Happy Halloween! – Little Witch Academia Review
My face during both Little Witch Academia movies.
I think just about everyone knows by now where Studio Trigger came from, but if you don’t Trigger was formed with a few people from Gainax like animators and other production crew members. I can easily say that I was a fan of them ever since they did Inferno Cop, but I wondered what would they make for their first real series before Kill la Kill? Back in 2012 there was something called the Young Animator Training Project or Anime Mirai which is like the Japan Animator Expo; however Anime Mirai consists of movies not shorts and it brought us Little Witch Academia! Oh and yeah Death Billiards was also apart of the Anime Mirai or as we know it as Death Parade, but I’m here to talk all things Little Witch Academia.
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Magical Adventures
Young Atsuko discovers magic.
Have you ever seen the first few Harry Potter movies and ever thought? Man I would love to see an anime about this! I know I did and I wonder if Trigger thought the same thing when they created Little Witch Academia? Whatever the case the first movie was more of an introduction of the magical school and showing off the trio of main characters Sucy, Lotte and Atsuko who make quite the team; however when it comes to magic skill Atsuko is still a novice so she has a few problems and since she doesn’t come from a magic family she has it extra rough, but that wasn’t going to stop her from enrolling at the magic school! Also as a kid she saw Shiny Chariot who inspired her to give it a shot. I mean sure her magic skill is terrible but that makes her all the more fun to watch! It would have been boring if she was a perfect witch. Besides the main cast there are a few side characters that come off as being mean to Atsuko and her friends like Diana, but she only wants to see Atsuko take things more serious.
Rip evil dragon.
So what about the story? Things start off with Atsuko going to various classes like learning how to fly on a her broom? Yeah that was a huge fail for her, but the core story kicks off after Diana and her team wake up a dragon that absorbs magic? I thought for sure that Aksuko and her friends would be the ones to wake the dragon instead of Diana. Eventually the dragon was defeated by Atsuko who managed to find Shiny Chariots magic staff and it took a while for her to fully activate the staff; however she was able to do it and learned that in the process learned that Diana might actually be a fan of Shiny Chariot? This movie taught me that Diana comes off as being high and mighty, but she is actually quite nice and I could see her becoming great friends with Atsuko in the future.
More Magical Adventures
The best characters.
I remember feeling so happy that Little Witch Academia managed to get a second movie thanks to Kickstarter! I did see our very own Lvlln on the end credits so high five for that! I know most people hate Kickstarter due to its lack of successful projects, but I am thankful that there were so many fans of the first movie that decided to throw some extra cash at Trigger to make another! Then again with the way things ended in the first movie it left me and I’m sure others wanting more or would say that was Trigger playing dirty just to get fans of the original to fund their second movie? Either way I have my fingers crossed for a possible TV series? I tend to always look at Kyousogiga because that started off as a movie then broke off into shorts followed by a full blown TV series so maybe the same thing can happen for Little Witch Academia in the future? So lets talk about the second movie which followed the same formula as the first of introducing us to three new characters this time with Constanze, Jasminka and Amanda who was easily my favorite new character. I loved her backstory about being a thief; however I ended up loving Constanze a bit more because she built robots using her magic and I thought that was really cool.
Yay friendship power!!
Story wise the plot revolved around Atsuko, Lotte and setting up a parade for the locals which isn’t much of a parade as you would think! It was more about the witch hunts from back in the day only that nobody gets killed and Atsuko wanted to change that and make it more lively. Oh and I almost forgot that Constanze, Jasminka and Amanda had to help as well because each of them were guilty of some sort of crime! Mostly stealing things or selling things from the school. So yeah with the side mission thrown in it ended up causing lots of drama because Atsuko, Lotte and Sucy had their own visions for the parade and it caused them to argue and fight! That part was a bit sad to watch given how close those girls are; however all that fighting made their friendship even better in the end. Besides the bits of drama the real plot took over after the locals accidentally resurrected an ancient giant! Yeah instead of a fire breathing dragon this time we get a creepy giant and with the power of friendship and magic Atsuko, Lotte, Sucy, Constanze, Jasminka and Amanda saved the day!
Extra magic
Broom flying 101 is a tough class.
Atsuko chillin like a boss~
Que Zelda treasure chest theme…
I love that adorable face <3
Wooooooooooo! Magic!
Second best character Amanda and take a look at her skills with a broom.
D’awwww <3 <3
End Thoughts
So should you watch the two Little Witch Academia movies? Hell ya you should! Trigger did an amazing job on both of them and I can’t say enough good things about them! I loved the fantastic animation, super fun characters and it also had the voice talents of Megumi Han as Atsuko and Yoko Hikasa as Diana and both movies had really interesting stories, but as I said before I still have my fingers crossed for Trigger to TV series of Little Witch Academia! Come on Tigger you know you want to make a series.
About Foshizzel
Is huge anime fan from Florida! who loves to watch anime and also enjoys drawing and collecting pictures, my favorite genre of anime has to be Mecha, there is just something awesome about giant robots beating the crap out of each other! Other than that type of show, I love a good comedy or action series :D
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
litte witch academia is so fluffy and joyfully animated that you cant help but smile as you watch it. I fear it becoming a tv series because im not sure the quality of the animation can be maintained. A big part of the joy of this series comes from how expressive “hogwarts” and its residents are presented and with anime productions these days (especially trigger) i dont trust that they can maintain the quality over 13 episodes
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah I guess so they did have problems with some Kill la kill episodes using some poor CGI during the battles, but with little witch you don’t have to have a fight every episode there is plenty of slice of life stuff they can do.
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
But even the slice-of-life elements of little witch academia are intricately animated; perhaps im being a bit negative but i could see trigger dropping the ball on that was well if they dont plan a tv production accordingly
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Shiny Arc! and the sparkles.
That suspicious professor in the school! She seems familiar!
Also, Sucy is teh best! I believe there is someone that will also agree. 😛
Steph secretly is a Shiny Chariot fan. >_>
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Hehehe yeah the teacher is hiding her secret~
I like Sacy shes a fun character I just wish she did more…
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Great review, Fosh. I personally love that an all ages show like this found the success it did. It’s even better when it’s quality entertainment.
Yeah, like you, I love Magic-Robot Girl, Constanze. But the show stealer for me has always been Sucy. She’s just so blunt; it’s like Atsuko you’re being a hyper-active monster, chill out. They exact thing we want to say.
As for the future, I kinda hope we don’t get a full blown series out of it unless Trigger has the time and funding to make it as good as the two films. Anything less would be settling for something less, and I don’t think the fans would enjoy that. So I guess they should just keep Kickstarting this thing! World-wide funding from the people that love it…
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Thanks and I agree these movies are perfect for any age range! It’s funny seeing this compared to the later Trigger shows filled with fanservice.
I like Atsuko’s hyper-ness its perfect for her voice actress who often plays that role and yeah I know everyone that loves LWA likes Sucy, but I wish she got to do more than say a few one liners and throw some potions around.
Yeah I get what you mean, but I still would love to see them get around to making a TV version! Maybe they could even follow a new cast of characters and have the original characters have cameo appearances? That might be a better way for them to approach a TV series for LWA.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
I love LWA! When I saw there was a Kickstarter for a second movie I kept throwing money at it until they surpassed even their stretch goals. But I used my real name there so you won’t see HannoX in the credits.
I would love a TV series and I would think/hope Trigger could maintain the quality. There are some shows that manage to maintain it throughout. OTOH, maybe its magic works better as films. Either way, if Trigger does a Kickstarter for another LWA I’m onboard.
Sucy is best girl. I like her attitude and personality and her potions and their effects make her the witchiest one. The way she handled the minotaur in the first movie was great, especially her expression and laugh afterwards.
Of the new girls Amanda is best. Forget thieving, Amanda. You can go to prison for that. You could make a fortune as a poledancer.
I also really like Ursula in both her Shiny Chariot and Professor modes. I’d like to see more of her. And will a more mature Shiny Chariot make a return? She now knows the Shiny Rod can be recharged.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Yeah I didn’t get around to throwing them any money but I certainly would have!
SAME I would love one! I guess the issue would be the quality after the fourth or fifth episode depending if they could even manage 12 or 25…Kill la Kill is the best example of Trigger quality because that started off AWESOME but about midway through they had to use CGI and poor animation to finish the series.
Yeah Sucy is definitely a fan favorite.
LOL yeah that broom/pole dance moment was insane I guess even LWA has to show some sort of fanservice i’m shocked they didn’t do tons of pantsu shots in these two movies given the fact they ride brooms…
Yeah that would be cool.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
LWA2 did slip its completion date a couple of times. The comments on Kickstarter, including mine, were okay with that, the general feeling being “better done right than done fast.” But that does raise a question regarding quality for a TV series. Unless Trigger already has most episodes in the can before broadcasting starts, probably not practical given the anime business, there’d be a real danger of quality slipping in the middle episodes or the last couple being delayed. But sometimes the latter can work to an anime’s advantage. Girls und Panzer had to delay its last two episodes, but took the extra time to turn in two outstanding episodes with some of the best battle action ever in an anime.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Come on Spammy, enough’s enough.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Sucy needs to give Spammy a drink of the potion she used on the minotaur.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
I agree!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I liked the first one, but I have to say that I turned off the second one about 1/3 in. I just don’t like stories where the character are willfully getting themselves into trouble by being stupid or selfish or just plain unthinking. So watching them set up a parade that was totally designed to get them all into trouble, no matter how they were going to manage to get out of it, just turned me off completely, so I decided I didn’t want to watch the rest.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Well isn’t that just about every video game, anime, TV show, movie and book? X character is pushed into or causes a problem that he or she caused and now they have to fix it? Yeah I get what you mean, but that sounds kinda dumb to complain about when that setup is used in just about everything even the anime series you love use that formula.
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
quite a bit of good live-action tv shows/movies also use that set-up. It comes down to how well it’s used at the end of the day
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
But it’s not the same at all. There’s a difference between being put in a situation where you have to figure out how to get out of it (which is what usually happens), and a situation where the main characters, through either being stupid, vapid, or negligent, are actively planning the horrible situation that they need to get out of later. In this case, it was their idiotic parade planning that turned me off. They KNEW what they were supposed to do, and could have done it the way they were told to. But no, they were the ones making it so that everything would go wrong. That’s just not a scenario I like.
The formula is significantly different.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
Actually, when the girls finally came together they came up with a great idea for the parade, one much better than what they were told to do. It was the mayor and the bratty boys who turned it into a near disaster.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Soooooo by that logic they KNEW the monster would appear? I don’t see how they knew about the parade messing up and what really messed up? Nothing it was all the giant monsters fault things went south so I fail to see how that was their doing based off “stupidity” and from the sound of it you didn’t make it that far cause all of that is at the very end of the movie.