Little Witch Academia TV Series

[Flower]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

She found what's wrong with it while giving it magical transfusion and removing parasites would help it, which is also what she proced to do.

None of those are the point though. She is a student. The tree is part of the school and the teachers are responsible for it. She should have asked the teachers if she could help. It really is as simple as that. It does not matter how much she knew - she was a student and the tree was generally the responsibility of the teachers as a whole and Ursula specifically on that particular occasion, who was on the right track for correctly identifying what the root problem (no pun intended) was for the tree's apparently abnormal state.

The "medicine" she attempted to supply was based on a misdiagnosis - the tree was not dying overall, it was only temporarily weakened because the butterfly things were drawing nutrients from it - a common pattern regarding the little fairies. (When the faeries were birthed the health of the tree went back to normal.)

A further problem was trying to kill the butterfly fairies and assuming they were other than what they were when in actual fact they were regarded as a blessing. So that would have been one error compounded on another (and BOTH done without the teacher's permission). If Akko had not correctly identified the nature of the chrysalises on the roots and stopped Diana from trying to eliminate them it could have gone very badly for her ... and she knew it too.

[s07195]

Originally Posted by Xeiros

Spoiler for ...:

The episode screamed we need to rehash the OVA. It was the exact same formula.

1. Class scene in which Akko is bored falling asleep while Diana is on top of things.
2. Post class scene as Akko complains about boring classing/gushes about Chariot prompting Diana, a stranger to Akko at this point, to walk up with her yes women lackeys and proceed to verbally abuse her.
3. Diana screws up by unleashing a magic eating dragon/killing the papilliodiya
4. Akko shiny rods things better.

New material can't come soon enough. This is retroactively making the OVA worse.

I feel like you're a bit overly pessimistic - not every person has seen the OVAs in the first place, you know. Also, it's a reboot but I don't doubt there will be callbacks to the original OVAs.

Supposedly Ep. 3 will introduce the Magical Parade cast (not sure where the source is from) but if so then well... your formula will have been disproven. Which would be a good thing in any case.

[Tenzen12]

It wasn't misdiagnosis, tree suffered by lack of nutritions and Diana provided that much. It didn't heal it, but we could see it relieved it's symptoms.

Well I admit that if teachers decided punish her, she wouldn't have right complain, but as far as could see teachers were pretty happy when "Diana" saved day. If it was about overstepping her bounds, she should be punished regardless of result, alas no one cares.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

Well I admit that if teachers decided punish her, she wouldn't have right complain, but as far as could see teachers were pretty happy "Diana" saved day. If it was really about overstepping her bounds, she should be punished regardless of result alas...

Yeah, some teachers are at fault too for allowing her misbehaviour. Doesn't make what she did right though.

Originally Posted by Tenzen12

It wasn't misdiagnosis

Of course it was misdiagnosis. The right diagnosis would be to figure out there were papilliodya incubating down there and the tree would be okay after they hatched. Ursula got the right diagnosis.

[Slayerx]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

^ Finally, a reasonable post. Yes, Diana has no right to scold Akko. She's student, not a teacher. Also, if Akko wants to fangirl Shiny Chariot, that's her call. Diana had no business butting into their conversation to tell Akko everyone hates Chariot. She probably did so due to her own conflicted feelings toward Chariot.

In any school environment teachers tend to expect the higher class students to help the weaker students. Teachers can not be everywhere and they can not provide personal attention to every troubled student and thus encourage the honors students to step in to help their fellow students. Heck this even goes for adults; when an employee screws up, a good co-worker will tell them how to do their job properly. Sure correcting employees might be the job of a manager but the manager will encourage workers to do as they would. Really allowing others to just screw up isn't helpful at all.

And when it comes down to it Akko IS a terrible student, and that weakness stems directly from her vision of magical chariot. Magical Chariot has shown her the spectacle of magic but NOT the hard work. As a result Akko often treats magic as nothing more than fun and games and does not seem to take into account the value of the hard study needed to actually become a skilled witch. How is Akko going to learn anything if she thinks all she has to do to cast a high class spell is wave a stick around and shout orders? And that is what Diana was doing; she was setting Akko straight on how to get the most out of her studies. Heck, Diana wasn't even insulting about it; she just told Akko exactly how magical chariot is perceived by the magical world. She even treated Akko herself respectfully... Akko however was offended by Diana's differing opinion, and sought to prove her wrong and just ended up embarrassing herself... proving Diana's point in the process.


With Diana i suspect she's trying to do for Akko what her own parents probably did for her. Diana probably loved Chariot's spectacles as a child aswell, but coming from a highly respected magical family her parents told her early on that idolizing someone like chariot is NOT how you learn to become a great witch. It was only by digging into her studies and taking magic seriously that was able to achieve greatness. Diana was likely ultimately thankful for her parents setting her straight... and now she's trying to pass on that lesson on to Akko. Though through Akko, Diana will likely come to think that her parents weren't entirely correct

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

And she did screw up the tree thing. Trying to fix the tree on her own was a huge mistake. She gets some much praises she forgets she's just a student and shouldn't overstep her bounds.

Ya the tree was indeed a mistake on her part. Frankly it actually shows why she's still a student and not a teacher. Her knowledge may be proficient but she's still rather immature in how to use it. She's too rash

[Yamada II]

Episode 2

I like Diana. She isn't a haughty girl who looks down on everyone and thinks she's the best. She's a nice girl. It's just that those two girls by her side give the impression that Diana is an arrogant girl. She should stop those two from praising every single thing she does.

Ursula either has some link with Shiny Chariot, or she's a big fan of hers, or she has a muggle background. She most likely has a reason to want to help out Akko other than just wanting to help her because of her background.

Akko's card collecting was of use here as she figured out that the parasite looking thing isn't something bad but is the super rare magical butterfly. And these magical butterflies look like glowing naked girls with wings...

[grecefar]

Maybe diana will find a friend with akko because she need it, that type of girl are like that, they just need a real friend.

I liked that the cards that akko have were spells, so each chapter will be a card maybe.

[felix]

Why does everyone hate Diana? You realize she's a kid right? not some kind of evil mastermind. She made mistakes, and also buckled under the pressure of praises and couldn't bear to go into the awkward conversation; it was all a giant mess anyway. No surprises here.

Originally Posted by the episode

"Goodness, the Memorial Tree!" exclaimed the tall stupid looking teacher

Principal walked over with Diana's friends in toe, "How Splendid!"

Of the two sidekicks, the red head quickly stepped forward "It's all thanks to Diana's magic!"

The principle voice and expression softened, "Thank you Diana." she said slowly

"P-Please wait! This was not my doing..."

"Who else besides you could have done it?" the tall stupid teacher interjected

"I..."

"..." at a loss Diana wanted to say something but couldn't find the courage to explain who she had almost ruined the tree earlier.

Diana quickly dashed outside, "Please excuse me."

Originally Posted by people's what-should-have-been opinion

"Goodness, the Memorial Tree!" exclaimed the tall stupid looking teacher

Principal walked over with Diana's friends in toe, "How Splendid!"

Of the two sidekicks, the red head quickly stepped forward "It's all thanks to Diana's magic!"

The principle voice and expression softened, "Thank you Diana." she said slowly

"P-Please wait! This was not my doing..."

"Who else besides you could have done it?" the tall stupid teacher interjected

"It was Akko!"

The teachers were at a loss.

"The foreigner girl?" the black haired sidekick girl exclaimed "But she can't use any magic, much less your family's rejuvenation spell you cast earlier."

"Yea- Yeah Diana, even some of the teachers couldn't fix the tree!" interjected the redhead with confusion in her eyes and shock on her face

"Haha. No need to be embarrassed Diana." laughed the tall teacher while waving her hand "The schoo—"

"No! I really didn't do it. The rejuvenation spell I cast 'failed' and then I panicked and started to kill all the butterfly seedlings by accident. Then I accidentally shot Akko with my magic and nearly killed her."

"She somehow survived and then used Shining Rod to cast rejuvenation on the seedlings and fixed everything"

"..."

"What!?" the tall teacher yelled out so loud one could even hear it outside the building

"That girl was actually carying such a powerful artifact!"

"Does she still have the artifact on her? It's way too dangerous to leave it on her, we have to retrieve it at once!"

The principle let out a deep sigh upon hearing the incident but didn't stop the teacher.

.....................

Akko was subsequently separated from the shinning rod. She stayed in the academy for several more months but having no power, getting scolded several times and ocasionally being bullied by the 'proper' witches she eventually left the school and went back home with her dreams shattered. Blaming herself for Akko's misfortune and unable to approach to help her Diana filling her heart with grief and eventually retreated into the only corner she could, denial. Thinking of herself as a bad person she slowly assumed the hauty and arrogant personality everyone projected onto her and grew up to be very unkind witch.

Here's the issues with the alternative version where Diana is this so called "good" girl and feses up...

• Diana completely throws a lot of her character development (and age) away and acts extremely direct—not necesarily out of character but in the context of the plot making her act like that instead of the perfectly-fine-and-built-upon-already option of keeping her "relatively shy with occasional outbursts" personality doesn't make sense. What's it achieving? If you have a mysterious character there's no point in making him less mysterious with out gains.
  
  
• plot thread is more or less dead and buried. Or rather I should say the "conflict" is dead. You can spin a positive ending there but it's very hard to avoid an ending to the conflict. The story can go on, but everything until now has been "resolved" in a very anticlimatic and shallow way.
  
  
• one of the reasons I portrayed it as a bad end is to illustrate how foolish the concept of "if you do good deeds, only good things will happen" is. Not all good deeds are truly good things to do; especially if it involves the plot of a story. Your real world karma beliefs don't apply here. Give characters what they want just because they did good deeds!? HA! Fat Chance! Worst still, japanese writers in particular like the concept of "ki sho ten ketsu", and this sort of direct development with regard to the "who fixed the tree" problem is just completely not that at all! yet it's an obvious target.
  
  
• the character of Diana becomes shallow as a puddle; "she did the right thing" is extremely boring new trait to give her. If you want to read a story about character with out flaws the why doesn't everyone read stories about "the salaryman that goes to work, never is late, has wife and comes back home 'happy' then repeats every day with out error"—numbers seem to suggest everyone hates these types of stories. Cashing in all of Diana's character here, as well as reversing it to some extent (for no good reason) is a completely and utter mistake as well. There's not even any emotional investment in her character to cash in. As you can see it achieves zilch! (plot wise) If anything the awkwardness just cracks the good foundations layed down previously of her being a bit mysterious, outspoken, and somewhat in a gray area personality wise.
  
  
• the flow of the plot is slightly redirected to a drama, a lot of the light heated twists are lost in the awkwardness as a result. And this is suppose to be a good thing? Incidentally a lot of conflicts are solved prematurely, such as Akko being a 'useless bum' as well as any potential for conflict that had in the future. "Akko the normal student" is not as interesting as "Akko the good student everyone looks down on." It's not like there's not many other things to pull from in the future, but, depending on how the consequences of Diana fessing up go Akko may very well become a bit less colorful then she would otherwise be if Diana doesn't tell them the secret. Also in case it isn't obvious only Ursula, Diana and Akko's friends actually 'know' about the shining rod! everyone else saw it but they think it's fake. That's a very good conflict there, and it only works when these three groups with different objectives are the only ones to know. If everyone knows it becomes a different, a bit less interesting conflict; mainly because this version has much higher chance of creating interesting mini conflicts along the way while everyone knowing just becomes extremely anticlamtic.
  
  
• if the other teachers learn of the staff then even in a positive ending Ursula's mentor role in the story is compromised a bit; since once the 'treasure' is exposed it's either going to be taken away or she's going to be allowed to use it but is also going to inevitably forced to interact with all the other witches who may have a interest in it and in her (be it teachers, students, or others).

So, what's so good about her telling them exactly what happened again?

[Draco Spirit]

Complete different topic, but anyone thinking the English dub of this might turn out to be a good gateway anime for younger audiences? It seems fairly smoothly done, unoffensive and easy to get into?

[Dextro]

I won't get too dragged down into the larger discussion you guys are having right now but would like to add that I'm really really liking Diana's characterization here in the TV version when compared to the original OVA. Sure, the differences aren't major but the one thing Diana never actually did during the entire episode was to be smug about her upper class upbringing and superior knowledge. She was respectful of even Akko who is a commoner allowed into the school more for political and monetary reasons than actual ability.

I actually found Diana's characterization in this episode a breath of fresh air in the overall Anime medium. Usually these kinds of characters end up being extremely arrogant or even tsunderes in typical high school anime but here she has been portrayed as someone a lot closer to what a real life upper class student would be like: respectful, with an aura of confidence and extremely proud despite always maintaining complete calm and composure. That was actually not the first impression the OVA left and I personally find this new take on her character a substantial improvement.

[Xeiros]

Originally Posted by Slayerx

And when it comes down to it Akko IS a terrible student, and that weakness stems directly from her vision of magical chariot. Magical Chariot has shown her the spectacle of magic but NOT the hard work. As a result Akko often treats magic as nothing more than fun and games and does not seem to take into account the value of the hard study needed to actually become a skilled witch. How is Akko going to learn anything if she thinks all she has to do to cast a high class spell is wave a stick around and shout orders? And that is what Diana was doing; she was setting Akko straight on how to get the most out of her studies. Heck, Diana wasn't even insulting about it; she just told Akko exactly how magical chariot is perceived by the magical world. She even treated Akko herself respectfully... Akko however was offended by Diana's differing opinion, and sought to prove her wrong and just ended up embarrassing herself... proving Diana's point in the process.


With Diana i suspect she's trying to do for Akko what her own parents probably did for her. Diana probably loved Chariot's spectacles as a child aswell, but coming from a highly respected magical family her parents told her early on that idolizing someone like chariot is NOT how you learn to become a great witch. It was only by digging into her studies and taking magic seriously that was able to achieve greatness. Diana was likely ultimately thankful for her parents setting her straight... and now she's trying to pass on that lesson on to Akko. Though through Akko, Diana will likely come to think that her parents weren't entirely correct

The saddest part is that Diana apparently couldn't see or understand how to properly express this to Akko. Instead she acts like an arrogant bitch who enjoys antagonizing others. Her two lackeys certainly don't help. They in fact encourage this bad behavior. Imagine if she were a kind considerate person. What if she had perhaps approached Akko alone in a more private moment, admitted to also being a fan of Chariot, but had noticed Akko struggling in her studies. She'd then tell Akko to be like Chariot she needs to work hard too and offer to help her study/practice what have you. She cares enough to deliberately seek Akko out at lunchtime, but her social skills are so inept she's unable to express what she really wants to. How do I get this new student I've never spoken to before see/understand this point I want to make? How do I make a good first impression? What's a good ice breaker? What will make her take me seriously? I know! I'll insult her idol! That will make her mad. Then she'll have to listen! Go me!

Never once in all three works so far have we seen Diana in a healthy positive relationship with someone her own age. She has no friends who care for her first and foremost as a person and not her skills, lineage, reputation, or achievements. Thanks to this her ability to actually connect with her fellow students on their level is heavily lacking.

[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by Dextro

I won't get too dragged down into the larger discussion you guys are having right now but would like to add that I'm really really liking Diana's characterization here in the TV version when compared to the original OVA. Sure, the differences aren't major but the one thing Diana never actually did during the entire episode was to be smug about her upper class upbringing and superior knowledge. She was respectful of even Akko who is a commoner allowed into the school more for political and monetary reasons than actual ability.

I actually found Diana's characterization in this episode a breath of fresh air in the overall Anime medium. Usually these kinds of characters end up being extremely arrogant or even tsunderes in typical high school anime but here she has been portrayed as someone a lot closer to what a real life upper class student would be like: respectful, with an aura of confidence and extremely proud despite always maintaining complete calm and composure. That was actually not the first impression the OVA left and I personally find this new take on her character a substantial improvement.

Why do you think people are reacting so poorly to Diana? If she's just a smug tsundere, that's a moe stereotype, and thus okay. Her actually trying to be helpful in her own way confuses their otaku sensibilities... ^_^

[BBOvenGuy]

Originally Posted by Dextro

I actually found Diana's characterization in this episode a breath of fresh air in the overall Anime medium. Usually these kinds of characters end up being extremely arrogant or even tsunderes in typical high school anime but here she has been portrayed as someone a lot closer to what a real life upper class student would be like: respectful, with an aura of confidence and extremely proud despite always maintaining complete calm and composure.

Yes, she has nuances to her that often get left out when a story has that kind of character. I've written such characters myself (complete with the two minions tagging along behind). Putting that kind of subtlety into them can be tricky, but it makes them so much better.

[felix]

Originally Posted by Dextro

I actually found Diana's characterization in this episode a breath of fresh air in the overall Anime medium. Usually these kinds of characters end up being extremely arrogant or even tsunderes in typical high school anime but here she has been portrayed as someone a lot closer to what a real life upper class student would be like: respectful, with an aura of confidence and extremely proud despite always maintaining complete calm and composure. That was actually not the first impression the OVA left and I personally find this new take on her character a substantial improvement.

Mhm. Agree completely.

Also completely forgot about this change. Were there any other subtle character changes? It's been too long for my shit memory to remember the details.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

It seems within the last 24 hours a certain famous site had deciphered both the moon phase runes and the pseudo-voynich manuscript runes.

Both were using the famous Lorem Ipsum texts and that's why it was cracked. Not all letters were available as Latin Alphabet doesn't have W and the like.

Spoiler for spoillered for size:

[Kazu-kun]

In 2ch they say episode 2 got a rating of 2.9% on Kansai TV.

That's huge for late night anime. Generally they get between 0.7-1.5%.

[Requiem-x]

And with that, I'm convinced this will be a great show. Despite being quite simplistic, I couldn't stop smiling during the final part of this episode, and that's a very magical thing.

First of all, very glad to see Suzy's back to the perfect level of mischevousness that makes her so fun and endearing to begin with. Just as good is seeing Diana being less arrogant and more confident than in the OVAs, and her first confrontation with Akko wasn't really hostile, or at least nowhere as much as I expected, and it seems the latter has already made an impression on the former. Getting yourself zapped does that

Also have to mention all the small details, from the expressions to even Lotte getting tired by the end of classes and Akko's sprout; overall small details that do a great job in keeping things interesting and lively. It might not be the most complax of stories, but it already proved to have enough charm to make it worth following.

[Julio C]

What a wonderful second episode. Once again it met or exceeded my expectations. This episode showed how wonderful and responsible Diana really is. She may be a bit stuck up, probably due to her linage, but she is a mature and responsible girl. She will give credit when its due, and she acknowledge Akko on her achievements so far.

I'm so glad that the characters didn't changed at all from the OVAs, and we will see more character development in the future. I hope there is an episode that focuses on Diana's friends/roomates, like how do they live in their room and what kind of things they do together kinda like Akko and co.

[MeoTwister5]

Yeah you don't find simple down to earth shows like this very often anymore. Magic in its simplicity that doesn't have to cater to overt otaku sensibilities or art-house-y aesthetics to grab an audience. A part of me wishes there were more shows still like this.

[Julio C]

Somebody mentioned as to why Diana is in the same class as Akko when she is in a completely different level. Well have they seen Harry Potter?