We find ourselves in a not too distant future, maybe 2015, in Japan. A secret government organization named Solomon (precisely “Solomon Toukatsu Nin’idantai” – something like “Solomon Executive Organization”) was created to fight the harmful use of Witchcraft all over Japan. As such, the branch the show focuses on, is the STN-J. Their goal is to arrest or eliminate witches who, for some reason, have a gene referred to as “Seeds”. These “Seeds” make it possible to use witchcraft in some shape or form – and STN-J tries to prevent the harmful use of that, or prevent that it’s ever been used, as they hunt witches who don’t know that they have these powers. In other words, they also hunt people whose powers have not yet awakened.
From left to right: Yurika Dōjima, Amon, Robin Sena, Miho Karasuma (top beside Robin), Haruto Sakaki (bottom beside Robin), Michael Lee
It all starts when Robin Sena, technically a witch and “craft-user”, arrives in Japan to assist the STN-J in their hunts. Robin was trained to hunt down witches ever since she was a little girl, and uses her craft of fire to do so. It is stated that Robin is a replacement for a hunter that had either gone missing or was killed in action prior to her arrival. Robin is only 15, but seems to have gotten a basic grip on what is going on in her and what she is really capable of doing.
She is assisted by an interesting variety of people, most notably a man named Amon. He is a 25 year old S-class hunter. While not displaying any witchcraft, he is able to absorb and reflect a number of attacks involving witchcraft. This is possible with the use of a substance called “Orbo”, seemingly a gree-ish liquid that is in fact able to deflect and neutralize witchcraft directed at him. While Robin understands the basics of this substance, she denies to have it on herself, describing it as “disgusting”. Every member in STN-J has Orbo on them on missions, or more precisely (witch-) hunts.
An unsung hero and colleague of Robin: Michael Lee. Expert hacker and technical support of the STN-J.
Once a witch has been hunted and successfully neutralized, there’s always a black, seeminlgy extremely armored and shielded truck arriving on the scene. Witches are only disabled and not killed, when a Orbo bullet is fired. This appears to give enough time to put the witch into some sort of cargo container, and then being placed into the inside of the truck. After the cargo container is placed in the truck it drives off into the distance… to a mysterious place only referred to as The Factory.
When not on duty or getting a break from everyday life, the crew meets in a place named “Harry’s” – a small diner apparently not too far away from the STN-J office. As it always is in those places, our heroes exchange gossip in there, but sometimes also important information that otherwise would not be obtainable in the office.
What at first seems to be a Monster-Of-The-Week show, gets far more sophisticated and deep once the relationship between all characters is established. At certain moments it will just click in your head and you start to see parts of the bigger picture that is drawn to you… as the pieces fall into place.
Yurika Dōjima. A friend and colleague of Robin, seemingly only doing a very minimal job. But is that really all? Or is there more to her then you think?
It is safe to say that this show ties in perfectly with shows like X-Files or MillenniuM. Even if you don’t like Anime or have not seen it before, but like the two shows I just mentioned, then this is without a doubt a show you HAVE to get your hands on right now.
Without a doubt, this is a more unique Animes and its style compares to that of Ergo Proxy – when speaking of pace, animation, and storytelling. The performances were pretty good – but I can only speak for the Japanese version, as I have seen it with subtitles. The soundtrack is pretty amazing, and plays a huge part, undoubtedly. All in all, this is a pretty amazing show, very well produced and executed. As I said – if you like mysteries of this kind, you will most definitely not regret the choice of getting your hands on this one.
Witch Hunter Robin
Genre: Occult detective
Director: Shukou Murase
Studio: Sunrise
Original run: July 2, 2002 – December 24, 2002
Episodes: 26
Bana
Shell
Witch Hunter Robin OST 1
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