Little Witch Academia (2017 series)

"My story is about to begin! Extend your hand! Adventure awaits!"

- Atsuko "Akko" Kagari

Little Witch Academia is a 2017 anime series produced by Studio Trigger, and released on Netflix. It is part of the Little Witch Academia franchise, and perhaps the most prominent entry in it.

Let's face it. Magic is cool. Magic has so functions in life, from the mundane yet simple utilities like making plants grow faster, to the extraordinary like magical spectacles and combat magic. There's nothing that magic cannot do. Atsuko "Akko" Kagari knows this, witnessing a spectular performance her idol Shiny Chariot put on when she was a kid. This is precisely why she signed up to the prestigious Luna Nova academy, which Shiny Chariot formerly attended.

Problem: Akko kind of sucks at magic. Flying on a broomstick is supposed to be one of the simplest spells for a witch. Everyone around her effortlessly rose into the air and soared through the sky, while not even a Training Montage, The Power of Friendship, nor intense Calling Your Attacks sessions with No Indoor Voice could make Akko overcome gravity. No, Akko, transformation spells are not meant to give you rabbit ears. You're supposed to transform the animal sitting in front of you, not yourself.

Well, no fear! Her pluckiness and exceptional enthusiasm means she at least has a chance in the academy.

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In 420 AD at the site dedication for the prestigious witchcraft academy of Luna Nova, our founding mentor, Woodward of the Nine Olde Witches greeted our first 100 students with these words "Let this academy be the first milestone in restoring the art of witchcraft and all of its lost glory.""
 * Accentuate the Negative: In universe in episode four, with Annabel Creme, the author of the Night Fall series. She quits writing, and hands her job over to Lotte, partially due to the negative reactions and comments she received regarding her volumes. Lotte eventually persuades her that she is a good author, and that Lotte has been a huge fan of her works for a long time, convincing her to keep writing.
 * After-School Cleaning Duty: Dished out to Akko and the trio, almost every second episode, as punishment for them doing things they should not do.
 * Anime Theme Song: The opening song "Shiny Ray".
 * Art Shift: In the second episode, as Diana animates a statue the style looks much more like a painting.
 * Happens quite often in "Akko's Adventures in Sucyworld" in the Retraux film playing inside Sucy's mind. The most notable example is a callback to the scene where Akko first meets Sucy, where the art becomes much more detailed for two shots. There are no animated components, only objects moving around and parallax scrolling, contrasting the shots before and after them.
 * Back from the Dead: In episode nine, Akko accidentally casts a resurrection spell. She was meant to mend a grave, but her mending potion was mixed with Sucy's mushrooms, resurrecting a corpse who desperately began looking for revenge on a man.
 * Better as Friends: Lotte thinks that she and Frank are this.
 * Bland-Name Product: In episode 18, we are introduced to "CBay", which Constanze searches to find a hand mixer. The site has Surprisingly Good English, although the animators messed up plural form and wrote "2 bid". You can pause to read what it says.
 * Blank White Eyes: In episode eight, Akko gets them while being knocked by Lotte's wand to be sent into Sucy's mind.
 * Book Ends: Episode five begins with Amanda and Akko fighting over who is the biggest try-hard in Luna Nova. Episode five ends with Amanda and Akko fighting over who is the biggest try-hard in Luna Nova.
 * Cast of Snowflakes: The students at the Luna Nova academy. Every one of them are unique.
 * Catch a Falling Star: In episode three, Akko, after falling of her broomstick, is caught by Diana.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Akko initially finds her stuff lying on the ground, guarded by a human-eating mandrake. That flower is used later on in the episode to attack the gigantic cockarice attacking the cast.
 * Children Are Innocent: Akko is depicted as innocent in her childhood flashbacks.
 * Cosplay: In episode four, during a Night Fall release ceremony for the 365th entry, many people dress up as characters from the book series. Lotte was able to point and name at every single one of them and say which character they dress up as.
 * Crash Into Hello: How Akko and Sucy meet.
 * Dream Sequence: Opens the second episode.
 * Drive-In Theater: Akko visits this, among many other places, in "Akko's Adventures in Sucyworld". She watches a Retraux film which reveals how the inner Sucy thinks about her.
 * Empathic Environment: At the beginning of episode eight, when Sucy is doing all sorts of creepy experiments and making potions, the weather is appropriately dark and stormy to reflect this mood.
 * Equivalent Exchange: In episode eleven, if Akko wishes to gain a bright future where she is a talented witch, she must give up her past.
 * Free Sample Plot Coupon: The Shiny Rod was just sitting on the floor in the forest in the Forest of Arcturus, which Akko easily picks up and keeps.
 * Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the first episode, when Akko holds out a guide to Luna Nova, you can pause the episode and read its content, which includes a history of Luna Nova, a map of the facility and how to access it, and pictures of the facility. "''Greetings from Luna Nova

piece of shit referee"
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: In episode 21, the animators used the fact that Japanese audiences probably don't know what English swear words are to sneak a very naughty word into a scene. This is when anonymous users online are complaining about the latest soccer game. "piece of shit game


 * Good Angel, Bad Angel: In episode eight, the inner Sucys manifest themselves as angels to guide Akko through, well, Sucyworld. Played with, in that what the good angel is doing, forcing Akko to sign a contract to enlist the angel's help, cannot be considered "good".
 * Heroic Self-Deprecation: Downplayed. Akko at the start of episode twelve does this briefly. This is even lampshaded. "Sucy: Wow. Akko's feeling down in the dumps. I guess there's a first time for everything."

Professor: Probably."
 * Homage: In episode eight "Akko's Adventures in Sucyworld", the fangirl Sucy holds up a lightsaber.
 * Humongous Mecha: In episode 18, the ship that Akko and Constanze builds transforms into one. Constanze's helper bots believe that a transforming mecha is a stupid idea, but Constanze regardless tries to make the plan work. In the end, it all works out. Studio Trigger, we get it. You're formed from the people who made Neon Genesis Evangelion and Gurren Lagann.
 * Journey to the Center of the Mind: The plot point of episode eight, "Akko's Adventures in Sucyworld", where Akko tries to wake up a sleeping Sucy.
 * Late for School: How the series starts out. Akko asks around for a bus stop to take her to Luna Nova, but turns out, there are no buses that go there. Instead, you have to ride on a broomstick. Oh, also if you're late, you're expelled. The stakes are just a little high.
 * Loan Shark: In episode five,
 * Long Runners: In universe with Night Fall, where the 365th novel was released in episode four. The series continued for 120 years.
 * Look Ma, No Plane: In episode three, when Akko flies past an airplane after getting on a broomstick she can't control very well.
 * Love Potion: A love bee in this case, appearing in episode ten. When it stings anyone, they instantly fall in love.
 * Love Triangle: One is present in the Night Fall book series within the show.
 * Magic Kiss: Parodied. In episode eight, Sucy is asleep. Akko performs a Journey to the Center of the Mind and locates the sleeping Sucy within the sleeping Sucy. She drinks all the antidotes Lotte gave her, and is about to feed them to Sucy via a magical kiss. Well, that was the plan until Sucy wakes up at the last minute and pushes Akko aside.
 * Memento MacGuffin: Akko's rare card of Shiny Chariot.
 * Mood Whiplash: Episode seven begins with the dangers of magic. To use magic to commit murder, they will be eaten life slowly by mice. Use magic to resurrect the dead? Enjoy your Fate Worse Than Death. Then... "Akko: Are all of these going to be on our next exam?


 * My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Akko calls a cockatrice a "stupid bird" in the Forest of Arcturus, and now it wants to eat her. She meant to just cast a spell that Sucy gave her. Sucy uses Akko as bait to distract the cockarice while she harvests its poison.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Diana casts a family-secret revitalization spell in the second episode, to bring more life to the Memorial Tree which is special to Luna Nova. It led to the tree spreading its roots all over the campus. Then the trope occurs again as she tries to destroy what appear to be parasites on the tree's roots, but turns out to be Papiliodia -- rare butterflies who only hatch once in a hundred years.
 * No Indoor Voice: Akko can only speak by yelling. Nothing else.
 * No Ontological Inertia: In episode ten, when the love bee was killed, the love spell from everyone it stung wears off. Thus, Andrew is no longer in love with Akko, and Lotte no longer has an unwanted harem.
 * Off-Model: If a character is small and far from the camera, it's difficult to tell exactly who they are. While it is expected that characters further away will be drawn with less detail, sometimes characters won't be drawn with basic features like eyes at all, making them difficult to tell apart. In episode 17, a particularly noticeable example involves Akko in rat form standing on Amanda's shoulder, where she looked like an eleven year old having a frantic fifteen second session in Microsoft Paint.
 * One Word Title: Episode two is titled "Papiliodia" and episode twenty-three is titled "Yesterday".
 * Offscreen Teleportation: In the courtroom scene in episode eight, Akko is clearly seen sitting with the other Sucy characters in the chair. Two shots and three seconds later, she somehow got up to the judge, close enough to stop the hammer.
 * Only Six Faces: In episode eight, Sucyworld is only made up of, you guessed it, Sucy. Every background character is Sucy. In fact, there are no characters other than Sucy other than Akko taking a Journey to the Center of the Mind. "Judge Sucy: The case of Sucy by Sucy for Sucy is now in session."

"Frank: What about you and Atsuko Kagari? Andrew: You're kidding. Frank: Well at least you didn't kick her out."
 * Or Was It a Dream?: "Akko's Adventures in Sucyworld" ends with Akko waking up, with the world seemingly back to normal, and the events of the episode apparently a dream. That is, until Sucy brought up that Akko needs to carry her stuff for a month.
 * Our Dragons Are Different: The dragon in episode five makes coffee and makes money trading stocks, apparently.
 * Overly Long Name: In episode seven, we have "Constanze Braunschbank Albrechtsberger", who takes an exam right before Akko.
 * Public Domain Soundtrack: In episode ten, while Akko is hunting down a flying bumblebee, we have Andrew playing Flight of the Bumblebee. Very clever, Studio Trigger. Very clever. Well done.
 * Recursive Canon: In episode eight, there is a number plate with the letters "LWA". Does this mean the characters of Little Witch Academia know they're in Little Witch Academia?
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Sucy as a character is less enthusiastic, and serves as the blue oni counterpart, to Lotte and Akko.
 * Retraux: In "Akko's Adventures in Sucyworld", the film that Akko and all other Sucys watch inside Sucy's mind are in black and white, and animated like older American cartoons than a Japanese series.
 * The Reveal: It's true! Go watch episode 15 yourself!
 * Screen Shake: Used in conjunction with action and fight sequences, as well in sequences where someone is hit. An example would be in "Akko's Adventures in Sucyworld", where Lotte hits Akko with a wand to put her to sleep, and the screen shakes to reflect this action.
 * Ship Tease: The end of episode ten gives us one between Lotte and Frank, although Lotte immediately crushes any shipper's hope by stating that they're Better as Friends. The episode gives a more subtle one hinting at Akko and Andrew.

Akko: Absolutely not. I never ever fall in love with a guy like him. Sucy: Yeah, yeah. Akko: It won't happen!"
 * In the same episode, when Akko is asked about whether she likes Andrew her response is suspiciously close to He Is Not My Boyfriend territory. "Lotte:Wait, don't you like him?


 * Show Within a Show: In episode four, we are introduced to the Young Adult book series Night Fall.
 * Sink-or-Swim Mentor: Sucy briefly turns into this while teaching Akko how to fly on a broomstick. She does this by tying Akko to her own broomstick and making her bungee jump off a tower, then shooting her out of a cannon. Don't worry, because Toon Physics is at play no one gets hurt. "Sucy: In order to win, you actually have to be able to ride a broom. I think it's best if you jump into the pool, completely head first."


 * The Sky Is an Ocean: In "Stanship Take Off!", the airship that Akko and Constanze designs look like a seafaring vehicle. It even sailed on water before flying into the sky.
 * The Song Remains the Same: The ending and opening songs remain in Japanese even in the English dub.
 * Speed Stripes: Used quite frequently throughout all episodes. It's there to save budget so Studio Trigger won't make the mistake their ancestors at Gainax made and run out of money. They do not want to pull a Gainax Ending.
 * Surprisingly Good English: Despite being made by a Japanese studio, the Freeze-Frame Bonus guide to Luna Nova Akko holds up in episode one features perfect English, with real, on topic information about Luna Nova that you can read. English text throughout the series are appropriately high quality. The animators even knew how to swear in English, without using Gosh Dang It to Heck!
 * Talking in Your Sleep: Akko after freeing all the Sucys from being executed inside Sucy's mind, talks in her sleep about how she did something good.
 * Talking Is a Free Action: When Akko accidentally insults the cockatrice in episode one, there is just enough time for Sucy to explain what she's really done before the bird starts attacking them.
 * Taken for Granite: The cockatrice in the Forest of Arcturus, in episode one, has the power to turn things into stone with its breath.
 * That Was Objectionable: In the courtroom scene in episode eight, Akko loudly objects to the different Sucys being terminated, even going as far to physically stop the judge's hammer with her hands. She does have a reason, thinking it's ridiculous.
 * This Is a Drill: In episode 18, the "metamor-formation" Humongous Mecha uses a drill for the Wild Hunt.
 * Training Montage: Parodied in episode three, with Akko trying (remember, trying) to fly on a broomstick. Cue lots of intense yelling, book reading, and epic failing.
 * Transformation Sequence: Parodied. In the second episode, Akko has a brief sequence where she changes into formal clothes for the school. It turns out, those were not the clothes she was supposed to wear for class, and learns that before begrudgingly changing into the correct clothes.
 * In "Stanship Take Off!", the ship built for the Wild Hunt is able to transform into a Humongous Mecha, accompanied with flashy backgrounds and music.
 * Unwanted Harem: In episode ten, Lotte has to deal with one of those, from people stung by a love bee.
 * Valley Girl: In episode eight, one of the Sucys in Sucyworld is like this, complete with way too much makeup and trendy clothes. "Valley Girl Sucy: I really want to be a Hollywood celebrity"


 * World Tree: Episode 15 reveals that, long ago, the world tree Yggdrasil thrived and spread magic everywhere. Over time, though, the tree grew weaker, and the power of magic diminished along with it.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: With characters such as Diana and Sucy.