Overall Review: Little Witch Academia

“A believing heart is your magic!”

Note: I want to apologize for my sudden disappearance. I’ve finally graduated from university, but the last month of school was horrifyingly busy for me that I fell completely behind on all of my shows. I had to take a little hiatus for the rest of the season, as I did not have the time or energy to make double posts catching up as I was preoccupied with other things. However, I didn’t want to leave these shows undone so I opted to make Overall Reviews to make up for it. I’m sorry, but now I’m sure to be here. 🙂

It truly is amazing that an anime that started off as an OVA, then got a movie, and then that turned into a two-cour anime. Not a one cour, but two, which surprised many people. I had been waiting for the day for Little Witch Academia to get an anime and I finally got it. Did it live up to my expectations?

Yes and no.

I’ve made myself pretty clear in my past reviews for some episodes so I’m not going to beat around the bush. There’s a lot to like about this sweet little show, and I will say right now that I did enjoy it. It was a show that would make me smile and laugh at the zany antics that would ensue. The colors, the energy, the fantastical setting, it all hit good spots on many people because a lot of people enjoyed this show. Akko’s energy and smile really can be contagious and you can’t help but root for her as she tried to fit in the academy and learn magic so she could achieve her dream. The other characters brought some different views and personalities into the mix and it could become crazy. The first half started off with establishing the characters and the setting, giving us moments into the girls’ daily lives. The second half turned things around and gave us a plot involving world-changing magic, as well as Ursula/Chariot’s real identity. The fun from the first half stopped as serious issues surfaced, and in the end, we got a happy ending. There are many characters with each having a different type of personality. We learn a bit about some of them whenever they got their episodes and they were pretty fun. The first half gave us hints of what the second half’s plot would be so we always had something to look forward to. We also looked forward to seeing Akko’s character grow as she was given a huge responsibility.

Trigger still dominates with its sakuga scenes. The animation was amazing when it needed to be, during the crazy over the top scenes. The music fit the magical setting and I give mad props to Megumi Han, Akko’s seiyuu. She delivered a really funny performance as our protagonist. She yelled when she needed to, got excited when she needed to, and the serious emotional moments were done so well too. A lot of Akko’s reactions were hilarious to me because of Megumi Han’s performance, and that just made the show even more fun than it was. Little Witch Academia was a package full of colorful characters, an interesting plot, added with good music and voice acting and fantastic animation.

However, there were glaring problems and it actually has to do with the characters and the plot.

We all know Akko was the protagonist, but almost all the attention was exclusively hers. The New Nine Witches (Seven, sort of) each had their own episodes…well, no. Sorry Jasminka. Lotte, Sucy, Amanda, and Constanze had one episode, and Diana two. And while this is great and all, these girls except for Diana to an extent were completely ignored for the whole season. They would make brief appearances and get in on whatever crazy thing Akko would come up with, but to say that they were important characters, I can’t really say that. Even though Lotte and Sucy are Akko’s roommates and the first people she met, they hardly did a thing. They were there for Akko but they didn’t have anything to do with the main plot for the Seven Words. The first half were random episodes with the trio hanging out at times, and the second half was almost exclusively Akko and Chariot. While Akko and Chariot got their fair share of development, the rest of the characters were left as forgotten one dimensional characters until the end when they helped Akko and Diana reach the missile, I guess to remind the audience that they are important and “Hey guys they exist!” but…ehh. I had already seen this problem in the first half of the show when the episode would be about Akko. This is Akko doing this, this is Akko doing that, and sometimes Lotte and Sucy say something. I say Diana was irrelevant to an extent because she didn’t become important until much later on. Her episodes were actually well done, but it all came a little late. Andrew never got an episode! I wanted an episode where he could have a closer moment with Akko, and he could really stand up against his father. He did resolve issues with him in the very end but it was very rushed.

And that’s another thing. The plot in the end was rushed. Croix as a villain was…bad. Her issue was that she was angry and jealous that she wasn’t chosen to wield the Shiny Rod, angry at Chariot and wanting to do things her own way. And in the end, she also wasn’t able to use the Grand Triskelion. Becoming a villain because you were sidelined by the actual Chosen One has been done before and it was boring. Croix didn’t have much of an impact on me, and even though we did get a bit of backstory for both her and Chariot, it didn’t do much for me. I don’t think we spent enough time with Croix to really know what was going on through her head. She had a very calm and cool expression all the time, but we knew she was holding in all these angry emotions but that was never shown to us. So I thought her reason was boring. Also, she was easily defeated in the end and the main villain ended up being that missile.

The problem was that there wasn’t enough time to tell the story. The last two episodes were very rushed and the actual finale didn’t have too much of an impact on me. I thought it was cute, but I wasn’t really into it. If I honestly had to say, there was bad direction. It’s like they didn’t really know what to do at first and what order episodes should go. I think we needed at least one more episode to properly tie everything together because the World Reconstruction magic wasn’t properly explained (was it really a believing heart is magic?), and we never got to see how that affected the world after. What happened with magic, is it used more, do witches have a better reputation, things like that. Some key characters didn’t get the time they needed. Really, the show wasted time with some episodes. I don’t like saying this, but what’s the point of having episodes like Lotte’s, Sucy’s, or Contanze’s episodes if they hardly appeared in the story? Constanze’s was kind of important because it gave us a hint to what Croix was doing, as well as Amanda’s episode. But others were completely pointless, and those episodes could have been used to start the main plot sooner or given more time near the end or what have you. The plot itself was good, but it wasn’t given the time it needed because it was used for less important matters. Some of the silly episodes were fun, others were bland and I had mentioned before my mini hiatus that the show was getting a little stale for me and I was getting tired. It wasn’t until episode 19 that things started picking up, and episodes 19-23 were the best of the entire show. The story was moving smoothly and I was really drawn in, but it lost me when the last two episodes were so rushed.

That’s what really hurt the show for me and left me pretty disappointed. Almost all of the characters were ignored and the plot was a little bumpy. I don’t think this series needs another season, but it could do with a short OVA episode or two to really tie in some things.

The problems above pushed down my score and enjoyment of this show. But don’t get me wrong, I really did like this show a lot. Like I said, it made me smile, laugh, and make me feel pretty happy. And when it wanted me feeling a little afraid, it did. But, I can’t ignore its problems. And the more I think about it the more it bugs me. But, this was still a good show and I’d still recommend it to people. A believing heart is your magic!

7/10, a fun and thrilling show with fantastic animation and a large cast of characters. It suffers from wonky direction and a lack of development for most of its characters, but the world and antics of the characters really draw you in. If a show makes you smile and feel warm, I think that’s enough for most people.