Robin Sena is a "craft user", born in Japan and raised by the Roman Catholic Church in Italy. She is trained to use her craft of fire to hunt down witches. Witchcraft is a genetic trait, dormant within a number of individuals within the human population. Powers can be "awakened" in these dormant human "seeds" at any time, which seems to also drive the awakened witch into various forms of homicidal madness or sociopathy. Trained hunters, craft-users or "seeds" themselves that have not become full witches, are needed to keep watch over "seeds" and hunt those whose abilities become active, serving in secret organizations, such as the parent branch "Solomon" and the "STN-J" branch in Japan, as self-appointed witch police to curtail the use of witchcraft in society, and to keep the witch kind a secret from the public. Even the police, who cooperate with STN-J in abnormal criminal cases, do not know what STN-J does. The series begins when Robin arrives in Japan from Italy to gain information for Solomon headquarters about a fabled item that holds the "secrets of the craft," while acting undercover as a new hunter to the STN-J in their efforts to stop and capture witches.
"Orbo" is a green liquid that negates witch abilities. STN-J's hunters carry small vials of it on necklaces in the shape of a cross as a form of protection against their targets' craft. Hunters also carry air pistols which fire darts or pellets of Orbo that dampen witch powers when it enters the bloodstream of the target witch. Hunters who are craft-users or seeds can use Orbo without ill effects, although their own powers are reportedly diminished while using it. Robin, a craft-user herself, declines to use Orbo because she feels it is "disgusting". 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". After the discovery of "secrets of the craft," she is entrapped and attacked twice by "witch bullets". Subsequently, the STN-J is attacked, presumably for "secrets of the craft," although the Solomon attack was carried out to find what Zaizen, the director of the STN-J, was planning.
Robin begins to worry that she will become a target and grows to suspect that her partner Amon will hunt her. Eventually, Robin does become a target of Solomon and labeled a witch, becoming "hunted". In the end, Robin finds out more about her craft and that of witches than she knew at the beginning. 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 and the main plot gets underway.
Jason Bustard from THEM Anime Reviews comments that the supernatural and spooky undercurrent in the setting would fit perfectly into The X-Files or Millennium television series. The characters are received as a "mixed bunch". The main cast is said to have "distinct and fully rendered personalities", all of which are well-done. In contrast to the review from Anime News Network, Bustard believed that the story moved at a brisk pace. Although he agreed that action fans would find the series dull and added that comedy and romance fans would not enjoy the series either.[1] Tasha Robinson of Sci Fi Channel's Sci Fi Weekly commented that it was difficult to decide whom to "root for" as the witches seemed to be insane killers, but the protagonists were "killers of a colder, more controlled stripe" and were generally unpleasant, with the exceptions of Karasuma and Zaizen. She also noted that the characters give no indication as to why they work for the STN. Robin and Amon's character designs are said to be strange. The series' setting was said to be "a fairly severe, almost oppressive gothic design" and that the color palette and the plot's focus on the occult contributed to the dark feel. The pace steeply picks up once the protagonists head into battle. It is also noted that the series' could have afforded to reveal more information earlier in the series instead of teasing the audience with mysteries; just like many other reviewers, she comments that the mysteries were worth the wait.[17]
The Last Witch Hunter is a 2015 American urban fantasy action film directed by Breck Eisner and written by Cory Goodman, Matt Sazama, and Burk Sharpless. The film stars Vin Diesel as an immortal witch hunter who must stop a plague from ravaging the entire world.[6] The film was released on October 23, 2015, grossing $147 million while receiving generally unfavorable reviews from critics.
In the present day, Kaulder prevents a teenage witch from unintentionally destroying an airplane with weather-controlling runes. Kaulder is revealed to be working as a witch hunter for an organization called the Axe and Cross, which aims to keep the truce between humans and witches and either executes or imprisons the witches who break the law. He is aided by a priest called "Dolan", a tradition carried from the battle to destroy the Witch Queen.
The 36th Dolan tells Kaulder that he is retiring from his duties and has chosen a new Dolan for him, but dies in his sleep. Kaulder and the 37th Dolan deduce that 36 was murdered by a witch. While tracking down the witch, Kaulder finds traces of old dark magic, not seen since before he killed the Queen. It is revealed that 36 is not dead but under a dark magic spell that can only be broken if the witch that cast it is killed.
To get the rare ingredient to create another memory spell, they visit another witch, Danique. However, Danique casts an endless memory spell on Kaulder, planning to entrap him in his dream forever. Chloe, revealed to be a dream-walker, is able to enter his trance and free his mind and the pair escape. Kaulder asks Chloe to enter his mind and pull out the memory. He discovers that, though the Queen's body burned to ash, the first Dolan chose to spare her heart; if the heart was destroyed, Kaulder would die. They deduce that 36 was attacked because he knew of where the heart was hidden and was tortured into revealing its location. They also realize that Belial's real plan is to revive the Queen.
Leaving Chloe and the 37th Dolan behind, Kaulder goes to face Belial to prevent the Queen from returning. Though he kills Belial in a confrontation, the Queen reenters the world through the sacrifice of another witch and escapes into the city, stealing Kaulder's immortality. 36, who is recovering, encourages Kaulder to continue fighting.
The members of the Witch Council, who guard the Witches' Prison, are killed and the Queen plans to release another plague curse using the imprisoned witches as a magical power source. Using her dream walking ability, Chloe kills one of the prisoners, severing the connection of the Queen. Kaulder fights the Queen, and appears close to killing her, until 37 attacks him with grudge for killing his witch parents. He asks the Queen to give him magical power. She refuses and kills 37 and uses Chloe to complete the connection for the plague curse to form again. Kaulder summons lightning to his sword using the weather runes he confiscated from the young witch on the plane, and throws his sword into the Queen, burning her to ash. Kaulder prepares to kill both himself and the Queen's heart, but Chloe dissuades him, stating that there were things in the darkness worse than the Witch Queen that he needs to continue fighting.
Screenwriter Corey Goodman was largely influenced by talks with Vin Diesel, specifically about his Dungeons & Dragons witch hunter character.[7] Initially Timur Bekmambetov was to direct but was later replaced by Breck Eisner and Goodman's script was re-written by D.W. Harper before Melisa Wallack was brought on to work on the film's script.[8][9] Both were uncredited. The production filed for a film tax credit in Pennsylvania and was allocated a tax credit of $14 million.[10][11] In February 2014, Vin Diesel posted a photo of the film's concept artwork to his Facebook page and Lionsgate CEO Jon Feitheimer commented that if successful, The Last Witch Hunter could become a film franchise.[12] In March 2014, Lakeshore Entertainment boarded the film as co-financier with Lionsgate, but Lakeshore quietly left the project. In July 2014, it was announced that Rose Leslie would be joining the cast as Vin Diesel's co-star,[13] and in August, Elijah Wood, Michael Caine, and Ãlafur Darri Ãlafsson were also announced as attached to the film.[14][15][16] Julie Engelbrecht and Lotte Verbeek will also star.[17][18] In February 2015, Steve Jablonsky was hired to compose the film's score.
An especially charming Diesel plays Kaulder, a witch-slayer who was cursed to live forever by the Witch Queen (Julie Engelbrecht) back in ye olde viking days. An integral member of the mortal-led witch-hunting organization Axe and Cross, Kaulder has grown full of himself after centuries of walking the Earth unchallenged. But when Ellic (Michael Caine), Kaulder's sidekick and the chronicler of his stories, dies on the day of his retirement, Kaulder investigates, and discovers a plot to revive the centuries-dead Witch Queen.
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