Concept (6)

I picked this anime up on a whim, desiring to watch something from the current season, Winter 2026. It looked pretty, and I suppose there was no disappointment on that front. The concept can be summed up as cursed witches having to carry and live beyond their burdens.

Beginning (7.5)

The first two episodes are somewhat unrelated to the rest of the story, but this little arc does a great job at setting the scene, where Luna is looked down upon by just about every old loser in the village. I liked the story with Henri, as it showed how Luna was unable to form close connections with anyone, even if she and the other person wanted to. It showed what Luna was like very well. I was happy with Lizel's introduction at the start of episode 3, up until the introduction of the black witch council.

Atmosphere (7)

The world basically consists of Luna's residence, the forest, and the normie village. The mushroom house is adorable. The village is quaint on the surface, but we immediately learn that most of the people living there are either ignorant or simply mean. Aside from that, the whole world looks like it was plucked out of a fairy tale.

On the other hand, the worldbuilding wasn't that great. I liked the concepts of the magic system, but we didn't see much from the white witches at all, and the black witches spent ten times as much time talking about their powers than using them. At least we got some cool mushroom magic. If nothing else in this anime was done justice, the mushrooms were. Also, I liked how Luna took poison and bad memories out of people and animals, replacing them with mushrooms.

Characters (6)

Given Luna's background as "the end of all things", and being treated as subhuman by just about everyone, I can understand why she's socially stunted, and she's easy to empathise with. Claude is supposed to be unlikable, but compared to similar characters, he isn't redeemed by being funny or complex. He just kind of remains annoying the whole series. Lize got the most attention of any character, but it was squandered. Lize gave too many soliloquies, which all boiled down to the same "I don't want to forget my painful memories". I understand that part of Lize very well, but we really didn't get to see much else of him.

The animals are basically NPCs. Minos is helpful sometimes, but I completely forget the others exist.

There were disappointingly few side characters of note. They all tend to appear once, and aren't heard of for several episodes, or ever again, like the cat witch or the black witch council. Henri, who I like for actually seeming like a respectable human, appeared in episode 1, then randomly showed up in episode 10. There are simply too many members of the black witch council, meaning I remembered none of them, even though they actually had pretty cool designs. Fortunately, we did get to see the Wind Magician, Gustave, in more depth, as he only appeared in the last few episodes, and stuck around until the end. He had a similar problem to Lize where he'd talk to much, but this was at least in line with his character, which I found somewhat endearing even if he would be tiring to hang out with.

Story (5)

I thought the first couple episodes set the show up well, but apparently the beginning wasn't enough, and we needed to spend the second half of episode 3 and all of episode 4 engaged with repetitive exposition with the black witch council. I understand we need to know how Luna was going to be "the end of all things", an abstract concept, and how Lize is related to all this, but did the writer have no better why of explaining this than having a bunch of no-name characters read us a bedtime story? There was too much exposition and "tell don't show" throughout the anime.

I liked the episode where Lize went to buy groceries with Minos, seeing the outer forest and the village for himself, and helping the poisoned animals. I'm glad he threw away those magical seed things he was given, because I didn't like how he was given freebies to begin with. All the interactions Lize had with the forest creatures like those fairies made no sense and nothing came out of them, although I do like how they all brought the forest to life. Maybe Lize was hallucinating.

Lize's feelings for Luna are lowkirkuinely strange. He even likens himself to Henri in episode 11, when its apparent that Henri and Luna have had a sort of love affair. I can understand Lize loving Luna, and admittedly they tied this theme of love in with the magic system quite well. That is, white magicians needing love as an energy source, but it being a drain on black magicians. I still don't get how Lize got to loving Luna in the same way Luna might love Henri, although I suppose I'm never a fan of age gap stuff. I can tolerate it, but I'd prefer if they didn't make this love a big plot point in the last couple episodes, which I otherwise enjoyed, thanks to Gustave. I like how Lize, and Henri, make do with the black magicians despite their differences, although the story never deals with the greater conflict between white and black magicians, which is disappointing.

Overall, while I feel the story was set up well, it was rushed, and in the end, it didn't even cover that much ground. The slower episodes were necessary to set the scene, showing the struggles of Luna and Lize, but the faster plot-focused episodes arguably needed that time more. Surely they could've make better use of some of the exposition time, like in episodes 4 or 11, or the pointless flashbacks and soliloquies.

Audio (6)

The background music is adequate, but it's nothing special, and it feels sparse at times. I like the OP; perhaps it's a bit too impressive for this anime. The ED is just okay. I like the "emotional abuse" sound effect. It gives such a lighthearted unease. The character voices are good.

Visuals (7.5)

The character designs are good, but their execution doesn't quite do it for me. I can't quite explain why, but they feel a little flat. Given the setting of the anime, I'm not expecting any flashy designs, and that holds true for the rest of the visuals too, which make up a consistent theme. The OP video is very glowy and pretty. The backgrounds look hand-drawn and the style fits very well with the general vibe of the show. As I said earlier, the whole world looks like it was plucked out of a fairy tale, one with really pretty drawings.

Satisfaction (4)

As I said earlier, while I didn't dislike the last few episodes, I wish they focused on something other than Lize and Luna's love affairs. I was questioning whether Luna and Henri were into each other, or the same for Luna and Gustave, never mind Lize. I would've stomached it all better if more focus was given to one relationship, throughout the anime. Champignon Witch deserved a second cour or a second season not because it's great, but because it could've been a lot better. It would've enabled the writers to reduce the amount of exposition in favour of slower but more impactful methods of telling the story. We could've done with

There are so many loose ends too. Maybe Lize will just get killed at his next test, Luna will drink herself to death with mushroom moonshine, and all the black witches will be executed by the white witches, who we still know very little about.

Enjoyment (5)

This was a slow watch, but I can't blame the anime too much for that. You really just have to be in the right mood, moreso than other anime. I sometimes felt a little bored while watching an episode, but I was never having a bad time.

Total (59)

Not bad