WITCH WATCH‘s blend of comedy and magical shenanigans has made it a fan favorite, and at Anime Expo 2025, a special panel featuring the director of the anime, Hiroshi Ikehata as well as some main members of the dub staff like Lily Pichu (Nico), Stephen Fu (Morihito), and Caleb Yen (Kanashi), took a look at why. While there was some voice acting fun involving the dub cast, like a live reading and some questions regarding what the cast thought about their characters, the main meat of the panel revolved around the elements of the production. As Ikehata explained when setting the tone for discussions, “you can’t just slap images on the screen and call it an anime.”
This was best exemplified right at the beginning of the show, where the viewer is first introduced to Morihito. In the original manga, this is boiled down to most of a page prioritizing his profile after he turns around to confront some people. There is a sense of presence there that is built up in the panel layout. Ikehata explains that they wanted to go for a similar impact using actual movement. They played the animation itself where we get to see the gradual build up to Morihito revealing himself to a bunch of side characters. Even the smallest things we take for granted need to be portrayed and built up properly.
Ikehata presented some animation cells and behind-the-scenes production of specific scenes from the anime in order to explain what it was like, getting into some of the more creative setups and punchlines of the show. The main scene they showcased was from episode seven, which seemed to be a particular favorite. In that episode, Nico is trying to make it as a Let’s Play, so the animation staff had to get creative with setting up a proper game that looked like it could exist today. There were a lot of modern sensibilities taken into account when it comes to comedy, even though a good chunk of the back-and-forth between some of the characters was inspired by Manzai performances to communicate the jokes’ tempo.
The director and staff wanted to make sure the comedy could be understood by people of multiple ages, so they needed to make sure that the overall aesthetic of this joke in particular landed. So they did their best to make the game that Nico is playing as amateur looking as possible with some bright, over the top blood and really bad CGI. That was just one of many examples where the show runners went above and beyond for the sake of matching the absurdity of the show. They even went so far as to make a fake anime opening to match a dumb in-universe show for an upcoming episode.
The panel ended with the director and the cast talking about how much they related to the show’s themes of community and found family. Family isn’t always something you get to choose, but your friends are. It’s important to keep those people close and despite the headaches they might cause you, you know you’ll always be there for them. Witch Watch might be a comedy, but it still managed to land these tender moments and it’s nice to know that the people working on the show feel just as strongly about it as its fans.