Once Upon a Witch’s Death is a new Spring 2025 anime that surprised audiences with a plot and magically serene vibe similar to that of Madhouse’s Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. Animated by EMT Squared, it adapts Saka and Chorefuji’s light novel of the same name, which follows the tale of a young witch who finds out that she only has one more year of life before an unbreakable curse comes to claim her.
The anime doesn’t possess any of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End‘s visually stunning action scenes, and it’s too early to judge how it compares in terms of world-building, but Once Upon a Witch’s Death sets up a perfect plot to explore the beauty of human life, meaningful connections, and farewells. It’s the perfect anime for those who loved the more heartwarming and tear-jerking moments of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.
Meg in Once Upon a Witch’s Death has One Year Left to Live
There is One Way for Meg Raspberry to Save Herself & the Deadline is Tight
Once Upon a Witch’s Death Episode 1, titled “The Witch With One Year to Live,” starts off on a rather cheerful note. It’s the seventeenth birthday of the young witch, Meg Raspberry, and she joyfully goes about her day doing some witchly household chores until her guardian and mentor, Mistress Faust, delivers some grim news. Meg is apparently cursed, and she has only one year left before she dies. Faust, an extremely powerful witch who has mastered time magic, shows her pupil a vision of what her death would look like.
Meg will perish via a disease that will rapidly age her until her body gives out, which will take effect the moment she turns 18. Obviously, a young witch who’s worked hard all her life to make something of herself wants to save herself from such a fate. Faust explains that the only way to do so is to get a seed of life, which is created from tears of pure joy. The seed of life will protect Meg from her fated demise, keeping her immortal until she dispels its effects. The catch? Meg needs a thousand tears in order to make just one seed.
Once Upon a Witch’s Death Episode 1 Sets up Themes of Death & Goodbyes
Meg’s First Mission Focuses on the Final Wish of a Dead Mother
In Once Upon a Witch’s Death Episode 1, Meg meets a young girl named Anna, whose ailing mother, Iris, had recently passed. Her father, Mr. Hendy is riddled with grief, and Anna simply wants to ease his pain. Despite having never met her own parents before they died, Meg felt sympathy for Anna and was determined to find the mysterious pink flower that Iris wanted to show her daughter. Determined, Meg gathers clues she notices around the family’s home.
From the various things she finds, Meg eventually concludes that the pink flowers that Iris wanted to show Anna were cherry blossoms. With Mr. Hendy and Anna gather at Iris’s grave. Meg performs a feat of magic (that surprises even herself) and creates the illusion of a spring day full of cherry blossom trees in full bloom. Mr. Hendy and Anna admire the beauty of it all, while Meg points out everything that Iris had done for her family, reminding the grieving husband of how much his wife had loved them.
At that point, Mr. Hendy realizes just how much he’s left Anna to support herself while he allows his pain to consume him. Together, both father and daughter finally cry together. Now that Anna had laid her eyes on the flowers that her mother wished for her to see, she and her father could receive closure. The tears that the pair shed become the first to crystallize within the enchanted bottle that Faust gave to Meg, as well as the first tears in her collection.
Unfortunately, Anna and Mr. Hendy’s tears weren’t from pure joy, as they were shed with a mixture of happiness and pain. However, the experience instilled an important lesson in Meg: people need to say a proper goodbye in order to move on. This is something that she carries well into the next episode.
Once Upon a Witch’s Death Introduces Magical Creatures
Fairies are the Spirits Within Important Everyday Objects
In Once Upon a Witch’s Death Episode 2, “The Apprentice Witch and the People of Lapis,” Meg’s childhood friend, Fine Cavendish, presents an old watch that had suddenly stopped working. She’s desperate to hear it ticking once more, so she asks Faust if there is a way to fix it. Faust notes that the “fairy” within the watch has weakened, introducing Fine and the audience to a unique take on a magical creature.
In the world of Once Upon a Witch’s Death, a fairy is a spirit that lives within an object after it’s been given purpose. Faust describes the fairies as the “driving force” that makes these objects, whether organic or inorganic, work. The weakening of the fairy within Fine’s watch shows that the object has reached the end of its life. Meg realizes that, because the watch had belonged to her dead grandfather, Fine has a difficult time accepting that it can’t be fixed.
To help her friend, Meg performs a minor ritual that basically functions as a funeral for meaningful items. Through this ritual, the fairy within Fine’s watch is freed and rejuvenated, helping it regain enough strength to inhabit something new. Meg explains the fairy will return to her one day in a different form, which in a way keeps the memory and spirit of her grandfather alive. This brings a tear to Fine’s eyes, which becomes the third crystallized tear in Meg’s enchanted bottle.
The Reaper is Black Mist & Foretells a Person’s Approaching Demise
The second episode of Once Upon a Witch’s Death also introduces its concept of the Grim Reaper. Rather than taking the shape of a ghastly figure with a scythe, the anime’s version of the Grim Reaper is more of a mist-like aura that enshrouds a person who is fated to die within a month’s time. After helping Granny Flare, an elderly friend of hers, Meg notices the all-too-familiar misty shroud of the Reaper.
Meg hopes to save Flare from death with a seed of life; however, Faust warns her that there are some fates that shouldn’t be messed with. This angers Meg, and, for the first time, the audience sees her forsake the positive and carefree attitude she normally carries. After yelling at her guardian, Meg storms out of the house and goes to visit Flare once more.
Despite Meg’s attempts to save Flare, she slowly realizes that there is no avoiding the inevitable. As Meg watches the reaper mist grow bigger and bigger around her friend, she accepts that some fates simply cannot be altered. So, rather than trying to stave off the inevitable, Meg does something else: grant Flare her final wish.
With the help of one of her animal familiars, Meg finds Flare’s son and grandchild from across the country and fly them to her doorstep. Thanks to Meg, they’re able to spend the day together, and this one act of kindness gives Flare so much happiness that she passes on with a serene smile on her face. Flare is lulled towards death as though she were simply falling asleep. Before she completely passes away, Flare sheds one final tear, which then becomes Meg’s fourth collected tear.
Fans of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Will Love Once Upon a Witch’s Death
Frieren the Elf & Meg Raspberry Are Perfectly Written Female Anime Characters
Frieren of Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End is an immortal elven mage who wants to live in the moment and focus on creating memories with her current adventuring companions. This is, in part, because of the regret she feels after missing the opportunity to do such things with her past party members, particularly Himmel. Frieren grieved for him, but rather than sulking and wallowing in her own remorse, she honored him by carrying her memories of him close to her heart and retracing the adventure they had.
Meg is a human who is given the shortest possible timeline to complete an impossible task. After the death of Flare, she becomes determined to live on so she can carry the memories of the people she’s met. Meg is also learning how different people grieve and all the many ways that they say goodbye when the Reaper eventually comes to claim them or a loved one.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Once Upon a Witch’s Death are both character-driven and emotionally charged anime series that explore human connection and focus on themes of grief. They highlight the briefness of human life, albeit in different ways, and lean heavily toward the value of memory and honoring loved ones rather than lamenting the inevitability of death. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End focuses on making memories and recollecting past joys, while Once Upon a Witch’s Death dives into the importance of a proper farewell.
It’s not known whether Meg will get the thousand tears of joy that she needs in order to save herself from an early grave, especially at the rate she’s collecting them. However, in the meantime, she’s helping others in meaningful and impactful ways that also help her discover things about humanity and human life. Most importantly, she’s learning how to say goodbye, which might be something she’ll need to do herself soon.
