Maid-chan no Anime: Little Witch Academia
Magic is wonderful, right? Especially the magic of Shiny Chariot, who entertained thousands of people with her magic in her show. Until she suddenly disappeared…
But now her greatest fan can finally go the same school as Chariot! Kagari Atsuko was ahem… enchanted when watching Shiny Chariot’s performance as a small child, and despite not being from a witch family, has decided to go to the witch school Luna Nova.
Akko, as everyone calls her, is an energetic girl with way more guts than brain (and even less common sense than most humans). Maid-chan thinks you could sell her everything as long as you promise it makes her fly a broom. Because, despite enrolled as a student witch, Akko cannot fly, and has great problems with other magic, too.
No problems with that has Lotte Jansson, a kind, dreamy girl that came to Luna Nova Academy to be able to later take over her parent’s magic utensils shop. For a long time she has been able to talk to spirits and is a sturdy, but not excellent student.
Way better, at least when it involves mushrooms or anything poisonous, is Sucy Manbavaran. Sucy only came to the school because she heard there were rare poisonous mushrooms. Often looking bored, Sucy likes to play pranks with Akko and often uses her as a test subject for her new potions.
The three young witches share a room, and get surprisingly well along with each other.
The most notable student witch is Diana Cavendish. From an old witch family, with great skills and stunning looks, she is the one that is put on front every time, be it official events or organizing something. She has quite the “noble girl” vibe.
Diana first despises Akko for her impulsive nature and carefree attitude, something Maid-chan can really understand. But with time Diana has to acknowledge some things about Akko and even develops a sort of grudging respect for her.
Diana also has a secret – no, two really. One about her family and one about her past, a secret that connects Diana to her classmate Akko in a way she would die of shame if anyone would ever find out.
Talking about classes, there can be no school without teachers, right?
Every teacher has her subjects, like broom-riding or potions. There is even a non-human teacher. (Not on the picture for good reasons, Maid-chan assures you.)
Possibly the most important one is Ashura-sensei (Ursula Callistis, far right). She volunteers to mentor the only non-witch-family student and should get a medal for not giving up on Akko! She too has a secret…
Poor Ashura-sensei has to cope with Akko’s numerous problems with magic. Even after the girl manages to transform, the transformation is never quite perfect, for example.
Ashura-sensei also helps Akko finding out more about the magic staff of Shiny Shariot, called Shiny Rod, which Akko stumbles upon even before getting to the school grounds. Shiny Chariot, the staff Shiny Rod, the seven words of Arcturus – what is the connection between them? What will happen when you break the seal of the Grand Triskelion?
Maid-chan recommends to watch the anime if you want to find out ;)
Highs and Lows
The anime series is a bit of an up and down for Maid-chan. Many times it is just too predictable, or secrets are shown to the watcher far too easy or early. On the other hand there is a well made surprising story twist.
The same goes for the characters itself. They are often the literal stereotypes, but then there is sometimes anime at it’s best, with deep insights or surprising details.
For Maid-chan it all looks like the production struggled to find a midway between a US-market “easy” animated show (Netflix influence?) and a “normal” more grown-up oriented Japanese release.
The same goes for the “final villain” who appears at the start of the second season but instantly gets shown as suspicious and seemingly flat devilish, but in the end gets a more anime typical mix of motives.
Miranda Holbrooke, the headmistress of Luna Nova and fan of a certain long-going book series since the start
Conclusion
Little Witch Academia has disappointed many fans, probably because of the incongruities Maid-chan mentioned. On the other hand Little Witch Academia is in no way a bad show, even if the mix of seemingly random episodic parts and story driven parts can be confusing.
If Maid-chan had to guess she would say the staff had either not enough or too much episodes for character backgrounds. A bad example is the episode about Lotte’s home, an undoubtedly good one is the dense-feeling two episode part about Diana.
If you disliked Diana because of her snobbish attitude, after that, you might want to comfort her!
Maid-chan would like to give the show eight or even nine points. It has a good and fun setting, funny characters, a basically interesting, if somewhat standard story and some really good points.
But, in the end, the lack of consistency in the presentation and the feeling that the producers have cut a lot of the interesting small things, those that make you really dive into the protagonists, prevent that.
Taking all that into consideration, Maid-chan has to stop with 7/10 points. Little Witch Academia had the potential to be a genre star, but it ended up “only” being a merely good show.
