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Little Witch Academia TV |OT| Season 2 up on Netflix Aug 15

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mugwhump

Member
Episode 22

Welp, it happened. Cat's finally out of the bag. I've gotta say I really like the twist of
Chariot's shows stealing magic.
It was actually pretty well foreshadowed, but I don't think anyone predicted it. It explains
Diana's period where she couldn't use magic, the magic stuff that came out of the audience in ep 1, akko's inability to fly, why witches don't like Chariot, and how Ursula didn't seem very proud of her identity as Chariot.

I'm also glad the pollen from last ep apparently did have a lasting effect on Ursula instead of just getting magick'd away.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Episode 22

Welp, it happened. Cat's finally out of the bag. I've gotta say I really like the twist of
Chariot's shows stealing magic.
It was actually pretty well foreshadowed, but I don't think anyone predicted it. It explains
Diana's period where she couldn't use magic, the magic stuff that came out of the audience in ep 1, akko's inability to fly, why witches don't like Chariot, and how Ursula didn't seem very proud of her identity as Chariot.

I'm also glad the pollen from last ep apparently did have a lasting effect on Ursula instead of just getting magick'd away.

Welp, time to undrop this lol
 

Zaru

Member
That was a good twist. The kind that puts a LOT of pieces together without being entirely predictable.
 
fantastic episode cover to cover, and the animation was on point.

Akko got mind fucked learning that her mentor is Chariot - her idol she based her entire life around - and that the reason she can't even do magic is actually because she was coverting dreams into magic - possibly to unlock the seventh word. And now we know why witches don't like Chariot.

Episode 22

Welp, it happened. Cat's finally out of the bag. I've gotta say I really like the twist of
Chariot's shows stealing magic.
It was actually pretty well foreshadowed, but I don't think anyone predicted it. It explains
Diana's period where she couldn't use magic, the magic stuff that came out of the audience in ep 1, akko's inability to fly, why witches don't like Chariot, and how Ursula didn't seem very proud of her identity as Chariot.

I'm also glad the pollen from last ep apparently did have a lasting effect on Ursula instead of just getting magick'd away.

Also explains why she was keeping it secret

That was a good twist. The kind that puts a LOT of pieces together without being entirely predictable.

Of course there will be the anime connoisseur who say they saw it coming from a mile away. I'm glad I don't have plot twist clairvoyance. or nothing would be fun to watch.
 

spiritfox

Member
It also explains why
the number of students are dropping, and why all the witches in Luna Nova are not Chariot fans (cause all her fans wouldn't have magic to attend school).
It's kinda brilliant and retroactively makes all the previous episodes so much better.
 

Niks

Member
Well, that was certainly a "holy shit" twist.

9d62fd4fa48c4072_25.gif
 

TarNaru33

Banned
Yeah, I don't think anyone could of predicted that twist.. It was all foreshadowed too, explains completely why Chariot threw out her identity and likely was a big factor in why she didn't want to give up on Akko's magic training.
 

DrkSage

Member
Episode 22

Welp, it happened. Cat's finally out of the bag. I've gotta say I really like the twist of
Chariot's shows stealing magic.
It was actually pretty well foreshadowed, but I don't think anyone predicted it. It explains
Diana's period where she couldn't use magic, the magic stuff that came out of the audience in ep 1, akko's inability to fly, why witches don't like Chariot, and how Ursula didn't seem very proud of her identity as Chariot.

I'm also glad the pollen from last ep apparently did have a lasting effect on Ursula instead of just getting magick'd away.
It was so well done and made a lot of things very clear. Its amazing how
it was planted since the first episode.
diana.jpg

young_diana.jpg
 
Meh, watching too much stuff for me to drudge on with a show solely because it looks nice. Luckily I'm into it now, so all good.

That's fair. I'm having a hard time watching anything else these days on account of the animation and tropes being so bad. LWA had problems don't get me wrong, but I still looked forward to it every week.
 

Laiza

Member
This twist was so well-done and so shocking that I just had to find this thread so I could comment on it.

I especially like the implications around Diana's recovery - specifically the possibility that
her mother sacrificed herself for the sake of her child's future
, which colors pretty much everything surrounding Diana in a new light.

I can only wonder what they'll go through to
get Akko's magic back
. I'm really excited to see the conclusion now!

And everyone needs to apologize to Akko at this point, because the poor girl deserves it.
Imagine how insanely powerful she'd be at this point if she didn't have her magic stolen from her...
 
Yuuge twist, I like it. Now I wanna know more about the moon.

I'm guessing we're gonna get the final word for the finale section, would be fun if next season we explore
Akko, in an antethesis to this series, becoming unbelievably powerful. And then being Akko probably messing up with that.

Gotta give Akko props for all the teasing we've been doing though.
she's been stunted since the beginning
 

Aki-at

Member
Looks like it was a good time to pick up the show again.

Episode- 22

Wow I did not see that coming but explains everything
I merely assumed Chariot was hated by witches because she was using magic for nothing more but show but it was a lot more sinister than that and completely changes her character and everyone else's struggles.

Really well planted through out the series, it's just a shame the series wasn't strong enough through out or this would have been such a good watch. But at least you can count on Trigger to now give a decent finale as everything starts to make sense.
 
Looks like it was a good time to pick up the show again.

Episode- 22

Wow I did not see that coming but explains everything
I merely assumed Chariot was hated by witches because she was using magic for nothing more but show but it was a lot more sinister than that and completely changes her character and everyone else's struggles.

Really well planted through out the series, it's just a shame the series wasn't strong enough through out or this would have been such a good watch. But at least you can count on Trigger to now give a decent finale as everything starts to make sense.

I kinda understand the complaints with the show early on. Not that I didn't have them myself as well (I really didn't care for the Sucy episode) but I felt the same way with Kill La Kill. Dropped it at episode 6 and then randomly decided to pick it up a few months later. Turned out to get really good soon after, ha.

Like I said though, Trigger's animation is so charming that I'll watch it for that fact alone.
 

LotusHD

Banned
Kill La Kill is actually the only reason I kept at it with LWA for 18 episodes to begin with. It got infinitely more interesting like 14-15 episodes in, so I assumed the same thing might happen here, so I stuck with it just in case. It kind of did with whatever episode Croix showed up in, but then went right back to sort of dragging its feet, not being nearly as interesting as the former.
 
The two movies implied a vast universe of character-driven stories, set across the backdrop of a school of almost limitless personalities.

With the exception of the racing, Sucy, mermaid, and a few other episodes, the first half of the show had a lot of filler.

The second half finally has an overarching plot to move towards, but then you have episodes of Akko meeting Lotte's family and you leave knowing nothing new about her.

There are moments when the show works and is absolutely gorgeous and beautiful and is everything I could ever hope for, but it maybe hits that mark about one every three episodes.

The unexplored ideas that exist in the concept art still haven't been cashed in, so I'm hoping there'll be a second season announcement at the season finale, or even Anime Expo in a few weeks.
 

Aki-at

Member
Kill la Kill never got boring for me. Unlike this which had the Lotte Twilight and such episodes that just felt by the numbers. That's the key difference for me, it seemed there was more energy being poured in Kill la Kill.

I do enjoy Trigger's animation but then I can again only think of 5 or 6 specific episodes were I was blown away or loved what I was watching. It just didn't do it as often as I hoped it would and that's a shame because the broom race episode and Sucy's dream episode were really early on. Series coasted so much it feels like it could have worked with just under 20 odd episodes.

At least unlike Kiznaiver this feels like it'll end strongly though!
 
Kill La Kill is actually the only reason I kept at it with LWA for 18 episodes to begin with. It got infinitely more interesting like 14-15 episodes in, so I assumed the same thing might happen here, so I stuck with it just in case. It kind of did with whatever episode Croix showed up in, but then went right back to sort of dragging its feet, not being nearly as interesting as the former.

Yea the pacing didn't keep up like Kill La Kill, but for better or worse I'm glad there's a LWA anime.
 

ionitron

Member
That freaking twist, holy shit. I saw it finally like two days ago, and I really feel awful for all the shit I gave Akko. Damn. Wow. Really got me good. I was annoyed to death about Chariot Chariot Chariot so.... wow.

I think the show is still kinda average at best, as well, glad to see people here agree with me. I still enjoy the show and characters, but I do think the writing was kinda weak myself.
 

spiritfox

Member
Little disappointed that Chariot was tricked rather than using Dream Fuel Spirit on her own volition. Would have been more interesting and made for a better redemption arc.
 
Little disappointed that Chariot was tricked rather than using Dream Fuel Spirit on her own volition. Would have been more interesting and made for a better redemption arc.

But then Chariot wouldn't have a reason to be so anxious of Croix's presence. Clearly that moment is what drove a wedge between them. Without it, Croix's existence isn't really justified as an antagonist, and there's therefore no reason for Chariot to make an appearance as Chariot.

I prefer Chariot x Croix being more black and white as opposed to being gray, because then Chariot would lose a lot of her appeal in retrospect. Considering she's the reason both Akko and Diana are at the school and part of the overarching plot, casting her in a gray light by tainting her motivations would put a spin on the story that I don't think Trigger wanted to do.
 

Jarmel

Banned
LWA TV-23
stlZNoM.png

The idol industry is a hard gig.
I have a somewhat mixed impression of the episode as a whole, which is partly why I didn't want to write it up (that and I still need to do my 08 MS Team writeup too). The episode largely serves as an infodump for Shiny Chariot's background and instead of giving her backstory justice in a fleshed out manner ala Fate/Zero or Madoka, it rushes through the emotional beats so it mostly comes across as superficial. There was enough material in the first six or seven minutes for a pretty great two parter. The writers could have focused more on the increasing pressure on Shiny Chariot and her own desperation to stay relevant. They could have also used that extra runtime to flesh out Croix and Shiny Chariot's relationship. For something that is pretty much the driving force of the entire show, it's not treated with that same prominence from the scriptwriting side.
NETuVam.png

Even Shiny Chariot's slogan was stolen. Fake Witch.
Continuing on that, the show largely walks back from some of the more serious implications from the previous episode. It reminds me of Terror in Resonance's bullshit with how the main characters were committing terrorist attacks but nobody was dying. The show essentially wants to have its cake and eat it too by brushing over ramifications that would make the characters morally gray. Part of what makes anything interesting is the thought process and decision-making behind an action. Would Kiritsugu shooting down the plane with his 'mother' on it have any weight if he didn't know she was on it? Decisions have significantly more weight when those characters have full knowledge of the ramifications of their actions. Characters gain depth when they're put into situations where they have to balance the consequences and decide what they as an individual can live with. Shiny Chariot having no knowledge of those ramifications until after the fact robs of her of that agency.
Wait wut? Then how did Akko
lose her magic?
Didn't she come from a muggle family? Questions like this again arises from how awful the world building and background info for even the main character has been. We know nothing of Akko's family or how non-magic folk handle or view magic other than just going to a bunch of light shows. There's just a big ass question mark to things like why nobody has brought up the fact that the moon has a visible crater on its surface one day. A better show might have tied an event like that to growing sentiment against magic due to how potentially dangerous it is but the show ignores that connection altogether.
kaauO5P.png
sJVs77K.png

I would have literally spat in Ursula's face.
Ursula's actions after the fact was actually more despicable than the act in of itself. I'm stunned at how goddamn incompetent and uncaring Luna Nova's teaching staff as a whole is. Absolutely stunned. Nobody on the teaching staff is aware that a student is missing nor does Ursula try to notify anybody about it and would rather Akko just freeze herself to death. You have what, six kids out searching for a seventh student at night in snow conditions? Outside of campus? Ursula knows Akko's mind is mentally fucked and instead of trying to talk to Akko, she would rather just sit in her office and look out a fucking window. It's not even just this one event either. Luna Nova doesn't give a shit.
Now after all of that, you might think I hated the episode. I didn't. That's mostly due to how much better I thought the storyboard was this week. Storyboarding was done by Takashi Kawabata who hasn't done any Trigger shows before so I'm not sure why Yoshinari put outside staff on such a critical episode but visually it looks better than a lot of preceding episodes even if it doesn't have any big sakuga moments. I don't think the animation was able to completely keep up with storyboarding in that some shots looked flatter than they should, however the episode looks really good as a whole and oozes atmosphere in the second half. On that note I wish Akko's funk had laster longer than it does.
I also really enjoyed Akko and Diana's talk and wish this revelation had come sooner into the show so these two could have had this conversation earlier. It serves to establish an actual emotional connection between the two in that
they're both victims of Shiny Chariot
as well as spell out how the two are rivals other than Akko just repeatedly saying it. It's Diana's best moment in the series as it contextualizes her struggles into a way that makes into a form that is less bragging and more about her own dreams as a person. This fleshed out Diana's character more than the two-parter did.
I also thought Sucy and Lotte's interactions without Akko were touching mainly in that Sucy reeled in the snark both because she knew Lotte was close to breaking down but also as a way of convincing herself. The show needed more moments where the two were interacting away from Akko just because it allows their personalities to stand out more and just have different dynamics. On that note it does highlight out how bloated this cast as Amanda, Constanze, and Jasminka do nothing other than serve as glorified cameos.
I liked it as an individual episode, however some of the larger story aspects here both detract from the twist and burn through interesting background material. It's so frustrating too because so many separate parts are fun and emotional to watch. Not to mention the storyboarding was really solid this week despite some no-namer doing it. I actually thought Otsuka directed/storyboarded this week initially.
 

CONCH0BAR

Member
So, I was at AnimeNext this past weekend and Trigger revealed some interesting information about Little Witch Academia that won't be covered in the show. Among the panelists was Yoh Yoshinari himself, so this information came straight from him.


  • Sucy is adopted. She was found abandoned with a bottle of poison in her basket. Her infatuation with poisons and mushrooms stems from a secret desire to find her real family by one day reverse-engineering the poison she was found with.
  • Amanda is from a rich American family that owns a popular department store chain (Yoshinari's translator said "basically Walmart", but I don't know if those were Yoshinari's actual words). They made their fortune on the predictions of Amanda's grandmother, a fortune-telling witch. She recently passed away, so Amanda is attending Luna Nova to obtain the same fortune-telling powers.
  • Constanze was diagnosed with a terrible illness when she was young. In order to save her life, her soul was pulled from her body. This stunted her development and is also why she cannot speak. Her soul now resides in the Stanbot. They did not go into detail about how that works.
  • Jasminka eats constantly because she is possessed by a demonic spirit from Soviet-era Ukraine during a famine. If she stops eating, the effects could be literally apocalyptic.
  • Akko, Diana, and Lotte were omitted because their backstories are covered in the OVAs/TV series.
  • Yoshinari claims that Hiroyuki Imaishi helped with an animation sequence during the final episode of Little Witch Academia. According to Yoshinari, it's standard practice for the other directors at Trigger to help with finales.
  • The final episode of Little Witch Academia will have a sandwich in it.
  • They showed an exclusive episode of Inferno Cop where Inferno Cop fights Donald Trump (yes, seriously). They also announced Inferno Cop 2, with a first episode directed by Yoh Yoshinari and featuring a new protagonist, Night Fire Boy. His design looked pretty cool; in DC comics terms, he looks like the new-Lobo equivalent to Inferno Cop's old-Lobo.
 

Maximo

Member
So, I was at AnimeNext this past weekend and Trigger revealed some interesting information about Little Witch Academia that won't be covered in the show. Among the panelists was Yoh Yoshinari himself, so this information came straight from him.


  • Sucy is adopted. She was found abandoned with a bottle of poison in her basket. Her infatuation with poisons and mushrooms stems from a secret desire to find her real family by one day reverse-engineering the poison she was found with.
  • Amanda is from a rich American family that owns a popular department store chain (Yoshinari's translator said "basically Walmart", but I don't know if those were Yoshinari's actual words). They made their fortune on the predictions of Amanda's grandmother, a fortune-telling witch. She recently passed away, so Amanda is attending Luna Nova to obtain the same fortune-telling powers.
  • Constanze was diagnosed with a terrible illness when she was young. In order to save her life, her soul was pulled from her body. This stunted her development and is also why she cannot speak. Her soul now resides in the Stanbot. They did not go into detail about how that works.
  • Jasminka eats constantly because she is possessed by a demonic spirit from Soviet-era Ukraine during a famine. If she stops eating, the effects could be literally apocalyptic.
  • Akko, Diana, and Lotte were omitted because their backstories are covered in the OVAs/TV series.
  • Yoshinari claims that Hiroyuki Imaishi helped with an animation sequence during the final episode of Little Witch Academia. According to Yoshinari, it's standard practice for the other directors at Trigger to help with finales.
  • The final episode of Little Witch Academia will have a sandwich in it.
  • They showed an exclusive episode of Inferno Cop where Inferno Cop fights Donald Trump (yes, seriously). They also announced Inferno Cop 2, with a first episode directed by Yoh Yoshinari and featuring a new protagonist, Night Fire Boy. His design looked pretty cool; in DC comics terms, he looks like the new-Lobo equivalent to Inferno Cop's old-Lobo.

Geez these episodes would have been great but lets have a episode about that stupid dragon instead.
 
So, I was at AnimeNext this past weekend and Trigger revealed some interesting information about Little Witch Academia that won't be covered in the show. Among the panelists was Yoh Yoshinari himself, so this information came straight from him.


  • Sucy is adopted. She was found abandoned with a bottle of poison in her basket. Her infatuation with poisons and mushrooms stems from a secret desire to find her real family by one day reverse-engineering the poison she was found with.
  • Amanda is from a rich American family that owns a popular department store chain (Yoshinari's translator said "basically Walmart", but I don't know if those were Yoshinari's actual words). They made their fortune on the predictions of Amanda's grandmother, a fortune-telling witch. She recently passed away, so Amanda is attending Luna Nova to obtain the same fortune-telling powers.
  • Constanze was diagnosed with a terrible illness when she was young. In order to save her life, her soul was pulled from her body. This stunted her development and is also why she cannot speak. Her soul now resides in the Stanbot. They did not go into detail about how that works.
  • Jasminka eats constantly because she is possessed by a demonic spirit from Soviet-era Ukraine during a famine. If she stops eating, the effects could be literally apocalyptic.
  • Akko, Diana, and Lotte were omitted because their backstories are covered in the OVAs/TV series.
  • Yoshinari claims that Hiroyuki Imaishi helped with an animation sequence during the final episode of Little Witch Academia. According to Yoshinari, it's standard practice for the other directors at Trigger to help with finales.
  • The final episode of Little Witch Academia will have a sandwich in it.
  • They showed an exclusive episode of Inferno Cop where Inferno Cop fights Donald Trump (yes, seriously). They also announced Inferno Cop 2, with a first episode directed by Yoh Yoshinari and featuring a new protagonist, Night Fire Boy. His design looked pretty cool; in DC comics terms, he looks like the new-Lobo equivalent to Inferno Cop's old-Lobo.

Even if they don't cover it in the anime, it'd be nice if they made some OVAs for at least the Sucy backstory. Wouldn't mind more for the others, but I doubt Trigger would want to invest the time and money on that.
 
Rough episode this week but that
Akko + Chariot meeting
kinda redeemed it... I guess. I think they should have either cut some of the episode out or split it to help with pacing.

Also, to the inevitable haters --
Yes, you rolled your eyes at the Chariot lightsaber, and yes it was still the best thing ever
 
Croix needs a hug. She deserves a happy ending with Chariot together! Hope she doesn't get thrown to witch jail.
Also, the
BEEP BEEP BEEP
was masterfully done.
 
In preparation for the final episode, the official LWA twitter is revealing character names for background witches!

https://twitter.com/LWA_jp

Hannah's full name is Hannah England.
Barbara's is Barbara Parker.
Blonde girl who's part of Mary and Avery's team is ブレア (Blair?)
Tall Redheaded Elf Girl is サラ・ベルナール (Sara Bernard?)
Black hair girl in her team is エルフリーデ (Elfiriede?)
 
Well it's over. The big finale was super anime but I kinda loved it.

I hope this gets a second series. I still have the feeling there's a lot more potential here than was actually realised, but maybe with Chariot's stuff being out of the bag and magic being more free now (?) we can get more compelling stories around all the characters. And maybe less focus on Akko?

Regardless I enjoyed the series, had some great moments. Gonna have to rewatch the Sucy episode, the one with Lotte's parents, and the Formal Ball at least.
 

KarasuEXE

Member
The second half of this last episode was the most "Trigger Studio" it could. Loved it.

Really hope for a second series too, and I see a lot of potential.
 

spiritfox

Member
That was anime as fuck.

Overall, I enjoyed the series, though I'm a little disappointed with the overall pacing. Too many filler episodes, and the story took too long to get going. If the pacing was better it'll have been amazing.
 

Niks

Member
Well it's over. The big finale was super anime but I kinda loved it.

I hope this gets a second series. I still have the feeling there's a lot more potential here than was actually realised, but maybe with Chariot's stuff being out of the bag and magic being more free now (?) we can get more compelling stories around all the characters. And maybe less focus on Akko?

Regardless I enjoyed the series, had some great moments.


Great finale. Loved that Diana shared the spotlight with Akko. I agree the series had some pacing issues, but the high points of the series really stood out as really great moments.
ALso, love that the missile exploded very similarly to the dragon in the movie.


A Believing Heart is Your Magic indeed.

DDPqd4dXoAAdwH7.jpg:large
 
So, I was at AnimeNext this past weekend and Trigger revealed some interesting information about Little Witch Academia that won't be covered in the show. Among the panelists was Yoh Yoshinari himself, so this information came straight from him.[/LIST]
Good GAWD.

Maybe the second season is a good time to start defining the characters and their relationships more.
 
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