|
|
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007) |
| Witch Hunter Robin | |
|---|---|
 The cover of Volume 1 of the Witch Hunter Robin DVDs released by Bandai Entertainment. |
|
| ウィッチハンターロビン | |
| Genre | Occult detective |
| TV anime | |
| Director | Shukou Murase |
| Studio | Sunrise |
| Licensor |  Bandai Visual Bandai Entertainment |
| Network | Animax, TV Tokyo     Animax Cartoon Network (Adult Swim) YTV (Bionix) Animax, GMA 7 AnimeCentral, NT1 |
| Original run | July 2, 2002 – December 24, 2002 |
| Episodes | 26 |
| Anime and Manga Portal | |
Witch Hunter Robin (ウィッチハンターロビン?) is a Japanese anime series created by Sunrise. It follows the STN-J, the Japanese branch of a secret global organization called "SOLOMON" that fights the harmful use of witchcraft, using a database of those who have (or inherited from their parents) the power of witchcraft in order to arrest or eliminate them should their powers "awaken". The series focuses on one of the STN-J's members, Robin Sena.
Contents |
Robin Sena is a "craft user", born in Japan and raised by the Roman Catholic Church in Italy. She is trained to use her craft (fire) to hunt down witches. Witchcraft is a genetic trait, dormant within a number of individuals within the human population. Powers can be "awakened" in these dormant human "seeds" at any time. Trained hunters, craft-users or "seeds" themselves, are needed to keep watch over "seeds" and hunt those whose abilities become active, serving in secret organizations, such as the parent branch "Solomon" (and the "STN-J" branch in Japan), as self-appointed witch police to curtail the use of witchcraft in society, and to keep the witch kind in secret from the public. Even the police, who cooperate with STN-J in abnormal criminal cases, do not know what STN-J does.
The series begins when Robin arrives in Japan to gain information for Solomon headquarters about a fabled item that holds the "secrets of the craft", while acting undercover as a new hunter to the STN-J in their efforts to capture witches. It is hinted that she subconsciously understands something of the STN-J's use of Orbo.
Orbo is a green liquid that negates witch abilities. STN-J's hunters carry small vials of it on necklaces as a form of protection against their targets' craft. Hunters also carry air pistols which fire darts or pellets of orbo that dampen witch powers when it enters the bloodstream of the target witch. Hunters who are craft-users or seeds can use orbo with little ill effects (their powers are reportedly diminished while using it). Robin, a craft user herself, says that she will not keep orbo on her because it "disgusts her."
As the series goes on, Robin grows increasingly uncomfortable with her role in hunting and capturing other witches. She begins to question the treatment they receive while incarcerated in the mysterious "Factory". After the discovery of "secrets of the craft," she was entrapped and attacked twice by "witch bullets". Aside from that, STN-J is attacked, presumably for "secrets of the craft" (though as it turned out, the last attack was Solomon's attack to find out what Zaizen was planning).
Robin begins to worry that she will become a target and grows to suspect that her partner Amon would hunt her. Eventually, Robin does become a target of Solomon and labeled a witch, becoming "hunted". In the end, Robin finds out more about her craft and that of witches than she knew at the beginning.
Initially, the series appears to take a "monster of the week" approach. About halfway through the 26-episode season, the characters and the relationships between them are established and the main plot gets underway.
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (November 2008) |
The series originally aired across Japan between July 2, 2002 and December 24, 2002 on TV Tokyo and Animax, who later broadcast the series across its respective networks worldwide, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and other regions.
The series was licensed for North American distribution by Bandai Entertainment and was later aired across the United States on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim network beginning February 16, 2004 (it was given a second full run on Adult Swim in the Fall of 2004 before the broadcast rights were left to expire). It has also been aired across Canada on YTV's Bionix block from September 10, 2004.
In the United Kingdom and Ireland the series was broadcast in a daily stripped timeslot on AnimeCentral from January 5 to January 30, 2008, with an immediate rerun from January 31.
On April 5, 2004, the SciFi Channel released a press release stating a listing of new shows and movies in development for the future, one of which was Witch Hunter Robin. The press release described the show in development as "Based on a Japanese anime, this series follows a group of trained cops that seek to capture witches. One of the newest cops, Robin, is secretly a witch herself and uses her powers to track down the evildoers." This show was to be live action. The executive producers were Roy Lee and Doug Davison, who were credited in the press release as being the producers for the movie The Ring. No premiere date was given.[1] In December 2005, it was revealed that the live action version developed by Sci-Fi had been dropped from production.[citation needed]
Zaizen's computer screen at the factory "decrypts" in a manner exactly as depicted in the movie Sneakers. It also contains the text block, "Hi, my name is **blank**. My voice is my passport. Verify me.", which is also featured in the movie as a product demo and a working mantrap security checkpoint.
During the ending credits, a page from the Malleus Maleficarum can be seen. It is a handbook which was used for prosecuting witches during the mid-16th and mid-17th centuries.
In episode 22, some text is shown quoting the notes accompanying the lyrics to the song Ravenchild, by the English folk singer Maddy Prior:
"With all the associations of darkness and the tricker [trickster] it is easy to lose sight of the softer, more generous side of their nature. They are often to be seen in the wild rubbing beaks and canoodling with their life’s partner, using their extensive vocabulary to “whisper sweet nothing” in a strangely anthropomorphic way."[citation needed]