/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Just finished Witch on the Holy Night Great visuals all around, 10/10. Probably the best visuals Type-Moon will ever produce.
At places the story dragged, at places the story flew by, overall I found the pacing to be uneven. Worst of all some of the dullest moments were in the first 4 chapters, especially the Soujuurou and Aoko meeting was padded to hell and back. Chapters 6-9 have some great moments, but overall were very mid and forgettable. Chapters 10+ is an A+ grade action and writing.
Foreshadowing is lacking. There were some hints on how physically strong Soujuurou is, but there are too few and are contradicted by some things in the story (mainly Soujuurou being a pushover in the Halls of Mirrors, if he was going to be strong mountain karate man I think he should have preformed better), I feel like Touko should have been better "hinted" at. Chapter 11 was way too late to introduce the Church members, I'm not saying they should have had a greater role, but it'd have been nice to at least see them once or twice on the streets before this. Chapter 9 introduces Touko, Chapter 10 Beowulf, Chapter 11 the Priest and Nun. Would have preferred if at least the Priest and Nun were offloaded as minor characters somewhere in Chapters 6-9.
I'd have preferred if the novel wasn't kinetic and we had choices. It doesn't have to be branching paths, but different reactions, info dumps or bad ends would have made things better.
Overall I enjoyed my time with it and I feel like I'd come back to it in a few years. Would recommend if anyone ever asked, but I wouldn't put it on par with Fate/Stay Night or Tsukihime. Also the novel left me with a desire to go read some books. Actual books - as in paper with ink and no pictures.