Journal with Witch continues the slice of life drama with quite a bit of graduation pain in Ep. 3 “Discard”. All stemming from some unresolved grief over the death of Asa’s parents. It’s a problem that gets further compounded even before the graduation woes due to a visit to Asa’s old (and now deserted) home, with all the emotional complexity you can expect.

Journal with Witch Ep. 3 “Discard”: Details in Brief

Journal with Witch JP key art
The one time Asa shows some seriously strong emotions here, and it’s not a good thing.

Journal with Witch Ep. 3 “Discard” is the third episode (you can read my reviews of Ep. 1 and Ep. 2 here) of this slice of life comedy-drama anime series. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Tomoko Yamashita.

Shuka (Durarara!!x2 Shō, 91 Days, Natsume’s Book of Friends: Fifth Season) is the animation studio behind this anime. Miyuki Oshiro is the director of this anime, with Kōhei Kiyasu as the writer, and Kensuke Ushio as the composer for the music.

Speaking of the music: the opening theme song for Journal with Witch is “Sonare” (ソナーレ) by Tomoo. Meanwhile, “Kotozute” (言伝; lit. ’Hearsay’) by Bialystocks is the ending theme song.

Synopsis

A sad day for Asa here indeed.

Alas, Journal with Witch is still an ongoing anime series. In fact, Ep. 3 “Discard” only just made its debut on January 18, 2026 exclusively on Crunchyroll. Thus, here’s the synopsis for this week’s episode from Crunchyroll below:

“Makio and Asa return home to sort through her family’s belongings, and Asa attends middle school graduation.”

Journal with Witch Ep. 3 “Discard”: The Good

Journal with Witch Ep. 3 "Discard" screenshot 1
There’s a reason why she looks like she’s in her dark shonen era.

There is so much to unpack in Journal with Witch Ep. 3 “Discard”, but we shall start with the story. To start with that story, we will start with the scene about Makio Kōdai (voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro (JP)) and Asa Takumi (voiced by Fuko Mori (JP)) visiting Asa’s old home to pick up stuff and clean it out for whoever will live there next. From the everyday objects lying in places waiting for an owner who will now never use them to the wilting plants dying from lack of care: everything about that scene reinforces how abandoned the apartment is with the death of Asa’s parents. Even the muted color palettes and the colors of sunset emphasizes the loneliness of Asa’s old home, with only their presence there giving the place any semblance of life at all.

Then we have Asa’s nervous breakdown at her junior high/middle school’s graduation ceremony, all caused by more or less well-meaning adults who decided that they needed to inform everyone in the school of the death of Asa’s parents with the goal of preventing someone from accidentally stepping on Asa’s mental toes. It’s fascinating because it’s depicted (justifiably so) to be a direct attack on and an invasion of Asa’s privacy, made all the more iffy because the teachers did this after effectively seizing the information from the phone of Asa’s friend Emiri Nara (voiced by Sumire Morohoshi (JP)). This entire scene is basically a conflict of adult responsibilies and child autonomy/privacy, and is also a criticism of adults taking that autonomy/privacy away from children for any reason.

Both of these scenes also give us an excellent example of emotional buildup. The first scene sets it up for the second scene to then build into an emotionally tense high, and then it all comes crashing down into emotional relief when Asa and Emiri make up with each other over phone. I have to give kudos here to Fuko Mori and Sumire Morohoshi, because it’s their voice acting that really helped emphasize that emotionally fraught scene.

Journal with Witch Ep. 3 “Discard”: The Bad

Journal with Witch Ep. 3 "Discard" screenshot 2
Alas, even well-meaning people can still do horrible things.

Alas, this episode suffers from the same problem as the previous episodes: the animation quality is…not great. It’s not bad, and in many scenes, studio Shuka’s animators make some delightfully artsy animation. However, it neither looks nor feels like a big-budget anime series, especially when you look at the mediocre animation quality of the food. This anime would certainly benefit from the animation quality isekai anime series normally get due to their bloated budgets, but alas, this anime remains something more decidedly niche.

Also, Journal with Witch as a whole, including Ep. 3 “Discard”, is not an action-packed anime. This is a slice of life comedy-drama about an aunt and her niece both dealing with grief. If you want an action movie in anime form, you will have to look elsewhere for that.

Anime Recommendations

Fortunately, there are many action-packed anime series out there as alternatives. If you wish to watch action that will likely have blood and gore, then you might want to check out Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, DAN DA DAN, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II, Zenshu, Blue Box, Solo Leveling, Black Butler, Nyaight of the Living Cat, May I Ask for One Final Thing?, and/or TRIGUN STARGAZE. However, if you want more calming shows or one that aren’t nearly as action-oriented, then you definitely want to watch Spy x Family, Senpai is an Otokonoko, Apocalypse Hotel, Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, My Dress-Up Darling, This Monster Wants to Eat Me, and/or Hana-Kimi.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Journal With Witch? Tell us your slice of life drama anime thoughts in the comment section below.

For more on Anime, make sure to check back to That Hashtag Show.

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