Boxwood

Boxwood (BOXWOOD) is a witch that appears in the first episode of the Magia Record Anime. This Witch was originally exclusive to the anime until it was implemented alongside the similar addition of Kuroe in late March 2022.

Witch

石中魚の魔女。その性質は蟄居。自身の結界内に特定のガラクタを収集し巣を作っている魔女。チューブ状の巣に引きこもってる時間が何より大好き。普段は巣の内部を泳いでいるだけだが、迷惑そうな侵入者に対してはエリマキを出して威嚇しながら体当たり攻撃をしてくる。砂場の魔女には一瞬で引き裂かれてしまったが、魔女の中で特段弱いわけではない。結界の中の空がパスタであふれているのは、かつて見たパスタの姿をした神様を模しているらしい。

Boxwood
Runes	BOXWOOD
Type	Stone-dwelling Fish Witch
Nature	Being confined
Episodes	Episode 1

Caption in Official Art from Twitter : The Witch of Stone-dwelling Fish. It appears as a Giant Salamander. Iroha who hasn't embarked on her journey yet fights against a witch who went into her shell. She shimmers in fluorescent colors when it's swimming inside the tubular structure that is her nest, but is solid black when she's outside. It swims like a lizard, winding itself.

Caption in Official Guidebook : The witch of stone-dwelling fish. Her nature is sequestration. A witch who collects particular kinds of garbage within her Labyrinth, and builds a nest with them. She loves the time she spends cooped up in her tube-shaped nest more than anything else. She typically just swims around the interior of her nest, but should any pesky-looking intruders show up, she’ll unfold her neck frills and attack them with body slams. She was instantly torn in half by the witch of sandboxes, but it’s not as if she’s particularly weak amongst witches. Apparently, the sky inside her Labyrinth is filled with pasta as an imitation of the pasta-shaped god she once saw.

Minions

石中魚の魔女の手下。その役割は漂着物。魔女の結界へ流れ着く生まれなかった生命達。魔女とはお互い干渉しない関係性だが、侵入者が訪れた際には魔女と協力しそれを排除する。

Unknown
Type	Stone-dwelling Fish Witch's minion
Duty	Flotsam
Episodes	Episode 1

Minions of the witch of stone-dwelling fish. Their role is to be flotsam. Unborn lives that drift into the witch’s Labyrinth. They and the witch generally don’t interfere with one another, but should an intruder arrive, they’ll cooperate with the witch to eliminate it.

In the Anime

Appearing only in the first episode, it is first attacked by Iroha Tamaki on a train after kidnapping a cat. Later on it appears on the train again with Iroha and Kuroe where all 3 end up getting transported to Kamihama within Zenobia's barrier. It is then caught and subsequently killed by the other witch.

Trivia

The eye-like design of this Witch can be a reference to a drawing for a flower bed entitled "Tearful Eye" from "MEMO FLORA", Kenji Miyazawa's gardening notebook. This sketch shows the eye-like design of the flower bed and the plants to be planted there, but there is not a name of Boxwood (Buxus).
- Boxwood shrub wood has been popularly used for miniature Christian sculptures, instruments, chess pieces, and the handles of daggers.
"Tsuge" is a Japanese surname and a word for boxwood. Two Japanese people can be suggested who may be associated with the Witch.
- Yoshiharu Tsuge (つげ義春) is Japanese manga artist. The Witch may be referred to him and some of his work.
  - Sanshōuo (山椒魚, "Salamander") is a monologue story of a giant salamander living in the sewage pipe. He does not remember how long he has lived there. Once he was also uncomfortable in the sewer environment, but eventually, he adapted to the environment, his constitution changed, and the sewage became his home where he could behave freely. He enjoys exploring the sewer system and inspecting the flotsams every day. One day, he encountered the strangest flotsam he'd never seen before. It is a dead human fetus flushed down the drain, but he can't understand what it is. He puzzles over what it is for three days, but in the end, he has no idea, and finally gets angry, head-butts the flotsam, and leaves. The story ends with his monologue in which he looks forward to his next encounter with anything he has not seen yet.
    - The single attack of this witch in the game is probably a head butt.
  - Uoishi (魚石, "Stone of Fish") is a story about a questionable stone which is said that fish lives inside.
  - Nejishiki (ねじ式, "Screw Style") is his most famous work. In the manga, the protagonist boy looking for a doctor proceeds to follow a road of railway tracks in hope that it will lead him to the village with the clinic. He succeeds in getting on the train, but the train brings him back to the village where he first entered and without any clinic. Then, he wanders into a street full of the ophthalmological clinics and the story continues. The eye doctors' signboard with an eye illustration appearing in that scene, also appears as one of the flotsams in Sanshōuo.
    - The author, Tsuge, said that this story is based on a dream he had while he was sleeping on the roof of a Ramen noodle shop. Noodles that exist inside the Witch and its barrier could be a reference to this.
- Rokurō Tsuge (柘植六郎) taught at Morioka High School of Agriculture and Forestry, the higher education school where Kenji Miyazawa was enrolled. Kenji seems to have admired him personally, and he appears in one of Kenji's poems.
Chinese and Japanese legends exist concerning "stones with live fish inside." The above-mentioned Uoisi by Yoshiharu Tsuge is also based on this folklore.
Boxwood's identity as the "Stone-Dwelling Fish Witch" and the description of its familiars has been provided by Mizuna anon on 4chan's /pmmm/ general. (archival images here).
It is unclear what the "pasta-shaped god" her description refers to is, but it may refer to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a deity and accompanying 'religion' (Pastafarianism) created to to satirize and oppose the teaching of intelligent design and creationism (predominantly from Christian beliefs) to children in schools. It has also come to be compared to and used as a modern example of the "Russell's teapot" philosophical argument stating that the burden of providing proof for a claim that cannot be confirmed as false lies with the person making the unfalisfiable claim, rather than the ones who reject that claim.
Her in-game defeat animation depicts her being split in half, referencing Zenobia doing so to her in Magia Record Episode 1.