Witch Hunter Robin

Witch Hunter Robin (ã‚¦ã‚£ãƒƒãƒãƒãƒ³ã‚¿ãƒ¼ãƒãƒ"ãƒ³) is an anime series created by Sunrise. It follows the STN-J, the Japanese branch of a secretive global organization, SOLOMON, that fights the harmful use of witchcraft, and mostly focuses on one of its members, Robin Sena.

Being a witch is a genetic trait, and the STN-J maintains a database of everyone with the trait and is empowered to eliminate or arrest them should their powers "awaken." Witches have a wide variety of abilities, though they usually possess only one each, and the powers can be anything from electrical generation or telekinesis to the ability to stop and start hearts at will.

Plot

The show begins with the recruitment of Robin Sena as a replacement for an STN-J member who was lost in action. Robin is a witch who was born in Japan and raised in an Italian convent. Robin's "craft" is pyrokinesis.

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. At that time, the real story gets underway.

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". Eventually Robin begins to worry that she will become a target and grows to suspect that her partner Amon will welcome the opportunity to hunt her.

A still from the opening sequence of Witch Hunter Robin.

Analysis

In the story, Robin is a "craft user", i.e. a secret trainee of The Catholic Church in Italy that uses her craft (fire) to hunt down witches. Witchcraft is seen as a genetic anomaly that is passed down in the human genome and may surface at any time as the species reproduces. Therefore witches are simply people whose genes contain the witchcraft genetic traits. Once they learn of their power(s) ("awaken"), unfortunately, they can begin using them for personal gain. And that is when secret organizations, such as "Solomon" (and the Japanese "STN-J" in Japan) come in to eliminate their threat on society.
Robin is sent to Japan to aid the STN-J in their efforts to capture witches. The STN-J are however working on a liquid called "Orbo" capable of deactivating a witch's craft at the cost of weakening the user. Eventually, as the story progresses, Robin herself becomes a target of the STN-J and labeled a witch, and thus "hunted".

Orbo is a green liquid that disables witch abilities. STN-J's hunters carry small vials of it on necklaces as a form of protection; the orbo bubbles and swirls when witches try to use their abilities against them. Hunters also carry air pistols which fire darts or pellets of orbo that dampen witch powers when it enters the bloodstream. The hunters use orbo amulets and weapons, but don't really know how it works or where it comes from. Orbo has a harmful effect on non-witches unless they wear full-coverage protective gear.

The story hence asks the viewers the question: Are we innocent until proven guilty, or guilty until proven innocent? Especially if we are born with unique abilities? Who has the right to judge others? For example, in one episode, a physician working in a hospital, realizes that he has a "magic touch"; he has the power to handle and transfer "life forces". So he drains the life force out of criminals and greedy mafia bosses, and gives them to terminally ill children dying in hospitals. The STN-J hunts him down without hesitation.

What appeals to many fans of this TV series is the soundtrack (composed by Taku Iwasaki), the sleek Matrix-like styles of the characters, the well done dubbing, and the concept behind the stories themselves such as mysticism, telekinesis, remote viewing, PK tests, causality violations, etc. In addition, the time devoted to the character development of Robin (especially in the later episodes) is also quite rare in animation, Japanese or otherwise.

Index of characters

(Notes: The formatting for the name is: given name, surname. Also: in the category "Witches", the episode each "Witch" appears in is listed for reference purposes; their appearances were often so brief that it was felt this was necessary. Furthermore, when it is felt to be illuminating, a character's title is included; the title does not affect the alphabetical placement of the character within the index)

STN-J (Main characters)

* Robin Sena (ç€¬åãƒãƒ"ãƒ³ Sena Robin) - A 15 year old witch, she was raised in a convent before working for the STN-J. She was originally supposed to retrieve an item that would enhance a witch's powers to the brink of being unstoppable, merely working as an STN-J subordinate as a cover. At first, she seemed rather weak as she didn't maintain too much control over her pyrokinetic powers. She also was somewhat distant from the other characters. However, due to various plot twists, increasing character relationships, and storyline complications, she eventually begins to become more and more powerful, eventually becoming the STN-J's top target. Robin searches for her past, the mysteries behind her parents, and the answers to her greatest fear. In the end of the series it is discovered that Robin is in fact a "Designer Witch", a Witch created with genetic engineering on "Project Robin".
* Amon (äºœé–€) - An S-Class hunter, 25 years old and Robin's partner. Originally, he was quite reluctant to join Robin, seeing her as more of an annoyance than an actual partner. However, seeing her worthiness in cases concerning highly prominent witches, he eventually accepts her. Some fans speculate that there's a love connection between Amon and Robin, as he puts his life on the line at points to save her, and also due to the opening cinema in which Robin is making unusual gestures about a TV set showing Amon. Amon is also the one that gives Robin the information she needs to find Nagira after the attack by Solomon.
* Haruto Sakaki (æ¦Šæ™´äºº Sakaki Haruto) - A Hunter working with the STN-J, Sakaki is brash, slightly hot-tempered, ambitious, and supportive. He is the newest member of the group after Robin and was initially afraid of being fired with her arrival. He usually winds up rushing headfirst into danger, resulting in regretting his previous decisions due to the circumstances that follow his actions. He's usually the one to either chase a witch for some time, get into direct contact with a witch's powers, or get into just about any mishap. Sakaki isn't biased about choosing friends however, and welcomes Robin to the crew.
* Michael Lee - A hacker and technical support expert in the STN-J. He is confined to the STN-J building 24/7 by Zaizen after being caught hacking into the STN-J's computer network (the only network he was unable to avoid detection, as he states to Robin). He was then forced with the decision to either work for the STNJ until further notice, or die on the spot when confronted by officials in his apartment. Michael is somewhat avoidant of Robin at first, but then begins to warm up to her a little bit, particularly when they have discussions over coffee and doughnuts. He's the only character that (aside from briefing before a mission) is pretty much ignored, only Robin had bothered to listen to him on the side at first. Michael is able to dig up extensive information about various witches, police reports, and the like, all the while covering his tracks.
* Miho Karasuma (çƒä¸¸ç¾Žç©‚ Karasuma Miho) - An experienced hunter with the craft of psychometry. By touching something her power allows her to read strong emotions and thoughts a person had while holding it, and she can also sometimes see past events that happened to, or around an item or place. This power comes in handy when examining evidence or crime scenes and she is able to pass on useful information to the rest of the group. She gives Robin helpful advice on how to improve her control over her power and also acts as somewhat of a respectful adult to her. Though rather young (she's only nineteen), her level of professionalism and determination to get things done make her seem older. Towards the end of the series she is captured by the military in an operation planned by Zaizen for Orbo testing.
* Chief Inspector Shintarou Kosaka (å°å‚æ…Žå¤ªéƒŽ Kosaka Shintarou) - A rather short-tempered man, Kosaka works directly under Zaizen, passing on reports of the organization's progress as well as other related information. Not too much is known about his work as he is mostly seen criticizing the employees while they are investigating a case, or not doing work when he thinks they should. Although he may be an annoyance to the rest of the hunters, he shows some concern and acts as somewhat of an authoritative figure to them. The most noticeable feature is that his head is abnormally large, bald, and brightly reflects light. His constant yelling and scolding is also another reminder, as he mostly fusses over Hattori. He was originally a member of the city police force, thus possesses connections that come in rather useful when the hunters are unable to use the STN-J databases.
* Shohei Hattori - Not much is known about this man, except that he works with filing and other various jobs Kosaka requests him to do. His attitude towards his fellow staff is somewhat snobbish and uncaring, but around Kosaka, he acts as a suck-up and abruptly halts whatever he's doing to listen to him.
* Takuma Zaizen (è²¡å‰ç¢ç£¨ Zaizen Takuma) - Administrator of the STN-J and the Factory, Zaizen is portrayed as a prominent business figure. At first, Zaizen merely seems to be a boss giving orders, but in reality he was behind some of the most heinous events that proved to be most troublesome for the STN-J.Zaizen has found a way to transfer "witchs blood" (main source of their power) called orbo to stop witches. But with Zaizen's hideous plan Solomon took action and had to attack the STN-J but was mainly looking for information about the secrets of the orbo not to kill members of the STN-J. He was killed by Robin during an unsuccessful attempt to murder her himself, and subsequently fleeing into an elevator shaft that was completely ignited.
* Yurika Doujima (å ‚å³¶ç™¾åˆé¦™ Doujima Yurika) - Seen as carefree, lazy, narcissistic, vain, and immature, she would sooner go shopping than go on a mission any chance she'd get. She's consistently late for work and rarely does anything around the office, getting much negative attention from Kosaka. According to her, her parents had STN-J act as somewhat of her "caretakers" and had the authority to get STN-J in trouble. She also somewhat disappoints the other workers, acting somewhat stuck-up, and doing the most minimal work during missions, ditching them immediately when she no longer needs to play a role. Dojima doesn't exactly warm up to Robin at first, mockingly calling her "Amon's Girl", but towards the end of the series she begins to do a little more work and prove she has a little more insight and perception of her surroundings than originally presumed. Revealed to be a Solomon intelligence operative, Dojima was sent by Solomon to the STN-J to uncover more information about the Orbo.

Solomon

* Hiroshi Toudou - Robin's "father", he was a friend of Zaizen as well as a brilliant scientist. He researched a new project to repair the conflicts between humans and witches, however all evidence of his research was destroyed by Solomon because of the potential danger it contained, although it was far too late as the project had already reached its final stages. In the last episode a recording of him is displayed on a computer in The Factory. He explains everything about his project, Robin's past, and the origins of the society's imbalance.
* Father Juliano Colegui - Robin's former guardian (also her maternal grandfather), he raised her from age four after her parents had died. He visits Robin around the middle to the end of the series to illuminate her as to the events surrounding her past.
* Inquisitor Koushon Sastre - A male witch that dresses somewhat as a magician, he was one of the most feared witches, being avoidant of every form of law enforcement and detainment. Even Robin herself expressed fear when he was mentioned in a case.
* Maria Corneli, daughter of Father Juliano - Robin's mother, although not by a standard means of birth. She passed her power of pyrokinesis to Robin stating that Robin is the "Hope" for the future of the well-being of all witches, as well as the key to solving the struggle of acceptance between witches and humans. Four years after giving birth to Robin, she died, leaving her in the care of Colegui.

"Witches"

Witch	Episode
Aki Yoshioka	Sign Of The Craft
Akio Kurosawa	Faith
Chie	Raindrops
Jyuuzou Narumi	Raindrops
Kazuya Misawa	Addicted to Power
Karata Kazuma	Dancing in Darkness
Mamoru Kudou	Simple-Mind
"Methusaleh"	The Soul Cages Precious Illusions
Muroi	All I Really Ought To Know
Saki Yoshioka	Sign of the Craft
Sayoko	Stubborn Aesthetics
Shiro Masuda	The Eyes of Truth
"Single-Eye"	Smells Like The Wandering Spirit
Yutaka Kobari	Separate Lives

Other characters

Yuji Kobari (Master); Proprietor of "Harry's". He's usually seen as a calm, complacent, polite man, providing caffeinated beverages, meals, and chatting with the customers as business is seen mostly as slow. Aside from Episode 10, and towards the end of the series, only one or two hunters from STN-J are ever seen there at a time.

Shunji Nagira - Amon's older brother, he's an attorney who harbors Robin after she leaves STN-J and runs a private office with two assistants. He has Robin act as a bike messenger, partly because he does not believe the government is correct in persecuting witches. Nagira gathers information in the streets by means of a man he meets in a pachinko bar as well as a witch in Wall City. Personality-wise, he's almost Amon's foil. He's talkative, open, goofy, and is occasionally lazy, but he cares enough to shelter Robin from Solomon.

Mika Hanamura (èŠ±æ‘ç¾ŽåŠ Hanamura Mika) - Secretary at the law office where Robin stays, she constantly scolds Nagira for being lazy. She has her hair tied back and seems a little pushy, but she shows concern for her fellow workers.

Touko Shinzaki (çœŸå´Žçž³å Shinzaki Touko) - Robin's housemate, and also Zaizen's daughter. She takes care of Robin until the raid at STN-J and expresses interest in Robin by asking her multitudes of questions. She also appears to like Amon, as during a rainy day, Robin sees Amon walking with her, sharing his umbrella. Unfortunately in the middle of the series, an assassination attempt directed toward Robin fails, and Touko was caught in the crossfire and left in critical condition. When she recovers she is unable to cope with what happened, and she is institutionalized in a sanitarium for the remainder of the series.

List of episodes

Witch Hunter Robin had its United States debute on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on February 16, 2004. The series also began airing on YTV's Bionix on September 10, 2004.

The protagonist, Robin Sena.

#Replacement#Addicted to Power#Dancing in Darkness#Stubborn Aesthetics#Smells Like the Wandering Spirit#Raindrops#Simple-Mind#Faith#Sign Of The Craft#Separate Lives#The Soul Cages#Precious Illusions#The Eyes of Truth#Loaded Guns#Time to Say Goodbye#Heal the Pain#Dilemma#In My Pocket#Missing#All I Really Oughta Know#No Way Out#Family Portrait#Sympathy For the Devil#Rent#Redemption Day#Time to Tell

Seiyu (Japanese Voice) Cast List

*Robin Sena: Akeno Watanabe
*Amon: Takuma Takewaka
*Haruto Sakaki: Jun Fukuyama
*Miho Karasuma: Kaho Kouda
*Yurika Dojima: Kyoko Hikami
*Michael Lee: Hiro Yuki
*Shintaro Kosaka: Shinpachi Tsuji
*Shohei Hattori: Masaaki Okura
*Takuma Zaizen: Michihiro Ikemizu
*Master (Yuji Kobari): Hirotaka Nagai

English Voice Cast List

*Robin Sena: Kari Wahlgren
*Amon: Crispin Freeman
*Haruto Sakaki: Johnny Yong Bosch
*Miho Karasuma: Wendee Lee
*Yurika Doujima: Michelle Ruff
*Michael Lee: Dave Wittenberg
*Shintaro Kosaka: Doug Stone
*Shohei Hattori: Dave Mallow
*Takuma Zaizen: Jamieson Price
*Shunji Nagira: Lex Lang
*Master (Yuji Kobari): Jerry Gelb

Theme songs

Opening
*"Shell" by Bana

Endings# "Half Pain" by Bana (Episodes 1-25)# "Shell (Instrumental)" by Bana (Episode 26)

Live Action Version

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 describes 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. In December 2005, it was revealed that the live action version developed by Sci-Fi has been dropped from production.

Other Information

*On episode 22, there is a text that shows briefly on Zaizen's computer. It was apparently written by Robin, and hints towards her possible love for Amon:

Am I a person?Or am I a Witch?â€¦No. I am Robin.

Witches are the new mankind. People are the oldman.People hate witches and Witches hate people.

Can't we just love each other?

Am I " Joan of Arc"?
No. I am not. I love Amon.
I believe we can understand each other.
*Under that text, there is part of the lyrics to the song Ravenchild, from the english folk singer Maddy Prior. For some reason there are some typographical errors on the text.

">> With all the associations of darkness and the tricker [trickster]it is easy to lose sight of the softer, more generousside of their nature. They are often to be seen in thewild rubbing beaks and canoodling with their life'spartner, using their extensive vocabulary to "whispersweet nothing" in a strangely anthropomorphic way."
*After that scene, Zaizen looks at a message he received from Solomon, and again it can be seen briefly. However, this message is mostly gibberish with a few random words.
*On the last episode, after the credits, there is a scene similar to the first episode. The caretaker of the STN-J building is reading his horoscope for the day and it says his lucky color is black (like the day he met Robin). Someone arrives (the new hunter that was hinted about in the end of the episode), and she wears clothes just like Robin's, but it's not possible to tell who she is. That ending might be a hint about Robin still being alive.

Witch Hunter Robin: Encyclopedia BETA

Contents