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There were already plenty of reasons to think thatWITCH WATCHcould become a hit in the Spring 2025 anime season, but now there’s one more: Megumi Ishitani directed the opening sequence of the series.
WITCH WATCHis the latest manga created by Kenta Shinohara (SKET DANCE, Astra Lost in Space), and it has been running inShonen Jumpsince 2021. As happens with mostJumpseries, there is clearly a huge investment in this adaptation, which is now available onCrunchyroll, Netflix and Hulu.
Megumi Ishitani Directed Witch Watch OP
AfterWITCH WATCH Episode 1debuted earlier today,Megumi Ishitaniconfirmed on her social media a rumor that had been spreading during the week:she directed the opening sequence of the anime.
Here’s what she said:
I directed the storyboard of the opening sequence!
I was honored to be invited by producer Taniguchi, and luckily Toei allowed me to be temporarily transferred to Byburi Animation Studios! Taniguchi, Nakame and I worked very hard on it!
In addition to its stunning visuals,WITCH WATCHOP also features"Watch Me!",a song by YOASOBI, a band whose recent songs inserted into anime series have generally been a hit with Japanese and international audiences (Oshi no Ko Season1 OP is a good example).
Is Megumi Ishitani Out of Toei Now?
Megumi Ishitani is a prolific animator who has worked on manyOne Pieceepisodes, and she co-directed the highly praisedONE PIECE FAN LETTERspecial series, about whichshe gave many interviews after the series debuted.
Ishitani is an in-house animator at Toei, and her involvement inWITCH WATCHhad many fans worried that she had left Toei, butthat’s not what happened. She explicitly stated in her comment that she was temporarily transferred with Toei’s consent, which means that they just allowed her to do this job, and then she returned to the studio. However, this could also mean that Ishitani could make occasional contributions to other anime in the future.
She also recently gave her views on the recent “Ghibli AI trend” that started after OpenAI released an update to ChatGPT that allowed users to transform their photos into illustrations, and they request ChatGPT to do it in a way that mimics the distinctive art style of Studio Ghibli. The trend was received negatively by many artists, and Japanese artists and animators were among those who expressed concern or even outright criticism of the trend. Ishitani was one of them, saying thatthe trend “dishonors Studio Ghibli”.
WITCH WATCH Episode 1 is available, but only with subs. The dubbed version should be available on streaming platforms in three weeks, at least according to Netflix.
