“Once Upon a Witch’s Death” is an anime television adaptation of the eponymous acclaimed manga series, directed by Atsushi Nigorikawa and streaming on Crunchyroll. The fantasy drama centers on Meg Raspberry, a spirited teenager who faces a devastating revelation on her seventeenth birthday: she is afflicted with a fatal curse that will claim her life within a year unless she collects one thousand tears of joy. Undeterred, Meg embarks on a poignant journey to defy her fate, forging meaningful bonds and discovering the true power of human connection along the way. SPOILERS BELOW!
Meg Raspberry’s Race Against Time and Fate
On Meg Raspberry’s seventeenth birthday, her guardian and master, Ms. Faust, who is also one of the Seven Sages, casually informs her that she will die of an unbreakable death curse when she reaches the age of eighteen. When said curse is activated, her biological ageing process will go haywire, and she will start ageing a thousand times the normal rate, leading to her death within a month. Acquiring a “seed of life,” which grants immortality, is the only way to counteract this affliction. So, Meg is given a special bottle to collect a thousand tears of joy in order to create the seed. Distraught by the news, Meg begins to wander aimlessly until she encounters Anna, who has recently been bereaved of her mother, Iris. With an intent to comfort Anna and her father Hendy, Meg casts an illusion of Yoshino Cherry Blossoms around Iris’ grave, as they were her favourite flowers. Meg’s bottle automatically collects two tears, later revealed to be a combination of the emotions joy and grief.
Now with the unshakable objective of defeating her curse, Meg is determined to collect the required thousand tears. She performs a memorial ceremony for her friend Fine’s irreparable watch, a memento of her grandfather, and reunites an old Flaire with her family after sensing her impending death, earning two more tears. Faust must travel to North America to investigate the environmental damage, so she leaves Meg under the care of Inori, the Sage of Wisdom. Inori offers Meg an assistantship, leading to the latter revealing her curse. The two women bond over their shared ambitions, inspiring Meg to challenge her predetermined fate.
Trials, Tears, and the Birth of the Witch of Lapis
Several weeks later, the much-anticipated Otherworld Festival begins. Faust inaugurates the ceremony every year by opening a portal, which allows magical beings of the Other World to cross over and interact with festival goers. The festival is also a means of weeding out the wild magic detrimental to the environment. Faust—unable to attend the festival this year due to a severe back injury—is forced to ask Sophie Hayter, a Sage, to take her place instead. In conversations between Sophie and Meg, it is revealed that Sophie was born with immense magical power and ostracized for the same. She was taken by the Council of Magic at the age of five. She began using her powers to bring joy to people and thus earned the title “Sage of Blessing”. On the day of the festival, a mistake on Sophie’s part causes a dangerous spirit to force its way in. The two women eventually save the townspeople, but Meg ends up taking the blame, forging a serendipitous and deep bond between the two. As the festival nears its end, Meg and Sophie reunite Marie with Woof, a wolfman from the other side of the portal. This union yields two more tears in Meg’s bottle.
Over time, Meg begins trivialising her primary task, which is collecting tears, and starts considering it too menial to put her heart into. Disappointed in her hubris, Faust forbids Meg from using magic. Constantly being thanked by people she can’t remember prompts Meg to reflect on her behaviour. She realises that helping others offers her more rewards than simply tears and that she should treasure every individual she interacts with. The townspeople eventually give her the title “Witch of Lapis”. Faust, now proud of Meg, explains that the title is a token of gratitude from the people.
Sophie’s Invitation and Meg’s Journey Beyond Lapis
Sophie invites Meg to join her in North America for a magic ceremony that is held every two decades. The convention is also attended by the Seven Sages. While there, Meg encounters two witches, Chloe and Eldora. The former is the Witch of Words, who, even though she can’t use magic, is half-human and half-spirit and thus acts as an intermediary between the two beings. The latter is the Witch of Demise, who is aware of Meg’s curse and warns that she will lose someone irreplaceable when she lifts her curse. Later, the Council’s chairman, accompanied by Faust and Eldora, announces the Planet Core Project, which aims to create a source for all the magic power on Earth.
Upon returning to Lapis, Meg notices a scar on both Mary’s and her mother Jill’s necks. Believing that Mary’s father, Ted, has offered them as sacrifices to the devil, Meg sneaks into Ted’s library with the intention of destroying the sacrificial altar. But she is caught in the act. He decides to offer all three as sacrifices, but Faust intervenes. She kills Ted and banishes the devil, but loses a thumb in the process. In the aftermath, Jill and Mary leave the town to begin a new chapter in their lives.
Meg’s Bond with Serena and the Hidden Truth of Her Curse
Meg is assigned by the mayor to investigate the town’s revered Oak tree. Inori and Meg deduce that the tree is infected with magic and must be burnt down, otherwise the area surrounding the tree will be transformed into a wasteland. Meg befriends the tree’s spirit, whom she names Serena, and they walk around the town, and the latter professes her love for Lapis, but disappears shortly. Knowing Serena must be returned to the cosmos so she can be reincarnated, Meg searches for her but finds her mutated into a grotesque being. She casts a fire spell to save the Oak and Serena; the former is reincarnated into a Cherry Blossom tree. Meg names it Lapis Serena.
Due to a leg injury that Meg received during the event, Inori takes her to the city of Aquamarine for her medical treatment. At the hospital, it is revealed that Meg was brought there as a child by Faust because she was suffering from magical contamination caused by a magical disaster. She later meets the esteemed doctor Jack Russo, who asks for her assistance in finding a cure for magical contamination and treating a boy suffering from the same, in exchange for healing her injured leg. He also deduces that her curse could be a result of the magical contamination she suffered as a child. Later, Sophie arrives to check on Meg and the two, accompanied by Inori and Jack’s daughter Coco, walk around the city. The Bell of Blessings caught Meg’s attention, which was created by the ancient witch Tethys as a means to protect the city from tsunamis and earthquakes. Sophie recognises the symbols inscribed on the monuments near the bell, which begin to glow as they leave, hinting that something of particular importance will unfold in the subsequent episodes.
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