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. 350https://i.ebay.com/images/g/Q4sAAOSws8NZ4weM/sl1600.jpg 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 shes 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 thats quickly dissuaded by just how fully realized each of these characters actually turns out to be. As long as your hair isnt lavendar youre probably an extremely strong character with clear motivations and deep development. The one that really steals the show though is our lead Akko. 350http://pa1.narvii.com/6682/6dac250bbe75da7d5b233831916f4e4315d79e4500.gif I could talk for hours about how great of a character Akko is but Ill 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 Yoshinaris 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. Theres some amazing moments and theres 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. LWAs world is kind of boring. While Luna Nova is cool everything else is super underdeveloped which wouldnt have been a problem if the series didnt 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 LWAs weakest character Croix. I dont want to get too much into Croix since Im avoiding spoilers but just be prepared for a very strange turn halfway through the series. To put it simply this series isnt revolutionary and it only really has one Wow moment that happens towards the end of the series. I genuinely think that if you think youll like LWA youll probably like it and if you dont think you will then theres nothing here for you. Its 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. 350https://pa1.narvii.com/6450/94c168d680de077da2736446df5061777385798bhq.gif Okay now that thats 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 dont 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 surfacelevel observations. At this level Akko is almost entirely flaws. Shes clumsy shes stubborn shes a little stupid shes arrogant rude selfish lazy doesnt know when to take things seriously cant read a room is constantly butting into other peoples problems and is overall just a terrible person. 350https://i.pin.com/originals/3f/9f/b6/3f9fb6ae035cdb06eddc8a66ee91f13d.jpg So why... why do I love her so much? Well because Im Akko. These are things Im constantly feeling about myself and if Im being honest it makes me hate myself a little bit. I cant help but think about every single mistake Ive made in the last 10 years every terrible thing Ive said every selfish action Ive made every person Ive let down. And while Im 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 shes come across better and thats something I want to do as well. Akko is legitimately my favorite fictional character of all time so despite all of LWAs flaws like Akko I still love it. 350https://pa1.narvii.com/6558/00587801a85f0d346d307826764ade15a16adbcdhq.gif