Promotional Videos-
Teaser PV- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3jFdqs4jUQ
PV- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgz2bMz-Zz8
Synopsis-
A stupid girl named Akko, after watching a magic show, decides to chase after her idol, Shiny Chariot. She enrolls in a magical school in England called Luna Nova where she aims to learn magic and become an accomplished witch. She's out of her league though and will
Cast-
Akko Kagari
Voiced by: Megumi Han
An idiotic girl chasing after a laughing stock. She's emotional, reckless, and incompetent.
Diana Cavendish
Voiced by: Yoko Hikasa
Not only the prettiest girl in Luna Nova, she's also the smartest one to boot! Her golden curls leave a wake of followers no matter where she goes. The true main character of the show.
Sucy Manbavaran
Voiced by: Michiyo Murase
A very blunt girl, but she also cares for her friends such as when she defended Akko against the minotaur (which was absolutely not my fault). She has an in-depth knowledge of alchemy and is able to create deadly potions.
Lotte Yansson
Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa
The dull one of the troublesome trio. She's always caring and kind almost to the point of being forgetable. She does have some skill in communicating with spirits. I have my sources that she's apparently a fan of tragic vampire love stories.
Amanda O'Neill
Voiced by: Arisa Shida
A hot-blooded girl with an attention seeking attitude. She's known around school not only for her repeated B&Es but her dance moves.
Constanze Braunschbank Albrechtsberger
Voiced by: Rie Murakawa
An engineer of few words. She lets her robot companion do all the legwork.
Jasminka Antonenko
Voiced by: Reina Ueda
A laid-back girl who just can't stop eating. She loves her crisps.
Shiny Chariot
Voiced by: Noriko Hidaka
A beautiful witch who captured the imagination of children everywhere. She disappeared over a decade back and is now considered a mockery of witches. Rumor has it that she went into teaching.
Staff-
Director: Yoh Yoshinari (Little Witch Academia OVAs)
The premier animator at Trigger. He has done key animation for productions at Gainax going all the way back to Neon Genesis Evangelion and is considered one of the best animators alive. He's especially known for his special effects, mainly his explosions. He has directed the previous two Little Witch Academia entries and will reprise his role here. This will be the first TV series he has directed. He's having big bro help out too!
Series Composition: Michiru Shimada (Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade, Little Busters, Jewelpet Twinkle)
She has written for a large number of children shows over the years and was responsible for the script in The Enchanted Parade.
Music: Michiru Oshima (LWA OVAs, Fullmetal Alchemist,Tatami Galaxy, Blast of Tempest)
A stellar composer who has created a large number of memorable OSTs. Does the track Brothers ring a bell? Go re-listen to FMA's OST if you've forgotten who she is. Even if you remember, go re-listen anyway.
Character Design: Shūhei Handa (LWA OVAs, KLK, Kiznaiver)
A relatively young animator at Trigger. He was one of the trainees during the original Anime Mirai project back in 2013 and has worked on a number of projects since such as Kill La Kill and Kiznaiver. His animation style is starting to resemble his mentor, Yoshinari, and here he will replace Yoshinari as the character designer.
Main Animator: Takafumi Hori (LWA OVAs, KLK, Garo: The Animation)
Hori was one of the assistant animation directors back on the original LWA OVA and has only improved in the following years. His work on Kill La Kill was outstanding and so was his animation during the parade in The Enchanted Parade. He's known for his dynamic camerawork in his animation and will be putting those talents to use during the TV run.
Art Director: Masanobu Nomura (Kiznaiver, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Now and Then, Here and There)
He will be replacing Yuji Kaneko as Art Director. To be frank, he's definitely a downgrade compared to the otherworldly Kaneko but the backgrounds still look great for a TV production and some of the new art has a classical fantasy vibe.
Producer: Masahiko Otsuka (TTGL, KLK, LWA, FLCL, Inou-Battle, Whisper of the Heart, Kiznaiver)
One of the main men responsible for Little Witch Academia, he wrote the script for the first one and helped assemble it. He's one of the heads at Trigger and has roots going back to Gainax where he served as Assistant Director on Gurren Lagann, among many other roles.
Production Studio: Trigger (Little Witch Academia, Hackadoll, Kiznaiver)
A spin-off of Gainax that houses talent such as Imaishi, Kobayashi, Amemiya, Sushio, and Otsuka. They've improved their record over the past couple of years with solid shows such as Kiznaiver and Hackadoll. Little Witch Academia TV serves as their third original TV series, the first being Kill La Kill and the second was Kiznaiver. With LWA TV, Trigger is embracing a Saturday morning cartoon atmosphere.
Why You Should Watch-
The simplest answer to this is for you to watch the two OVAs preceding this (there are links at the bottom of the post). While the TV series is a pseudo reboot in the sense that the OVAs are a separate timeline, the TV show itself will be near identical in many regards. This means that events will play out in a different fashion compared to the OVA and early on you will probably see some scenes lifted from the OVAs such as the Shiny Chariot magic show but with new animation.
Little Witch Academia has been described as anime Harry Potter and in some regards this is true. It's a light-hearted family friendly cartoon that takes place in an English magical boarding school. The tone will be very different than Trigger's previous works such as Kill La Kill. Yoshinari has described himself as the polar opposite of Imaishi and this can be seen in his directorial style. They do have something in common though, Yoshinari has said he wants to go big with the climax.
Expect the TV show to have a heavier focus on the side-characters such as Diana, Amanda, and Sucy rather than the OVAs which were oriented around the moronic Akko. The animation quality won't be as absurdly high-tier as the OVAs however the early reports from screenings indicate the TV show is full of animation from high grade animators and filled to the brim with motion. A number of great storyboarders have already been confirmed to be working on the show such as Masayuki and Imaishi. The show will look as magical as the characters in it.
Broadcasting Information & English Streaming-
Broadcasting Time: Sunday Nights weekly at 12:00am JST
Episode Count: 25 episodes total, airing in both Winter and Spring.
Streaming Information: Netflix owns streaming rights, probably due to being on the production committee. They haven't announced streaming details so most likely it will follow a similar release schedule to Kuromukuro, which is that they will release the entire first cour at once after it has finished broadcasting. Bone-headed idiots!
You however can watch the originals right now, as preparation.
Little Witch Academia
Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade
https://files.catbox.moe/piioq1.webm
Bonus-Giveaway
I will be running a giveaway in honor of the release of the TV series.
Rules:
-You must post five episode impressions of the TV series in this thread alone. Not the anime OT. (You can copy them though)
-Those episode impressions must consist of more than "AOTY"
-Type your name into the Google Spreadsheet
-I will use a random number generated associate with your position on the spreadsheet to pick the winner.
I will check if you wrote those impressions!
Deadline: June 1st, 2017 (Note that there will almost certainly be a shipping delay after contest is over)
Prizes:
-Yoshinari C90 Artbook
-Yoshinari sketch (I'll upload an image later)
OT Written By: Luna Nova's Top Student
