Little Witch Academia TV Series

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by RobotCat

Yes, she's stuck up and abrasive, but she rarely says anything that wasn't warranted.

I don't even think she's stuck up. She's just blunt and somewhat antisocial. Or maybe "asocial" would be a better term. She's clearly put so much effort into her studies that she doesn't know how to properly deal with or relate to people.

[Draco Spirit]

Well that was a rather enjoyable episode.

On themes, this episode clearly had two objectives. Build up the side characters a bit more, Amanda primary, and start exploring the wider setting.

We've show some witches (and at least one dragon) are starting to adapt technology and magic is fading, something I'm certain is going to be a recurring issue in the wider narrative.

Also on the wider narrative, I think Akko's general magical incompetence might be a first arc hurdle for her. We've seen a few rare flashes of brilliance from her, but by and large her main power is heart and drive. As of now she might not be very good herself, but she good at pushing others forwards, so I suspect her character development is likely to be leadership shaped. Additionally if this is a 24 episode run show, I would be paying attention to episode 12, because if there going to be a major change to Akko's general magical usefulness, it's going to be there.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by RobotCat

She should mind. She wants to be the next greatest magician but hasn't made any real progress towards it since episode 2. Her butterfly knowledge came from memorizing those playing cards, but is she putting in the effort when its not related to Chariot? Look at what she's doing in potions class, throwing in extra ingredients just because she feels like it and screwing everything up. She still can't fly after all this time, and I feel like she really only tried to fly in episode 3 because Chariot won first place, and now that the race is over she's content to just bum rides with her friends. During the dragon fight she was unable to do anything while Jasminka drove Connie, and Suzy/Amanda could fight solo. Lotte drove her but she show that she was incapable of doing anything.

No one is arguing Akko lacks skills and development, but that's a writing issue. It's episode 5 and the writers still make Akko behave like an total dork. At the same time they clearly expect us to root for her and the power of believing. Well, I do want root for her, but It's hard when she can't back up her ideals properly. But it's not her fault. It's the writers' for neglecting her development.

She could have learned her lesson.

Or maybe she's a huge hypocrite who doesn't want to admit her own failures.

Akko is also pretty inconsiderate towards her friends. Only Akko and Amanda were punished but Akko dragged Lotte and Suzy along anyways. Suzy even asked why are they here when only Akko is punished but there was no followup.

Sucy and Lotte can do whatever they want. They don't have to follow Akko if they don't want to. And don't treat Sucy as a delicate flower. Remember she tried to kill Akko and Lotte in the first episode. Despite her complains, if she follows Akko it's because she wants to.

Yes friends should help each other in need but I'm not sure Akko even reflects on how much her friends are there to support her.

You're willing to give Diana the benefits of the doubt but not Akko? That's pretty biased.

Both Akko and Diana deserved what they got from Diana. The first instance in the episode Diana only got on their case AFTER they blew up the classroom. If Diana wasn't able to timestop and put everything back with her magic, the explosion could have hurt the other students, and class would have been canceled. Just because they don't take the class seriously doesn't mean they have free reign to disrupt other students from trying to learn.

Diana isn't a teacher. It's not up to her to "get on their case."

The second time Diana didn't say anything more than the truth. She probably didn't realize saying it in her usual manner just fires up Akko and Amanda even more, but everything said pretty much turned out to be what happened.

She has no right to shit on Akko for not thinking about the consequences of her actions when she's done the same herself.

As for Amanda, she might have her own goals, but from Diana's perspective the students came here to learn magic. And so far Amanda hasn't shown herself to be interested in anything other than broom racing.

You said it yourself, Diana only looks at the world from her perspective. She doesn't try to see things from a different point of view. Everything revolves around her.

We don't really know Diana's personal goals, but she makes serious effort in learning magic (even on her own) and has the results to show for it.

Results alone don't mean shit in the long run. The dragon was clear, magic will disappear as people is losing interest. All the knowledge in the world won't change that. But Diana is too absorbed in her own image to realize this.

Outside of the buttefly incident, everything Diana has done is pretty much reserved (or as much as she can while still maintaining her family name and status). She doesn't go out of her way to bully Akko and the only times she is antagonistic since the buttefly incident is this episode where Akko was seriously being disruptive and foolish.

The problem is that she only sees the world from her perspective and considers everything else worthless. That's why she can't understand Akko and Amanda, also why she thinks Chariot's magic is worthless. And of course, that's also why she still hasn't realized her precious magical world is in danger and Akko may actually be the only one who can save it.

[Slayerx]

I thought the episode started well, but it fell flat at the end.

The tension and action was all really great in the first half of the episode but then it came to an anti-climatic end. And I can accept an anti-climatic end, i mean the idea of a modern day dragon hoarding treasury via stocks and this whole situation being a matter of repossession are actually funny ideas; and the idea of the dragon being bitter and pessimistic about the future of the magic world is a good story idea... but I feel like it dragged on too long to the point where it just got a bit boring. That whole bit really needed to be tightened up more or it needed something to spice it up to hold interest

Also i gotta agree that the ending with Diana bugged me. Its fine that she knows the language but it annoys me how incompetent the teachers are. Sure i can accept the teachers not being fluent themselves, i mean you'd be hard pressed to find a school where there's a teacher for every language, but Luna nova should atleast have books on the subject. Translating that note should have been as easy as cracking open a few books... hell considering how important the note was, they should have found someone to translate the thing centuries ago; the fact that diana knows the language only shows that there ARE people who could have translated it for the teachers a long time ago (its not likes its some old forgotten language). I'm fine with Diana's character and her high level of skill and ability, but the plot shouldn't have to bend itself over backwards just to give her the opportunity to shine.

Really i think i would have preferred an ending where Akko manages to win the dragon over with her spirit. Heck we kinda saw a bit of that near the end, but it didn't really amount to anything since the situation was already resolved. They could have even worked in the shiny rod; y'know work in an angle about the ancient dragon knowing something about the rod that helps influence him and convince him. I also think Akko could have given us a bit more an emotional ending to this episode which would have spiced things up to help make this anti-climax work better

[Stark700]

Compared to some of the previous episodes, I thought it was okay but not as entertaining some of the others. I have mixed feelings about Diana right now. Really hope we get more storytelling about her as I can't feel appreciated about her presence in the show so far. (maybe she'll change in the future?) I'm not even surprised that she's the one that figured everything out in the end. Felt like the others (Akko, teachers, etc) were like fools when they were confronting that dragon. Also, not many Sucy moments this week.

That being said, I like how they are keeping Amanda relevant in this show. She's one of those characters that I find pretty amusing to watch from time to time now.

Ending felt anticlimactic as some have said. I hope next episode will be better.

[FredFriendly]

Looks to me that episode 5 (or should I say, "Diana, The Snotty Witch Show" episode 3) proves all those nay-sayers wrong: Diana is a snotty witch, and not the loveable, misunderstood, gentle witch that wants to be Akko's friend.

And, as Slayerx suggested, it's pretty ridiculous that the "contract" had never been translated by the witches, let alone being agreed to in the first place if they didn't know what it actually said. Of course, it was just another plot device for the studio to grandstand "Our Favorite Witch Diana" above all and sundry, students and teachers alike. Putting Diana up high on that pedestal far and above everyone else is getting old (and annoying) very quickly. Hopefully, by the end of the series, Diana will take a tumble off that pedestal and come to the realization that she isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[Shlugo]

"Sugar, spice and everything nice." -Reference game on point.

Okay, so they don't even try to hide the fact that Diana is the real hero of the show, and totally right, and Akko really is an useless idiot troublemaker with bad attitude and unwarranted sense of entitlement. I have to admit that it's an unusual and interesting dynamic.

Of course the staff at Luna Nova seems barely more competent than Akko. They should just let Diana run the whole thing.

Akko really has a better chemistry with Amanda than with her own roommates

"You better care about what I want!"-Akko in one sentence.

Constanze is awesome, though I do wonder what she's even doing at a Luna Nova, instead of MIT.

Gee, maybe magic is losing popularity because you apparently can only use it in like a kilometer radius around the Philosopher Stone? The logic by which this world works leaves me very confused.

[Kanon]

Ok, even I am starting to take issue with Diana's character now. It's one thing to be better than all the other students, but the teachers too? They should just make her the headmaster already. She resolved a situation that ruined the school during hundreds of years in a matter of minutes.

I don't get it. They started out well with her, but she keeps getting worse every episode. It's like reverse character development. Meanwhile, Akko isn't being developed one bit.

[Alhazred]

It might be a bit of an overreaction to declare that "Diana has fixed everything!" at this point, since we don't know that the loan with Fafnir was the only one Luna Nova has taken out and even if they are no longer in debt to him their expenses still outstrip their revenue due to declining enrollments. In all likelihood she's bought them a temporary reprieve from debt collectors, at best.

While i agree it was a bit excessive to have Diana be the only one able to resolve the situation, i can see it happening that way if Luna Nova once had an instructor who could translate draconic but they lost them to retirement or budget cuts long before the issue of the loan from Fafnir came up (the loan is a thousand years old and they may have started defaulting only in the last couple decades.) As an employee at a public university I can confirm that dead languages can be pretty low prestige when it comes to budget allocation. The period of repayment may also have been delayed, because who doesn't like a deal that has "No payments for 300 years!" Then, when he first came to collect maybe Fafnir threw around a bunch of "standard terms" bullshit like he tried in this episode and they just rolled over and accepted it because they weren't that desperate for cash just yet and he's an angry dragon.

[FredFriendly]

Originally Posted by Kanon

...I don't get it. They started out well with her, but she keeps getting worse every episode. It's like reverse character development. Meanwhile, Akko isn't being developed one bit.

You could look at it as each new episode with Diana showing the facade of her better-than-everyone-else character peeling away by progressively showing her in an ever more emotionally contemptible light. She may be the black cat's ass of witches, but she's certainly not a very nice person. She lacks humanity and humility. And if any of you think that she feels an iota of guilt for accepting full credit for saving the tree and butterflies, and will ever tell the teachers that it was really Akko who saved them, I'd advise you to not hold your breath. You'd die before the series is over.

Akko, on the other hand, has a boundlessly positive attitude and never give up spirit, characteristics that need no improvement. If only she could learn to ride her broom...

[Kazu-kun]

I always watch every episode a few times, until now. This is the first one I couldn't do that. I had a hard time just finishing the first run actually. The resolution was so cringe-worthy and nonsensical.

I really hope next episode will get the series back on track. I don't want to drop this show.

[Julio C]

Oh wow, we finally got a weak episode this time. Every episode has been great until this one came around.

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Ok, even I am starting to take issue with Diana's character now. It's one thing to be better than all the other students, but the teachers too? They should just make her the headmaster already. She resolved a situation that ruined the school during hundreds of years in a matter of minutes.

I don't get it. They started out well with her, but she keeps getting worse every episode. It's like reverse character development. Meanwhile, Akko isn't being developed one bit.

Again, the problem is not with Diana's character; Diana using her superior knowledge and talent to shine is just fine. What went wrong in this episode is that the plot itself got hamstrung in order to give her the chance to shine... The 2nd and 3rd episodes used her perfectly, but here everyone had to hold the idiot ball just to create a situation that Diana could solve. Really everything around that Dragon loan is just horribly contrived

Originally Posted by Alhazred

While i agree it was a bit excessive to have Diana be the only one able to resolve the situation, i can see it happening that way if Luna Nova once had an instructor who could translate draconic but they lost them to retirement or budget cuts long before the issue of the loan from Fafnir came up (the loan is a thousand years old and they may have started defaulting only in the last couple decades.) As an employee at a public university I can confirm that dead languages can be pretty low prestige when it comes to budget allocation. The period of repayment may also have been delayed, because who doesn't like a deal that has "No payments for 300 years!" Then, when he first came to collect maybe Fafnir threw around a bunch of "standard terms" bullshit like he tried in this episode and they just rolled over and accepted it because they weren't that desperate for cash just yet and he's an angry dragon.

No, it doesn't work... Even if they used to have a teacher who could translate why not have her actually write down a translation. And Luna Nova is supposed to be the highest class of school for witches and yet they don't have any books about the dragonese language. Really if Diana could learn the language then that alone suggests that Luna Nova could get the resources to do the same.

Heck, Fafnir actually lampshades another ridiculous point about this plot; namely that its rather ridiculous for a loan to not include interest. Interest rates are how investors make money by giving out loans. This plot is just amazingly slipshod.



And really... this solution isn't even very interesting or amusing. Saving the day through legalese is just so dull and ordinary. Again I think Akko could have been the vehicle for a more emotional conclusion. Namely, i feel Akko could have possibly saved the day through her Trivia knowledge like she did with the butterflies.

I imagine a scenario where upon meeting Fafnir she actually recognizes him from her Chariot trivia, which leads to her going into a fangirl rant about his past greatness from the stories she heard. This ends up enduring Fafnir to Akko as she basically ends up reminding him of his youth; reminding him of a time when magic was grand and he was revered and respected. Kinda sad how he fell in more recent centuries. Might even help that she's a muggle from the human world as she shows a little hope for magic in the human world. The end result is that by the time the teachers show up, Fafnir decides to take it easy on them. Frankly, i just imagine such an ending would have been more moving

Really until Akko learns to use magic and the shiny rod, i feel like the trivia knowledge of hers would be the best way for her to contribute to solving various problems. Being a fangirl of chariot could have turned her into an expert on obscure magical history and lore.

[Random Wanderer]

Geeze, a ridiculous amount of hate. Diana did nothing wrong in this episode. Her judgement of Akko and Amanda was completely accurate: she was blunt, but not deliberately demeaning. Frankly, Akko is being really annoying by constantly trash-talking and screwing up and picking fights, yet refusing to learn.

Now, if I were to have a complaint about this episode, aside from Akko, it would be that the teachers aren't competant to to run an institution like this. In fact, they are pathetically, ridiculously incompetant, to the point that one wonders how they ever qualified to be teachers in the first place.

As for Diana knowing the ancient dragon language, clearly she was a fan of Dinotopia when she was younger.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Slayerx

I imagine a scenario where upon meeting Fafnir she actually recognizes him from her Chariot trivia, which leads to her going into a fangirl rant about his past greatness from the stories she heard. This ends up enduring Fafnir to Akko as she basically ends up reminding him of his youth; reminding him of a time when magic was grand and he was revered and respected. Kinda sad how he fell in more recent centuries. Might even help that she's a muggle from the human world as she shows a little hope for magic in the human world. The end result is that by the time the teachers show up, Fafnir decides to take it easy on them. Frankly, i just imagine such an ending would have been more moving

Really until Akko learns to use magic and the shiny rod, i feel like the trivia knowledge of hers would be the best way for her to contribute to solving various problems. Being a fangirl of chariot could have turned her into an expert on obscure magical history and lore.

I honestly think Trigger has no idea what to do with Akko. There has been no progression whatsoever for her character.

[Draco Spirit]

I'm giving Akko time yet to develop personally.

[Random Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

I honestly think Trigger has no idea what to do with Akko. There has been no progression whatsoever for her character.

I'm assuming she'll grow more in the second cour of the series, but seeing her constantly act like this without actually accomplishing anything (other than when she borrows the power of the Shiny Rod and/or the cards, or has her friends cheat for her) is pretty annoying right now.

[Wandering Soul]

Count me in as someone else that found Diana ridiculous during this episode. Wasn't really pleased with how incompetent everyone, especially the teachers were. They may as well just make Diana part of the staff already.

[Gan_HOPE326]

I didn't find this episode quite as bad as many seem to make it, though I understand the problems. I hope this was just a dud characterisation-wise, but I still liked quite a lot, like Costanze's magitech contraptions, the Akko/Amanda chemistry, and Fafnir, the dragon who instead of sleeping on a hoard of gold has a room full of monitors with stock charts, appropriately for this age .

I think the overall main function of this episode was to introduce the theme of magic as something in decline. And that Luna Nova wasn't the best managed of schools, and its staff of dubious competence, imho was already foreshadowed occasionally (remember the potato-only meals of last week? WTF was up with those?). So there's a nice potential arc in the "revival of magic". We'll see where it goes from here, but after all, if a show must have a few duds/breather episodes, this is exactly the moment in which you'd expect them, so I'm not too worried.

[Darthtabby]

So I gave this episode a second watch through, and I found it actually wasn't all that bad. The first two thirds are actually pretty good, and while the final third had its issues it also had some interesting stuff which may be relevant to later events.

I get that people may have an issue with Diana resolving the situation single handedly the way she did. Perhaps that could have been downplayed by having her say she was taught the language from a family member who studied it or something. On the other hand, I think her perfect performance here and her big mess up in episode 2 kind of counterbalance each other. Also, it provides a good lead in for Akko and Amanda's griping at the end. I'm sure those of you who think Diana is a Mary Sue can appreciate Amanda's "She's so perfect I wanna hurl" comment. Diana being miss perfect in her resolution of that situation may have been exactly what the writers were aiming for.