How TRIGGER Made Magic

This is a Spoiler Free review

At first glance, Little Witch Academia appears to be yet another series cashing in on the hype that surrounded (and continues to surround) the Harry Potter franchise. A series about a magic school for young witches, full of adventure, mystery, and friendship, all wrapped in a classic coming of age story against a villain who plans to use the ultimate form of magic to change the world? This is nothing new.

And, to be fair, there is very little on the surface that LWA does to separate itself from this notion. Continuing the Harry Potter comparison, like Harry, Akko is someone completely new to the world of magic, and her two best friends are either smart or mischievous. Her rival is someone from a powerful magic family, who are all blond, and along the way, she's assisted by a professor who is strangely interested in getting her to be her best self. The basic elements are all there.

What makes LWA so special, though, is that it has one of the strongest casts I have ever seen.

Almost every single character in this show feels like a breath of fresh air. Each one of them may appear to fit into a trope, but that's quickly dissuaded by just how fully realized each of these characters actually turns out to be. As long as your hair isn't lavendar, you're probably an extremely strong character with clear motivations and deep development. The one that really steals the show, though, is our lead, Akko.

I could talk for hours about how great of a character Akko is, but I'll hold off on that for a moment to address the other parts of the show.

The animation is stellar, as always from Studio TRIGGER. Yoh Yoshinari's character design prowess is on full display here, with each character having a memorable and unique yet simple and elegant appearance. The soundtrack is passable, with great Openings and Endings and some strong motif tracks. There's some amazing moments, and there's a twist towards the end of the series that made me fall in love with the lead all over again.

Where LWA is weakest, surprisingly, is in the things that made Harry Potter so strong to begin with.

LWA's world is kind of boring. While Luna Nova is cool, everything else is super underdeveloped; which wouldn't have been a problem if the series didn't spend so much time outside of the school. The series also has a very weird format: The first half is entirely episodic, with a very, very loose overarching plot, whereas the second has a clear overarching story. This change is signified by LWA's weakest character, Croix. I don't want to get too much into Croix, since I'm avoiding spoilers, but just be prepared for a very strange turn halfway through the series.

To put it simply, this series isn't revolutionary and it only really has one "Wow" moment that happens towards the end of the series. I genuinely think that if you think you'll like LWA, you'll probably like it, and if you don't think you will, then there's nothing here for you. It's a very straightforward show, which I actually think is a good thing with how many anime are trying to subversive or "the new big thing" these days. Little Witch is content being what it is, which is something greatly missing from a LOT of other contemporary anime.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, we can move on to Akko.

Akko is one of the most unique characters I have ever seen. Just, straight up. A lot of anime, even good ones, don't have main characters half as strong as Akko.

Think about this for a moment: most main characters will have a mixed bag of strengths and flaws. When somebody sits down to design a character like Akko, you might try making a list of sorts, to see what these traits are. A character who makes up for their clumsiness and incompetence with their compassion and determination is a very classic, and very functional, template many, many main characters fall into. But these are all just surface-level observations.

At this level, Akko is almost entirely flaws. She's clumsy, she's stubborn, she's a little stupid, she's arrogant, rude, selfish, lazy, doesn't know when to take things seriously, can't read a room, is constantly butting into other people's problems, and is overall just a terrible person.

So why... why do I love her so much?

Well, because I'm Akko. These are things I'm constantly feeling about myself, and if I'm being honest, it makes me hate myself a little bit. I can't help but think about every single mistake I've made in the last 10 years, every terrible thing I've said, every selfish action I've made, every person I've let down. And while I'm sad and sulking, Akko is happy and hopeful. I constantly feel useless, and like Akko, I jump at the first chance to help somebody just so that I can feel useful. Akko represents what I could be, despite my shortcomings. Every time I think about Akko, I find another reason to love her, and that helps me find another reason to love myself.

Akko, despite all her flaws, is doing everything she can to be a good person, to be useful. She wants to inspire people, to bring fun to their lives, and she, against all odds, succeeds in a lot of ways by the end of the series! She has legitimately made the lives of all she's come across better, and that's something I want to do as well.

Akko is legitimately my favorite fictional character of all time, so despite all of LWA's flaws, like Akko, I still love it.