Little Witch Academia (2017 series): Difference between revisions

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'''''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. Currently the show only has one season, consisting of twenty-five episodes. Its directors, along with the studio, has moved onto other projects, although they have said they are interested in developing a second season.

 

{{tropelist}}

** {{spoiler|This plays a role in Shiny Chariot's backstory. Chariot keeps receiving requests to make magic more spectacular, and to step up her shows. This, along with pressure from showrunners, led her to seek extreme methods to make her performance better. The fallout from these methods is why she disguises herself}}.

** Near the end of the series, a controversial decision made by a football referee causes people to riot openly in the streets, and complain on the in universe version of [[Twitter]].

* [[Art Shift]]: In the second episode, as Diana animates a statue, the animation looks much more like a painting.

** Happens 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 in which 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. The shots before and after are like cartoons from [[The Golden Age of Animation]]. This shot is in a typical anime style.

* [[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 the items for sale.

* [[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, by the she and her party, to attack the gigantic cockarice attacking the cast.

* [[Children Are Innocent]]: Akko and Diana are depicted as innocent in her childhood flashbacks.

* [[Crash Into Hello]]: How Akko and Sucy meet.

* [[Dream Sequence]]: Opens the second episode, as Akko reflects on the events of the first episode.

* [[Empathic Environment]]: At the beginning of episode 8, when Sucy is doing all sorts of creepy experiments and making potions, the weather is appropriately [[It Was a Dark and Stormy Night|dark and stormy]] to reflect this mood.

* [[Equivalent Exchange]]: Magic as a whole works like this. Witches cannot cast magic without the power provided by the Phliosopher's Stone, or another source. The school lights go off, and no one can use magic when something happens to the stone present at Luna Nova. {{spoiler|In episode 22, it is revealed that both Chariot and Croix has different methods of countering the diminishing magic in the world. Chariot absorbs the dreams of people, removing their magical ability in the process. Croix creates [[Sinister Geometry]] cubes to amplify and absorb people's emotions}}.

* [[Free Sample Plot Coupon]]: The Shiny Rod was just sitting on the floor in the forest in the Forest of Arcturus. Akko easily picks it up and keeps it. Finding the lost words of Arcturus, which the device helps with, is much harder.

* [[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. Generally speaking, this applies to all English text in the show. {{quote|'''''Greetings from Luna Nova'''

* [[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. {{quote|''piece of shit game''

''piece of shit referee''}}

* [[Humongous Mecha]]: In episode 18, the ship that Akko and Constanze builds transforms into one. Akko proposes this plan, but Constanze's helper bots believe that a transforming mecha is a stupid idea. Constanze regardless tries to make the plan work. {{spoiler|In the end, it all works out}}. [[Studio Trigger]], we get it. You're formed from [[Gainax|the people]] who made ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' and ''[[Gurren Lagann]]''.

* [[It's a Long Story]]: In episode 22, Professor Croix asks Akko how she is in the town, and how she got to the rooftop of the building Croix stands on. Akko responds with this stock phase.

* [[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. Since the rest of the series happens, we can obviously conclude Akko made it... barely.

* [[Loan Shark]]: In episode 5, {{spoiler|the dragon, who takes Luna Nova's own Philosopher's Stone as collateral, claiming that the school fell behind on interest repayments. Turns out, the initial agreement, written in the dragon language, mentioned that there were ''no'' interest to be repaid, rendering the dragon the world's worst loan shark.}}

* [[Long Runners]]: In universe with ''Night Fall'', where the 365th novel was released in episode 4. The series continued for 120 years.

* [[Love Triangle]]: One is present in the ''Night Fall'' [[Show Within a Show|book series within the show]].

* [[Memento MacGuffin]]: Akko's rare card of Shiny Chariot. {{spoiler|Diana has an even rarer card!}}

* [[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... {{quote|'''Akko''': Are all of these going to be on our next exam?

* [[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. In addition, there appears to be a rule that the Words of Arctus can only be activated when yelled out at volumes louder than 90 dB.

* [[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, or be drawn with the wrong proportions, 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.

* [[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 the deal Akko made inside Sucy's mind: Akko needs to carry her stuff for a month in return for the Sucys' help.

* [[Overly Long Name]]: In episode seven, we have "Constanze Braunschbank Albrechtsberger", who takes an exam right before Akko. Constanze is part of Amanda's trio.

* [[Red Oni, Blue Oni]]: Sucy as a character is less enthusiastic, and serves as the blue oni counterpart, 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]]: {{spoiler|Did you know that Professor Ursula is Shiny Chariot all along?}} It's true! Go watch episode 15 yourself! Akko doesn't find out until the episode number hit their twenties.

* [[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.

{{quote|'''Frank''': What about you and Atsuko Kagari?

'''Andrew''': You're kidding.

'''Sucy''': Yeah, yeah.

'''Akko''': It won't happen!}}

* [[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. {{quote|'''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. This applies to both opening and ending sequences.

* [[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]].

* [[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 1, there is just enough time for Sucy to explain what she's really done before the bird starts attacking them.

* [[That Was Objectionable]]: In the courtroom scene in episode 8, Akko loudly objects to the different Sucys being executed, even going as far to physically stop the judge's hammer with her hands. She '''does''' have a reason, thinking it's ridiculous that people should be put to death because of what they like.

* [[This Is a Drill]]: In episode 18, the "metamor-formation" [[Humongous Mecha]] uses a drill for the Wild Hunt.

* [[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.

* [[Word Salad Title]]: "Little" comes from the adolescent age of the main cast. "Witch" comes from how the cast uses magic. "Academia" comes from the [[Wizarding School]]. Put the three words together, though, and you'll end up with a big mess of nouns and adjectives.

* [[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. {{spoiler|The tree returns in the season 1 finale}}.