The Family Circumstances of the Imbalanced Witch Review

The Family Circumstances of the Imbalanced Witch, also known as Dekoboko Majo no Oyako Jijō, is a fantasy comedy and family-friendly anime based on Piroya’s manga of the same name. Series director Masahiro Takata and writer Gyro Knuckle were joined by A-Real Studio, an anime production company. This review has spoilers. Content warning for discussion of racism, fatphobia, and incest in this review.

This story is a comedy plain and simple, centering on a witch named Alyssa (voiced by Nana Mizuki), also known as Alisa, who lives by herself in a vast forest. She stumbles upon a human girl, who she calls “Viola.” Sixteen years pass, but Viola (voiced by Aoi Koga) grows even more than Alyssa, who is age 223, had imagined. The series focuses on their relationship, with lingering questions throughout the series as to who is the “parent” and who is the “child.”

I am reminded of the 2020 fantasy anime, Somali and the Forest Spirit. That featured a forest golem coming across a young girl, who he named Somali. Although that show’s society of humans are persecuted, they still have fun together. Their bond grows stronger over time, despite the danger they find themselves. The difference is that this series is more comedic and has a big age-gap between the protagonists.

Mizuki and Koga, the two primary voice actresses, are seasoned voice-over artists. Mizuki lent her voice to Airi Amano in D4DJ, Hanna in Manaria Friends, and various characters in Is the Order a Rabbit?. In contrast, Koga voiced Sayuri Ibe in Asteroid in Love, Erika Amane in Ippon Again!, Kaguya Shinomiya in Kaguya-sama: Love is War, Shoko Komi in Komi Can’t Communicate, and characters in Bloom Into You, The Demon Girl Next Door, and Shine Post.

I’m a bit conflicted about The Family Circumstances of the Imbalanced Witch. After all, Anime Feminist reviewed the first episode and denounced it as anti-Black, arguing that the series “sexualized a Black-coded character” while Anime News Network had mixed reviews of the two-episode premiere, with no consensus on whether the comedy of this series is successful. Some praise Koga’s voice work as Alyssa, state that Viola is possessive of Alyssa, and others point to the centrality of Viola’s breasts as a comedy gag.

Having women’s bodies, particularly their chests, be comedic is nothing new. Fan service is almost everywhere in anime, meaning each person has a different tolerance for how much they can stand. A fairly developed protagonist is not a bad thing. Even so, it seems clear that Viola is sexualized. The fact she is a character with brown skin adds a complicating factor. Sadly, this anime is not surprising considering the dearth of Black and brown anime characters.

The anime has positive messages about family togetherness, parenting, chosen families, having support systems, and adoption. For instance, Lira (voiced by Romi Park) lets Viola drink her breast milk since Alyssa had none. There are good lines about how housework can be challenging for women and different methods of child-rearing. In addition, Alyssa treats Fennel as her little brother, to Fennel’s dismay, while Viola’s familiar-of-sorts, Phoenix (voiced by Takaya Hashi) becomes more a part of her family as the anime goes on.

The third episode includes much less sexualization of Alyssa than others, showing the early life of Luna, Giriko, and Alyssa in a photo book powered by witches’ magic, which interests Viola. Later, Alyssa admits that she relied, in her early years, on Giriko and Luna, as she was not as strong and small. This series shows that Luna and Giriko, voiced by Akira Sekine and Yō Taichi, are aunts.

In the second part of that same episode, Viola gets sick, but she recovers in one day. That same episode has Viola explaining that jinn eels, which she summoned while she was sleeping, are monsters, the role of spirits in this world, and fairies. While this all seems good, the vibe of the aunties is weird, and doesn’t fit with the other characters. In fact, one of the aunts, Luna, has BDSM sex slaves. It stands out against the series’ occasional wholesomeness and a poppy opening song and fun closing song.

Previous claims, which I saw on social media, that The Family Circumstances of the Imbalanced Witch is yuri are faulty. Unlike how Otaku Elf has yuri subtext, this series has none, from what I can tell. The relationship between Alyssa and Viola is familial rather than romantic, as they love each other as family, not as partners. Some may say it is romantic, but I do not believe that is the case. The only yurish parts are between the Lady and Lira in the 10th episode, with the Lady as tsundere in her feelings, finding Lira’s commanding presence and powerful frame “wonderful,” and acting in this manner since they were children.

The other nine episodes of the series move in a mix of bizarre, heartwarming, and insightful directions. This includes Viola’s undying dedication to her mother. She continually detests when anyone gets close. She has no romantic relationships with anyone, even pushing off an orc furniture maker named Glind, when he shows interest in Alyssa, and agrees to only have him as a friend, and nothing more. At the same time, there are good points about the struggles with child-rearing, positive thinking of children, guilt over sleep loss, and weight loss, among other topics.

The Family Circumstances of the Imbalanced Witch goes beyond what some described as the central joke: sexualizing a dark-skinned teenage girl (and making her seem adult) as compared to her mother, who is shorter and pale-skinned. This is clear by the fifth episode, where Alyssa, Glind, and Fennel discuss the differences between magic by witches and elves, or battling with mutant/magic potatoes, after Giriko cast a spell on them. Another episode goes further, with a sleep fairy (Sandmann) having trouble sleeping and carrying around a bag of addictive magic dust. He should take tips from Princess Syalis!

There is also low-brow humor, such as an episode when Alyssa and Viola meet two fairies (Rosehip Fairy and Sweet Cakes) shaped like a bunch of butts together, which are attempting to stop a marriage between the Fiatoio family heiress Anna Fiatoio (voiced by Rika Nagae) and Torino Ombrello (voiced by Ryohei Kimura). The latter has some characteristics of yakuza. However, he is an honest guy who wants to be Anna’s knight in shining armor.

That episode isn’t unique in such humor. In the seventh episode, after Rosehip Fairy and Sweet Cakes appear, Viola bakes cookies which look like turds. She claims they look like eels, but Alyssa can’t stop herself from seeing them as weird. This is paired with Giriko’s terrifying food. This causes their familiar, Phoenix, to go to the hospital. This fits with the 11th episode when Phoenix gets too overweight by eating sweets, Viola says she hasn’t gained weight, and Alyssa telling him to lose weight in a healthy way (or else it is dangerous). In the end, his body fat lessened, but the reason is unknown.

I found characters like Kicla to be disturbing. Her sister often restrained her due to her fuzzy ethics. Introduced in the eighth episode, she tries to probe Phoenix’s body supposedly for “medical” purposes. It’s a very strange perversion, almost as bad as the baby-fying doctor (Kira Sanzugawa) in Love After World Domination, if not worse. On the other hand, she is out of shape, despite her dedication to extreme medical procedures (like lessening one’s weight with surgery).

There are also some problematic and strange gender dynamics. This epitomized by Auri recalling, in the 11th episode, how he was changed into a woman for two weeks by his sister. As a result, he claims to understand women better than his male friends, who released him from jail as they wanted his romantic advice. Following this, he declares he will change them into women.

The Family Circumstances of the Imbalanced Witch has some fun post-credits scenes in some episodes and interesting family dynamics. For one, in the ninth episode, Viola learns about someone from her mother’s past: Auri, who is Alyssa’s father. Strangely, he appears to be married to Alyssa’s sister. This is another case of incest, a common anime theme. This contrasts with the conflict between Lira, her son, and her partner (Pound).

The series finale reveals more of Alyssa’s past with Auri. Alyssa’s mother is described as a free spirit, hard to pin down or understand, and mysterious. She gave Alyssa the inspiration to continue being a mother, saying that there isn’t necessarily a connection between blood ties and love, and that she believes in Alyssa, wishing for her happiness. In the final scene, Alyssa is shopping with Viola. Alyssa says they are close because they are family. Even so, they are still misunderstood.

In the end, The Family Circumstances of the Imbalanced Witch is all over the place and is mediocre overall. I would not watch this series again, nor would I recommend that anyone else watch it. I’m not aware of Masahiro Takata, the series director, who previously worked on episodes of series such as High-Rise Invasion, High School Fleet, Libra of Nil Admirari, or My Roommate is a Cat, nor show writer Gyro Knuckle, composer Myu, or the studio A-Real.

The latter produced key animation of series such as Attack on Titan, Eden’s Zero, Engage Kiss, Kaguka-Sama: Love is War, Shy, Spy x Family, Mitsuboshi Colors, Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku, Stars Align, Lycoris Recoil, Kizuna no Allele or movies like I Want to Eat Your Pancreas and Josee, The Tiger, and the Fish. However, these individuals, nor the animators, or voice actors, did not save the series, disjointed nature, or other problems that I’ve explained in this review.

The Family Circumstances of the Imbalanced Witch is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.