Magical Warfare
Directed by: Yuzo Sato
Produced by: Madhouse, Media Factory
Voice cast: Mamoru Miyano, Nao Toyama, Asami Seto, Jun Fukuyama, Kazuya Nakai, Kenichi Suzumura, Mikako Takahashi, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Toshyiuki Morikawa
Air dates: Streaming live on Crunchyroll, Thursdays at 2:30 p.m. CST.

Boy, who hasn’t wanted to just run away from one’s problems at one time or another? To be able to, as it were, just escape somewhere, anywhere, as long as it wasn’t here, can at times be a seductive daydream. However, there is a dark side to this fantasy; sometimes, you may not know what you’re wishing for, and that’s what the new anime series Magical Warfare tries to convey in a tale rife with magic, battle, and unintended consequences.

Based on the light novel series by author Hisashi Suzuki and the subsequent manga by You Ibuki in Monthly Comic Gene, Magical Warfare tells the story of a group of school friends who unwittingly get dragged into the middle of a battle between two worlds and two conflicting schools of magic. The story opens with protagonist Takeshi Nanase, a normal high school student and member of the Sakuraya High School Kendo team, whose relationship with his mother and younger brother are strained and distant owing to some dark past event that has come between them. “I’d go anywhere to get out of this house,” he tells himself, “even to Hell.”

Witch Craft Works
Directed by Tsutomo Mizushima
Produced by J.C. Staff, Lantis, Kodansha
Voice cast: Yusuke Kobayashi, Asami Seto, Ai Kayano, Shiori Izawa, Ai Matayoshi, Yuka Kuroda, Kana Asumi, You Taichi, Sayaka Oohara, Natsumi Hioka, Momo Asakura, Shiori Izawa, Yuuko Iida, Rie Kugimiya, Shiina Natsukawa
Air Dates: Wednesdays at 1:15 CST
Currently simulcasting on Crunchyroll

Put yourself in this situation: Let’s say you’re a below-average male high school student. You’re scorned by your classmates, and to make things worse, you have to sit next to the most popular girl in the entire school every day, an arrangement that singles you out for all sorts of physical and mental abuse from her fans – both male and female – on an equally daily basis.

Now imagine that the only thing keeping you safe from an entire army of large mechanical rabbits that just invaded your school, hell-bent on your destruction, and the cadre of witches leading them, was a single fire witch who referred to you as her “princess,” and said fire witch is none other than the most popular girl in school.