusty broom and flies from one of these countries to the next, all the way writing about her travels. There are SoL elements in there, and the episodic construction definitely help that along, but it is not a feel-good show in the way e.g. Yuru Kyan is.

[from here on out: spoiler warning]

For the first episode though, we get treated with an origin story. Elaina’s, our protagonist’s, favorite books when she was a kid are “The Adventures of Niké”, stories written by her own mother when she was a wandering witch (this, of course, we only learn later). Her goal in life is clear: she wants to become a wandering witch just like Niké and she wants to do it now. Burying herself in her studies, she becomes a somewhat precocious child and manages to pass the Mage’s Exam at 14 (apocryphically something usually done by adults). After that, an apprenticeship with a witch is in order to become a full-fledged, card-(brooch)-carrying witch herself. After some struggles, she manages to find somebody who will help her in her goal: Fran, the Stardust Witch.

So far, so normal for an origin story. Here’s how the controversy, as I have understood it, starts. Fran’s approach to teaching seems very laid-back on the face of it, boiling down to using Elaina mainly as her maid around the house, until she breaks down frustrated that she isn’t learning anything. This, of course, is a trope in itself, whether the answer is “I wanted to see how long it took you until you broke” or “Actually, all the household chores were training”. In this case, it’s the former. Fran tries to break Elaina out of her general passivity, accepting all that is thrown at her. This is where I respectfully disagree with what most people don’t seem to like about this show: this is not a moment, afterwards entirely unrealized in the real world, in which Elaina learns not to be passive about the world around her.

This is, conversely, the moment where Elaina learns to take the reins of her own life, without regards to others. It is an individualistic message not too common in anime. She learns this lesson and then studies magic for a year under Fran, from the looks of it becoming one of the most powerful witches in the world. But during all that, she trains to become a wandering witch, not to become a wandering hero. From the get-go, her goal was never to set out and right the world of wrongs along the way, but to experience what the world has to offer regardless of what Elaina thinks might be the most moral.

And yes, she’s a bit conceited and arrogant. Big deal. Who isn’t conceited and arrogant during their teens? She’s got more going for her in this regard than most, given that her character is both beautiful and kinda OP, traits that she often expounds upon.

There’s another time-skip of a couple years, making her nearly 18 by the time she begins her journey. This is where it could’ve ended. The studio could’ve made up some countries with forgettable internals and just follow Elaina through her travels. And they certainly did that at times, with very lighthearted episodes. However, some of the episodes also contain quite dark elements. The difference in tone between episodes is often quite stark and, frankly, discombobulating, switching between yuri-bait with Saya, another apprentice and later fully-fledged witch she meets along the way, and blood-splattering killing sprees among monsters and humans.

Along the way, there’s always some kind of throwback to Niké, up to a full flashback episode about her two students, Fran and Sheila (who is Saya’s mentor). The whole show is extremely episodic in structure. Basically all plot points are resolved in a single episode, opening up the world to travel somewhere else without luggage from the past. The only overarching plot points concern characters.

The main critique I’ve made out from all this is that people see Elaina as inconsistent in her approach to problems in other countries. This is simply far from the truth. Elaina is almost too consistent in her approaches. She even spells it out more than once: “What’s in it for me?” Her priorities shift in accordance with what is most important to her at the moment. Sometimes it’s money. Sometimes it’s experience. Often enough it’s just not getting roped into things, and only the recurring characters, with which she has developed a bond beforehand, may have an influence on her internal decision process. Similarly to Main from Honzuki no Gekokokujou she’s a female character with libertarian traits and a not primarily nurturing or supportive, virtue moralistic role. It is 2020, folks.

The story is not perfect, of course. Especially the switching moods could have been addressed by a more consistent pacing, which is of course hard in a show as episodic as this. Some of the characters rely heavily on tropes to give them any semblance of personality, the shoutout to Harry Potter during the Magic Academy episode is overdone, and the parallelism between the relationships between the teachers and their students is similarly trite.

Both the OP and ED are beautiful, well-rounded and match with their songs, while the animation and backgrounds in general are clean and well executed, but nothing special. All these traits make MajoTabi a good anime. Not necessarily a great one, but an enjoyable ride nonetheless.

7/10

[nhkamira]

Majo no Tabitabi (魔女の旅々) - Review

I think no one was mentally prepared for this one.

Brief: Fascinated by the stories of Niké, a witch who traveled around the world, Elaina aspires to take the same course. Her determination of studying books and magic leads to her becoming the youngest apprentice witch to pass the sorcery exam. However, when Elaina attempts to receive training in order to become a full-fledged witch, she is rejected due to her extraordinary talents until she finds Fran, the "Stardust Witch," whom accepts her. After earning her title, the "Ashen Witch," Elaina begins her exploration around the world, visiting and facing all kinds of people and places.

When I decided to watch this one I thought it would one of those soft heart touching magic stories, simple and cute. Weeeeell surprise it was much more.

Each episode is a different story from Elaina’s journey there were some regular characters like Fran sensei, Sheila and Saya that helped create a more familiar and nice stories. But there were some others part of their own stories that were weird, scary and nice. Many things happened.

I loved it, since the beginning it was so eye catching, animation is so beautiful and pleasant. Elaina’s personality was so different from what I initially thought she wasn’t the normal mc, the other characters were so cool, like Saya, she was so weird and funny. Fran and Sheila sensei were the coolest TT

Each journey was completely unique, some were funny like the two villages that compete to see who has the best wine. Others were dark like Mirarose story, and even darker in Estelle’s case (this one was so shocking I couldn’t post much this season and yet I had to made a post about that, you can search for it on my profile). But others were frustrating and sad, like in Nino and Emil’s story.

This is definitely a must watch, hope we have more of Elaina’s journeys because I really want to see what stories and people she is going to know.

Final score: 9.5/10