Prince Oscar has been cursed since childhood to never have a child of his own, and he seeks out the calamitous witch Tinasha to find a way to break the curse, braving the trials of her tower. When they meet, Tinasha reveals that she has a strange connection to Oscar, and a curious courtship begins between them that threatens to shake the power structures of their world.

Lemme tell ya, this show is not being done any favours by airing in the same season as the Spice & Wolf remake. Obviously neither show's creators planned that, but the fact we have two dialogue-heavy premieres about a guy and his centuries-old magical girlfriend in a low-fantasy setting shines the harsh light of comparison on Unnamed Memory, and it doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

For one, it's kinda dull to look at. The character designs are alright but not memorable, especially Tinasha, whose design is surprisingly subdued. The animation is serviceable, carrying the short action scenes with just enough energy to get by. The direction makes occasional attempts at more dynamic angles, but lacks the evocative storyboarding necessary to keep an extended scene of two people talking visually interesting. The result is a lengthy sequence that feels like it drags hard and makes watching more of a chore than it needs to be.

Of course, our leads could mitigate that if they established strong chemistry through all that talking, but Oscar and Tinasha are no Lawrence and Holo. Many of the pair's discussions revolve around Oscar pushing for Tinasha to marry him entirely for the sake of birthing a royal heir, which makes their relationship feel much more one-sided from the get-go. It's hard to root for these two to get together when their central romantic tension is Oscar trying to slow-roll a political pregnancy, and it only gets weirder when they establish that his great-grandfather tried the same shit with the same woman. Considering a different witch was the one who cursed Oscar, maybe all the men in this family should just keep their dicks away from any magical women as a rule.

Even setting aside that dynamic, Tinasha isn't very interesting in her own right. Despite being a witch who's lived for hundreds of years, secluded in her magical tower of her own will, she feels neither ancient nor particularly antisocial. She doesn't offer a perspective that betrays her age, and her prior relationship with Oscar's ancestor is played for a laugh while otherwise never affecting anything in the long run. She feels generic, and Oscar's pushiness superseding any other part of his personality makes for rather boring company. That's enough to make the whole episode kind of a bust, and it does nothing to make me want to watch more. It'll have to do a lot more within the next two episodes for me to feel like it's worth my time.