The Witcher: Les Sirènes des abysses

I had high hopes for this. Thinking back on the damage they've done to The Witcher IP, this was naive. I re-read the short story that gives the movie its inspiration, and found myself, again, in awe of Sapokski's writing and characterization. In my opinion, it's one of Sapkowski's best short stories. Now, I don't want to be one of those people who harps on about an adaptation not being faithful to the original, but Netflix had so much to work with here. Sapkowski's writing is full of nuance and depth and pathos - everything this adaptation is lacking. The movie goes for cheap, surface-level fantasy action and vandalizes the unique creative depth and character-work that makes Sapkowski's writing, at its best, exceptional. At its best, Netflix has been able to capture some of this - I think back to Renfri from the first episode of The Witcher. But in large part, Netflix has failed to capture what makes the IP special. This is just the latest example.

Some laughable storytelling choices, including one that the writers had the nerve to play like a twist ending despite it being as inevitable as the rising sun. Voice acting does have a "pulled off the street" quality for some of the characters, but the performers from the Witcher show and the video games do a pretty good job.

Also, this is Netflix Witcher so you know going into it that Geralt is the 3rd or 4th lead. But for those who are unaware of how Netflix has managed this franchise, that's worth keeping in mind.

The action is actually pretty slick, although the last sequence tends to drag on a bit.

Altogether, this is a totally missable offering unless animated gore really gets you out of bed in the morning.

I understand the reservations people have with The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf - which I really liked, but that isn't the case -, but this production is by far a worst production than that animation. I wish I could brush it off by saying "what else could you expect from the same two writers that also wrote the Netflix series?" however this was proved wrong with the before mentioned animation, also written by one of the writers of the show - even though Beau DeMayo wrote another great show in the X-Men '97 adaptation - or maybe he is an exception and it is not wrong to assume that re-hiring writers from the Netflix series is a bad idea.

However, something is clear, even for the people that have not read the books, you can clearly tell what comes from the books (Sword of Destiny) and what was adapted from Netflix writers. There is even this part from the books that shows how witty Essi in their investigation, but she was robbed to create a "cool scene".

Overall, this adaptation of the short story "A Little Sacrifice" does way more harm than Vesemir's prequel did.

As a side note, why is the voice acting from Essi so weird?

Something has happened to the Witcher. Somewhere along the way, he has become a side character.

Story: It's not well developed but is serviceable.

Characters: As mentioned, somehow the focus is no longer on our hero - where it should always be - and it's not even on recurring characters important to our hero. This was a major error.

Animation: Passable but clearly on a very limited budget. Had the story been very good, this would have been easily forgivable.

Sound/Music/Voice: Low quality. The voice actors aren't very good, unfortunately. There's not much emoting, if any.

Verdict: Unless you're a die-hard Witcher fan, this anime is not worth your time. I gave six stars, mostly for nostalgia.

I haven't read the books, but I've watched anything Witcher related out there and I'm a big fan of the games. Although the fighting scenes with Geralt are perfect and entertaining, I feel like the entire thing lacked the emotion I'm used to with the games. The music in the background was barely audible, which took away a lot of the tension and feeling it usually creates. What you can hear the most is the sword slashing and voice acting (including breathing and whatnot), or other times just complete silence (which is usually used to create a certain atmosphere) that seems out of place. The story is pretty predictable and too much Little Mermaid like. The reasoning behind the characters' actions is too simple, in a way that makes you think "that's all there is to it?".

I think it had potential to be something good, even with the story being written as it was, if the rest of it managed to pull your heart into it by creating that Witcher feel. As it stands, it felt a bit disconnected or lacking at times. It was kinda boring because it completely missed the mark to be honest...