YMMV / W.I.T.C.H. (2004)

• Adaptation Displacement: To an extent. In the countries where the comics were not available, or any translation was quickly Cut Short due to low sales (the United States being the biggest example), the animated series is more well-known. Up to the point where many don't even know they were based on comics.
• Awesome Music:
  • Matt's band's songs, "The Will to Love" and "The Demon in Me" are both catchy and touching, though for very different reasons. Having Jason Marsden play Matt's singing voice as well as his speaking doesn't hurt.
  • The soundtrack inspired by the show and comics has really great songs. It even has songs that reflect each member of the Guardians
    • "Keeper of the Heart" has a disco flair that explains Will's role as leader and, as the title suggests, Keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar.
    • "Flow" reflects Irma's can-do attitude and power over water with its 2000s pop meets R&B/hip-hop inspired vibe.
    • "Fire" is soft but passionate, fitting the bright Taranee to a tee.
    • "Bloom" illustrates Cornelia's girly personality and power over earth.
    • "Swifter" reflects Hay Lin's free spirit, which connects to her power over air.
    • Both the American theme by Marion Raven and the International theme by Sabrina are excellent songs that do a good job conveying the premise of the show while still being different in mood and tone.
    • "Power of W.I.T.C.H." is an awesome Bragging Theme Tune.
    • "United" conveys the importance of The Power of Friendship.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
  • The show is vastly more popular in Russia (having a following on the now-defunct ImageBoard 0chan among other places) than anywhere else in the world, though compared to other shows that's still not saying much. The comics are still pretty popular there as well. Notably, the second season opening is generally preferred to the first.
  • The cartoon series is quite popular in Poland as well. Unlike in Russia though, the season 1 OP is generally preferred.
• Growing the Beard: The second season of the show, headed by Disney action veteran Greg Weisman, greatly cut down on the comic relief, introduced a very cunning villain in Nerissa, placed more focus on WITCH itself, made the story an interesting battle of wits and trickery, and improved the combat sequences. This is less than surprising given that Weisman was the creator and showrunner of Gargoyles, trope namer for the Xanatos Gambit. Unfortunately for fans, the show was cancelled right after.
• Informed Wrongness:
  • Cornelia in "F is for Facades". She and Caleb had broken up since the start of the season, and she had a point that he cared more about reforming Meridian and helping Elyon than building a relationship with her, something Caleb eventually admits. Thus, Cornelia was well within her rights to move on with Taranee's brother; the real issue is that she was pretending to be older with her powers and didn't tell Caleb she was dating someone else. Caleb had inadvertently crashed her date thanks to Elyon encouraging him not to give up on love, though Cornelia was touched that he would make a fool of himself to win her back. He had no right to judge her for kissing another guy when he interrupted her date with Peter.
  • Irma in "L is for Loser". When Uriah tricks Martin into reading a love poem dedicated to her on the school radio and announces to the entire school that he and Irma are now a couple, Irma snaps and delivers a blistering tirade to Martin that is unfortunately heard by everyone thanks to Uriah turning on the radio equipment. This leads to almost everyone at school turning on her and she apologizes to Martin the next day. The thing is, Irma had repeatedly made it clear to Martin in previous episodes that she was not interested in him and his behavior towards Irma is a clear case of harassment and refusal to take no for an answer In fact, it's not until after this episode that Martin finally stops nagging Irma for a date. And while being blasted on radio can be rather humiliating, that was not Irma's intention as she didn't know Uriah was broadcasting them. In short, the episode portrays Irma as being in the wrong for rejecting the advances of a boy whom she'd tried to let down easy in previous episodes.
• Jerkass Woobie: The cartoon version of Nerissa. While she does a lot of heinous acts, she's remorseful for killing Cassidy, and she does love Julian and her son Caleb. When Greg Weisman's opinion is asked about her, he responds like this:
  That she's complex, interesting and fascinating with the tragic flaw of most great villains. Plus she loved and mourned Cassidy. And in her twisted way, loved Caleb and Julian too. And that makes her at least a little sympathetic. Though, of course, the fact that she killed Cassidy and used her, Caleb AND Julian also undercuts that sympathy more than a little.
• Les Yay:
  • "E is for Enemy" has Irma and Cornelia sleeping together, with Cornelia's hand on Irma's breast, as you can see in this image◊.
  • In the episode 12 of the first season, "The Princess Revealed", Cornelia gave to her friends the description of Elyon's type in boys. The thing is that the description perfectly fits Cornelia.
  • In "Happy Birthday Will", Irma teases Will by calling her by Will's mother's ridiculously saccharine pet name for her — "Pink Poopy Perky Pumpkin" in English, "mon petit lapin rose en sucre" ("my little pink sugar bunny") in French.
• Nausea Fuel: "Z is for Zenith" has a surprisingly graphic scene of Phobos using his powers to distend Cedric's gastrointestinal wall, causing some of it to rupture and inflame, at which point blood and digestive fluid fly directly at the screen.
• Out of the Ghetto: The series has its fair share of male fans and is seen as a good, western example of a Magical Girl Warrior series. It helps in America that the theme was rock based, instead of the original pop.
• The Scrappy: Blunk is widely disliked, though it's not so bad as people make it out to be, especially once he's toned down by the end of Season 1. It still says something that a character voiced by Steve Blum could be so unpopular in the first place.
• Shocking Moments:
  • In "J is for Jewel," the viewers and new Meridian court learning that Trill was never real and another disguise for Nerissa. She proceeds to reveal she manipulated Elyon into giving up her powers and traps her in the Heart of Meridian jewel. There is no way to see it coming, but it's brilliant in hindsight. Caleb admits in the next episode that as a cook supporting the rebels, Trill gained all of their trust and was able to get close to Elyon to steal her power.
  • "O is For Obedience": Caleb learns Nerissa is his mother, and she still is fond of him. Nerissa later reveals that she gave birth to Caleb to ensure he became the new ruler of Meridian, offering a We Can Rule Together. What does Caleb do? He pretends to agree, only to try and steal her staff, because as he puts it, he's not making himself a tyrant or supporting another. In case you needed a reminder that Caleb is awesome; he may have failed to steal the staff, but he wins on principle. Nerissa also can't bring herself to hurt him.
• Squick:
  • Will's reaction in "T is for Trauma" when Cornelia accidentally brings up the subject of Parental Incest between Caleb and Nerissa.
  • In the same episode when Altermere!Yan Lin tries to steal her granddaughter's boyfriend. Even though she has a youthful appearance, Yan Lin's flirting with her potential grandson-in-law is quite unsettling.
  • Also Irma and Hay Lin's response to Minion Shipping with Cedric and Miranda. The second is pretty understandable, as it is both bestiality and pedophilia. Miranda is a little girl that transforms, Cedric is a monster disguised as a man.
  • Nerissa essentially raped Julian via a Bed Trick, and that's how Caleb was born.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: A recurring instrumental rock tune heard throughout season 2 sounds only slightly off from "Jumpin' Jack Flash" by the Rolling Stones.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The comic purists dislike the show for making random changes and inserting more "boy/kid friendly" elements to the story like wacky comedy or obvious comic relief sidekicks (Blunk). Cartoon fans say the story is still well-developed and fixes a lot of the weird things present in the comics that the purists don't acknowledge. To this day, there's still no pleasing. There are some who like both versions for their own qualities, however.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Some find Elyon to become this as the first season of the TV show goes on. She starts out legitimately sympathetic, learning that her whole life is a lie and that her adoptive parents and best friends have been deceiving her, driving her into the arms of her brother who is also deceiving her and with actual harmful intentions behind it. However, more and more things start to clearly poke holes in Phobos' facade and should reasonably make Elyon start to question everything, and yet she stubbornly refuses to and clings to the belief that her friends are evil and Phobos is good, only pulling a Heel–Face Turn after Phobos reveals his true colors and tries to kill her, with her friends having to bail her out.