Little Witch Academia Episodes 1-13 Reaction

The new year has begun thus signaling a new year of anime as well. As great as that can be, it was anything but exciting for us after the whollup of a year we had just a few months ago.

The anime awards was an actual debate last year among reviewers. Fans raved over every new season, and animation, music, and overall quality was at one of the highest it has been net worth wise in a long time. So how to do we compete with the new winter season of anime??

Well, since I'm far, far behind with my other priorities, I do actually know the result of the winter season. Strangely enough, Rakugo the second season hasn't been talked about as much as I thought it would be. Especially considering what an all around contender for best anime of the year last year. But what we did get was a two delightful shows, a disappointment of a new season, a weird angry chick whose actually and old guy giving an interesting premise to a show, and a beautifully animated series with better source material than the actual show.

But this is about Little Witch Academia. A show whose first half was located in the winter season and that'll finish it's runtime in the spring season of anime. A surprisingly 25 episode long series running after two short films. Funnily enough, they did horribly in Japan. And yet, here we are. I'll of course have do more looking into the controversy behind this show, so I'll be back with that, but for now the first half of Little Witch.

Akko

The absolute cuteness and pure imagination and fun put into the two movies, the first one being my favorite of the two, really made me appreciate simple shows again. It was reminiscent of old time girly animes. With everything now a deconstruction, new and inventive, or remakes of modern manga, we've lost touch with the early ages of childhood anime. The wonder that touched all our hearts and the stupid power of believing in yourself. The fuck up main character with a heart of gold. I'm talking about Amu from Shugo Chara and Naruto from it's early days in the first season. Yusuke Uremeshi reminds me a lot of our new main character, Akko, as well. While Big Hero 6, mean My Hero Academia, brings back the times of old tournament shows for the oldies who remember the old days.

Little Witch Academia is about the story of Aktsuko Kagari. A girl, not from a line of witches who seeks out the witch academy Luna Nova and applies to attend. Outcasted for being of ill blood and her less than stellar ability to do magic, she competes with herself and her classmates to prove her worth. With the help of her idol Chariot, who inspired her as a child, Professor Ursula, and the magical shiny rod that was once owned by Chariot herself, it's a tale of pursuing your dreams and living life.

I was drawn to the absolute adorable art style that Trigger has given us, both in this series and in Kill la Kill. Not to mention countless others like something, something and something else. With Kill la Kill being it's biggest name for animation, of course they decide to live up to that name once more and make the colorful showcase of Little Witch Academia a true masterpiece. Of course, it does have some of it's downer sides, that being it's fluidity in animation has gone down a bit in the middle episodes I've noticed. About after episode 9 or 10. But I'm sure they'll pick it up again, especially with them showing off their skills in the ending credits sequence.

Lotte

With the end of episode 13, they changed the songs once more, and I will say that I much preferred the last one. For the animation of these sequences it matches the show perfectly. Frankly, the first opening wasn't even the best animation it had to give from the entire show all together. It was, well, rather banal in style and direction. The ending sequence I thought was where they really shined. Opening with a bright blue background followed by a colorful matching unlined sequence of mish mash goop that is just pleasant to look at. Though not meant to showcase Trigger's ability to animate things, it somehow struck me that they were doing a little bit of bragging. Funny, considering that the majority of the song is just slide show pictures of the normal school life of Luna Nova. In fact, it wasn't even directly pointed at the girls at all.

The song is reminiscent of how the show itself makes me feel. The singing voice of something and the band she's in always make great songs, I've found. It gives you that child like glow feeling. Everything in it is positive, but not forcing you to think it. It just makes you feel good. The ending reminds me of it being a slice of life almost, just set in a fantastical world. Something that the opening sequence and song failed to do. The second one hasn't done better. The second ending sequence focuses more on it's animation goop and less on the school of life of the girls. Sadly, it wasn't nearly as good as the first, but wasn't bad at all either.

Now onto the characters since we've already started to beat a dead horse. The characters and plot are nothing to be too notable. Considering the show is not done yet, I won't do any real damage to the character development but I shall note the plot line. As I said numerous time, this reminds me of a kid show that I watched when I was little. Like Shugo Chara or Tokyo Mew Mew or Cardcaptor Sakura, the plot is exactly what it says it is from the beginning. It progresses and moves but doesn't have bells and whistles as every other anime sees to beg for nowadays. I like it actually. Little Witch Academia is exactly what I thought'd it be, and I love it for it.

Buuuut, given that it is still a show, I will delve into the characters. The main character, Akko, does change a little throughout the course of the show. Some. She goes from a willy nilly girl a girl who dares to try reeeally hard despite the odds against her. Through her magic and through her actions she changes from someone who begs for help to attempting to do things herself. With the help of her friends (as cheesy as that sounds) she grows. There was one episode that showed her trying to pursue being a worthy witch. In the end she was told that she must work to be proved worthy, and it begins her trying to be a better witch instead of the best witch. Of course the best witch is her end goal, but she's more concerned about bettering herself at this point now instead.

Sucy

Her friends do the same. Sucy, a hardboiled fungus, has noticeable changes in her where she admits to being a little soft.  Lotte grows more bold with every one of Akko's escapades and together the trio shines. All in all, I can't wait to see what the rest of the show has to give me.