Little Witch Academia TV - Reviews

I remember watching the orginal Little Witch Academia animated film and thinking 'yeah, this is a good start, but this is a franchise that would be better served as a full twenty-something part series'. Alas, having watched Little Witch Academia TV, it seems this was a false impression.

Make no mistake, I like Little Witch Academia TV. In typical Studio Trigger fashion, it's got a lot of style, fab visuals and a decent voice cast, plus some really original character designs and a penchant for set-pieces and arc pay-offs (by which I mean things get VERY OTT and there are copious explosions and renumerations of catch phrases). However, like Kill la Kill and Gurren Lagann before it (the latter isn't technically an ST work but was directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, one of ST's founders), it ends up being rather a case of style over substance. 

TV is somewhat of a soft reboot for the franchise, but covers much of the same ground: Akko, a young girl from a non-magical family, is accepted into the once-prestigious Luna Nova Academy for witches. Akko has long idolised the magical entertainer 'Shiny' Chariot du Nord, and wants to be a witch in her mold, no matter what anyone might say about her own prowess, or the ethics of Chariot's very low-art form of sorcery. TV follows Akko as she blunders her way through encounters with staff members, new friends and strange situations, all the while developing her magical knowledge and chasing the dream of meeting Chariot in person.

One thing that cannot be said is that TV isn't colourful. It is, and it's lovely to have a (mostly) fun, cheerful and (to my great relief) not-sexist anime series to feast eyes and ears on. Despite featuring a school full of pubescent girls, Studio Trigger (*GASP*) decides not to cram scenes with gross-oversexualisation, as many other productions certainly would have done, and there's nary a panty shot in sight. Female characters are varied in design and motivation, and with 9/10s of the cast (assumedly) identifying as girls and women, it certainly passes the Bechdel test. Sometimes, with its endless messages of self-belief and perseverence (it sometimes feels like half of the dialogue consists of these two themes), TV can feel a little bit twee and pretty darn repetitive (I'll get onto that), but it's still a nice break from 'All Of Our Girls Are Wearing Pink Panties Here I'll Show You: The Animated Series'.

On the other hand, there's a big problem here in terms of character magnetism, and I'll try to explain as best I can; put simply, the first half of the series consists of getting very annoyed at most of the cast for being overly-mouthy, or snide, or prejudiced, and then the second half goes in nearly the entire opposite direction and makes most of them very boring. Lottie, Sucy, Diana and a few of the professors are most affected, as I constantly found myself battling with the idea that the thing I liked most about them was (unfortunately) their visual designs. Akko as an MC is in a paradoxical position of being simultaneously the most and the least annoying character here: she's impulsive, brash and selfish for much of the time, but she's also the only one who consistently gets the plot moving, as characters consistently seem to throw up obstacles to progression that rival Akko's persistent failures in the arts of magic to create a slog-like feel to procedings. It's a good job that Megumi Han does a good job of lending her a certain charisma, because otherwise I think I might have dropped out halfway through; it doesn't help that half of the episodes consist of random stuff happening (love wasps and undead moustachios, anyone?) and the main trio desperately trying to correct wrongs. The latter half of TV deals with Akko's attempts to collect seven powerful 'words' and it feels so different to earlier episodes that it can be jarring. At other times, it feels like the concept of being a Little Witch in Academia is being eroded by themes of destiny, and a Gurren-Lagann-style escalation of stakes. Vitally, though, the moment of contact between Akko and Chariot does meet expectations, is strangely impactful and kept me going through all of the series' boring moments, even if I saw the identity of Chariot coming from... well, since 2013, to be honest.

Little Witch Academia TV is far from the best series I've ever seen and it's not even the best Studio Trigger series either; Kiznaiver had better characters and more interesting themes, so if you're interested, go check it out.

TL;DR though, TV is recommended for people who have really enjoyed Imaishi's past work, and those who like the idea of a cute franchise about cute witches doing magic and which isn't marred by unecessary cleavage or blood splatters up the wazoo.

As a child Kagari Atsuko attended a magic show starring a witch by the name of Shiny Chariot and became entranced. She immediately made it her dream to be like Chariot and become a witch who could do the same things and entrance her audience...

Fast forward a few years and Akko, an ordinary girl, is accepted into the prestigious Luna Nova Magic Academy. It's the first link in the chain to reach her dreams! However, once there, she finds that the path to her future is a rocky one, but she holds Chariot's motto: "Never forget, a believing heart is your magic", as her own and it helps her persist despite her failures as she continues to follow the path to her dreams.

Now, as a fan of the original OVA, and then the movie that followed, I was very eager for a full anime adaptation. I had expectations... which were not met. Normally that would be a very bad thing, but, honestly, it's really not in the case of this series adaptation. The series starts as if the OVA and Movie didn't exist. They're in the same universe, but not the same story... understand? Those of you who are wondering if it's necessary to watch the OVA and movie to understand the series, then the answer is no. And I would actually suggest you watch those after the series, as it has a spoiler or two... such as the true identity of Shiny Chariot. 

The plot for the series is actually fabulously entertaining and I always look forward to what's going to happen next! The animation style is, much like the OVA and movie, rather different then you're used to when watching anime and is, perhaps more similar to western cartoons that have an anime style twist (if that makes sense... -_-"). I enjoy the OST, so no real complaints there... As for the characters... Akko can be slightly annoying in the beginning, but she grows on you. Lotte and Sucy are fabulous secondary characters and really help to balance out the overly enthusiastic Akko. Diana, who was Draco-ish in the OVA, is actually a likable character in the series and has actual character growth (though her two bitchy side-kicks are still annoying as hell! -_-')! And, we get introduced to (what I deem) as a potential love interest for Akko! (I totally ship her with Andrew and I don't care what anyone says! ;D). There are more characters than these, but why ruin the fun of the show?

Overall, a very enjoyable anime! Watch for yourself, and discover the magic of Little Witch Academia!

I'm back with another review- this time for Little Witch Academia! Today's review will talk about my thoughts about my views on the 25-episodes TV series

What I didn't like: The show was sometimes blown out of porption. Besides, I felt Amanda was verya nnoying (particuarly how she rode the broom) and at times, Little Witch Academia was basically a mirror image of My Hero Academia

What I like: The rest though, were just fine. However, a little detail that makes me catch me eye. Diana and Akko. 

Diana X Akko may look like a female BakuDeku, but no. Diana may not have a good impression of Akko at first, but they became friends later on. In addition to that point, they was a point no one thought they could use any magic, but they could. And when they did, they stood out in the crowd.

Little Witch Academia is a generally meaningful on chasing your dreams, even when it seems so far from you. I will always appreciate it, and will definitely recommend it if you want a family-friendly pick, enjoyed My Hero Academia, or generally magic shows in general. Bye! See u in a few days!

First impressions:

The two Little Witch Academia movies were not that great but I still was glad that there was a TV series coming. The first movie was interesting and quite decent, though the second movie took everything that made the first movie great, from comedy to passable characters and made the main character insufferably selfish and bullies to make it even more painful to watch.

This T.V. series seems like it's a prequel for the first movie, it develops more backstory on the characters and the first episode is about Akko trying to find her way to the witch academy. I was wondering if they would elaborate on Akko's parents, though.

The story is pretty childish. I mean, I know it's a cartoon but compared to the movies, it was trying too hard on getting a laugh from the audience by having the characters do silly antics.

The animation has gone way downhill. I am not good at describing animation but I'd guess I'd say it's weird.

The voice acting is nothing special. I'd blame this on the bad directing and the terrible writing, though. The actors probably tried to do well for their given roles.

Now, let's explain the worst part of this, the characters. Akko is talkative/outgoing in an annoying way. Sucy is a quiet, sly girl who uses tricks to hurt Akko. Lotte... is a bit better but she's not memorable, though. She doesn't do much.

Overall, I'd probably give this a 5 out of 10. It's silly, simplistic, and more appealing to younger audiences.

Hopefully, this series will get better. I'm not going to condemn it based on one whole episode.

Little Witch Academia, a studio Trigger show about a young witch in training and her journey through the magical world. Our protagonist, Atsuko (Akko) Kagari, is enrolled into the witch school of Luna Nova, the setting for the show, and she meets two witches who would become her closest friends, Lotte Yanson and Sucy Manbavaran. That's the set up achieved in the first couple of episodes.

The show is all about Akko's progression as very inept witch without any ability to fly slowly improving her craft through her own determination and the help of the secondary cast. This is during a crisis in the magical world as magic is waning in the world after the many years witches have been around, to the point that they cannot use their magic in most parts of the world without charging their wands. This crisis is what drives the main story which is to restore magic back to its former glory, and it's where the conflict arises within the second half due to conflicting ideologies. Whilst these aspects are important the show does not stray from the main focal point, that being Akko herself. Her story of self-improvement is brilliantly intertwined with that of the overarching plot. As problems escalate so does Akko's own magical power.

Despite the overarching plot, of which we are always kept aware of to remind us that there is still a large scale issue needing to be dealt with, many episodes consist of their own stories that are relatively self-contained.  I think that the show does a great job of mixing these more self-contained stories with that of the main thread, a number of them even having a direct affect. Simply put, each one is great in its own right with some standouts among them, for example the episode that focuses on Sucy (I won't say more as to not ruin the experience at all). 

The secondary cast, with a few exceptions, sees a good deal of screen time including an episode (all of which are strong episodes like the aforementioned Sucy episode) dedicated to them. They're all very good characters in their own right despite most of them not getting a great deal of development. What development we see is their strengthening bond with Akko. The point of the show was always about Akko's personal development. With that said I need to make special mention of two characters, Ursula and Diana. They were the two of the most important characters to the show and to Akko's story. Ursula as her personal tutor is an emotional anchor for her as well as a willing teacher, and Diana is a rival that she sees as someone she needs to beat. Diana’s own development is also very well done and important to the main story and to Akko’s own improvement.

The series always delivers on the action. It is exciting, sometimes nerve wracking and is subject to fantastic animation. Trigger has done a top notch job animating the show when it counts most and I am able to overlook the times when it uses a couple standard practises of time saving. I think that they made sure to make the animation count when it needed to. The art style it has is excellent. It’s distinct and has its own look. Quite a lot of anime tend to look pretty similar at least artistically, but Studio Trigger so far has done very well in refining its own styles and Little Witch Academia is no exception. The final episode looks fantastic making up to be a strong climax to a superb show. Everything comes together in the end. The music suits the scene and enhances them, setting the correct tone when needed whether it is one of danger, of hope or even during the slower in between scenes; the ambient music is really good.

It’s time for some final thoughts to conclude with. This show has done everything I could have hope for. No show is the perfect show but what Little Witch Academia does is nothing short of coming as close as it could, at least in my eyes. It looks great, is chock-full with strong characters and consists of what is now one of my favourite self-improvement stories. An absolute must watch for Trigger fans of course, but it’s a show no fan of magical shows and films should miss.

A SpanglishJC ‘Review’