Witch Hunter Robin
Dorothy's in deep now
Review by: M.H. "I'll Get You My Pretty!" Torringjan
Length: 26 episodes
Genre: Action, mystery
Watched: 26 episodes, subbed
This series started coming out on fansubs at about the same time as Wolf's Rain, and I was already working on about two other series at the time. Needless to say, this series wasn't very high on my list of "to watch" series, due to the perception that it was just going to be a big Hellsing rip-off. After Craig watched it and tipped me off to the high quality contained in the familiar packaging, though, it turned out that I was pretty far off with that one. This series hangs with Hellsing and actually goes further in some respects than Hellsing could with its limited length.
Plot summary: STN-J is a secret division of peace-keepers that combats humans with special magical abilities, referred to as witches. The newest recruit, Robin, was sent to join their ranks due to her own witch abilities (apparently, everybody and their dog has those). After an encounter with a witch who can awaken others' witch abilities, Robin may become the target of her own friends.
Artwork: The artwork in this series is really pretty. The realism is performed very well, with somewhat blurry backgrounds and darker colors to help set the mood. The character design is realistic and done very well. The characters' appearances match their personalities very well, especially Amon, who looks like an extra from the Matrix.
Music: The music, for the most part, works pretty well. The songs that go during the peaceful parts are very reminiscent of the first Parasite Eve game, and go very well in the situation or as stand-alones. The battle music, however, seemed to be overwhelming at times, and really turned into "Generic Battle Music" (tm) after a while The opening theme is another crowd pleaser, very well-done and enjoyable enough that I didn't get tired of it after 26 episodes. It would work well on its own if I could put it on my Winamp list.
Characters: Robin Sena is the newest member of STN-J, brought in to replace the previous witch member, who disappeared some time before Robin arrived. Her ability is to start fires (and I know there's a really bad anime music video involving Prodigy in there somewhere), although she's not very proficient with it due to bad eyesight. She begins the series somewhat unsure of herself and others who work around her, and throughout, she remains soft-spoken. For an additional reference, she's what I think Emily Dickinson would be if she could use magical abilities and would leave her room for more than five minutes at a time. On a side note, she actually does weigh somewhat more 
than a duck. Amon, the highest member of STN-J is the resident badass, put in charge of training Robin. He's the most skilled hunter of the bunch and has a tendency to solve all of the mysteries about ten minutes before anyone else (us included; mind clueing us in, be-trenchcoated Sherlock?) Doujima Yurika is the daughter of a higher up in the government, and she uses the situation to her advantage to keep her job while doing nothing. Michael Lee is the hacker genius of the group and uses his skills to research and find targets. This poor dope gets relegated to the role of resident Engrish speaker of the series, and helps Robin out with her own cases. Sakaki Haruto is a younger member of STN-J's hunter squad, and often acts as a gopher, doing most of the dirty work whenever he's not injured. Karasuma Miho has the ability to read residual emotions left at a location, called scrying. She desires to become a real leader for the sake of STN-J and tends to act beyond her own abilities when Amon isn't available.
Plot: The series starts off in an extremely episodic manner while Robin becomes familiar with the group and her powers, until about episode 14, where the overarching plot begins to kick in. In a move that surprised about two people, she for some reason becomes the hunted and the entire group must fend for themselves. It's not the most original plot in the world, but the specifics of the plot are what make the story enjoyable and more than just canon fodder. The relationships between Robin and the others is developed very well, although not to the extent that they could have been. Also, even though the plot is somewhat a clone of Hellsing, this series takes what happened in Hellsing and takes it to its true conclusion and a true resolution of the story line, although a few loose threads are left at the end. The only problem with the series was that the ending left me too content, there was no real wish for additional shots of Robin; no cravings for a continuation. Pretty much everything had been done with the series that could be done, and anything longer than a three episode OVA would really do nothing to improve the series. So in that respect, maybe it's a good thing that they stopped when they did.
CHICKS!! There's about three chicks that show up with any regularity. Robin is a quiet and reticent girl, trying to figure out who she is (there certainly are a lot of girls trying to do that in anime). Although soft-spoken, she has the strength to stand up to a fight, so when she tells you to buy a gallon of milk on the way home, don't argue with her. And although she frequently ends up wearing a bulky dress that hides a fair amount of her figure and her hair is up in those little pig-tails off to the side, when she's dressed down, it's quite a sight to behold. Somebody needs to tell her that those little pig-tails went out with the 90's and that she's hot when she lets her hair down. Doujima is really frivolous at first, although her personality changes with time and with the situation. She has a great figure, but her personality seems to grate on my nerves a bit more than Robin's. Karasuma has a nice figure and is determined, but doesn't seem to be anything really special. She seems to be married to her work, so unless your ideal relationship is cooking and spending most of the time alone, then you might consider looking elsewhere. In what has come to be known as the "Ayanami Syndrome," the more reserved, aloof character is the most desirable character in a series, probably because quiet and aloof equal cute in the warped mind of a drooling anime fanboy (the full equation goes: quiet + aloof = more anime watching time and less annoying conversation for me = more cute chick).
Overall: This series was a very well-produced Hellsing clone, only missing the absurd amounts of gothic style thrown into Hellsing. It seems that where Hellsing excelled in style, this series excelled in story development. Maybe the staffs of the two series should get together and actually finish off Hellsing. Overall, the series was a good mix of action and ambiance, combining a good plot with decent artwork and coming up with something really nice. The series is definitely worth a look to anyone who liked Hellsing and wanted more supernatural killing.
In a nutshell:
+ decent artwork
+ Nice, thorough plot
+ Robin's really cute
+/- Soundtrack is a mixed bag
- Series's ending too final?
Overall grade: 8.5/10
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