After the death of her sister and her brother-in-law, 35-year-old novelist Makio Kodai and her 15-year-old niece Asa live together after the former impulsively took in the latter. The next day, Makio returns to her senses and remembers that she doesn't do well in the company of other people. So begins their new daily life, as Makio attempts to acclimate to a roommate and Asa tries to get used to living with an adult who never quite acts like one.

Well, wouldn't be a fresh anime season without me showing up fashionably late to at least one new show that turns out to be one of the best.

There are a lot of people who see themselves as the main character. They're the hero and always do the right thing, and if they don't, there's always a reason or justification that makes things okay. They simply don't have enough self-introspection to see their selfish nature for what it really is. For those who do truly see themselves for who they are, there are only two choices: Accept that they're sometimes not the best person and live with the guilt, or step up and be what everyone else pretends to be. This is the kind of person that Makio is.

She knows exactly what her shortcomings are: She's self-centered, slovenly and stubborn, holding a grudge even beyond death. However, when she sees her niece, the daughter of the sister she hated, set to be passed around as an unwanted burden by the wider family (who'll all no doubt pat themselves on the ass for being "so kind" while also doing nothing but the bare minimum), she lays down the hard truths and offers the kid a home. It may not be the best one or even the one that Asa deserves, but it'll be a stable one. She barely knows her niece at that point, and she surely doesn't know if she's a writer or not. Nevertheless, Makio recognizes something in her, and she, like all writers, knows how powerful the act of writing can be.

Meanwhile, Asa is truly alone for the first time in her life. Her parents are dead, and her family is looking at her like a problem to be solved, not a child to be loved. They're concerned not with Asa's well-being, but with how her becoming an orphan affects them. No one asks Asa what she wants to do. No one offers her any choices. No one except the family outcast, Makio.

Makio may have gotten in way over her head in a moment of righteous indignation, but she's determined to follow through. She has her own set of rules and morals she lives by. And strangely, taking in Asa is almost a way of getting revenge on her sister. She wants to treat her niece like she wishes her sister had treated her, to respect her feelings and opinions even if she doesn't understand them. This is the key to the connection between her and Asa, and all of this is shown to us through 22 minutes of visual metaphors and tightly written conversation.

It would be easy to read Makio as autistic, and I think that's a valid view of the character. She could also be read as just anxious and introverted. Either way, she's made herself a place where she can function comfortably, and that's what she begins teaching Asa to do as well. Makio tells Asa that she doesn't have to feel sad all the time, that she doesn't have to cry or even necessarily display her emotions. The eponymous journal comes in as a way Makio suggests Asa can process her emotions--when Makio says Asa can write what other people say, she's giving her permission to listen and work things through, giving her a way to engage with the world safely in the confines of text on paper. It's clearly something no one has suggested to Asa before. At the funeral, she mentions that she can tune out the people around her. She pictures herself as the lone person among grey paper cutouts, suggesting that, like her aunt, she feels safer distancing herself from everyone else. Makio seems to be the first person to validate that, as she tells Asa that her journal doesn't even have to be entirely true. The implication is that, being a novelist, Makio is able to connect with the world comfortably through her work while also using words to help herself process life.

Three episodes in, I have a friggin' vault stuffed with compliments that I wish to pay Journal with Witch. The single aspect that keeps bowling me over is its quiet emotional intelligence. This is a story about Asa coming to terms with the loss of her parents while Makio comes to terms with their brand new relationship. Neither character arrives at the narrative with the equipment necessary to process the complexity of the situation. However, Journal with Witch gently takes their hands, and the audiences', and patiently guides them down this winding path, deftly sidestepping both melodrama and triteness. We even learn how to find poignancy in the practice of making gyoza and the therapeutic potential of congregation. Taken as a whole, this story feels like one of the precious few anime written specifically for adults.

On the other hand, the show also finds strength in not centering itself solely on Maiko. Asa is just as important a protagonist. She flounders from a lack of life experience, while Makio fumbles with routines she needs to unlearn. Both parts of this story are necessary because the narrative's big picture stresses the importance of the bonds formed between these two. This isn't surprising to see from a josei manga adaptation, of course.

Journal with Witch pulls the weight of several equivalent series with the amount of confidence and craft on display. The nonlinear storytelling in the premiere correctly places the funeral scene at its climax, when Makio gives in to her heroic impulses and Asa accepts this ripcord out of her downward spiral into utter numbness. Daigo's presence in the second episode primes us for Emiri's in the third. Shared meals accumulate like Tetris blocks filling in the empty spaces of Asa and Makio's relationship. Compare the lifelessly photogenic sushi at the funeral vs Makio's messy yet rustic sausage toast concoction. Reflections, meanwhile, are a consistent visual motif providing a window into the painful past. Their visit to Asa's old apartment lets the presence of the dead linger mostly unspoken, save for a few pointed interjections.

I also like that Journal with Witch pairs Makio's writing with Asa's singing. It shrugs off routine narratives about Makio taking Asa under her wing as her protege. It's the creation of art that's important, not the form the art takes. Asa's creative release doesn't have to be the same as her aunt's, as Makio discovers firsthand when she sees her doodle in the journal. However, Makio's penchant for storytelling definitely rubs off on Asa--as Asa works through all of these new emotions and experiences, her brain whisks her away to fictitious scenes that help ground her. It's a distancing act, but with that distance comes perspective.

But while perspective helps, it doesn't heal. Makio and Asa originally bond due to their similarly muted responses to the suddenness and violence of the tragedy. Whereas others might judge them or consider them heartless, Makio helps Asa understand that their feelings and methods of grieving aren't for the benefit of others. Makio only says goodbye to her sister when she's alone in a room filled with garbage. Asa's emotions only overflow when she's stripped of her agency to carry her sadness on her own. Makio gives her a choice. Her school doesn't. At the same time though, her fight with Emiri allows Asa her first chance to be angry. She blows up because she needs to, and because she isn't Makio, diplomatically revises her prior advice when she truly realizes it doesn't work for Asa.

As a work of visual art, this show is, in a word, intricate. Makio's room is a cluttered personal palace that's all too familiar to me, and the show renders it in exquisite, lived-in detail. Wardrobe choices are muted and deliberate, grounding the audience in reality, and the character designs similarly favour familiarity over exaggeration. The animation homes in on subtle gestures and expressions as a means of drawing the audience into these characters' lives. Miyuki Oshiro's debut as a series director couldn't be more gorgeous or more affecting.

Finally, the last point I'll touch on for now is the show's sound design. Kensuke Ushio's musical palette here really shines. Both of the lead seiyuu are also stellar. I never would've guessed that this was newcomer Fuuko Mori's first role based on how well she's adapted to Asa's character. Then again, Asa hardly resembles the average anime protagonist, so perhaps Mori's plasticity as a new voice actor works in the assignment's favour. Meanwhile, the incredible Miyuki Sawashiro is, as always, a generation-defining talent. She gives Makio her husky gravitas while never letting us forget that this 35-year-old shut-in is, in some ways, even more of a disaster than her niece. Most importantly, Sawashiro and Mori's chemistry is impeccable. We can hear Makio change her tone when she wants to give Asa some actual advice, and we can listen to the difference between Asa's internal monologue and her conversations with the various adults who enter her life.

Journal with Witch contains everything I've been wanting as of late, even if I didn't know I wanted it, especially Makio herself, a woman in her mid-30s trying her best to figure out this new normal. Despite the obvious undertones of grief, maturation and uncertainty, this isn't a melodrama that has to wallow in unending rivers of monologues. Neither Asa nor Makio suffers from any overexaggerated personality defects or showy displays of Big Trauma(TM). They may be very different, and neither of them asked for this new life that they share, but they're clearly doing their best to take this whole thing one step at a time, and they're doing it together.

Normally, people use the "three-episode test" as a way of judging whether an anime is worth continuing. I think that has its merits, as I often use it myself. In Journal with Witch's case, however, the first three episodes leave me wondering not whether I should continue, but whether any other anime this season even come close to challenging it. And as I write this, there's already two more episodes out for me to watch!