The Dawn of the Witch

The Dawn of the Witch is a Japanese television anime adapted from Kakeru Kobashiri’s light-novel series Mahoutsukai Reimeiki. Kobashiri wrote the novels, Takashi Iwasaki illustrated them, and Kodansha issued the Japanese volumes under its Kodansha Ranobe Bunko imprint. The story shares its setting with Kobashiri’s earlier Grimoire of Zero, but takes place after that work’s events. Its protagonist is Saybil, a student at the Royal Magic Academy who has no memory of life before enrollment. He is not merely shy or inexperienced: his missing past is a central problem, shaping both his fear of abandonment and his uncertain magical identity. At the academy, Saybil is paired with classmates whose situations are unusual. Holt, the diligent daughter of a noble family, becomes his closest companion. Kudo is a beastfallen student, while Loux Krystas is a small witch with white hair and formidable power. Their instructor, the priest Albus, sends the group to a village in the south, where witches and residents are trying to coexist after conflict. The assignment is presented as training, yet it places the students amid hostility, bandit attacks, and arguments over witchcraft. Saybil’s recovery of knowledge about himself gives the expedition consequences far exceeding a school exercise. Tezuka Productions produced the anime adaptation. Satoshi Kuwabara directed it, Kenta Ihara handled series composition and scripts, and Tatsuhiko Saiki composed the music. The character designs for animation were by Reina Iwasaki, adapting Takashi Iwasaki’s original novel illustrations. In Japan, the twelve-episode series ran from April 8 through June 24, 2022, on TBS and other broadcasters. Its opening theme, “Dawn of Infinity,” was performed by fripSide; its ending theme, “Imprinting,” was performed by ▽▲TRiNITY▲▽. The production’s casting includes Shūichirō Umeda as Saybil, Miho Okasaki as Loux, Yumiri Hanamori as Holt, and Masayuki Katō as Kudo, shown in the academy group. The anime’s village mission reconnects the franchise with figures from Grimoire of Zero. Zero, the silver-haired witch associated with the earlier title, and the Mercenary appear in The Dawn of the Witch, preserving the shared world. That continuity matters because the series examines the aftermath of a period when witches were feared and hunted. The southern settlement is not a backdrop detached from plot: residents’ suspicion of magic drives confrontations. By centering Saybil’s amnesia, Loux’s witch identity, and trainees’ assignment, the adaptation frames its action around whether people marked by magic can establish trust with communities that still fear it.