Box Wood
Box Wood (BOX WOOD) is a witch that appears in the first episode of the Magia Record Anime. 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.
This witch does not appear in the game and is instead exclusive to the anime.
Witch
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. |
Minions
A minion of the Stone-dwelling fish witch. Its role is flotsam. The unborn lives drifted into the witch's barrier. They and the witch don't interfere with each other but, they cooperate and eliminate intruders when they visit. |
In the Anime
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.
- Yoshiharu Tsuge is Japanese manga artist. His surname "Tsuge" means boxwood in Japanese. 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 have not seen yet.
- 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 ophthalmological clinic 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.
- Box Wood'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).
Gallery
Official Art
Screenshots
Box Wood's name in Runes from Episode 1
Box Wood inside Zenobia's labyrinth
Her Grief Seed